Rev. Lori On Transitions
This reflection was originally published on this date in the Friday Flyer.
Hello Good People,
Hot, balmy blessings to you on this 4th of July weekend! Pieter and I head out to go camping this weekend through Tuesday. Wishing you safe, joyful moments this weekend! I am both looking forward and a little challenged by unplugging. Mostly looking forward to it. I want to share an amazing writing that came to me just yesterday by Jan Richardson. She noted on July 1st that we are at the midpoint of the calendar year….182 days ahead and 182 days behind us in 2025. A remarkable thing to recognize right now! In our quiet time of pause, take a moment to reflect back and recalibrate and reorient. May these words be an inspiration.
BLESSING FOR THE SPACE IN BETWEEN
by Jan Richardson
When you come to the place between.
When you have left what you held most dear.
When you are traveling toward the life you know not.
When you arrive at the hardest ground.
May it become for you a place to rest. May it become for you a place to dream.
May the pain that has pressed itself into you give way to vision, not knowing.
May the morning make of it an altar, a path, a place to begin again.
Many of us are facing huge transitions right now in our lives. On June 30th, I handed off the baton of an organization I founded 5 years ago, and let go of direction and administration of an educational program I founded 10 years ago. I am “slowing” or reorienting my life. Pieter is closing in on retirement. We have been reorienting on how we spend our golden years. I want/we want to become more invested in local community. Both UUCSB and Saco/Biddeford. I read this poem and felt the instant call to grounding and examination.
While I am normally on the move constantly, I am inviting myself into the letting go of 2 wonderful things I birthed and developed and am releasing them to the on the next important iteration of their growth. I will try and rest which is a huge challenge for me..but so important for the dreaming and scheming or what I/we/We want to do with this One Precious Life.
I invite you to consider this summer what you are letting go of and put some ritual around it. A small ritual perhaps. A naming out loud and letting go, perhaps. Or a bonfire and burning or written wrongs or hurts even. I invite you to make space to contemplate and let go of what doesnt serve you and then even more importantly make space for what dreams may come. Without worry about whether you can accomplish or live those dreams out. Rest in possibility. Renew in vision.
And reconnect with someone at UUCSB to share your visions. Maybe share your pain and regret if you need. Which means, friends, make space for others at UUCSB to share what troubles them. Recognize it as a healthy, natural process of transitioning at this 182 days mark. This week when you wake up each morning, literally, turn at least one fear or sadness over to whatever gods you connect to and/or a spiritual companion. Also bring to mind gratitude for something. Open yourself to vision! It will come. And we will all be blessed by it!
My best wishes for you!
Peace and Blessings,
Rev Lori Whittemore
(she, her, hers)
Unitarian Universalist Church of Saco Biddeford