June 5, 2026

Only two weeks in, and summer at Saint Anne's is in full swing. The Garden Club is busy planting, weeding, and watering, the lawn mowers are busy mowing, Altar Guild is busy setting up in the outdoor chapel, the Parade-Marchers are getting ready to toss candy, and we're getting ready to sponsor a Pride booth in WSP again. Plans are in place for house gatherings, bonfires, and kickball games. People are riding bikes to church, and the new playground is getting good use. Saint Anne's has a full calendar of weddings and other gatherings, and Summer Stretch is on the horizon. My desk is a mess and I am terribly behind on emails. Summertime, and the living is busy! 

I don't take a minute of the immense privilege of all of the above for granted. In the middle of this rich goodness, I am also praying deeply for those in our community, and in my wider world who are going through difficult times. Add in prayers for our world right now, and I'm doing a lot of praying. Another immense privilege.

I can't pretend to know how it all works. How God can hold the joys and the struggles, the busy-ness and the need for rest, the life and the death of it all, in the same tenderness. I can't pretend to know how the earliest Psalm was written in 1400 BCE and yet still feels relevant today, how Jesus' teachings can still guide us, daily, or how we can still feel the push of Spirit leading us into new things. I only know that I am grateful for every blessing, and trying to learn to be grateful for every struggle. Because it's all part of the same beauty-full life, and on we go.

My prayer for you this week for time to do and time to be. My prayer is that you feel yourself held in God's tenderness in the busy-ness and the rest, in the joys and the struggles.