“Have you ever experienced what an Island of Sanity amidst a lot of chaos can do? Islands of Sanity... hold resilience when the rest of the system comes out of balance.”
I asked the staff this week if any of them felt like the world was conspiring to shut us down this week, between wildly waffling weather predictions, no heat in the New Wing, and a couple of staff smitten by illness. I then said “Good thing the monthly theme is resilience!” 
I was thinking this morning about the fact that our current congregation includes folks who experienced the Great Depression followed by WW II, and of course every upheaval since. So often those generational stories about having resilience are not passed down. Maybe now is the time for some intergenerational storytelling about making it through tough times… or at least imagining what your family members went through.
Those who meet monthly in small groups to discuss the “Soul Matters” topics will be talking about resilience. Here are a few reflection questions for us all:
Where do you see resilience in your daily life? (This might include physical, ethical, emotional, spiritual or relational resilience.)
- Do you remember witnessing one or both of your parents acting resiliently? Does this have a message for you today?
- Did your grandparents ever tell stories about times in their lives that required resilience, or were those the stories never told? Have you shared such stories with your children or grandchildren?
- Does anything shift when you think of people in places like Minnesota as role models of resilience?
- Margaret Wheatley speaks of people, places or communities that hold resilience as “islands of sanity”. What people, places or communities are islands of sanity for you?
Speaking of resilience, the Meeting House does have heat again, thanks to those who figure out such things. Hope to see you Sunday. If we’re surprised by snow, check the website for updates!
Rev. Lee