Thank you so much for these last two weeks. My family traveled to Bellingham, Washington where my mom's family has property off of scenic Chuckanut Drive. A small cabin (about 700 square feet) nestles beneath towering evergreens. If you follow the trail through the woods, you first come to a bench overlooking a small stack of stones marking the place where my grandparents are interred. A few more steps down the path and a wooden bridge takes you across a murmuring creek. The path winds through ancient forest, with ferns reaching long tendrils and moss softening rocks and roots (don't slip!). Just before you get to the train tracks, you walk through a tunnel of leaves. Cross the train tracks and turn down the road for several hundred feet and you arrive at the gate to go down to barnacle beach. True to its name, shoes are a necessity if you don't want the sharp barnacles and shells to slice up your feet.
The cabin, as we call it, is sacred in the way of all natural places -- our smallness obvious in the shadows of towering trees, the cycles of life encapsulated in the ebb and flow of tides, the grandeur of God exemplified in the soar of an eagle and God's whimsy apparent in the panoply (or splendid display) of tide pool creatures from crawling crabs to waving anemones. For me, it is also sacred for the spirits of my grandparents that fill the house and woods: their hopes and dreams, their prayers and disappointments, their work for justice and all the ways they cultivated beloved community. I return home feeling rejuvenated and reconnected to deep roots of spirit and beloved community that are the legacy of my mother's parents.
As I return, I am aware of a number of losses, surgeries, health concerns and other challenges that you, God's beloved, have faced in your lives during my absence. And I am sure that there are more about which I do not know. Please find some time to catch me up on all that is in your life and your heart.
A tremendous thank you to Nikki Glantz who was our primary worship leader/planner during my time away, to Staci Hennings to holds things together, to Elizabeth Endicott for so much pastoral care and to everyone who participated in worship or other leadership in my absence. I am so grateful.
I look forward to seeing you on Sunday if not before.
