As you start to read this week’s “Think again“, please take a moment, and imagine me, (Rebecca) sitting on the couch, typing away on Monday afternoon… suddenly completely distracted by a beautiful gray cat… (yeessss, another cat reference!) This pretty little feline has leapt onto me, stands there kneading my lap very methodically and intentionally for a couple of minutes, and then settles into quiet purring contentment, snugly curled up in a little ball on my thighs.
Uh… the keyboard was naturally set aside.
Delighted, I sat there stroking her forehead and her belly,
then her chin,
then her belly,
gazing into her beautiful eyes and smiling at her cheeky coy gaze.
My efficiency… my efficacy to complete a task, had gone completely out the window… utterly and decidedly deferred for a different activity with absolutely no purpose or goal whatsoever other than to create joy (for me and her). Short-lived… but ever so potent.
In essence, that is what Sunday’s service was all about: Yes, Thanksgiving is about gratitude, but also seeking and being open to fleeting moments of joy amidst this world of calamity and hardship…
This is how it is, in the world today, just as it was in the 1860’s when writer and advocate Sarah Hale and U.S. President Abraham Lincoln connected to create a new US holiday “Thanksgiving” while their country was deep amidst the American Civil War. Despite their individual lifetimes of sorrow and shortcomings, (or maybe precisely because of them) they were able to intentionally add something ‘positive’ into the world amidst the chaos and uncertainty … just as all of us can, if we keep our eyes and minds open.
Maybe that’s enough said.
If you want to revisit why we spoke about Abraham Lincoln, and why biographer Joshua Wolf Shenk referred to what Lincoln carried as the “delicate fruit of a lifetime of pain” … and how ALL of that links to the scrumptious apples we bit into, in synchrony, at the end of the service… well, you can see it here.
We hope you enjoyed potatoes, and pie, and good people at some point over the Thanksgiving weekend.
With love,
Your Sunday Services Team
P.S.. A shout out to Mary Oliver who mentions joy in several of her poems, including the jewel “Don’t Hesitate”. The final line is so apt: “Joy is not meant to be a crumb.”
Don’t Hesitate
by Mary Oliver
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it.
There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be.
We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left.
Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world.
It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins.
Anyway, that’s often the case.
Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty.
Joy is not made to be a crumb.
Further reading, if you’re interested: