REV. JENNIFER INNIS

How are you doing with keeping track of your life? Do you know where your keys are? Your wallet? Your head?

If you answered OK to maybe to yes, you are doing well. In fact, you are great. There is so much that is present in our lives right now. There are so many details and layers of life, our community, our history, and our world. Keeping track of our heads is a remarkable achievement.

The tangible and intangible intertwine, too. So much is true all at once. Every day I am stunned by the bounty of the world. There is so much: Grace, Kindness, Generosity, Love.

And there is so much: Sorrow, Bias, Apathy, Violence.

All these experiences and more are within me and around me.

I am deeply concerned about our Earth, and I add to the unrecyclable trash every day. I love my family, but I can’t visit them with my children until they are vaccinated. My neighbor is a brilliant, thoughtful artist. And he is bitter and angry at everything that has hurt him in life.

The visible and the invisible intersect in our area. The weather is beautiful. Fairs and events draw crowds of all ages. School is in session. And children make up 40% of new COVID cases in our area. It is as if there isn’t a pandemic. Until one looks at the numbers. Or falls ill.

We have had to absorb, integrate, and act on an enormous amount of information in the past 18 months. There is a point at which dealing with the Venn diagram of intersecting realities is more than we can handle. The symptoms include doubting our perception and doubting our worth. We become vulnerable to second guessing who we are or how to have the power to sustain the health and well-being of our families. If the last year was difficult, this year is its own struggle. So many of us are tired of the worry. We are exhausted by making decisions. Knowing who to trust grows more uncertain.

Perhaps you can find your keys. Can you find your feelings?

Here are a few things that are true: I am human. I am flawed and fabulous. I am filled with an enormous capacity for love, for compassion, and for living in this world. You are, too.

We can be partners in the living we are called to do in this time whether we ever meet. We can disrupt the temptation to disengage from the complexity that is within us and around us.

We start with one question. What do you need right now?

We can give each other permission to rest when it is time to rest. We can say yes. We can say no. We can ask new questions rather than assume we know the answer. We can reexamine the speed of our lives. The goal is not to resolve all abundance and all hardship. Many concerns have long histories and futures. We can support each other in the effort to do the best that we can knowing that our best will change every day.

Will you join me? I will look for you.

In faith and love,
Reverend Jennifer Innis