Dear Friends,

This is what we are looking forward to, isn’t it? If not a group hug, a personal one with someone you have not seen or touched in far too long. You may or may not wish for a real hug, and a hug is a metaphor for the comfort all of us seek as the stress of our lives in the last year continues to weigh upon us all. I know that I have counted my blessings in this last year—economic security, worthy work, family and friends. Even Zoom, since it has enabled connection, for all of its inadequacy and imperfection. I know that I have, in my thoughts and actions, tried to minimize the effects of COVID upon my life. I have plowed through and counted my blessings, but that does not mean it has been an easy time even if it has been less hard for me than for others.

The vast universe, all the world calls to me and to all of us, insisting on our inherent connections on this web of all existence. I am, and all of you are, connected to the earth and its beings struggling through toxicity and climate crisis. I am, and all of you are, connected to those who have died due to COVID and those who suffer directly in the loss. I am, and all of you are, connected to those who strive for the dignity of living through state-sanctioned violence. If we are willingly to answer the call of Unitarian Universalism—all emerging from one source and all bound together by love—we need to be honest as well that interdependence in such tragic times is heart-breaking. We can only suffer and mourn so much before we seek to disengage.

Yet, to disengage from the sorrow of life is also to disengage from its joy and wonder, from the good we do each other, from the good we have seen in the world even in the midst of tragedy.  Here is something that connects me to joy, regardless of any pain neither temporary nor permanent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwnefUaKCbc May you tap into the joy that this joyful for you, as you remember this, today and every day: you are loved, you are worthy, you are welcome, and you are needed. May you feel it so, and may it be so.

Blessings, Rev. Rita