Today is a day that has its roots in the Armistice of World War I – a war that Woodrow Wilson optimistically hoped might be the “war to end all wars.” Our hearts ache for the reality that wars continue on throughout the world to this day. We long for the day when the prophet Isaiah’s words might come to realization: “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

And until that day, we observe November 11 as a day to show respect and deep gratitude for those among us who have served in fights that have protected this country and made it possible for us to continue our planting and harvesting, our singing and dancing, here at home. Here in our HHH community we have many men and women who we honor today. And our Programs staff have done a wonderful job in making sure that even in this difficult time when gatherings are severely limited, we can join in our honoring and appreciating the veterans among us. I join their work this morning by sharing a prayer from the United Church Christ, written by Eileen Norrington, veteran of the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps, in 2003.

Where ever you are when you read this, I invite you to pray with her, with me, a blessing on all our veterans.

A prayer for Veteran’s Day

Loving God, the framers of our Declaration of Independence claimed that you have endowed us with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet there are those who would take these from us.
Today we remember all those who have served in our country’s armed forces to preserve the freedoms you have granted us, to make it impossible for those who would take away our freedoms from prevailing.
For the men and women who serve in the Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard,
We ask your blessing.
For the family members who have made great sacrifices in order to make it possible for their service members to be on watch at home or around the world or to go into harm’s way,
We ask your blessing.
For the families who grieve the death of a member who went in harm’s way, never to return,

We ask your blessing.
Jesus tells us that no one has greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. For all those veterans who have been willing to lay down their lives for us,
We ask your blessing.
For the veterans of past wars who bear scars in their bodies and spirits,
We ask your blessing.
For veterans who came home but couldn’t “fit in” with their families or communities anymore,
We ask your blessing.
Keep all our veterans in your care today. Grant them the peace they sought to preserve for others. As we honor our veterans, we also pray for peace. Teach all your people the ways of peace that those who have sacrificed so much for peace and freedom will not have done so in vain. We pray all these things in the name of your son, our savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Merriam-Webster defines “equilibrium” as  a state of intellectual or emotional balance or a state of adjustment between opposing or divergent influences or elements. In our ourselves, in our families and communities we struggle to maintain equilibrium – I find myself at times much more like a wildly swinging pendulum than still water. Balance is an art that is a life project and one whose path is not a straight line, but full of detours and dead ends. Which is to say that this being human is glorious mess, a lifelong composition, like a song we get better and better at singing. As I wrote that line I was reminded of this beautiful song from Jason Isbell, an anthem for the resilient and hopeful: “Our day will come, if it takes a lifetime.”

And so as we wobble back to an approximation of balance at the start of this week, I share with you John O’Donahue’s blessing for Equilibrium. May you find what you need to feel safe, well, and supported today. And may the blessing of God or all that sustains you keep you safe, grant you peace and fill you with all that you need, just for today. Amen

Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,
May the relief of laughter rinse through your soul.

As the wind loves to call things to dance,
May your gravity be lightened by grace.

Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth,
May your thoughts incline with reverence and respect.

As water takes whatever shape it is in,
So free may you be about who you become.

As silence smiles on the other side of what’s said,
May your sense of irony bring perspective.

As time remains free of all that it frames,
May your mind stay clear of all it names.

May your prayer of listening deepen enough
To hear in the depths the laughter of God.

“For Equilibrium,” by John O’Donahue

This has been a week on edge during a season in which we’ve become used to being on edge. As we consider the new waves of cases of COVID, as we still wait for the result of a bitterly contentious election, as we get tired of holding our breath and let it out for a moment, I offer this blessing from Jan Richardson. May it give you enough of an interruption to the stream of anxious thoughts and activities carrying you away, to allow you to take in the sun and warmth of this unusual November day. And may the light on your face be a blessing and a reminder of the deeper realities of grace and love that have always carried us through and will continue to sustain us through every new change and crisis.

Blessing When the World Is Ending

Look, the world
is always ending
somewhere.

Somewhere
the sun has come
crashing down.

Somewhere
it has gone
completely dark.

Somewhere
it has ended
with the gun,
the knife,
the fist.

