What struck me most was the silence. It was a great silence,
unlike any I have ever encountered on Earth,
so vast and deep that I began to hear my own body...
There were more stars in the sky than I expected.
The sky was deep black, yet at the same time bright with sunlight.
The Earth was small, light blue, and so touchingly alone…
our home that must be defended like a holy relic.
-Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov
Dear Friends,
These summer weeks have found us exploding with joy, not only with the fireworks of July 4, but with the sudden release from the confinement of COVID-19. We could taste again the comfort of embrace, the exuberance of song, the beauty of smiling faces. We could feast on the presence of one another.
And yet, within our spontaneous expressions of wonder and delight, the deeper wisdom nurtured in the months of isolation broke through. The pandemic taught us that the world was small. That we were profoundly interconnected. That life was fragile and precious. We realized that countless brothers and sisters throughout earth have no access to the vaccine that freed us. We remembered that the wounds of inequity and racism that ravaged so many lives could no longer be masked. The very planet whose well-being is woven in our own continues to languish, even as it overflows for us in abundance.
These have been days of anguish for the loved ones of those buried under the collapsed building in Florida. Once again, we know ourselves one with the pain of loss. In the same way, we discover ourselves in the unyielding sacrifice of the first responders. Something in us recognizes “this is who we are called to be for one another.” We are in the image of a God Whose life is poured out in love for each of us.
Here at Cranaleith, we are thrilled to welcome you back to rest in that love. To savor the beauty that restores us and reveals us to ourselves. To listen deeply to our belonging to one another and to God’s wondrous creation.
The Cranaleith Staff
