Happy Thursday everyone!

I hope that your week has been going well and you are settling into a new routine in this time of change and “social distancing.” Change is never easy and it is even harder for us to adjust to when it is not something that we willingly choose for ourselves. But people are resilient and we will adjust to our new normal for the next few weeks.

Some are looking at this time of “suspended action” for a lot of us as an opportunity to do something new, different for a few days. Some folks are really getting into it, and taking on new projects, or using it as a time to learn a new skill or task. Some of the folks on Facebook have talked about:
Learning a new craft project

One said that they are learning about podcasting – how to create and upload a pre-recorded podcast.
Some of our teachers are learning the in’s and outs of teaching on-line
Some are reading books that they have been trying to find time to get to
Some are just getting projects done at home that they have been putting off – organizing closets, painting rooms, doing a room make-over, spring garden clean-up, etc.

How are you spending your time?

Are you trying something new?

Are you helping someone learn a new skill, craft, project? What is it and how are you helping them?

Also, I wonder how each of us are being a blessing, are sharing God’s love with others around us. I hear of the different places that are making free meals available to those in need. I hear the call from the Red Cross to all who have not been sick, do not believe they have been exposed to anyone who may have the virus, etc. and who are willing to come out and donate blood.
How are you helping others? What are you doing to reach out and be of support?
I regularly ask God….. How may I be of service today? What else can I/should I be doing?

Yesterday on Facebook, I saw a posting from Deb Patterson on the UCC Clergywomen’s page on Facebook that speaks to these thoughts. It is patterned after St. Francis of Assis’s prayer for peace. She has indicated that we may share it as we choose, so I leave you with these words today:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there are falsehoods, let me sow truth; where there is worry, calm; where there is despair, hope; where there is trepidation, courage; where there is loneliness; friendship; where there is uncertainty, faith.

O divine One, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be free from fear as to relieve fear; to be healthy as to live in healthy ways. For it is in giving compassion that we receive compassion, It is in reaching out to others that our hearts are embraced, And it is in dying to yesterday that we can arise today.

​May it be so…. AMEN