This is the month when we tell the ancient story of a young woman giving birth to a child in the refuge of a barn because there was no room at the inn. In this month we tell the ancient story of an oil lamp that miraculously burned for eight nights in a temple, a sanctuary, a refuge. In this month, we tell the ancient story of darkness, hibernation, refuge, and the return of the light.
These stories will help us explore our monthly spiritual theme of “refuge.”
Refuge is shelter or protection from danger or trouble; it is safety, comfort. We can find refuge in a place or a person or people. Refuge can be a thing or a time. Refuge can be an idea or what some call God/Spirit/Universe.
What comes to your mind and heart when you hear “refuge”?
We are coming through a hard time of upheaval and change. Where have you found refuge?
One of the places I find refuge is in nature, and I know I’m not alone in that. As I write this, snow is falling in Olympia, blanketing the trees with white, making it quiet. That it won’t last is part of the magic.
I also find refuge in the sanctuary at OUUC. The place is beautiful, for sure. But it is people that make it a place of refuge. It is our presence that makes it a sanctuary.
Over the past few years, I’ve learned that sanctuary can be bigger than a place; it can extend outside of walls into cyberspace and across state lines. My experience of refuge has changed.
How about yours?
As we enter this time of holidays and holidays...and busyness, here are some lines from John O’Donohue’ s poem “For One Who Is Exhausted” from his book To Bless the Space Between Us.
You have been forced to enter empty time.
There is nothing else to do now but rest
And patiently learn to receive the self
You have forsaken in the race of days.
Now your soul has come to take you back.
Take refuge in our senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.
Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.
Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
Be excessively gentle with yourself.
Gradually, you will return to yourself,
Having learned a new respect for your heart
And the joy that dwells far within slow time.
Blessings on your month.
Rev. Mary
Minister@ouuc.org
