Dear Members and Friends of UMA,
Wow, it’s been just a bit of a six month whirlwind!!
Started with losing my eyesight in my right eye in early January. I still remember driving to Syracuse after the big wind storm with a mass of red and black swirling around in my eye, avoiding downed trees and being detoured several times. Terrifying on so many levels! Two eye surgeries later, one having to look at the floor for 10 days and missing officiating Easter Services, and the eye still isn’t better and likely never will be. At my last visit, the doctor said there is optic nerve damage. Just trying now to train my good eye to ignore the other eye, it actually would be better not to have any sight at all in that eye!
But then the great news about Zaki and Fardin’s citizenship!
And then Brandon’s major knee injury, 6 hour surgery, robotic leg brace (not really robotic but it looks like it!) Weeks of recovery and two PT visits a week and concerns about permanent damage.
And then the huge blow of Wells College’s sudden closing, a blow on so many levels for me, as an alumna, as someone who enjoys connecting with the students and so looking forward to a really great intern at the church whom many of you met when she and her friend came to church a couple of times and even joined us for refreshments! Wondering where Brandon is now going to work and find such a supportive environment. Seeing Zaki’s disappointment at not being able to play soccer his senior year, just so many heartaches.
But it was also an amazing Reunion, so many people, beautiful weather, old friends, new ones, so much love in the air. I was also so very privileged to do the invocation and benediction for the WCA Awards Ceremony and the Service of Remembrance with the added joy of having Nicholas, Kenny and Charlie Zabriskie join in honoring KD. Such an honor and a privilege. So many hugs and so many tears, so much laughter and so much anger and frustration.
Small colleges like Wells are not for everyone, just like small villages like Aurora are not for everyone. But if they are, there is something sacred, something that gets under your skin and reaches a place deep within you and when it is no longer there a piece of you is missing.
But now comes the great news about Zaki’s two brothers, sister in law and two little nieces who arrived in the U.S. on Sunday after an long and arduous trip from Afghanistan to Iraq, then to Brazil and up through Central America, including a harrowing trip on a crowded open boat, his youngest niece without a life jacket because there were none her size, and finally to the Mexican border. They are now in a shelter in San Diego and we are working to get them to central NY, hopefully Ithaca very soon! Zaki hasn’t seen them since he was 13 and experienced his own harrowing journey to the U.S. ten years ago!
There are those sayings we always hear when things get a little crazy, “everything happens for a reason,” “God doesn’t give us more than we can handle,” and other pithy sayings that generally don’t make us feel any better. But instead I feel like life can sometimes be a bit like a tree branch that has been cut down but the stump remains and new branches grow. Out of each and every difficulty, new sprouts can be seen if we allow ourselves to be open to the Sacred Spirit of God. Sometimes it’s hard to be open to that Spirit, that is where church can be of help, prayer or a walk by the lake, a deep conversation, or reflecting on the teachings of Christ in the Gospel, or even just being still for a bit, can open us up to the Spirit that is above and beyond all else.
And I once again I leave you with a poem that touches my soul. A poem written by one of the notorious 11 women ordained in the Episcopal church amid a great deal of descent and controversy from the “old guard,” those who oppose change and want the rules to always remain the same, despite Jesus’ teachings to the contrary, on July 29, 1974…….. Change, wherever it comes from, is hard, may we learn to focus on the new growth!
With love and blessings,
Barb