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Beloved Is Where We Begin

If you would enter into the wilderness,

do not begin without a blessing.

Do not leave without hearing who you are:

Beloved,

named by the One

who has traveled this path before you.

Do not go without letting it echo in your ears,

and if you find it is hard to let it into your heart,

do not despair.

That is what this journey is for.

I cannot promise this blessing will free you

from danger,

from fear,

from hunger

or thirst,

from the scorching of sun

or the fall of the night.

But I can tell you that on this path

there will be help.

I can tell you that on this way

there will be rest.

I can tell you that you will know

the strange graces that come to our aid

only on a road such as this,

that fly to meet us

bearing comfort and strength,

that come alongside us

for no other cause than to lean themselves toward our ear

and with their curious insistence, whisper our name:

Beloved.

Beloved.

Beloved.

 —Jan Richardson

from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

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March 14, 1860, “Walden Ice Melted,”  from the journal of Henry David Thoreau

“As I stand there, I see some dark ripples already drop and sweep over the surface of the pond, as they will ere long over Ripple Lake and other pools in the wood.  No sooner has the ice of Walden melted than the wind begins to play in dark ripples over the surface of the virgin water.  It is affecting to see nature so tender, however old, and wearing none of the wrinkles of age.  Ice dissolved is the next moment as perfect water as if it had been melted a million years.  To see that which was lately so hard and immovable now so soft and impressible!  What if our moods could dissolve thus completely?  It seems as if it must rejoice in its own newly acquired fluidity, as it affects the beholder with joy.”

Prayer:

God of the March winds, blow over us and play in ripples over what is beginning to melt inside of us.  Dissolve what has been glacial, and sweep tenderness into our frozen hopes, softness into our brittle moods, fluidity into our spirits, joy into our hearts.  We have lived for so long with this winter in our souls.  Promise what is essential has not gotten lost; gone underneath the surface, perhaps, but still strong currents, rushing rivers, living waters deep and running, waiting for spring.  Amen.

• Rev. Andrea Castner Wyatt, at the time (2002), Assoc. Pastor, First Congregational Church, UCC, Holliston, MA

Epiphany is a good time to ponder where we are in our journey. As we travel into this year, where do you find yourself on the path? Have you been traveling more by intention or by reacting to what’s come your way? What direction do you feel drawn to go in during the coming weeks and months? Is there anything you need to let go of—or to find—in order to take the next step? In the coming months, what gift do you most need to offer, that only you can give? (Paraphrased from Jan Richardson’s Painted Prayerbook)

Blessings and traveling mercies to you from the Walden Walkers on this Epiphany day. We look forward to walking with you in 2020 – in body, in Spirit, and in prayer.

For Those Who Have Far to Travel
An Epiphany Blessing

If you could see
the journey whole
you might never
undertake it;
might never dare
the first step
that propels you
from the place
you have known
toward the place
you know not.

Call it
one of the mercies
of the road:
that we see it
only by stages
as it opens
before us,
as it comes into
our keeping
step by
single step.

There is nothing
for it
but to go
and by our going
take the vows
the pilgrim takes:

to be faithful to
the next step;
to rely on more
than the map;
to heed the signposts
of intuition and dream;
to follow the star
that only you
will recognize;

to keep an open eye
for the wonders that
attend the path;
to press on
beyond distractions
beyond fatigue
beyond what would
tempt you
from the way.

There are vows
that only you
will know;
the secret promises
for your particular path
and the new ones
you will need to make
when the road
is revealed
by turns
you could not
have foreseen.

Keep them, break them,
make them again:
each promise becomes
part of the path;
each choice creates
the road
that will take you
to the place
where at last
you will kneel

to offer the gift
most needed—
the gift that only you
can give—
before turning to go
home by
another way.

*Jan Richardson, Painted Prayerbook

As temperatures drop and daylight hours become shorter in these cold winter months, the prayer walkers remain determined to keep coming together to share, to walk, to pray, and to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation in the company of one another.

