By the time you read these words, you'll know much more than I do now (as I write them) about the situation of the world; the emotions and the statistics, the responses and the recent unexpected developments. You'll have a deeper understanding of what our nation has or hasn't done, you'll have witnessed the unfolding news. I daresay you will have had friends and relatives whose health - or even your own - has been impacted. From where I sit, you know more of the story. 

In my time working from home, sheltering in place, I have been connecting with different communities from within our church: the choir leadership team and the choir itself, the Music Ministry staff team (Sarah Billerbeck, Laura Lizut, Adam Revell, and me), various configurations of ministry and worship planning teams, the By Your Side Singers. It has been important to have the opportunity - through video sharing - to see one another's faces, to hear one another's voices, and even to sing with one another (if not exactly at the same time, then close!)  In all cases, all groups, we are reinventing how we gather and how we support one another. In the past, the Choir knew who we were: we met in the sanctuary on every Wednesday night, we sang in services twice a month, we supported worship themes and helped to foster connection. We have had to let go of that story and invent a new one, one still intertwined with the purposes of promoting Unitarian Universalist values yet in a previously untried and untested form, at least by those of us in this community.

The American spiritual teacher and author of "Be here now," Ram Dass, in a lecture given in 1993, was describing the layers of meaning that humans ascribe to life situations, especially where clashes in culture exist, or mismatches between expectation and lived experience. Like when a person is making plans for their month or year or marriage or career or retirement or how they might spend their final days, and when those plans are gently or massively uprooted by life circumstances. When the story one has invented for their life barrels into another story.

In those days of turmoil, Ram Dass says, "The best thing I can still do is quiet my mind so I can hear. I can open my heart so I can be part of the liquidity of the universe, like a tree is and a river is."

In conversations that I have been having these weeks, there is anxiety and fear, and there is also hope, that this time - with all of its disruptions and costs, all of its separations and pain - can be a catalyst for something new. As if there has been something about the previous story that - although we have been going along with it - is ultimately unsatisfying and could be reinvented.

Which brings me to liberation. 

To manage my own uncertainties in this time of up and down, I have fallen back into practices that have been by the wayside in my life. The other day, while practicing morning stretches and yoga, I was overcome with this sense of change that was needed in our culture, society, government, and institutions. How pursuing distraction, entertainment, and profit come with terrible costs. In my mind, during a sun salutation, arms outstretched to the sky, I shouted "Let the systems fall!"

I'm sitting here in my home office, the old story gone and the new one uncertain. And even though you know more than I do about how things are moving, I'd wager that you, too, feel in-between, not knowing what the future brings. If you find yourself anxious and afraid, may the words of Ram Dass encourage you be like a river - part of the *liquidity* of the universe. And if you despair at the systems falling, may you move closer to liberation of all of the ways that the previous story's systems failed you, failed me, and failed the least among us. May we all stay open to the ways that our world needs us now and move into the story that we can help write. 

Build Days at Swansea Homes

The coronavirus outbreak has affected H4H just like every other aspect of life these days. Operations have been suspended until April 6  at least. But before social distancing became the watchword, JUC held its first build day at Swansea Homes on March 14 . Most of our volunteers (Linda Hartman, Steve Stevens, Jon Kitner, Andy Pickering, Deb Bolling, and Rachel Joffe) were unable to attend due to COVID-19 concerns or other health issues, but a few intrepid souls did show up: Cathy and Bruce Martin and Noreen Collins. Kudos and many thanks! A chilly morning gave 

way  to sunshine, and together we built, from scratch, temporary frameworks to cover the   stairwells in two different homes, including the one JUC is sponsoring in collaboration with Jeffco Interfaith Partners. We also joined a group of bio engineering students  from UC Denver cutting and hanging plywood sheathing on the same duplex.

Assuming the pandemic stabilizes and things get somewhat back to normal, our next build day is Friday, June 12 .  Sign up to volunteer here. In the meantime, H4H is taking donations to support their partner families whose livelihoods are severely affected by the current crisis.  Safe, stable, affordable housing has never been more important. Please consider contributing here. Stay safe! Stay healthy!