“Our light is the light of each of us, bound together in need and hope; our light is the light of the cosmos, keeper of all we know...”
This week I noticed footprints in the snow that revealed someone had walked the labyrinth recently. The person had clearly done this before because even though the snow hid the pattern in the stone, the snowy footprints went exactly over the spiraling labyrinth path.
Ritual and spiritual practices are like that- they become so familiar we can follow them without seeing the path, without reading the words in print, without following the notes in a hymnal, without checking the calendar. Outsiders looking in might say “Eh, church is predictable!”, but we know that within a framework of predictability and structure, great creativity and depth can flow, communal habits become steadying, and surprising moments touch our hearts.
Our gatherings over the next five days are a bit like that: our Solstice and Christmas Eve services have familiar traditions to them, but I hope they also offer a chance to experience Creativity, some steadying rituals, and real moments of communal peace, hope, joy and love- those oft quoted but more rarely felt seasonal emotions.
The evidence of someone taking a quiet, winding walk on our grounds cheered me this week. I might have been hurrying by, but members of our community were doing exactly what they needed to do, nurturing some inner peace that inevitably translates to the rest of us when we join in community. Thank you, suitors of peace.
I hope you each have moments in this next week, on whatever days they happen, that offer just what you most need. Wishing you Hanukkah, Solstice and Christmas joy!
From Rev. Lee and the rescue cats, Mya and Ki