The River View Journey

Today is Christmas Day, the first day of the Christmas season. I am doing something I have never done before.  Several weeks ago I claimed the need to spend a few days alone. This works well in my family's practice as my husband, children and I have for the last 13 years exchanged our presents as the four of us on Christmas Eve. This practice simplified travel as we have traveled to one side of the family or the other on Christmas Day morning all but three of those years. We never did "Santa" like many families, so it didn't matter. My husband and kids got up this morning and went to my in-laws for a few days. I get to stay home with my dog. And I am currently listening to geese flying across the river with my dog asleep on the chair beside me. I needed space to grieve. I needed to be alone. I needed to think about all the people and things that I have lost and feel the absence. I needed to claim the very many ways that this Christmas is so very different from every o...

I discovered last weekend that try as I might, I can't hide for long that I claim the name "Christian" as my faith tradition and that I have spent over 20 years answering a call to pastoral ministry in the United Methodist tradition. Sometime, I'll write more about how that season has shifted. From that sphere of my life, something weighs on my heart that I want to write about today. Several years ago, I was exposed to a trend of gathering opportunities being offered for persons that have a difficult time around the holidays to gather together. The gatherings are called "Blue Christmas" services or a service for the "Longest Night". The gatherings often happen close to the winter solstice which is the longest night of the year. As I led these services, I tried to create an atmosphere for individuals to name the difficulty they have this time of year, when everyone seems to be "merry and bright". Difficulties can arise from many reasons......

This is a season of shifting sand. One person close to me referred to it as liminal. "Liminal" meaning on the edge. I certainly feel like I am living in the outskirts of the life I once knew. So, today I center on the image of the Abbey of Iona (you can see it at the top of my blog.) This tiny island has become a place where my spirit feels so centered and at peace. Below, I share my centering thoughts for my blog's name as well as the journey I am on. ---------------------- I have long thought about life in terms of fluidity. Something instinctual inside of me has been able to acknowledge that nothing in this world is static. Rather all aspects of life and who I am are ever changing, shifting, growing, being made new. Perhaps that's why places and images that have come to mean the most to me relate to nature and the elements of the created world (earth, wind, fire, and water). Rivers, waterfalls, the ocean, cleansing fire and falling rain, rocks and pebbl...