New Dedication to This Work!

There is a saying that many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits. But I don’t agree. I truly believe that people want to be rid of certain things in their lives, and the New Year is a perfect opportunity to make changes we’d like; some just aren’t so easy, that’s all. Old habits are hard to break, especially the older we get. A New Year is also a time to take stock: of what we’ve got, where we are going, and how we’ve done up till now. It lets us review what is around us and how we might influence it for the better.

I look at my ministry this way. There have always been joys as well as challenges along the way, as in any aspect of a full and rich life. Yet in the life of my ministry, this is a particularly good place. I am entering into “mid-phase,” a time of enrichment and deepening, of finding my stride not only in the congregation, but also in the community and in our Unitarian Universalist movement.

I have recently enjoyed serving on various committees such as our district UU Ministers Association Executive Committee, Growth Committee and Nominating Committee, as well as a turn sitting on the Association’s Ministerial Fellowship Committee. These have been wonderful ways to stay connected and committed to our institution’s work and its vision. In the local community, I continue to be integrally involved on the South Hayward Parish Board, which is currently doing important, innovative work with the day laborers along the Tennyson corridor. We are making new discoveries about how to best serve this immigrant population and how to navigate the politically delicate landscape of our city. South Hayward Parish has hired our former intern, the Rev. Jeff Lambkin, to do some of this community ministry. Here in church, while I continue to do ministry in all areas, I am especially enjoying the work of our Worship team, a group that is dedicated to new learning.

I, too, am dedicated to the learning and loving the learning, and I feel a passion for the learning. I’ve always been a big fan of the Marge Piercy poem that says, “The work of the world is common as mud, botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust. But the thing worth doing well done, has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.”

In the New Year, I wish you new learning, new dedication, new passion!

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