What a busy and delightful month of December we had! From the Hanging of the Greens, Near Westside Open House, Advent Organ Recitals, Cybersecurity training, Christmas Eve services, the Todd Thomas Concert to learning about Kwanzaa. Add to that after-worship music from Nick Dieg and your amazing treats at coffee hour - I look around and wonder how we can be so lucky to have each other. These days I crave friendship - real ones, faceto-face and joyful! People who refuse to give up, regardless of what's going on in Washington.
Our work as a congregation is reflected in of my favorite poems by Marge Piercy:
To Be Of Use
I want to be with people who submerge in the task,
Who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along.
Who stand in line and haul in their places,
Who are not parlor generals and field deserters but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud. Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil, Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real.
posturing we are melding a solid, immutable community. We greet each other and submerge Our work together is real. In this world of fake truths, plastic discardables and political in the task of useful service, to each other and to those we haven't met yet. May the New Year bring us closer together in our common purpose of action, compassion and gracious hospitality.
With you every step of the way, Jenny