"How are you?"
"Surviving."
"Surviving," as the response to a greeting is characteristic of a number of family members and friends. Heck, I've been known to use it myself.
The banner photo in this email was taken in my backyard. These African Daisies will go dormant if you don't water them during the dry season. Their foliage turns a light, grayish green. They don't die, neither do they grow. A couple months ago I started watering them with the dew that drips off my apartment building's roof, together with water collected while waiting for the shower to turn hot and other rescued household water. With their roots consistently moist, their foliage turned a brighter green and started growing. And now that the rains have come, they are about to burst into bloom.
As we enter the new year, let us celebrate our having survived. But let us not stop there. Let us give ourselves some tender, loving care. Let us rescue whatever spiritual nourishment we can find, wherever we can find it. And let us prepare to grow and bloom.
This Sunday on Zoom we will be celebrating our New Year's Renewal Service. Join us as we encourage each other to offer all our previously hidden inner beauty to the world in 2022. Click here to join us.
Blossom,
Rev. Jonathan