|
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Sunnyvale, California
Comments, Essays, and Sermons (Collection 2) |
Back to index |
|---|
2007-11 Minister’s Musings
by the Rev. Vicky Combs
UUFS Interim Minister
Just as I prepared to write this column Ray Austin called to say his beloved Dorothy had died. On behalf of the entire UUFS community, I extend heart felt condolences to Ray and his family. May your love for each other and your memories of Dorothy comfort and console you in the difficult days ahead.
In the Mid-west, which Sibyl and I so recently left, this is very much the season of death and letting go. Come November the leaves are almost gone from the trees and with Samhain (which occurs Nov. 6 th this year) comes the final harvest. Then the fields lie fallow.
Here it is different, so very different in this two season temperate climate with its long growing season. I must adjust and it reminds me how much is lost with frequent mobility. Whereas Dorothy’s passing reminds us that death is so very natural a part of life, frequent uprooting is not . A Native American sage once quipped that it is no wonder we Anglos don’t take better care of the land, we never stay in a place long enough to fall in love with it, to bond so deeply, as indigenous peoples do, that to be uprooted from it is to die.
Yet there are times in life when leaving and saying goodbye, to a person, a place, the life we have known… is what we must do. Death feeds life and life feeds on death in a never ceasing cycle. As the old Quaker hymn reminds us, our lives “flow on in endless song above Earth’s lamentations”…, and we are to be there for each other when those times of loss and leaving come along. And if we can do as the Buddhist sages recommend and “learn to die before we die,” learn to let go of what no longer serves us in our lives, then we can ease into that other passing with gentleness, awareness and peace. May it be so for each of us.
Blessings,
Vicky
|
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Sunnyvale, California
Comments, Essays, and Sermons (Collection 2) |
Back to index |
|---|