Leslie’s Logos – February 2022

I have come to realize that I like clean entrances and exits, that I like when something can start anew (a new year, a new goal, a new approach) and when something that is finished can end. Of course, I particularly like the latter when it happens with things I don’t enjoy. A pandemic, for example.

Perhaps others feel this way as well. That would explain why this whole COVID pandemic situation with its warping and mutating evolution is so hard on us. We thought it couldn’t happen and then we thought it might disrupt our lives for a month. Maybe two. Well, maybe more and then it would be over. Okay, it has been longer and now we are coming out of it. Oops, a variant. Now we are back in. Okay, we will keep masking and still we can gather and look forward to the holidays. Ah, no, something new. Back away, stay indoors….and on and on.

This has not felt like an ending or a beginning. It has felt like…a pause. And yet in the course of these two years, so much has changed. What is very clear now is we are not going to go back to what was before—we have new habits and hobbies, interests and fears. We have new ways of being. People we loved have died, suffered declining health and many, many have moved away to be closer to family or in a less expensive place. We have had an ending and we have had a beginning and didn’t even notice it. 

Yet what we do together has not become less important, in fact, it may be more essential to the health of our spirits and of our communities. This is true because in the last two years, the world has become more divided, more governed by the hyper-capitalist rhetoric of a very small group of elite, and more endangered by climate change.

As this 2022 begins, we are faced with two large tasks: one is to mark and mourn the ways that have ended. And the other is to begin to embrace, imagine and enflesh this new existence for which we are poised. This is true in our personal lives and it is true in the life of our community. 

The truth is this is a congregation that is innovative, resilient and resourceful. We enjoy the exchange of ideas and the plotting of something new. I have no doubt that together we will not only meet this challenge, we will create joy and fun along the way.

Let’s step through this new door….

In faith, 

Leslie