Somewhere
it has ended
with the slammed door,
the shattered hope.

Somewhere
it has ended
with the utter quiet
that follows the news
from the phone,
the television,
the hospital room.

Somewhere
it has ended
with a tenderness
that will break
your heart.

But, listen,
this blessing means
to be anything
but morose.
It has not come
to cause despair.

It is simply here
because there is nothing
a blessing
is better suited for
than an ending,
nothing that cries out more
for a blessing
than when a world
is falling apart.

This blessing
will not fix you,
will not mend you,
will not give you
false comfort;
it will not talk to you
about one door opening
when another one closes.

It will simply
sit itself beside you
among the shards
and gently turn your face
toward the direction
from which the light
will come,
gathering itself
about you
as the world begins
again.

—

As we start our day, let us remember these words, with a slight adaptation at the end, from an18th century poet, Henri-Frederic Amiel: “Friends, we know that life is short and we have too little time to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us. So be swift to love and make haste to be kind” and may the blessing of God or all that sustains you, keep you safe, grant you peace and fill you with all that you need, just for today. Amen

How are you dealing with the shifting of the light of the day?

Now when I drive to work the sun is sharply in my face with a clarity that blinds and when I drive home I can be witness to a marvel of twilight or the deep darkness of early evening. The rhythm of the light of the day can be a resource to us to ground in our ups and downs of so many events that we can’t control like the increasing numbers of the pandemic or the outcome of the politics.

Let the rhythm of the morning and evening light be a centering place for you and ritualize how you might pause in the light of morning or evening. You can do it when you step out of your home’s door and leave your car door before entering your home. Take three deep breathes. Another morning will come and another night will descend upon us.

“In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human success but rather on how much we have loved” John of the Cross

O God whose face is a thousand colors
Look upon us in this twilight hour, and color our faces with the radiance of your love.
As the light of the sun fades away, light the lamps of our hearts that we may see one another more clearly. Let the incense of our gratitude rise as our hearts become full of light and love. May the work that we bring with us into this hour fall away from our minds as we enter another mystical hour of your grace. Amen.(adapted from Macrina Wiederkehr)

May the light settle you into yourself so that you can let the love that surrounds you saturate your heart and your whole being.

Michelle

We live in a time of great division and polarization, violence and rumors of violence, all with the backdrop of an ongoing pandemic. Election weeks bring out the stress and anxiety of this time and shine a light on the bitter divide that marks our national life right now. Seamus Heaney (1939 – 2013) was an Irish poet familiar with the ache of deep civil conflict and strife. For much of his career, deep hostilities and violence in Ireland were in the background. He was able in his poems to shine a light on the humanity caught in the middle of these currents – and point to the deep human longing for justice and peace that so many of us ache for.

Here’s an excerpt from his play: The Cure of Troy. One of the ways to cope with the whirlwind of emotions in tumultuous societal moments is to remember the true north of your heart’s longing – and find strength again in the vision famously articulated by Theodore Parker and echoed by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Reckoning where we are and finding again the compass that can point us on our way, we find our feet again and continue the good work of being peace and bringing love and justice into a world aching for healing and hope.

Human beings suffer.
They torture one another.
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.

History says, Don’t hope
On the side of the grave,’
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea- change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles.
And cures and healing wells.

Call miracle self-healing,
The utter self revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there’s fire on the mountain
And lightening and storm
And a god speaks from the sky

That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.
It means once in a lifetime
That justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.

When we are worried about our lives (or national events) it can help to bring our thoughts and prayers to the mundane everyday things that we do throughout the day. I particular love this prayer because at the end it mentions tea and as most of you know twice a day I have a large cup as a way to reset/re-center my day.

Prayer when opening a door
I pray thee, God, to open the door of my heart
to receive thee within my heart.
When washing clothes
I pray thee, Lord, to wash my heart,
making me white as snow.
When sweeping floors
I pray thee, Spirit, to sweep away my heart’s uncleanness that my heart may always be pure.
When pouring oil
I pray thee, Goddess, to give me wisdom like the wise virgins who always had oil in their vessels.
When posting a letter
I pray thee, Creative Spirit, to add to me faith upon faith, that I may always have communication with thee.
When lighting lamps
I pray thee, Father, to make my deeds excellent like lamps before others, and more, to place thy true light within my heart.
When watering flowers
I pray thee, Mother, to send down spiritual rain into my heart, to germinate the good seed there.
When boiling water for tea
I pray thee, God, to send down spiritual fire to burn away the coldness of my heart and that I may always be hot-hearted in serving thee.

