This Journey

 No one / Swims / Alone:
An old rule / In the home / Where I
Grew up / Along the lake / Safety first.
No one / Swims alone / No matter
What their / Strength.
So here,/ As well, / In azure seas
For those of us / Swimming / Through losses
In our lives,/ No one /
Should / Swim / Alone.
    — “No One Swims Alone” by Judy Brown

For better or worse—and regardless of how alone you may feel at times—we are all in this together. This journey of life. This journey of faith. This journey through the time of pandemic. This journey through loss. This journey through hope and celebration. This journey through the mundane, everyday stuff we all go through. And we each come to this journey with different levels of strength, different levels of skill, different levels of ability and knowledge and training and insight. No matter whether we feel confident and competent enough to make it on our own, the poet’s advice is sound: “no one swims alone.” I have been astounded over the past few months as people who have been vaccinated for COVID-19 start to act like they are suddenly islands with no moral or social responsibility for others. They stop wearing masks altogether and stop physical distancing and stop taking other precautions. The reality is that the pandemic continues. And our moral and social responsibilities include being vaccinated AND continuing to care for the well-being of the whole—using whatever gifts and abilities we’ve been given.  This includes recognizing our interconnectedness with those who are immunocompromised and unable to get the vaccine yet (primarily children). No one swims alone. We are all in this together! And the well-being of our entire communities depends on our recognizing it and living into it.

See you in church,
Christy