Members and friends,

It was so wonderful to re-gather last Sunday for Ingathering! I missed you and I missed leading worship and singing together. It’s good to be back.

This Sunday I’ll lead worship again and we’ll reflect on what it means to choose to bring one another along on our journeys into the unknown… making sure that as we chart our way into the future, we don’t leave anybody behind. Diving into the work of our faith takes guts, and we need one another! We’ll also talk about bird migration and baby puffins in Iceland. Because we’re Unitarian Universalists, and this is how we roll!

Speaking of new beginnings – we’ll also have a backpack blessing ritual in worship! PARENTS- please remind your offspring to bring a backpack, lunchbox, bag, or something. Teachers, ed techs, all you who work as adults in the world of schools- please bring your bags as well! It’s a whole lot easier to enter a new chapter when we remember we are held in the love and blessings of a community larger than ourselves.

And speaking of backpacks – many of you know that I spend time every summer visiting my family who live in Colorado. We do a lot of hiking when I’m there, and because the town they live in is at 9,000’ of elevation, our adventures are of the high-altitude variety. Time on the trail brings heat and strong sun as well as rain, hail, wind, lighting, and even snow. I’m always reminded on these excursions that I am not entirely in control. BUT I do have control over how I prepare. What I pack in my backpack.

I always bring water, food, dry socks, a neck warmer and warm hat, sun hat, and a Gore-Tex rain jacket. I prepare for the elements I can’t control. Sometimes I miss the mark and get soaked, but most of the time I end up having what I need, even when a storm rolls through.

And so, I arrive at this new beginning, the start of a new church year, with a well packed backpack. Inside are faith and trust, flexibility and patience, the willingness to make mistakes and course-correct, an openness to the challenges and blessings of being in community, and a deep sense of what matters. I pray this pack will serve me, US, well when things get complicated or hard.

And of course I’m sure that there are some things I forgot… but perhaps you have them packed in yours.
After all, that’s what community is for, right ?

We will make our way together this year… with different backpacks of skills, tools, gifts, and challenges… as one A2U2 community. We already are!

See you in church,

Rev. Tara