Friends, In a reflection about the seasons, Parker Palmer (Let Your Life Speak, pp. 95-109) contrasts spring’s “sensationalism” with summer’s “steady state of plenty.” Palmer observes that while adverse weather conditions can wipe out summer’s abundance, “nature normally takes us through a reliable cycle of scarcity and abundance in which times of deprivation foreshadow an eventual return to the bountiful fields.” Human nature, however, tends to presume scarcity rather than abundance: In the human world, abundance does not happen automatically. It is created when we have the sense to choose community, to come together to celebrate and share our common store. … The true law of life is that we generate more of whatever seems scarce by trusting its supply and passing it around. Authentic abundance does not lie in secured stockpiles … but in belonging to a community where we can give those goods to others who need them – and receive them from others when we are in need. (pp. 107-08) Last weekend at camp and our parish picnic our parish life was filled with an abundance of fellowship: laughter, song, learning, prayer, and yes food. As our campers shared our bounty with seniors at Altercare in Hartville, I witnessed how elders and youngers alike were transformed after just one hour of helping each other, playing together, and singing. During this coming week in Christ, let’s consider how our New Life faith community and our individual involvement reflects Palmer’s “summertime truth”: Abundance is a communal act, the joint creation of an incredibly complex ecology in which each part functions on behalf of the whole and, in return, is sustained by the whole. Community doesn’t just create abundance—community is abundance. (p. 108) Blessings, Beth
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000
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