The Space Between the Breaths

It seems as if winter is hanging on as long as it can. As I write my monthly column to you, dear people of South Fraser Unitarians, the snow is falling thickly, and appointments are being postponed. While many of you know that snow is not my favourite part of the winter, it is in small moments like this that I feel the world takes a pause. It pauses for just a moment between the outbreath and inbreath. Ready, empty, and waiting for the next inbreath filled with joy and possibility.

For those of us who follow the Christian traditions, this time of Lent is akin to that pause between the outbreath and the inbreath. It’s a time of letting go, of waiting, of emptying so that life can begin anew. The years with COVID were an extreme example of how we all have learned to sit in this in between space and time – that space between what was and what will be – that space between the inbreath and the outbreath.

We’ve got this! We know how to do this!

We can do the work of looking at who South Fraser Unitarians is, was, and who we yearn to be. After the Budget meeting in February, I have noticed that there are concerns about the future of South Fraser Unitarians. Yes, there are real conversations ahead as we consider the reality of being a small church in a changing landscape. As we pause between the inbreath and the outbreath, let us have the conversations we need to have; let us hold each other well in those conversations.

In this space of what was and what will be there are a myriad of possibilities. Let us be brave enough to go there. Let us be brave enough to do so together!

Breathing in, and breathing out, together. We are one.