Dear UCM Community,

 

Spring has officially arrived! We know here in Vermont that spring can be a tumultuous, yet hopeful, season with the back and forth of thaw and freeze, the mix of mud, snow, and ice, and the first tentative buds and shoots beginning to emerge. This springtime also coincides with the Persian New Year, Ramadan, Passover, Lent, and Easter. It is a holy time, indeed, and a time of growth, with all of its bumpy fits and starts.

 

I have been noticing in this season that my own spirit is feeling both beckoned by emerging possibilities and also resistant to shedding the protective layers that I have now grown accustomed to over the winter months and the long months of the pandemic. Emerging into a new season isn’t always easy just as most transitions aren’t easy, even when we are glad for what we’re moving towards.

 

As we move into the spring and beyond, I encourage you to pay attention to how your spirit is feeling during this transitional time. How can you be gentle and accepting of yourself? How can you show up with presence for yourself and others? How might you welcome the challenge to grow in a different direction?

 

As a church community, we are also in a transitional time. We are slowly adding more indoor, in-person activities back into our community life even as we await the completion of the Air Quality Project. We are figuring out how we do this in a way that honors the full diversity of needs and desires of our community members. We are also beginning to plan for the future and the church year to come. 

 

I encourage you to move towards one another with love, being gentle with yourself and others, in this time of transition. It is a bumpy passage for us all, and it’s natural for tension and conflict to emerge. There may be times when it seems like we’re staring at a mud-laden, rutty road and we’re not sure if and how we’ll make it through. I trust that if we continue to move with compassion and patience we will find our way together.

 

Please reach out if you would like a chance to reconnect. I look forward to seeing more of you in this spring season!

 

With love,

 

Rev. Joan

ucm.revjoan@gmail.com

(802) 223-7861 x1