Connected Streams

 I have been meaning to get back to this blog for a year now. I guess a sermon is as good of a place to start as any. Sermon, testimony, confession, call to hope. It begins with John Roedel's poem that caught my attention a few weeks ago and is fed by my work with the UCC Mental Health Network's initiative fostering welcoming, inclusive, supportive, and engaged (WISE) concern for mental health within the church.  Being WISE: Mental Health and the Church August 18, 2024 – Community Church of Durham   “Patchwork Heart” Vulnerability doesn’t mean telling others what happened to us from across a cafe table or from behind a microphone      and then going home from the experience feeling just as alone as you did before vulnerability means allowing your human heart blanket to get sewn to other heart blankets it’s about connection we don’t share for status we do it for synergy we don’t confess for clout we do it to build comm...

  Anju, director of ISRC, and our family Imagine knowing you were born somewhere else and having no person to connect you with your birth story. I don’t just mean being the last surviving member of your family, though that certainly carries its own pain, but not having anyone in your conscious memory who could share stories that connect you to your first year of life. I can try to imagine, but I don’t actually know what that is like.  I’ve heard stories of my birth - I even have a cassette recording of my trip home from the hospital in which I was being held in a family member’s arms before car seats were an expected requirement. Namita and Baby Morgan Monami   For my daughter, she has only my stories of what I’ve heard, stories I partly imagine with her of ayahs playing with and holding her. I can tell her what I’ve read on paper, but like many families, we grasp for any tangible connection for our children even though these are few and far...