One of my favorite Holly Near songs starts out: “I am open, and I am willing. To be hopeless would be so strange. It dishonors those who go before us. So lift me up to the light of change.”

This year we are pondering together how we move well through these sometimes fearful, often confusing, and still beautiful times. Climate change and crumbling systems impact our daily lives. So much is uncertain. So much feels too big to carry. So much feels outside our control. It can be tempting to detach, to become cyncial, or to give up hope.

And yet, and yet. We know, as people serving Love, that we must keep showing up in these times. We show up to honor those who have fought for better before us. We show up so that our children’s children may live. We show up because the world is still very beautiful, and our presence is what we have to give. Perhaps our presence – given rigorously, given hopefully, given with every ounce of our will – is enough.

– Rev. Molly