“In winter, I plot and plan. In spring, I move.” ~ Henry Rollins
I have always found it fascinating that during January and February my mail is filled with seed and gardening catalogues. These companies seem to have been able to tap into the natural “bio-rhythms” of a gardener. Winter is the season that gardeners take time to reflect on last season’s garden (what crop did well and where, which did not do well and why) and plan for the upcoming spring season planting (what plantings will we continue, which might we move to another area where they might do better, which will we not plant again and what are some new things that we might add). And no garden is ever exactly the same year to year because the environmental landscape is constantly changing. Rainfall, temperature, and amount of sunlight are just some of the variables that add to the challenge of gardening. It’s never the same, which is part of what I enjoy about tending a garden. I love this time of year where I can settle into a comfy chair with all my catalogues, a cup of tea and just dream and plan about my future garden.
These “biorhythms” are not that different from those of the Board of Directors of the UUFP. We are spending time reflecting on the past year and planning (and dreaming) for the future. And, oh, has the landscape changed!! And just like the gardener, we are constantly looking at our environmental landscape and determining what we need to do to keep flourishing. Our landscape changed drastically when, due to the pandemic, we could no longer meet in person. We started to provide services via technology. I am pleased to see that more and more people are starting to participate in our virtual services on Sundays. And we have received anecdotal feedback that people enjoy being able to access the services via our You-Tube channel. It is important to take this opportunity to thank the Worship Committee (Mary Ryan, Lisa Jokiel, Emily Quarles-Mowrer and Allan Pallay) and our own Reverends for creating and delivering quality content for our services. These people have also had to quickly adapt to a changing landscape as many services were modified on a very short timeline to be relevant with current events.
And the landscape continues to change, which makes planning for the future challenging. The board is working diligently on determining how we need to continue to adapt. This will require us, as a fellowship, to continue to try new things. While I have nothing to report at the time of the writing this column, know that the board continues to focus on keeping the fellowship viable and the members and friends healthy and connected as a community.
In gratitude, Linda K.
“There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments.” ~ Janet Kilburn Phillips