Prayers by Chinese Women (adapted)

You can add the tasks that you do; taking temperatures, washing floors, balancing budgets, writing reports. All the tasks we do here at HHH are holy and filled with the love of God and the universal truth that everything we do matters if it is done in the service of others.

The universe is conspiring to make us tired and distracted this week – post- busy holiday weekend, combined with daylight savings (especially those of us with young kids, for whom this does not equal an extra hour of sleep) – and now we look directly at an incredibly tense election week all with the backdrop of an ongoing pandemic.

So here’s a prayer for this week from a favorite pastor of mine, Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber.

For all of us doing our best to cope with all the things right now.
Remember to be kind to yourself and others in your life and circles today and the days to come.

Dear God,
This week is a doozey.
If anxiety produced a sound, it would be deafening right now.
Open my ears to the sounds I need most: the wild geese overhead, Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace (1972);
the sound of my friend on the other end of the phone;
the sugar-high laughter of children who need us to dial down the doom.
If fear could be seen, it would be obscuring everything else.
Open my eyes to the sights that I need most: my puppy underfoot with a toy in her mouth, ready to play;
the brightening of my neighbor’s eyes under their mask when I pass them in the stairwell;
that sidewalk covered in an oak tree’s fallen leaves like nature’s confetti.
If sorrow could be tasted, the bitterness would overcome me.
Open my mouth to the sweetness I need: words of kindness; deep, unhurried kisses;
and absolutely as much Ben and Jerry’s as I deem necessary.
Help me remember that you are in the other side of Tuesday, no matter what.
Amen.

Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber, Sunday Prayers 11/1/20

On this beautiful fall day as the puppy and I were walking to the farmers market and we saw a flock of geese fly very low over us. I was reminded of a skit I always did with in worship each fall; a lesson from geese. The congregation got to play a flock of geese flying south for the winter. There was lots of fun a flapping of arms and honking at odd times. What struck me this morning was that we need the lessons more this year and so I will share with you the musings of a geese lover Angeles Arrien who gave this as a part of a speech at the 1991 Organizational Development Network. It is based on the work of Milton Olson.

Fact 1: As each goose flap its wings it creates an “uplift” for the birds that follow. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater range than if each bird flew alone. Lesson: People who share a common sense of direction and community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

Fact 2: When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it. Lesson: If we have as much sense as a goose we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.

Fact 3: When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies to the point position. Lesson: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership, as with geese, people are interdependent on each other’s skill, capabilities and unique arrangement of gifts, talents or resources.

Fact 4: The gees flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed. Lesson: We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In groups where there is encouragement, the productivity is much greater. The power of encouragement (to stand by one’s heart or core values and encourage the heart and core of others) is the quality of honking we seek.

Fact 5: When a goose gets sick, wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay until it dies or can fly again. Then they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock. Lesson: If we have as much sense as geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.

The next time you hear geese I hope you have a chance to stop and marvel at their beauty, I know I feel the warmth  of my congregation and my co-workers here as I hear the honks and see the wonder  of flight of so marvelous a bird.

I can feel the coming of a big tide, a metaphorical hurricane like the one that Louisiana is living through this week and is sweeping through the south. I know lots of our leadership is ready for their virtual visit with the CCAC Accreditation group and feeling a bit anxious. The election and increase of the positive Covid 19 cases all around us is anxiety provoking too. I remember this reading from Clarissa Estes that gave me great hope the last time I felt like as a people we were so splintered and aching. It is a longer essay that I have attached below, it is entitled “We were made for these times”. I love the image she uses for community as a seaworthy vessel. In the waves of a turbulent sea, it is difficult to trust that the vessel you are in and have helped build will survive the storm. Remember that there are many good people who hope for calmer times for themselves and their children. Each of us can contribute when we seek the good for one another in a turbulent world.

