Noticing

This morning I am feeling a little overwhelmed.  There is a lot going on in the world, our community, the church, and my family. It is tempting for me to get in my head when things are like this. I become so distracted by my thought and worries. I spend so much time mulling the problems that I am almost like a sleepwalker.  It happened this morning in the shower.  All of a sudden it’s 7:40 and I am still washing my hair. Luckily I was able to get the girls to school on time somehow, but they had to make a mad dash to their lockers before 1st period.

As I felt my heart beating and my anxiety rising in my gut I decided what I needed was a walk. It is a beautiful early spring day. And so I parked my car and started walking. And of course my brain went right back to grief for the folks who died of coronavirus in Seattle, angst about how to speak bravely in the midst of a fraught situation on school board, concern for my in-laws and husband. and on and on and on.  Then suddenly a warm breeze came up and I literally stopped. I looked around and noticed buds on the trees, a bird hopping on a branch, the sun shining down, and the shoots of flowers coming up. I watched the bicyclists zoom past on their way to work, and smiled at the cute dog being walked down the other side of the street. Instead of being a zombie to worry and strife I was here in the now. Noticing all the beautiful, amazing, ordinary things around me. And suddenly I felt better. Suddenly I remembered to pray, to give thanks for the sunshine and the birds and the plants and the ordinary lives of us people.

I believe this is the role of the faith community in our lives.  In our worrying, in our stress and busyness, Sabbath is that stopping to notice, to see, to really be here,now. We began SFC as a place to create space for people to notice God in their lives and to practice paying attention to the goodness and grace of our existence. Then the idea is that we go and live that out through love of our community. I believe that our world needs faith gatherings now more than ever. We need times to notice, to be reminded of the things that are bigger than ourselves.  We need to give thanks and know we are not alone in our laments and concerns. We need real and tangible ways to make a difference in the world.

-Eilidh