Women Gather
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Marissa, Jeanette, and Raleane share the challenges and opportunities during the weekly women's group meeting.
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Meet other women. Share problems and solutions. Get leads for housing and other services. Organize crafts and activities. Find child care. Take field trips with the kids. Get help with legal problems. These were some of the interests generated by the six women who met Thursday at the Hope Center for the weekly women's support group, Power of Women (POW). Marissa Reed, a neighborhood resident and mother of seven, facilitates the meetings.
The group got off the ground this week when Marissa changed the meeting time from mornings to afternoons when she realized that women who gathered at the St. Patrick's soup kitchen for lunch could walk together the half block to the Hope Center.
POW meets every Thursday from 12:45 to 2 p.m. In addition to working on immediate needs, POW will be dreaming ideas for a women's center at Hope that provides a supportive place where women can find the resources they need to take care of themselves and their families. For more information, call Amy Malick at 860-805-1784.
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Hope's Public Reflection Garden
Our dream of transforming the Hope Center grounds into a public park took a few steps forward this week when landscape architect extraordinaire Chad Wade dropped off the final draft of our plans along with the perspective you see above. It shows lots of greenery, benches, a spot where locally-made sculptures will be displayed, a low sitting wall and a labyrinth. We're hoping to finish phase one of the project this season with the help of volunteers. If you'd like to be one of them, drop us a note at [email protected]. |
Perfect timing
It has been a very painful and challenging week, hasn't it?
It began when two young men apparently planted bombs that killed three people, maimed nearly 100 others, and terrorized the City of Boston and the nation; a fertilizer plant exploded in West Texas killing a dozen people and injuring dozens of others; a poisonous substances was mailed to President Obama, and five Colorado snowboarders were killed the state's deadliest avalanche in more than 50 years. In between all of that, there were episodes of violence on a more modest scale. One of the gifts of the week was that one of today's scripture readings was Psalm 23. It reminds us that in the midst of everything, God is with us. When we're in some deep dark valley of despair, God is with us. When bad things happen to good people, God is with us. No matter where we go and whether we like it or not, God is with us, loving us and following - indeed pursuing us with goodness and mercy. It occurred to me that the great theologian Mick Jagger had it pegged - we can't always get what we want, but if we try sometimes we just might find that we get what we need. We may want more than that. We may want to protect ourselves from natural and man-made disasters or from the "normal" vagaries of life. But, that's really not possible. But, if we try, we might find ourselves living in the presence of a God who loves us dearly and is as close as the breath you just took. Next week's gospel lesson also holds the key to an end of terror and hate and injustice. John 13:31-35 is a snippet from the story of Jesus' last meal together with his disciples. It takes place after Judas has gone off to do his dirty work. Jesus tells his friends that he has been glorified and will be going somewhere they can't go. Then he tells them to "love one another." He says that "everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Jesus offered it as "a new commandment." He didn't say it was "a suggestion" or "a nice thing to do" or anything optional. It was - and is - a commandment. The Kingston Trio recorded in first; then it was Jefferson Airplane; it was a chart-topper for the Youngbloods in 1967; Jesse Colin Young sang it at the largest anti-nuke rally of the 70s, and, it's been recorded by the Indigo girls and a slew of others. Get Together is a simple song, a song calling us, well, to "get together; try to love one another right now." The lyricist (Chet Powers) tells that "love is but a song we sing," that "we are but a moment's sunlight fading in the grass," and "that you hold the key to love and fear all in your trembling hand." Sometimes I wish that Jesus was as understanding and flexible as Mr. Powers who asks us to "try to love one another." It seems that in 2,000 years of Christian History, a lot of people have tried and failed to love others. Makes you wonder if Jesus understood the human condition, that loving others is not like throwing a switch and turning on the lights; loving others is not something one can just do because Jesus commands it. Wouldn't it be great if that were true? Wouldn't it be great if we all woke up tomorrow morning loving one another? There'd be an end to violence of all kinds. Everyone would have a place to live and food to eat. Racism and classism and nationalism and all the other isms would be history. . . Of course weapons manufactures and arms dealers and police and entire justice system would be out of business . . . Billions of dollars would be saved. The federal budget could be balanced, the national debt could be paid off and the City in which I live could actually do programming for the people it serves . . . But, the reality is that love isn't something we can simply turn on or turn off. Love is a process. I think we were all born with the ability to care for and nurture others and to freely share ourselves. Those abilities/skills got pushed to the recesses of our selves as we grew to adulthood and our attitudes toward ourselves and others dominated and masked God's divine imprint. What once came naturally was forgotten. We have to relearn what we once knew. As Jesus put it, we have to become as little children; we have to become born anew. I think it begins when the part of God that dwells within us comes alive and we learn to see ourselves differently; when we begin to see ourselves as God sees us - as God's beloved children, loved for who we are. When we can begin to do that, when we begin to love ourselves and discover that we need not want for the things that make us "feel good about ourselves," we can begin to begin to love others. We can begin to see that we are all connected, interdependent sisters and brothers who rely on one another and all of creation for our very existence. Enough about what I think. What do you think about Jesus' commandment and, of more importance, what are you doing to live it out?
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