Dear Friends,

Some people have compared this time of sheltering to the Bill Murray “Groundhog Day,” movie and that makes a lot of sense to me. It’s a favorite of mine, because I love Bill Murray, and I am originally from Western Pennsylvania. I have seen Punxsutawney Phil in the flesh when I waited with thousands of other folks to learn if Phil would see his own shadow and prognosticate the advent of springtime.

Yes, in the movie it’s the same every day, and yet it is not, not if you tune yourself to rhythms and small details rather than to all the relentless sameness. Bill Murray’s character experiences a full range of emotions—from elation to utter despair, from bitterness to compassion. It is not a smooth journey by any means, with all the bumps and detours possible in a two-hour film. And it is the little nudges leading to larger epiphanies that transform Murray’s character into someone you might actually like to spend your time with. When Murray learns how to be a real human, the spell is broken, and time moves forward again.

And that is how our lives now are significantly different from a movie. Time is moving forward, though we remain inevitably in place. A magic moment of self-awareness will not snap our lives back into the correct shape. Yet what changes are happening within each of us, when we can notice them beneath the boredom, anxiety, and frustration? Can you imagine making friends with these changes, these insights or epiphanies, so that you may remain alive to possibility in such difficult times?

Can you, as poet Martha Postlewaite suggests “create/ a clearing/ in the dense forest/ of your life/ and wait there/ patiently,/ until the song/ that is your life/ falls into your own cupped hands/ and you recognize and greet it.” Perhaps this song is a song of hope, a song that sings to you that you can do this, you can endure this, you can survive this. Perhaps this song by Dr. Ysaye Barnwell will help.

May you feel hopeful that the changes wrought in all of us will yield a better way of living. May you remember each other in your hearts and minds as often as you can. May you know that I hold each of you in my heart and mind. May it give you comfort, today and every day, to know and to feel that you are loved, you are worthy, you are welcome, and you are needed. Amen and Amen.

Blessings, Rev. Rita