For all who could use a little more warmth and light in their lives right now, this blessing is for you:

Blessing for the Longest Night

All throughout these months
as the shadows
have lengthened,
this blessing has been
gathering itself,
making ready,
preparing for
this night.

It has practiced
walking in the dark,
traveling with
its eyes closed,
feeling its way
by memory
by touch
by the pull of the moon
even as it wanes.

So believe me
when I tell you
this blessing will
reach you
even if you
have not light enough
to read it;
it will find you
even though you cannot
see it coming.

You will know
the moment of its
arriving
by your release
of the breath
you have held
so long;
a loosening
of the clenching
in your hands,
of the clutch
around your heart;
a thinning
of the darkness
that had drawn itself
around you.

This blessing
does not mean
to take the night away
but it knows
its hidden roads,
knows the resting spots
along the path,
knows what it means
to travel
in the company
of a friend.

So when
this blessing comes,
take its hand.
Get up.
Set out on the road
you cannot see.

This is the night
when you can trust
that any direction
you go,
you will be walking
toward the dawn.

—Jan Richardson
from The Cure for Sorrow

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As we walked together on this holiday Monday, we were mindful of the Native Americans who lived and cultivated this beautiful land in Concord far before European settlers arrived here. Until the early 1600’s, the land was originally inhabited by the Pennacook Indians (a Wampanoag tribe) who named the area “Musketaquid”, which is an Algonquin word for “grassy plain.” The Pennacook cleared and cultivated the fertile lands, growing beans, corn, squash, and pumpkins, hunted in the fields and forests, and fished in the Concord and Merrimack rivers. One of the first tribes to encounter European colonists, the Pennacook were decimated by infectious diseases unwittingly carried by the newcomers. (www.historyofmassachusetts.org)

Today we celebrate the people who first called this land home. We remember the struggles and tragedies they endured. We honor their place in and contributions to the shared story of America.

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This morning we met on the beach to share gratefulness for our summer adventures, sadness for the challenges and losses in our lives, and hope for what this new year might bring. We were especially mindful of the loss of our dear friend Rhonney Doll and walked with her family, Jim and Emily, in our hearts. We began with a blessing written by Jan Richardson, in her book The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief :

Blessing for the Brokenhearted
There is no remedy for love but to love more. – Henry David Thoreau

Let us agree
for now
that we will not say the breaking
makes us stronger or that it is better to have this pain than to have done without this love.

Let us promise we will not
tell ourselves time will heal the wound, when every day our waking opens it anew.

Perhaps for now it can be enough to simply marvel at the mystery

of how a heart
so broken
can go on beating,

as if it were made for precisely this—

as if it knows
the only cure for love is more of it,

as if it sees
the heart’s sole remedy for breaking
is to love still,

as if it trusts that its own persistent pulse is the rhythm of a blessing we cannot begin to fathom but will save us nonetheless.

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Interested in how the Spirit was moving among us at the women’s retreat? Check out some of the scripture passages, poems, reflection questions, and other resources that expanded our minds, deepened our faith, and inspired our souls.

Thirty one women from our congregation traveled to the Craigville Retreat Center on Cape Cod for a weekend of rest, play, worship, prayer, and friendship. Our theme this year was Women’s Wisdom: Inspiring Stories of the Sacred, Secular, and Self. Enlightened by the strength, resiliency, gifts, and courage of women in the Bible, writers, poets, artists and activists, as well as some legendary women from WCUC, we then moved on to consider our own journey’s to wisdom as we shared our stories, our struggles, and our celebrations with one another.

“This weekend has provided space and time for thought about the specific contributions of women, both present and past.”

“I feel like I have been raised up by the wisdom of women of the Bible, secular world, and most importantly the women gathered here.  I am leaving with so much to reflect upon.”

“This weekend has given me peace, gratitude, and faith in the power of other women and myself.”

“I have been raised up this weekend by my sisters, my tribe.  I am renewed by the wisdom, compassion, love and humor of these amazing women of God.”

