Tags
climate change, connection, consciousness, deep breath, gratitude, Peace, soup supper, Syrian refugees, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unity
Sometimes we just have to “let go and let God.” At the beginning of this week we had heard from people who said, “Oh yes, I’d like to come to your soup supper” (see yesterday’s post) but at that point we only had one confirmed reservation. I think it was on Tuesday that we counted up nine additional people. Since I have been engaged in programming events for years where reservations (not necessarily for food but sometimes just for space and set-up), I expected some “after deadline traffic” but I was beginning to wonder about the folly of such an undertaking. My last call for an additional two attendees was yesterday morning about seven hours before the event. By then I had developed enough stamina to reply, “Of course you can come! I’ll see you there!” while my mind was saying, “Will we have enough soup? Will I find enough soup spoons? Should we have ordered more books”…etc.
By five o’clock, I was ready for whatever happened and taking deep breaths of gratitude for our trusty team of 3 soup makers and 3 set-up/clean up staff who allowed me the luxury of addressing and then mixing with the 28 people who participated in the event. All the books were sold, all the soup consumed, excellent interactions were the order of the evening and the original goal was achieved: a new consciousness of and over $500 to be donated to aid for Syrian refugees. An additional gift was the exhibit of five powerful and telling paintings by local artist, Claudine Jones, whose concern for the environment contributed not only to the conversations but to our awareness of the need to be engaged in the issue of climate change.
I continue to be amazed at what can happen in a small city in Upstate New York that causes ripples of connection to the larger world. I met a few new people last evening and in our conversations with old and new acquaintances relationships were begun or strengthened in service to the good of all people. May it continue and lead us in time to a world of unity and peace.
Today our Church remembers Mary under the title of “Our Lady of Sorrows.” There are many feasts in our Church calendar honoring Mary but, this year especially, I find this one particularly poignant as images arise of present-day mothers. I see Syrian refugee mothers cradling their hungry and frightened toddlers, then a mother reaching out of a helicopter to fetch her child from the basket that has saved her little one as it saved her from the swirling waters of Hurricane Harvey, then a young mother at the side of her ten-year old child’s hospital bed, then a would-be mother mourning her miscarriage…
The Sophia Center for Spirituality 