We called this place Innisfree because I’ve always loved the poet WB Yeats. When I went to Ireland, about eight years ago, I had hoped to visit the real Lake Isle of Innisfree. There were other places in Ireland that I’d dreamed about and imagined, primarily from literature. One was the Blasket Islands off the west coast. I made it to Dingle during my month’s time there, and I saw them from the mainland, but there were no regular transports to the Islands as it was still late winter. Nor could I get to the Aran Islands in Galway Bay, another place I’d come to love through words. The weather forbade it.

In a Zoom meeting with about 14 Nashville religious leaders and a few professors, I listened as clergy, Jewish, Baptist and Methodist, shared from the heart about how they find faith in the time of travail.

I decided to use an old-fashioned greeting since in some ways, we feel time has stopped and even gone backwards.

This is a check-in for your spirit. Stay connected! For a video message from Rev. Cynthia, click Check-in for You Spirit.

Hello from my isolation to yours!

I am here in Kentucky at my farm. Seth is watching Monty Python and laughing. Eric is busy building porches and renovating our tiny house. We had planned to use some inheritance funds to build a house on the ridge of our land, but we decided it would be more sustainable to fix this one up. At first, I was disappointed, because since we bought this 25-acre farm, I’ve planned and expected to move out to the lower acreage, where it’s breezy even in hot weather and where the view is gorgeous year-round. I pictured spending my older years there, at least until it becomes impractical.

I’ve missed everyone so much! It’s been a little over two weeks since I saw most of you, but it feels much longer. Yesterday was the first day I left the farm (other than to go for walks) and the first time I drove in 14 days. It’s humbling and edifying to depend upon others and to be confronted with mortality and lack of mobility. It can make you discouraged and depressed or be a spur to live more intentionally and learn the greatest wisdom: the wisdom of letting go.

I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about Jung and a few of the principles he discovered. His writings are somewhat dense and dry, but much has been written and spoken about him that is helpful if you want to take a deeper dive. I will list a few podcasts that you may enjoy and suggest some books.

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!