Pastor Rick's Letter to the Congregation, February, 2021
Earlier this week I came across a well-known poem by Mary Oliver titled, “The Summer Day.” It is a call to pay attention and to recognize how very precious life is. Reading it the other day, mindful of all that our world has been going through the past year, the poem felt even more urgent. Perhaps it is this crisis that made the closing question of the poem all the more poignant: “What will you do with your one wild and precious life?” Even when we are just trying to make it through this time of loss, separation and uncertainty life still calls to be lived. We hear this call in nature. We hear it in the cycles of the year and the seasons of our lives. How then shall we live?
This month we enter the season of Lent. It is seven weeks of spiritual seeking and reflection that calls us to a way of life guided by the life and teachings of Jesus. It is a time for asking ourselves how we intend to live our life.
But before we enter Lent there is Mardi Gras Sunday! On February 14, Valentine’s Day, we gather on Zoom for a Mardi Gras Sunday like no other. Despite the fact that we won’t physically be together I hope you’ll join us, and maybe even wear some beads, bake a king cake, sport festive attire and a celebratory attitude, and dance like no one is looking. Because no one is looking. Really. Knock yourselves out!
We also have cause for celebration. It has been so very gratifying to hear that many of our members and friends are getting their covid vaccinations! It may take a while for enough of us to get vaccinated and the transmission rate to come down, but every time a vaccine is given we get a step a closer to getting things under control. In the meantime we continue doing what we need to do to take good care of one another and ourselves. And I am choosing to be hopeful!
On a more somber note, I am sad to report that a long-time member of the chapel, Ty Conklin, passed away last Monday evening. She was a good, kind and generous person who volunteered weekly at the thrift shop for many years. A former secretary, Ty had a gift for getting things organized. Her adult daughters, Lisa and Sara, still live in the village. Ty will be deeply missed and fondly remembered by all those who knew her.
Joy and sorrow, birth and death, togetherness and separation, in the midst of it all life is still a wild and precious gift. Blessed be.
Your partner in our shared ministry,
Rev. Rick Yramategui