This year as the calendar moves toward its end and new beginning, I’m feeling watchful, alert, and sometimes a little on edge. I don’t think I’m the only one feeling the edge. I’ve experienced more crankiness from other people, and outright meanness – mostly from people I don’t know – in the past few weeks than in any other holiday season I can remember. I’m not surprised; we live in such trying times. But a sadness has come close to me, so I’m trying to learn from it what I can.
There is plenty to worry about, and to fear. That has always been true – and always more true for some people than for others. We humans make it hard for each other, and for all the other living things. We always have. Wise teachers of all cultures say it is because we are lost, we have forgotten, or we cannot see what is most important and closest to us, so in fear we grab and push and destroy. And yet, and yet – even now, love is present: it is holding and helping and healing so much that is broken within us and between us. And this has always also been true.
So I am letting myself be watchful and alert and I am giving attention to the edge and the sadness, while at the same time I am constantly considering how love is holding me and how I can help it move in as many ways and directions as possible. More and more I come to understand and appreciate the feeling of “love at the center” as a way of describing congregational and covenantal life – the life of the Fellowship. For the beginning of a new year – this new year in particular – this is the center I am leaning into, and leaning on. And you are part of it, and for that I am grateful!