Laura K. Secor

Hello my UUCW friends,

We are still in the pandemic.  How are you holding up?  I think for many of us, getting out into the fresh air has been an essential comfort in this difficult time.  I wonder how we will do when the weather turns.  In previous years, I have spent my winters huddled inside, enjoying my central heat.  But this year I think I’ll be pushing myself to get out into the cold, to breathe the fresh air.  I think we will all need that, this year.

Last month, I left you with the questions, how do you find comfort these days, and how do you connect with Spirit?  One answer to both questions is music.

The Symphony of Life by Rev. Douglas Taylor 

Eternal Spirit, from whom all things come and to whom all things return,
We gather this morning in community seeking to live in the harmony.
Each of us here gathered lives out our lives knowing our own story, our own private melody.

Life – at its highest and its sweetest – is a sharing.
Life is a sharing of our melodies, of our love and interest, of our yearning and questions.
We gather this morning as individuals creating harmony in community together.

May our different ways of knowing and naming the holy blend together.
May our voices be added to the holy chorus of life.
May we practice our scales that we may better improvise and recognize where we come in when it is our time.

The world is rife with discord and trouble.
Injustice and suffering weigh us down and trip us up and stop our voices.
May we learn to trust in love, in God, in our own voices,
in the trembling faith of our forebears
to trust that we have a part in this symphony and we can join this chorus and bring some beauty to the cacophony around us.

May there be times of gentle tones and soothing melodies
May there be rhythms upon which we can rely to rally our spirits at need
May there be teachers and band mates, fans and good companions to help call our best music out of us.
May there be moments when we are transported,
moments when we discover we are not playing the music
so much as the music is flowing through us, the music is playing us.

O Spirit of Life, may our song be among the songs of the spirit
May there be beauty in our song and in our living,
May there be meaning and power in our song
And may our individual voices blend into the chorus,
The chorus that is Thee, O Spirit.
This we ask, in the name of all that is holy
May it be so.