It has been a while since I have shared a reflection – we have been blessed with gifted interns who have shared their inspiring thoughts these past months of 2021. We will miss their writings and we will especially miss their presence among us in this community. This coming Sunday in our community worship service we will say goodbye and bless them on their way.

And we who remain will continue. We will continue in this good work during this difficult time. The Spring brings with it new air, new buds on the trees, the snow drops draw our attention the emerging tulips and daffodils. And with all this emerging life we are once again reminded of the resilience of what the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins called the “dearest freshness deep down things.” No season of loss, no winter can outlast the life hidden deep inside the earth, deep inside us. And it is with that life that we continue – through every new season. And so I offer the wise and beautiful words of the poet Maya Angelou on this theme in her poem, “Continue.”

Into a world which needed you
My wish for you
Is that you continue

Continue

To be who and how you are
To astonish a mean world
With your acts of kindness

Continue

To allow humor to lighten the burden
of your tender heart

Continue

In a society dark with cruelty
To let the people hear the grandeur
Of God in the peals of your laughter

Continue

To let your eloquence
Elevate the people to heights
They had only imagined

Continue

To remind the people that
Each is as good as the other
And that no one is beneath
Nor above you

Continue

To remember your own young years
And look with favor upon the lost
And the least and the lonely

Continue

To put the mantel of your protection
Around the bodies of
The young and defenseless

Continue

To take the hand of the despised
And diseased and walk proudly with them
In the high street
Some might see you and
Be encouraged to do likewise

Continue

To plant a public kiss of concern
On the cheek of the sick
And the aged and infirm
And count that as a
Natural action to be expected

Continue

To let gratitude be the pillow
Upon which you kneel to
Say your nightly prayer
And let faith be the bridge
You build to overcome evil
And welcome good

Continue

To ignore no vision
Which comes to enlarge your range
And increase your spirit

Continue

To dare to love deeply
And risk everything
For the good thing

Continue

To float
Happily in the sea of infinite substance
Which set aside riches for you
Before you had a name

Continue

And by doing so
You and your work
Will be able to continue
Eternally

May you be 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