The light today is wrong. The colors of the church wall, the flowers in our yard, the pavement are all off. The sky itself is a buttery wool color, it is the color of smoke. Wildfires are raging over the west and while the air at ground level is clear, the skies above are full of smoke. I feel a tension in my body today as I physically remember the trauma from last September, when for several days I wore a respirator mask my husband has for working with paints and chemicals. I could not breathe and the memory of that, the total lack of control, of not being able to escape the smoke for even the coast was socked in, sends my heart racing.
At dessert church the other night we were talking about the shared traumas of this year. These are the things we have gone through together including an ice storm, wildfires, record breaking heat, pandemic isolation, and an insurrection. In the past 18 months so much has happened and none of us have really had the chance to grieve, to process, to even think. And then on top of that here we are again with a Covid surge worse than the last and fires raging while all around us the plants and grasses turn brown from the devastating drought wrought by climate change.
This is why I need the parish, why we as a people need to gather. Together in lament, in worship, in bible study, in listening and sharing we begin the journey of reflecting on what has happened and what is happening. We make sense of the chaos by leaning into our theology and belief and then we take action, to love our neighbors by wearing our mask, to change the way we live so we consume less, to practice habits that can save our climate, to work for justice in the wake of yet another police shooting.
I am so very grateful for my faith, for my community, and for the chance to come together to co-create God’s future for us. I’m not sure where my soul and heart would be if I did not have this resource of faith and community to center me and give me strength for the impossible heart shattering moments of life. It is so good to be reminded of love, of justice, of how the world works best when we respect one another, value people over money, and live as part of something greater than ourselves.
-Eilidh
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