transitions
Yesterday was orientation at my house, both kids visiting their new schools, finding their lockers, practicing their schedules. Monday morning classes begin. Ready or not, school is starting. And as is true in most families, I have one child who is ready and excited and one who is dreading this new beginning.
One of the oft’ overlooked problems with new beginnings is that they are continguous with new endings. School’s beginning means the end of summer playtime. Even the high holy beginnings of life like marriage also signal endings; the closing of a chapter of family definition, the end of the ‘search’, and even the loss of singledom. As we celebrate a new beginning at EUCC with the start of this program year with our Shared Ministry we are also, consciously or not, experiencing loss.
Yesterday I was sitting with Virginia at Carl’s bedside at St. John’s Hospital and this both-and of transitions was palpable. Carl and Virginia are beloved elders in our community and Carl is in the final stages of life after five difficult years with Alzheimers. Carl was an official visitor at EUCC for half a century, only recently becoming a ‘member’. His decision to join EUCC in the midst of all the changes in our communal life was the greatest gift he could have given to this community. As life itself became more confusing, the love of God became more clear and for Carl, this love was felt and expressed in our “lovely church”.
As we step into this new beginning, we carry with us the losses of what we leave behind. And though our elders remind us that their time with us is finite, the lessons that we have learned from them are carried in our hearts as we move forward.
