Religious Education Musings
by Rev. Ellie Duhamel, Director of Religious Education

February 2007

At last we have some snow! The first snow has always been an occasion for celebration to me. I love the way the world looks when it is covered in white. Somehow it lifts my soul. I think my feelings have to do with the clarity and simplicity that a snow cover creates. I love the dark lines of the bare trees against the white. I love how we can see so much further into the woods than we can in summer. There is something in the starkness that reminds me of Shaker design. That too I find conveys a feeling of uplifting peace. I suppose it is the lack of distracting clutter. The winter whiteness reminds me to be careful, to re-focus on the essentials, the basics. It says to me, “turn again, keep working to be less distracted by the clutter of the unnecessary stuff that gets in the way of seeing more deeply what really matters”.

By the time you are reading this, two things will have begun again in the church. Both of them are about relationship and caring, and so, are about one of the most essential, if not THE essential element of being human. Our Special Friends program starts tomorrow, as does our Seventh and Eighth Grade Owl class. It is clear that both these programs enrich the lives of the people who are directly participating. It may be less immediately obvious that they also enrich the life of the whole church and beyond. This is true of much of what happens here, in this church. We are often able to see the direct good that comes from what we do, but we must never doubt that there are more far reaching effects that we can’t see, at least right away. We do good and important work here. We can be glad and grateful that we are here, for ourselves and for each other and for the world.

I wish you a February of the clarity that comes when the ground is covers with snow. May you see through the undergrowth, more deeply into the heart of your life. May you believe that beyond the daily clutter of busy-ness, all the good you do is a gift to the immediate receiver, and also to the whole world.