In this Issue
April 2006

FROM THE PASTOR'S DESK
Hope and waiting for spring's awakening
By Rev. Sara E. Ascher

Dear Friends,

Well, we might have thought spring was finally arriving, but Mother Nature keeps us waiting and hoping. Easter this year comes early and yet, we will celebrate the resurrection of earth and faith. This is what March and April hold out to us each year – hope and waiting. Maybe in the coming weeks we will witness the earth beginning to reawaken from slumber, robins and geese returning, rivers running a little swifter, and bushes and trees showing a hint of budding leaves and blossoms. The ground will soon give ever so slightly under our feet and the air will no longer carry the crispness of the cold northern breeze. The time of sunlight will grow longer minute-by-minute each day that passes. Yet, we are not wholly free from the intermittent snowfall or bitter cold day. So we wait.

We wait. As hundreds of generations before us have waited, for the subtle signs and hints that winter once again is loosening its hold on our world. But it is not only for spring we wait, at least not only the awakening of nature. We wait, too, for our own awakening. We wait for our spirits to lift and breathe in the warmer air of a life open to possibilities, no longer sheltering from risk or adventure. We long for the moment to commit to our dreams of tomorrow and recreate them as realities. Like the slumbering trees deep in winter dreaming of full green ever-reaching leaves, our souls, our hearts dream of expanding, of opening to others, to the world, to God.

The stories, whether they be Christian or Jewish or Pagan, all speak of the hope of this time of year. They all ask us to believe if only a little bit, that the world will forever turn and in the end, as Julian of Norwich writes, “All will be well.” May you carry in your hearts, during the remaining chilly, cloud-filled days, the warmth of hope and the strength of faith.

Blessings,
Rev. Sara Ascher
Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church

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