Stones on the Road – Dear Beloveds…

“We have to have a manner of embodying that to which we would point.”
~ Guy Newland, in sermon “Something on the Way” 3/25/18

“If memory had a voice, it wouldn’t sing
“Remember me.”
It would call out,
“Don’t forget who you are.”
~ Soul Matters Sharing Circle

If I have achieved nothing else here, my hope is that I have managed to embody in some portion that to which I have pointed. I found the above quote as I was preparing for my final sermon reflection this past Sunday – Guy’s message is well worth revisiting – you can find it in our website sermon archive.

I open this missive with thoughts of embodiment because I find myself in this moment so completely bereft of my ability to convey with words my love and gratitude to you all. So, I will put aside the internal pressure I feel to compose something artful for the ages, and simply provide you a brief list of closing thoughts:
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• Thank you so very much for the wonderful farewell celebration bash on Sunday – please know that I was so very overwhelmed by the expressions of your love and generosity that my brain was barely functioning…I offer this in explanation for my obvious inability to respond well to the whole “Questions for Dawn” segment of the party. The old synapses just weren’t firing properly.
  
  
• While I haven’t as yet worked my way through the “Messages in a Bottle” gift – I did notice that many of the scrolled messages appear to be written on paper with the image of a map on the reverse side. Remember my final story I shared in service on Sunday…about the boy who pieced back together a map of the world? I can’t express how happy that little piece of confluence makes me!
  
  
• “Stones on the Road” has been a theme that I have returned to again and again throughout my work here at UUFCM – one regret I have is that I didn’t do a better job of keeping up with the periodic written ministerial missives (titled, of course, “Stones on the Road”) that I had planned to provide you in addition to my weekly sermon reflections. You’ll see on the website the pitiful number of offerings I’ve managed. I’m thinking now that possibly that intention will come to fruition in the form of a blog somewhere down the road…
  
  
• Speaking of stones – I don’t believe I’ve ever told you this – the stones that we use each week as part of our joys and sorrows ritual…those originally were my stones, stones I have gathered on my travels through the years. Years ago, when we transitioned from candle lighting to using stones and water for our ritual, I brought in my stones for us to use. Those stones are part of the community now. They are my gift to you.

There is a song that has been circling through me over the last several months here – I’d never heard this song before stumbling on it in the course of doing my weekly worship prep research. It seems to have crossed my path just so I may offer it to you now as benediction to my time here with you. Recorded at the 2012 Last Night Brattleboro (VT) event, please listen to “Here Is My Home” by Si Kahn.

Good friends, from whom we now must part
   Where are we bound?
Your hands and voices lift my heart
   Here is my home

CHORUS:
Come darkness, come night
   Where are we bound?
Come morning, come light
   Here is my home

For those who work in harmony
   Where are we bound?
Can learn to live in unity
   Here is my home

If we can join ourselves in song
   Where are we bound?
Our hearts will live when we are gone
   Here is my home

The spirit that finds music here
   Where are we bound?
Will sing forever in the air
   Here is my home