Our February topic is "resilience"... and aging is just one of many things we need to bend and reimagine ourselves for. Parenting, grief, adversity, and illness are a few others.  And it's one of the best reasons for belonging to a faith community.  We can be so much more together than we can separately! We can influence the present and the future. We can learn from and be inspired and challenged by one another. Best of all, we can companion each other as we walk the long journey of life. What a privilege we have in each other!

I know that many of us as individuals and all of us as a congregation give money to local organizations. I urged you to consider in-person service as well, particularly when the service takes you to a neighborhood that you may not otherwise visit.

First: In the interest of integrity… a correction: It was not Walter Middy who lived a little distance from his body! It was Mr. Duffy in A Painful Case, a short story in James Joyce’s Dubliners.

I wrote to all my offspring and their partners (There are now SIX plus Christina’s daughter Willow!) and told them I hoped that at least one or two of their dreams come true this year. My daughter Marjorie texted back: Why not ALL our dreams? Because, I said, you’d soon be unhappy and want more, and what would you have to work toward?

Sunday before last, I traveled from GNUUC to the congregation in Lexington which I served for 14 years. I’d been asked to give the eulogy for a long-time member who died in October.

I am excited and grateful to share this season with you. Whether you celebrate the holiday as a progressive Christian, celebrate Hanukkah as a Jewish person, or simply enjoy the pagan and earth-based ancient traditions meant to brighten the time of impending cold and dark, I invite you to look for new and nourishing ways to increase your own (and others’) peace, joy, and appreciation of beauty in places, things, and people.

Greetings from Washington, DC, where I’ve been spending several days with local Nashville clergy, sponsored by the Temple! We’ve had a guided, facilitated two days at the Holocaust Museum, and today will do the same at the African American Museum of National History. What an amazing opportunity it has been to see and learn much more about other faiths, and to be connected with other faith leaders in town!