The air has changed this week - colder nights, late fall sunshine, and sometimes gray skies. There are still lots of green leaves, and the grass is still growing… to that, I say enough already!

November always ends with Thanksgiving and almost always the beginning of Advent (the four weeks leading up to Christmas). This year we are taking the first three weeks to talk about what it means to be Standing on the Promises.

The world around us changes faster than seems possible at times. In a couple of days, it will be Thanksgiving, and a couple more, it will be Christmas. I’m sorry for adding stress to your reading this.

Have you ever wished things would slow down just a little bit? Most of the time, I don’t feel that way. However, since our grandson, Charlie, lives in Cleveland and turned 1 in June and is running forward into his life and living with gusto, I want time to slow down so I don’t miss it!

How fast the time has gone these past 11 months! On July 1, 2021, I will have been serving here at Pendleton Center for one year - a blip in the big picture, and yet so significant for me, for us, and for our community, and in fact, the entire world.

If April showers bring May flowers, what does April snow bring? It’s often hard and risky to predict what is going to happen. We’ve learned that over and over this past year. If I wrote all the dates I imagined COVID would be gone… well, never mind that.

There have been transitions inside the transitions, tough for those who like predictability.

"You're not the boss of me!" That's what our younger children would say if they were left in the care of one of their older siblings or an older cousin. They were wrong... but they sure wanted to express their opinions!

Dear friends, as we continue our way through this holy season of Lent, it feels vitally important to me that we pause to grieve and honor the losses of this past year. In mid-March, church, and life as we knew it came to a screeching halt, and we will never be the same. Our theme for Lent is healing – and in the journey of healing, there is grieving. Pray this prayer with me this season... and know that we will always be different, but we will also carry on as Christ’s beloved.