Sabbatical Message from Rev. Kim
Dear Friends,
January was a lot! You have been in my mind a lot as 2025 has gotten underway.
“things do not really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.” ~Pema Chodron
There is a Buddhist koan that goes like this: a woman is being chased by a tiger. She runs headlong over a cliff and in her panic, grabs a vine. Dangling on the edge, she looks below to see another tiger waiting. Looking up she notices a mouse is nibbling on the vine. Just then she sees a plant nestled into a crevice with one perfectly ripe, bright red strawberry. She plucks the fruit from the plant and pops it into her mouth. The sweet juice of the berry fills her mouth.
In Pema Chodron’s analysis of this koan, she says the first Tiger is the traumas and wounds of our past that we are running from. The second Tiger is the fears and anxieties of the future that we are anticipating. The vine is our life, the thread we clutch at knowing at some point it will inevitably end. The strawberry represents joy in the present moment.
This koan teaches us to live in the now. Yet, in the present there are tigers too – threatening us with deportation, blocking access to gender affirming care and withdrawing funding for critical programs. We know that the tiger waiting at the bottom of the cliff carries additional threats. These tigers are metaphors – and they are not. They are in the present. Why then eat the strawberry?
Eating the strawberry is not some hedonistic recommendation to take your pleasure where you can. Finding joy in this time is an act of resistance that replenishes your inner well. You are supposed to be immobilized, hanging on the edge of the cliff, focused entirely on the Tigers. When you let yourself experience joy, you are pushing back on fear and anxiety. You are claiming your own path. Nourished in body and spirit by the strawberry, you could escape the Tiger at the bottom of the cliff -- you have the strength to fight back.
On January 1st I came down with COVID. Unlike my first bout, this one featured all the symptoms and there was little I could do but experience each new manifestation and rest when able. Moving from bed to couch and back again I alternated between sleeping and wakeful bouts of misery. When able, I read, finally starting on my stack of feminist magazines. When less able, I watched movies, including The Six Triple Eight. When even less able, I listened to audiobooks, including Robin Wall Kimmerer’s The Serviceberry. The cats LOVED it. Still recovering when January 20th rolled around, I eased back into exercise with a restorative body practice. I imagine that January felt similar for many of you – whether or not you had COVID.
So, I invite you to a practice of presence and renewal. Embrace the things that bring you joy right now. Celebrate what is giving you hope. Engage in practices that nourish you. It could be naps. It could be making art or moving your body. It could be finding community or being inspired by new information and the stories of others. It could be the soft body of a furry companion. Your joy is yours. Let it feed you.
Spirit of Life and Love, Source of Joy, may we find connection with those things that nurture our spirits in times of struggle. May our gladness and delight be a pathway to hope. May it be so. Amen and Blessed Be.
With Love and Hope,
Rev. Kim