When I was in Jr. High school in my little farming community of West Texas my Sunday School teacher took our class to the closest big town to see “Anne of a Thousand Days”, “A Man for all Seasons” and “The Sound of Music”. This made a bigger impact on my life than any Sunday School lesson she and her husband taught – opening the world of the connection between history, the Church, social issues, and the ways that theater/film could tell these stories in a way that was much more helpful to me than sitting in a classroom. This planted a seed for learning more throughout my life, and cultivating values that sent me in directions of a more socially involved faith.

The question brings to mind exercises and programs that have surfaced throughout the decades – Values Clarification seminars and exercises; 7 Habits for Highly Effective People, etc. I love those exercises, courses and processes. I’d like to do one now that I’ve entered a new phase and stage of life. But the challenge comes not so much in clarifying (although it is necessary and helpful), but in living out what you discover. I can clarify that eating veggies, low carb, protein and healthy fats is what matters most for a healthy body. But living into that is the real challenge.

For my answer I am going to assume a definition of community that is supportive, generous, and welcoming – although have not always experienced every community of which I have been a part to be so. Because of my experience, then, I am somewhat surprised when communities actually live into their true definition of generous, welcoming support. Like churches, of which I have been a part all of my life – when they actually do show up at people’s hospital beds to pray; bring food to families they don’t know who are not part of their community, travel miles to build homes for the underserved, or those living in the midst of disaster, or host a wedding or funeral for someone who is outside their homogeneous make-up. Sometimes our choses communities fail us, but they are made up of people like us. I give thanks for the times mine have shown up for me and for the times I can show up for others – and I give thanks for those in this particular community. You represent a diversity of background and gratitude that enlarges my own every day.

I am usually good in a sudden emergency kind of chaos moment. I can quickly stop, evaluate and be present in whatever way is needed – either listening, just being present or doing. However, in these longer, epic times of chaos – or even in slowly building chaotic moments, when I have time to worry about outcomes and feel out of control, I feel more challenged to find ways to cultivate an ongoing peace for myself and others. It has been difficult to sustain peace during this pandemic – but then it was difficult before, we just had more and different outlets. I am having to dig deep into creativity – learning new things, exercise, and intentional connections with others.

I live in a somewhat rural setting. I love the sound of birds and crickets, etc. I watch very little tv anymore. I’m not on electronics anymore than necessary. I read books, have worked in the garden and cleaned my house over and over again. I have meditated, pondered, planned, and wondered. The last 5 months have immersed me in more silence than I’ve ever experienced, and I am grateful. But what I wouldn’t give for the sound of my grandchildren playing in my back yard, arguing in the back bedroom, laughing at the videos they are watching; what I wouldn’t give for the gathering of friends in a noisy restaurant where we laugh and share bottles of wine and catch up on each other’s lives; what I wouldn’t give to be visiting someone in a hospital where the beeps, overhead announcements and strange hallway conversations interrupt our visit. Normally I relish silence. But now, I’m ready to make and experience some good, healthy, mercy-giving, justice-seeking, praise-raising noise.

I will participate in online exercise classes as if I was in the room with the instructor, clapping, snapping and breathing or shouting. I will drink water as if it was the nourishment that it is, and not just a necessary evil to help me swallow my pills. I will eat my food with curiosity – what texture is that exactly? Do I really need more salt? I will listen to the news, to the birds, and to music as if it was a prayer. I will explore my digital device that is driving me crazy as if it is something to be discovered, rather than an irritant to be conquered. I will read and rest for the joy of this time in my life – because I can. And give thanks.

It happens especially in the mornings when and if I’m on my back porch – the birds, the breeze, the temperature/humidity, the bunnies, the flowers, my coffee. But it also happens in the routines of daily houseliving – laundry, handwashing dishes, vacuuming, dusting (the smells and sounds of cleaning make me grateful to have a house and home to clean), the cooking and eating,. In the Texas sun and heat, the sun bears down on my skin and reminds me of all the work the sun does to enable our world to exist. In the more rural nighttime sky the stars remind me of my place in the universe.