Dear Beloved Congregation!

I am so grateful to be back among you, so grateful that your generosity to the Fellowship allowed me the time I needed for rest, relaxation, and renewal. I read some books, visited with family and friends back East, and planned for new forms in worship and new activities to try in our online world.

Truly, I spent a lot of time staring into space. I have heard that eyes staring into the middle distance are eyes at rest. I’d say my whole self followed my eyes, as I gazed languidly into the canopies of trees I was fortunate to find everywhere—noticing the movement of birds and small climbing animals without following their antics precisely or discerning their natures and names. It was enough to know their abundant and lively presence. I observed the shapes of leaves and branches and the spaces created between, voids full of potential and comfort. As I rested in this middle space, I felt my kinship with all that is, myself a minuscule but necessary part of the fabric of mysterious life. Resting there in the middle is good for me, as I thus know myself to be and from there find my purpose in living.

Here is a picture of my yard—coneflowers and bee balm courtesy of our Board President Penny Herickhoff and “Black Lives Matter” sign courtesy of Nancy and Denny Cramblit. Jeff and I purchased our first-ever American flag, inspired by an article from Slate that Denny Siemer sent me. I am pleased and proud to belong to a community that shares, a community that values the diverse life of all human beings, a community that works for justice in our country, that we might make it a place that truly embodies for all the ideals of our founding documents. Perhaps this is another middle ground—a space where opposition and conflict can reside together creating new possible ways of being in the world.

As we resume our congregational life together, may you realize your place within it, as loved and worthy, as welcome and a much-needed part of our unfolding future of our religious collective. May you feel it so, and may it be so.

Blessings, Rev. Rita