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A Weekend for…

Personal Growth:

“I realized that I felt crippled by my burdens.  This weekend I was reminded of my strength and power and that if I pause and listen to God speaking, I can tap into that and move forward.”

“I am rejuvenated and refreshed by sunshine, moonshine, inspirational women, and retreat from regular life.”

“I proved to myself that I have grown mentally by being able to learn to knit much more easily than it was in high school.”

“I gained insight from the reading “My Journey to Wisdom” that ‘clouds of insecurity’ are natural and sometimes protective.”

“I was given the gift of solace and reflection.”

“I have been encouraged to listen carefully to the Spirit and then step out with boldness and courage.”

“I have been enveloped in a blanket of warmth and caring.”

“I learned it’s ok to not conform to the conventional picture of femininity, so you can enjoy being a woman.”

“I was reminded to focus and be grateful for my strengths, when I only see weakness.”

“This is my new life.  I can be who I am.”

Finding Strength in Community:

“Being a part of this community made me feel stronger and welcome.  I learned from every woman I met.”

“Seeing the ways in which the generations are sensitive to each other has been a high point for me this weekend.  I really appreciated the acceptance of the younger women here with us.”

“I was empowered by a conversation with another woman whom I did not know well.  We discovered we have a common history that is not easy to talk about with many people.”

“The company of women with such a diversity of experiences has given me renewed hope for the power of the ‘Holy’ in our broken world.”

“Sharing stories with others has helped me to appreciate everyone better.”

“Many people have shared their struggles and uncertainties about coming.  I have been inspired by everyone here and this weekend turned out to be a blessing.”

“I felt raised up by a conversation I had in which I shared something that I haven’t before.”

“Enjoying a conversation I had with someone I don’t know well and feeling more comfortable with her now.”

And Feeling the Power of Nature and Laughter:

“I enjoyed walking to the ocean…seeking an expanse beyond indoor enclosures.”

“I loved the beach walk and I laughed a lot with the women.”

“The inspiration of nature and the changing views of the beach:  stormy and windy;  calm and soothing in the sun;  water view at night below the moon and stars.”

“It felt good to integrate nature with our daily lives.”

“An objective measure of trust in a space or group of people is the count of the number of belly laughs a person has had.  The count for me this weekend is near

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By now many have heard (or read) the story about Samantha Gavitz, the two year old girl from Newton whose neighborhood is taking classes in American Sign Language (ASL) because she was born Deaf. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/02/07/farragher/TEREscjAx7jPNA7RP1IQoI/story.html

Like Samantha’s neighbors, I too learned my first words in ASL out of love for a child, my own. But unlike them, ASL took a back seat to mom blogs and potty training books as soon as my son could say, “more” and “all done,” I wish I had stuck with it. Then I might be able to have fluent conversations with my friends at Sunday Fellowship who are Deaf or hearing-impaired. But I’m working on it. I can now sign the entire Lord’s Prayer and I know how to use basic ASL books and apps to get my point across. I’ve been incorporating ASL into some Sunday school lessons and recently got to see a student use her knowledge of ASL to have a conversation with someone from SF.

 

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But the best way I’ve found to increase knowledge of ASL aside from formal classes is to “sing and sign” together. Check out the pictures and videos from the last session of Food and Fun when we learned how to sing and sign to two songs music from The Greatest Showman. I wonder how much progress we can make by May 5th, when SF hopes to perform these pieces with the adult, teen, junior choirs for Sunday Fellowship Sunday!

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Seventy people of all ages and abilities came together on February 17th for the second installment of “Food and Fun” a fun new experiment Sunday Fellowship is trying this winter. After a delicious lunch of pizza and salad, it was GAME ON with Candyland, Connect 4, Giant Uno, Legos, puzzles and more! Check out the silly and serious game faces below.

And if you missed it, don’t worry, there is one more edition of Food and Fun on March 3rd when we’ll be singing and signing to music from the Greatest Showman.

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