As the coronavirus has continued to expand in the United States, schools, businesses, and houses of worship have shut down. Even though CV-19 is only showing up in a handful of persons, in Tennessee, wisdom and experience (as well as common sense) tell us that the outbreak here is just weeks away.

The GNUUC Board along with the Healthy Congregations Team (HCT) held a Zoom meeting and discussed the epidemic and our response to it in detail. I mostly listened, because it’s my policy to empower leadership, and they were doing a great job without my two cents! Not only should you be proud of their decision-making process, you should be impressed by the care and concern for each of you, along with the respectful and thoughtful way they interact with one another. I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a Board with such an enlightened process. With an MD, several tech people, and people who “get” data and information, they made hopeful but realistic decisions for the immediate future and set the stage for future emergencies. I feel honored to be working hand-in-hand with them.

How quickly things can change!

We awoke on Tuesday to the horrible news of the tornado in Nashville. I was at home in KY, and I hated the feeling of being separated from this city, which I have come to love. As we learned that our members and our building weren’t personally affected, I felt relief, yet I know that it is now time to reach out and help others. Nashville is our home, and it surprised me to find that I felt so deeply attached in such a short time.

I’ve missed everyone so much! It’s been a little over two weeks since I saw most of you, but it feels much longer. Yesterday was the first day I left the farm (other than to go for walks) and the first time I drove in 14 days. It’s humbling and edifying to depend upon others and to be confronted with mortality and lack of mobility. It can make you discouraged and depressed or be a spur to live more intentionally and learn the greatest wisdom: the wisdom of letting go.

I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about Jung and a few of the principles he discovered. His writings are somewhat dense and dry, but much has been written and spoken about him that is helpful if you want to take a deeper dive. I will list a few podcasts that you may enjoy and suggest some books.

Our February topic is "resilience"... and aging is just one of many things we need to bend and reimagine ourselves for. Parenting, grief, adversity, and illness are a few others.  And it's one of the best reasons for belonging to a faith community.  We can be so much more together than we can separately! We can influence the present and the future. We can learn from and be inspired and challenged by one another. Best of all, we can companion each other as we walk the long journey of life. What a privilege we have in each other!

I know that many of us as individuals and all of us as a congregation give money to local organizations. I urged you to consider in-person service as well, particularly when the service takes you to a neighborhood that you may not otherwise visit.

First: In the interest of integrity… a correction: It was not Walter Middy who lived a little distance from his body! It was Mr. Duffy in A Painful Case, a short story in James Joyce’s Dubliners.