Physically Distanced but Spiritually Connected
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The Best Contagions…What are they? How might we be carriers?

Dear Mayfield,
Worship and reflection last weekend included “Everything Is Waiting for You” by poet David Whyte. Whyte encourages us to experience ourselves in ongoing conversation with growing things and objects, inside and out, in the daily encounters of our lives.  His poem is reprinted below along with several photographs from my walking this week and the questions and bits of conversation those walking moments prompted.  Long before the Covid-19 pandemic, loneliness was noted over and over again as an emotional epidemic in modern, developed Western life.  Our tendency toward loneliness has been enhanced in pandemic time across weeks out of our usual routines and connections with one another. And so, I offer up Whyte’s poem and a few of my photographs as an invitation for us to identify when we have been aware of communion in our daily lives and the sense of accompaniment it has brought us.

There are instances of glory every day. We just have to name them. I hope the daily Morning Glory blooms remind me to do just that.

“Everything Is Waiting for You”  (David Whyte)
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions.To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice.  You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors that have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Repairing shoes seems such an old fashioned thing to do. Most often these days what is worn out is discarded. Are there former ways or old practices that I might pass on to someone for new life in future days?  And if so, what are they and who might be the recipient(s)?

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease
into the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves.Everything is waiting for you.

The iconic Chicago flag with blue and white stripes representing geographic features of Chicago and its four stars drawing attention to key moments in the city’s history is beloved.  Variations of its basic design abound including this one with chickens replacing the stars in the Chicago coop at Nettelhorst school. What in my life has multiple variations, maybe many more than I realize? How willing am I to play with those variations?

Whyte’s poem suggests an easy daily practice that can bring all sorts of meaning during and after pandemic days.  Try it.  Peace, Martha

Chalk Talk Note

Don’t forget there is a bucket of individually wrapped pieces of sidewalk chalk at the front door of the church.  Grab a piece.  Leave a message on the driveway in front of the parsonage garage.  Even if the earlier messages have been washed away by the rain since they were left, each message written and/or drawn increases the energy of goodwill and care at our Church Road property.  Keep your chalk handy in the car, so you can leave a message each time you visit the Monarch Waystation this summer.

Worship Note

Sunday is a communion Sunday. Have your elements ready at home to participate in this part of our liturgy.

Mask Note

Rob Stoll sent out an email on Tuesday detailing plans to sew 400 cloth masks for JAMS for use in the fall when they return to school in September. Theresa hopes to go to Kenya at the end of July, so they need to be made this month.  Rob is creating kits with the fabric and elastic already cut. Straight line sewing is all that will be needed to turn each kit into a mask. The masks are being made in JAMS school colors and will go well with the girls’ uniforms. Please let Rob know ASAP if you can help. robert.stoll@mchsi.com Thank you.