Hello, Friends!
     Thanks be to God for Spirit’s moving in all creation, and in our community!  On Sunday those of who gathered for worship got to experience a teasing taste of what’s possible, when people of good will gather in God’s name.
     Friends of longstanding and brand-new acquaintances, newly born and long lived and everything in between, we basked in the beauties of the time and place, awakening our gratitude, connecting our consciousness, renewing our spirits.
      I offered the following prayer as a testament to our individual and shared yearnings after God, and to our hope in faith that Spirit heeds, engages, and empowers us to carry on, and live lovingly.
     Take these words to your comfort, nourishment, and call—and I look forward to being in the Spirit with you this Sunday, and all our  days to come.

Shalom,
Sarah

“Breathe Deeply into Us”
by Ted Loder

O Unwearying One
  who stalks us down all our days
bring us up short, now,
   and breathe deeply into us
for we come breathless to you
   from fretful times and frangible relations,
       our attention distracted,
           our energy drained,
       our intentions splintered,
           our love glazed over,
       our hopes unmet,
          our faith frayed.

Still, we gasp to thank you
   for this undeniable impulse
        to thank you,
   for this insistent yearning
        to know you,
   for this throbbing desire
       to love you back;
   for this quick, trembling,
      sensuous sense of all your gifts
          showered like rain on lives
              long parched by inattention;
     bread to empower our bodies,
         beauty to quicken our pulse,
             night to show off the stars
                and put us in our awesome place,
     problems to summon our talents,
        love to link our lives,
           laughter to nurse our wounds,
     passion to shape our maybes
         into a brighter day for
            the whole human family;
and for this mystical, magical moment
   of peace and shimmering power,
       of grace and prophetic stretch,
   in which you work the miracles
       of gladdening our hearts yet again,
           in spite of painful patches,
              sobering losses, and puzzling trials;
       of balming our souls with a touch of joy
           because we are,
               and are yours,
                   and you are forever;
      of heeding our prayers beyond our words
             in the spirit of Jesus.  Amen.