Rev. Stefanie's Blog

I’m not in the habit of thinking about my experiences in terms of biblical teachings, but these days I find myself thinking often of those spiritual exhortations to become “as a child”…  

In my karate classes, for which I signed up recently (only after receiving assurances that the sensei would make allowances for my “advanced” age), I find myself feeling much as I did in kindergarden:  self-conscious, clumsy and uncertain.

While awaiting instructions on what to do, where to be at my new job, I get similar visceral flashbacks of the disoriented discomfort of fumbling childhood.  

It’s been quite a while since I’ve felt so very AWARE of actively needing someone else’s help and guidance.  It’s been quite a while since I’ve felt such consistent yearning for kindness, patience and forgiveness.  And then there’s that rush of gratitude when these are offered…!

I’m not in the habit of thinking about my experiences in terms of biblical teachings, but these days I find myself relishing the re-discovery of humility.  Innocence.  Of heart and mind and hands opened to the unknown.  The gifts of life.

Each ending is a new beginning, so they say.  And so I have said.  And yet when endings show up in front of my front door, it is often difficult to invite them in.  Like most of us, I relish the familiar.  I enjoy having a sense of what each day may bring and get a little nervous when there’s too much ambiguity. 

For the past few months I’ve had a visitor in my home and heart, named “Change”.  I invited her in, and anticipate many of the gifts that her presence will bring.  And yet, I can’t help but feel sadness about those experiences, those people, that are by virtue of her presence, flowing into the past.

This week I say farewell to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Laguna Beach.  It has been a grace-filled time, two years of shared learning and faith.  This ending, I know, will yield a new beginning.  New opportunties for growth, both in terms of connection to Divine Source and to the complex relationships of interdependence that call each of us to acts of moral integrity.

I look forward to welcoming the changes ahead and to sharing my reflections upon them with you!
Go in peace and walk in love, Stefanie