Sunday Service

led by Lóre Stevens

Join us online at zoom.us/j/89873989254

Dear UUCSW,

After two years of successfully avoiding it, I finally got Covid. With the lifting of mask mandates and the push to return to normal, it feels absurd, almost comically so. Truth be told, I suspect I caught it the one time we went out for dinner two weeks ago and was already sick on pledge Sunday. I felt tired and achey for a week, but didn’t imagine that my back hurting meant I had Covid after two years of not having Covid.

So we flew to my sister’s house in MN for the Christmas visit, turned birthday visit, turned end of March visit. And then I got truly sick. What I learned from the nurse screening call is that “mild” Covid is anything before your skin turns gray or you collapse from respiratory distress. It’s not mild in the spice-free-salsa sense, more mild in the just-not-dying sense. 

What was supposed to be a weekend visit turned into a week in which all five members of my sister’s family got sick (despite all being vaccinated, minus the baby) and childcare became a game of “least sick adult.” I couldn’t go to our Covid planning meeting last week because I had Covid, which added to the sense of miserable comedic absurdity.

I finally flew home Saturday night, having crossed both the five-days-since-onset-of-symptoms and no-fever-for-24hrs thresholds. I wore an N95 mask, sanitized regularly, and ate cough drops incessantly to prevent even the whisper of a cough inside my mask. All while the woman next to me wore her ill-fitting t-shirt mask as a neck warmer the whole trip, flight attendant reminders be damned. I did my best.

And the reality is that I’m still sick, even this week. Getting sick meant I got to spend more time with my family - I, for instance, learned that my 1.5-year-old nephew likes to take his scooter for late night joy rides up and down the dark hallway when everyone’s sleeping - and it was also a coughing, delirious mess. This is life.

I hope that you find ways to hold the silly together with the absurd, always, but especially when life is a mess. I hope you do what you can and then let the rest go. Hurrying is not part of healing - something I’m still reminding myself.

Blessings,

Rev. Laurel

In mid-April, we will go live with a scaled-down online auction featuring some of our favorite, beloved activities. Stay tuned for more information and save the date of April 24th for the first auction event - a concert by Kala at the Halls' home in Southborough.

Pledges are rolling in! We are at an impressive $96,340 towards our goal of $138,000, with more than half of our pledging families responding.

If you haven’t pledged yet we’d love to hear from you! You can pledge on Realm here: AddPledge. 

Or you can fill out a pledge card at the church (and found in the letter we sent you), or you can simply email our treasurer, Lisa Shumway, at treasurer@uucsw.orgwith your pledge amount or with any questions whatsoever.

Sincerely,

The Annual Pledge Committee

Our RE youth are currently contributing to a project called Bridges to Malawi - a Hudson-based non-profit that works with communities in Malawi to bring in resources related to healthcare, housing, and agriculture. 

Last meeting some of our youth made a mural of the 4 seasons here in Massachusetts, and some of their favorite outdoor activities. This week we will be learning and singing a UU song to record and share with youth in orphanages in Malawi. 

Our mural and song will be brought directly to an orphanage in Malawi by Jonathan Slate, a member of UCMH, who is fundraising for the program and traveling to Malawi next week. We hope to hear back from the children who receive our projects! 

April 10th at First Parish in Northboro (This Sunday!!! (40 Church St.)

April 24th at UUCSW in Westboro (64 W. Main St.)

May 8th at UCMH in Hudson (80 Main St.)

Circle RE at 10:15 - 11:45 AM

Youth Group at 1 - 2:30 PM

Our next Food and Clothing Drive collection is Thursday, April 28 from 4:30 - 5:45 pm

Racial Justice Committee meets on 4/14 at 4:00 pm on Zoom

Book Group will meet on 4/8 to discuss Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell.

Sanctuary & Zoom

 Circle RE 10:15 - 11:45 AM

 Circle Youth Group 1 - 2:30 PM

 Circle RE 10:15 - 11:45 AM

 Circle Youth Group 1 - 2:30 PM

UUCSW Reflections Podcast