My prayer for us for today:

My friends, together, we are more resilient than we even know
Let us hold each other close in spirit
Let us hold each Covid 19 positive person in healing light
Let us reach out across our political divide and look into the eyes of our neighbor and see shared humanity
Let us watch our speech that we might speak with compassion
Let us dig deep into all we are to take the path towards peace
We each are too precious for the world to discount even one soul
Let us be the light and the love the world needs to move towards brighter wholeness with each part valued and seen as precious.
Let us also let the power of the Creator lift us up and towards one another in a grand holy embrace.
Amen.

Be your gorgeous self today to brighten the world.

Michelle

My friends, do not lose heart. We were made for these times.

I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world right now.

Yet, I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is that we were made for these times. Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement.

I recognize a seaworthy vessel when I see one. Regarding awakened souls, there have never been more able vessels in the waters than there are right now across the world.

Look out over the prow; there are millions of boats of righteous souls on the waters with you. Even though your veneers may shiver from every wave in this stormy roil, I assure you that the long timbers composing your prow and rudder come from a greater forest. That long-grained lumber is known to withstand storms, to hold together, to hold its own, and to advance, regardless.

Didn’t you say you were a believer? Didn’t you say you pledged to listen to a voice greater? Didn’t you ask for grace? Don’t you remember that to be in grace means to submit to the voice greater?

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good.

We know that it does not take “everyone on Earth” to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these – to be fierce and to show mercy toward others, both, are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it.

The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours: They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here.

In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, PhD, “We Were Made for These Times”

A friend of mine shared an article with me today that had the sobering headline: “Epidemiologist warns next 6 to 12 weeks will be ‘darkest of the entire pandemic.’” Articles like this hit our already pandemic-wearied souls with a new wave of anxiety as we anticipate not only entering a darker period of the solar year, but also a new wave of heaviness and threat as await a vaccine. We are facing a hard road ahead – and there’s no softening that. What we need is courage for the difficult journey. I took my son on one last camping trip for the season this past weekend and enjoyed the time after he was tucked into to his sleeping bag and extra blankets, sitting next to a hot campfire as the cold and dark settled in around our campsite.

Courage is like a fire lit in our hearts, warming and providing light in the midst of dark and uncertain spaces.  And part of what gives fuel to the fire of our courage is that we’ve been down this road of precaution, of hunkering down, of waiting out, before. And this time around we have skills honed that we did not have before.  Many of us have learned or are making plans or intentions to learn connecting technologies like Zoom and Facetime. Staying connected, walking this journey in good company, having people you can be brutally honest with about your feelings (finding a therapist you can call or Facetime!) – all of these ways of attending to your heart and mind will be important for sustaining us through the months ahead. Lean into those things you found helpful so far, become curious about what has been helpful for others you know and can talk to who have been in similar circumstances to you.  Ask friends and family to help you keep the fire going during the long winter. And know that the three chaplains and six interns here in the Spiritual Care & Education Department here at HHH will be here, available to listen, to companion with you in the darkness, to help you stay connected,  and navigate through to a better 2021.

Here’s a poem for today, and perhaps to print out and put on your fridge for tomorrow and the months to come:

For Courage
By John O’Donahue

When the light around you lessens
And your thoughts darken until
Your body feels fear turn
Cold as a stone inside,

When you find yourself bereft
Of any belief in yourself
And all you unknowingly
Leaned on has fallen,

When one voice commands
Your whole heart,
And it is raven dark,

Steady yourself and see
That it is you own thinking
That darkens your world,

Search and you will find
A diamond-though of light,

Know that you are not alone
And that this darkness has purpose;
Gradually it will school your eyes
To find the one gift your life requires
Hidden within this night-corner.

Invoke the learning
Of every suffering
You have suffered.

Close your eyes.
Gather all the kindling
About your heart
To create one spark.
That is all you need
To nourish the flame
That will cleanse the dark
Of its weight of festered fear.

A new confidence will come alive
To urge you toward higher ground
Where your imagination
Will learn to engage difficulty
As its most rewarding threshold!