FPW – “Thriving and Flourishing” – February 18th, 2024

Rev. Sophia preaching with Carole Katz, Charlyn Bethell, and Guy Urban.
The right to thrive and flourish is at the heart of our faith’s expression of Justice and Equity. This Sunday we will look to the miraculous wisdom of Trees to help deepen our understanding of true belonging and care in community. Give yourself the gift of friendship and sanctuary–come to church!

Reading: “Tree Poem, Part Three” by Kierra Toney 

I think I’d rather be a tree.  
To stand in my bareness, effortlessly secure.  
Remarkable in any light.  
Enriched by the world in the way it ought to be for each living thing.  
Embellished by my age and experiences.  
To give and to receive without expectation.  
To be nurturing and nurtured without doubt.  
To have a place that is mine in the world, in a system which knows it needs me and I it. 
To be timeless.  
Rigidly planted yet open to entertain the push and pull of the wind. 
Rightfully proud to be as big as I am meant to be.  
Earnestly believing that when my time is done, I’ve done all I was born to do.  
Expecting when that season comes, as it inevitably will, to  
elegantly fall back into the earth to await my next assignment.