February 3, 2023

Being in COVID isolation for the last 14 days has meant I have been back to connecting via Zoom meetings and my lingering cough has mean more email communication than phone calls. The switch was smooth in terms of logistics, but it sent me back in memory to nearly three years ago when we all needed to learn the new term "social distancing". Not a place we'd like to be again.

I missed seeing all of you on Sundays. I missed Bible Study. I missed working with Kathy, and missed the surprise drop-ins from various community members when working in my office at church. I missed getting together in person to do Lenten and Holy Week planning. I missed eating dinners with my family, as not all of us were COVID positive and we, too, needed to keep distances. And, beloveds, I went two weeks without any Target or Aldi runs! 

What I missed in personal connections, I tried to make up for in more time to plan, prepare, and pray about all that is to come. As your new Vestry prepares to gather in retreat to do some visioning for Saint Anne's, I had time to reflect on who we are and who we are called to be. As Lenten plans came together, I had time to pray for each of you - for your sprits to be filled with the wonder that can come from 40 days set aside as "desert time". As Solar plans become more focused, I've rejoiced in all the ways humans create and invent and imagine better ways. As we enter Black History Month, and we all grapple with the details of the murder of Tyre Nichols, I've prayed for deep changes for our communities, our country, our world. 

More than anything though, and frustrating as it's been, I've spent the last 14 days feeling grateful. Grateful for all the check ins and offers to help. Grateful to have come out on the other side; I carry in my heart those who have not, especially in our Saint Anne's family and extended family. Grateful to have a community I miss when I'm away. Grateful for all that is and all that will be. Grateful for so many opportunities to say, once again, thanks be to God. For all of it.

My prayer for you this week is that you, too, have reasons to look both inward and outward and offer that simple prayer: thanks be to God.