Today, I took the morning for some worship planning into the new year. And now I am getting ready for the arrival later tonight of my children. I am so very excited that they will journey from east and from west to be with us for cooking and eating dinners together, cutting and decorating a Christmas tree, and sitting around the fire in the evening. It is not just like our times when they were growing up, but it is enough like them to provide a sense of tradition and continuity, though changed. These are good memories and good times for me.

I know that the extended holiday season, from Thanksgiving to New Year, is not happy for all of us. Deaths, lost relationships, and family trauma mean this time of year brings feelings of pain and loss to some. The pandemic has strained relationships, and worry about infection has not gone away. Some of us experience intense loneliness or depression from feeling that others are sharing good times when we cannot.

Be assured that you are not alone, and you need not be alone. Reach out to this loving UUFM community. You will be welcomed. You are wanted. There will be a place for you. Reach out, and allow others the light of your company, for it is in giving that we also receive. Many blessings to you, now and always, as you remember, today, and every day, that 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