This season has been a tough one. I haven’t named when the season began or if it’s even ended, because I believe it’s different for each of us right now. We are all feeling drained and overworked, we’re feeling the tug and pull of our responsibilities and the fear of doing something new.
I feel this viscerally, and I shared that with the elders at our last meeting. I don’t believe I’m alone in this feeling. I’ve gone searching for ways to rejuvenate our faith and our energy, but it’s hard. Sometimes, the days are too short and the nights are too long.
But we’re in the perfect season to remember and to reflect.
In my searching, I came across a poem by Dorianne Laux titled “In Any Event”:
If we are fractured
we are fractured
like stars
bred to shine
in every direction,
through any dimension,
billions of years
since and hence.
I shall not lament
the human, not yet.
There is something
more to come, our hearts
a gold mine
not yet plumbed,
an uncharted sea.
Nothing is gone forever.
If we came from dust
and will return to dust
then we can find our way
into anything.
What we are capable of
is not yet known,
and I praise us now,
in advance.
I love these last two stanzas. There is so much hope in them. We don’t know what we are capable of, but I believe we are capable of far more than we can even begin to dream or imagine simply because God is with us, because Christ is risen from the dead, and because we come from dust and we return to dust.
It’s okay to praise us, to praise God in advance of things happening. It’s okay to thank God for generosity and love we haven’t received because we have confidence that we will receive that love, that by our faith we will have unconditional love and joy and hope.
Now, let’s strengthen that, and let’s share it with others so it can grow.