What a glorious cooler, dryer morning! I’ve opened up the doors and windows at the church to let the fresh air through!

It occurs to me that I could use a little opening of mind and heart to let in some fresh spiritual air as well! I’ve been re-reading Thich Nhat Hanh’s Peace Is Every Step about living every moment mindfully.

It’s easier to be mindful when a pleasant, cool breeze blows across us after many days of humid, hot weather. It’s literally easier to breathe deeply, which is at the heart of mindful living.

As a new-comer, I am in the process of establishing a sense of belonging in this space while most of you have been enduring the disorientation of separation for so many Covid-laden months. You are in a strange spiritual place of waiting and wishing, of remembering and longing. It’s an odd kind of grief to be missing the church and all the people you used to see there while hoping that soon, SOON, you will be able to return and be together again.

Since we must keep waiting, let’s breathe together. Breathe deeply, remembering that all living things respire, and that the same molecules of air have been breathed in and out across the Earth for eons. Breathing is living, connecting, remembering, hoping.

Keep breathing! Keep hoping!
Rev. Ruth