Pastoral Prophetic Care Corner

By Rev. Dr. Michelle Walsh, March 2, 2026

Does it feel like spring is never coming? This is the image that comes to my mind when I reflect on the feelings in my body around this particular winter (and perhaps it metaphorically relates to your feelings and experiences on levels even beyond this winter)!

Yet we know spring is indeed just around the corner (March 20th!); and we’ve experienced hints of embodied resilience throughout this winter. This includes the substantial pastoral care we’ve provided to one another through personal losses and challenges. This also includes our public witness for justice and democracy on January 20th despite bitter cold, and a wonderful and successful Emma’s
Revolution concert despite yet another winter storm!

With spring comes all the budding newness that again promises regeneration of life in the aftermath of a deep period of dormancy. We can sense that in the plans for the next No Kings Day on March 28th, for which we in Canton will offer FPUU as a place of public witness again. We also can sense that in the beginnings of the FPUU Spring pledge campaign this Sunday, March 1st and the seeds of plans for this coming congregational year.

So, pay attention this March and embrace the emergence of new possibilities in April and beyond. We never know what is coming, and yet we can rest on a foundational trust in change as inevitable. As I quoted from one of my favorite Marge Piercy poems in a recent service: “Connections are made slowly, sometimes they grow underground. You cannot tell always by looking what is happening. More than half a tree is spread out in the soil under your feet.” Connections are happening, whether we are aware of them or not, and these connections will lead into change and new possibilities.

May each of us individually be part of contributing to these connections and new possibilities, taking risks as we are able, while resting also in the interdependent web that is vast and infinitely holds us all through this much beloved community that is First Parish. Let Spring Come – and with it, an enlarged capacity for peace, justice, and democracy in our shared advocacy!