I’m sharing with you my contribution to the Ministry Days celebration for 25/50 years of service. On June 4, 2020, I will celebrate twenty-five years of UU ministry. I can’t think of a better place to be now than with GNUUC (even if it’s on screens for now!)

I could use your support! This week, I’ve scheduled an online Iftar program with members of the (progressive) Muslim community. I guarantee you that next year (I hope we will be having small gatherings by then) you’ll be welcomed in person and experience the warm hospitality and incredible food of our interfaith neighbors. This would be a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the Islamic faith traditions, especially for kids!

Whenever Eric runs a quick (and protected) errand to the pharmacy or grocery, he comes back and says It’s so strange out there. I haven’t been far from my house and it’s easy for me to see, on our 26-acre property that spring 2020 did not get the memo about hiding, stopping, or wearing a mask.

Not only is today earth day; it’s the 50th anniversary of earth day! Do you recall the first one? I was 15, so I’m sure I was aware of it, but I didn’t feel like it really affected me. From where I lived and moved, the earth looked fine. Even years later, when I was in my early thirties and took an 8 week trip around the USA with my two (then young) sons, I clearly recall feeling so reassured by the vast and beautiful land, and I remember thinking that with all this wilderness, surely the earth could survive and thrive.

I spoke in my weekly video about a meeting I’ve been attending with local clergy and faith leaders and shared a question that we contemplated today.

We called this place Innisfree because I’ve always loved the poet WB Yeats. When I went to Ireland, about eight years ago, I had hoped to visit the real Lake Isle of Innisfree. There were other places in Ireland that I’d dreamed about and imagined, primarily from literature. One was the Blasket Islands off the west coast. I made it to Dingle during my month’s time there, and I saw them from the mainland, but there were no regular transports to the Islands as it was still late winter. Nor could I get to the Aran Islands in Galway Bay, another place I’d come to love through words. The weather forbade it.

In a Zoom meeting with about 14 Nashville religious leaders and a few professors, I listened as clergy, Jewish, Baptist and Methodist, shared from the heart about how they find faith in the time of travail.

I decided to use an old-fashioned greeting since in some ways, we feel time has stopped and even gone backwards.