Dear Friends,We pray you are safe and well.  In the spirit of our philosophy of co-creating community and our awareness that the Spirit speaks through each of us, we invite you to share your meditations with us as well. We truly believe that in God’s economy of abundance, when we share our blessings, our thoughts, our feelings, we are all made richer. Today's Meditation comes to us in the words of Maya Angelou.

We think of the passing of Congressman John Lewis and also Jean's Father Henry Marchant who died five years ago and is celebrating his 104th Birthday today with God and all his loved ones who have crossed over to the other side (as well as his loved ones on this side) --"Love is stronger than death" in the words of our Song of Songs reading from our Sunday Eucharist. These words from Maya Angelou speak into this moment, naming the grief, honoring their witness, and offering hope.

We invite you to join us as we commit ourselves to working tirelessly to end systemic and structural racism in our society, in healthcare, in the workplace, in the Church--wherever it shows up so that everyone may come to have more abundant life. May this meditation nourish our contemplative-active hearts and sustain all of us in action.  We hope and pray that you and your loved ones experience genuine peace of mind and heart, and remain in good health during this challenging time. In this "Season of Ordinary Time" in the Church Year, may this be a time of peace, of healing and hope, of the infusion of joy in your life!With our love and care,Ron & Jean 

Meditation 101: When Great Trees Fall (Maya Angelou)

When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.

When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.

Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance, fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of
dark, cold
caves.

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be 
better. For they existed.