Prophetic Pastoral Care Corner
By Rev. Michelle Walsh, September 1, 2024
I was in a training for life coaches once upon a time many years ago when I first heard the metaphoric phrase “it’s a marathon, not a sprint – and runners train differently for marathons than they do for sprints.” The nature of these times in our larger world, and for some of us in our personal worlds, can seem like one long unending marathon built of chronic intermittent periods of sprints, sometimes with wins and sometimes with losses. This raises the question of how do we prepare our minds, bodies, and spirits for the “both/and” of living through a marathon that also requires us to do sprints? As I enter this year with you as your new part-time lead minister, this is the balance I am attempting to hold for myself and role model with you, including as we consider a ritual sharing full and empty cups and leaning into the well of community for support at our annual homecoming Water Communion service on September 8th.
Many of us have had time to fill our wells with renewing life water this summer through travel and vacation with family and friends. Some of us also have emptied our wells through personal losses or other challenging news or unexpected difficulties or through all that is demanded of caretaking in this. All of us mourn the loss of our dear member, Miles, this summer and continue to send our loving support to his family and friends. Our Caring Circle Coordinators team worked very hard this summer, and I send my deepest appreciation to them for all that they engaged this summer. They are a significant part of the glue that holds this community through thick and thin, keeping the life-giving waters flowing, and they should be highly honored for their work, including the many “Helping Hands” who pitch in when called upon as well.
Let us focus this year on filling our wells for both the ongoing marathon that is the times we live in as well as the necessary sprints that mark the moments of possibility, hope, and change. Let us find the joy that always is present in these possibilities as we engage our minds, bodies, and spirits by renewing our internal sense of community through both our worship together and an expanded range of offerings and activities for members and friends. We also are expanding our offerings to the larger Neponset River community on Thursday afternoons three times a month to which members and friends also are invited – AND participating with our fellow Sharon UU congregation in the national UU Climate Justice Revival at the end of September! See more information elsewhere in this newsletter. I very much look forward to seeing each and every one of you on Sunday, September 8th for our homecoming! Thank you for the many ways you love and care for and support this congregation.