This Week at Trinity, Beamsville
For Friday, September 11, 2020
Dear Friends,
This week’s return to post-vacation life – also known as the real world – has moved along as expected: lightning fast, with lots of catch up lists and tasks, and loads of reminders why I’m grateful to serve alongside you. Vacation was wonderful, and of course it absolutely flew by, but I’m rested and happy, and it’s good to be back, truly.
These last few days have brought a little bit of sensory overload, as weeks of reconnecting often do. I find my eyes and ears keen to take in so much, all at once. I’m eager to hear your voices, to process your most recent life developments, our community developments, and to absorb all that I can of where our lives are, right now. My heart bounces from micro to macro, longing to know how the big picture is shaped by the so-called smaller moments of life. My heart is forever trying to absorb the wonder of it all.
Here’s a little more concrete example of all that, from this past Tuesday afternoon. I was just starting my trek from Beamsville back to Burlington, with a million pieces swirling in my brain, when my eyes suddenly settled on the orange vest of Jacob Beam’s crossing guard. I was one of many drivers, on either side of the King Street crossing, granted a moment to stop; to take in some of the back to school realities, even as so much of back to school feels rather surreal, and incredibly different right now.
That moment of pause soon became a moment of overwhelming gratitude. I don’t know who the children were, nor the parents who accompanied them. I don’t even know the name of the crossing guard who stepped into the fray of the traffic in advance of them all. I just know it was a beautiful snapshot of safe passage. It was a wonder-full reminder of all that we can and will do for one another; of community being community, in ways that we know and remember, in the midst of so much that feels uncertain.
Wherever you are, in whatever stage of life you find yourself – in the midst of, or still on the verge of a new school year, or maybe lost in long-ago memories of your own new beginnings – may you see and know the many moments of safe passage, all around you. May your fullest sense of self be open and aware of God’s great love for you in your truest self, in all that you move through, each day. In all that you fear, may you know the balance and power of Love. May the wonder of God’s magnificent Creation hold you in the place of knowing your cherished place, in the midst of it all. In this magnificent expanse that is God’s, may you move into your next steps, and all those that will follow, with safety, strength, joy, health, confidence, peace, and humble, certain, faithful hope… always, always hope.
With love to you all,
Heather
“Concepts create idols; only wonder comprehends anything.
People kill one another over idols.
Wonder makes us fall to our knees.” (Saint Gregory of Nyssa, ‘The Life of Moses’)