Dear Friends,
This week I felt the pendulum swing on summer. For the first time since mid-Spring, I felt the sunset coming earlier. We are certainly not in autumn yet, but this week is the first week that I truly knew it is around the corner. These next few weeks are a liminal season – an in-between shoulder season that is bridging the end of the summer season with the new rhythms of Fall.
There is a deep spiritual resonance about liminal seasons. In fact, the great spiritual thinkers across time have honored these times as holy. It is a forced time for us to see the things that we are leaving behind and to notice the new things on the horizon. It sounds poetic and meaningful on the surface, but it also summons all the doubt and chaos lurking below the surface.
As we round the corner on a new school and program year, I hope you take the time to notice where you have been this summer, not just geographically, but spiritually. Where has your summer brought you consolation? Where has it challenged you? Where has grace met you in the moment? Where have you felt that God’s love is beyond time or season?
One of the blessings of the Talmadge Hill summer has been the voice of some talented guest preachers. This week we welcome Rev. Brigitta Remole. She is the former pastor of Wilton Congregational Church where she served for 11 years as its first senior woman pastor. In addition to WCC, she has served several churches in the Pacific Northwest in both Seattle and Portland. She has a degree in social work from NYU, a Divinity degree from Yale and a strong passion for ceramics. And, most importantly, she is the dear sister of Eric Remole. We look forward to having her preach on Sunday!
Love,
Cheryl
Sunday, August 4, 2024
Dear Friends,
I love the Olympics. The first Olympics that I recall was the 1976 Olympics where Nadia Comaneci, representing Romania, scored perfect 10s in the Gymnastics competitions. I not only witnessed athletic excellence watching her compete, but I learned about Romania, international politics and rivalries in a way that had me far more engaged than any third grade history lesson ever could. Seeing her as one of the final torch carriers in Paris last week brought a flood of memories back about why I loved the Olympics so much.
Most of the Olympic athletes compete at the highest level of international competition even when it is not an Olympic year, yet somehow the allure of a host city, an Olympic torch that travels from Mt. Olympus in Greece to the host city, and a gathering of athletes from 204 nations competing in a diverse array of 32 sports from swimming to archery allows the world to collectively experience the spirit of sport and competition on a whole other level.
What is this spirit of the Olympics? Does it relate to our spiritual life? I say it’s all spiritual! Witnessing the thrills of victory and the agony of defeat, cheering on athletes at the top levels of competition, and feeling both great joy at a hard won victory and deep compassion for athletes whose Olympic moment wasn’t what they had hoped for, bring out the deepest corners of the human spirit. Likewise, watching athletes using the best of their God-given potential and understanding the many ups and downs they endured to have their Olympic moment is what all of our spiritual journeys are about. Simone Biles, the great U.S. Gymnast, said that her Olympic competition has “taught me a lot about who I am…[and that] I always have more to give."
It is also fun to be a “fan”, especially when your Olympic fandom only has to last for a fortnight. Being a fan invokes a sense of awe and wonder and it triggers joy. When athletes perform something that seems totally inconceivable, we become vicariously a part of that amazing thing. This very notion is also central to faith. Our spiritual practice and Christian legacy is also full of inconceivable acts and stories from ancient history, yet we have the privilege of being part of these miraculous moments centuries later.
In a few weeks, our own Ali Truwit will be in Paris for the Paralympics. She continues to amaze all of us with her resilience and athleticism in the face of adversity. We are all fans and we look forward to cheering her on at the end of the month. Stay tuned for more details.
I hope you find some time this week to enjoy some of the Olympics and that you see the spiritual journey in it all. Even Snoop Dogg, the rapper turned NBC Olympic Commentator, noted that in the brief moment that he carried the Olympic torch he “was a symbol of peace for a moment in time.” That is something we can all aspire to whether we are carrying a flame from Mt. Olympus or simply allowing the inner flame of our spirit to shine peace for our families and friends.
Love, Cheryl
Sunday, July 28, 2024
Dear Friends,
Having returned from a full month in Africa, I have a number of images lodged in my brain.
— A young girl who won the 100 meter race for her 6th grade class. She had no running shoes. She ran across a field littered with rocks in her socked feet. Her victory smile was radiant.
— A young girl with a congenital heart condition. The condition was not diagnosed at her birth. In the United States, the problem would have been easily fixed. Now she will be lucky to live another 10 years.
— A mother who makes $3-4 per day washing clothes. Next to her one-room house is an open sewage ditch. When it rains, the house is flooded with sewage. She needs a retaining wall which she cannot afford.
— A jazz band from one of our schools in the Kibera Slum. A boy is playing the bass … another on saxophone … another on keyboards … and a girl on drums. They beam with pride.
What does it all mean? What is God teaching me in/through these encounters? Well, the lessons are endless. Perhaps at the end of the day for sentient beings, every encounter is fraught with lessons. There is simply so much to be taken in.
Here are a few conclusions. I am grateful for running shoes, and other shoes that protect my feet. I am grateful for doctors. I am grateful that sewage doesn’t run through my house when it rains. I am grateful for every child born into poverty who has the courage to smile. I am grateful for children who are in love with their musical instruments.
Some of the above images make me sad because I am acutely aware that my privilege is nothing more than an accident of birth. For a brief moment, my sadness gives way to gratitude; but then in a flash it returns to sadness. For it is my unsettled heart that beckons me to hand out shoes, build retaining walls, and set the stage for a world committed to serious transformation.
Be grateful. Be satisfied. Be sad. Be inspired.
Carter
Sunday, July 21, 2024
Dear Friends,
The Christian faith is unrelenting in its expectation that human beings should practice honest self-criticism. Socrates said the same thing: “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Yet Christianity declares an important truth which in a sense precedes self-examination. Christianity proclaims that we came into this world loved and loveable. For many of us, that truth got twisted along the way. It got buried. It lies hidden.
Why does this matter? It matters because we must learn to see what is hidden from us. We must rediscover the deep well of love for us and in us. We must rediscover our capacity to shine light and share grace.
As we engage in this process of rediscovery, we are then able to uncover and bring to the light our blind spots. Who doesn’t have blind spots? Who doesn’t need to be forgiven? Who doesn’t need behavior modification? I can safely say, “All of us.”
This Sunday, we will look at how easily human beings deceive themselves, cover the truth, and lose sight of what matters the most.
I hope to see you on Sunday.
Carter
Sunday, July 14, 2024
Dear Friends,
Isn’t summer magical? Every year I find new things that summer brings my way. I share this with the patients at Silver Hill. It is no surprise that Spirituality in Nature is one of my most popular groups. Even those who are challenged with the concept of the spiritual have no problems pointing out the subtle nuances of weeds and wildflowers, flora and fauna and root systems and rivers. It invokes wonder, curiosity, astonishment and hope. It doesn’t speak in words. For many, it points toward God and opens the vast possibilities of God’s very real presence in the creation at our feet and fingertips.
On the other hand, while many people appreciate the beauty, they have no patience for the infinite mysteries behind it. I am the opposite. I don’t think my spiritual life would be nearly as rewarding if I served a God who I had all figured out. I embrace the astonishment in life. It simply invites deeper wonder of God’s place at the source of it all. It also points to a love and a power beyond my comprehension that will help guide me and my many flaws to be part of something bigger and eternal.
I look forward to being with you on Sunday morning to think about where God sustains us with both astonishment and love.
Love,
Cheryl