Spring has returned in earnest where I live. The wave of blossoms from snowdrops to hellebores to daffodils rolls onward to azaleas and rhododendrons, somehow the same and different each year. Some years I do a little bit of cold weather vegetable gardening in March and April, some years I don’t, but in either case there is a flurry of activity to switch over to peak growing season in May. The garden looks a little different every year, even if there are familiar themes from one growing season to the next. Looking back over my gardening journals, I feel aligned with the idea of time as a spiral, turning in familiar shapes through seasons and cycles and rhythms of history, yet with a different perspective at every turn. Time does not seem to me to move in straight lines during the growing season.
Perhaps this curving, slippery nature of time at the beginning of May is why I am often reminded of the story of Thomas the Rhymer in this season. Thomas the Rhymer is a story rooted in a legend from thirteenth century Scotland, retold in manuscripts, ballads, and popular music over the centuries. In the story, Sir Thomas de Ercildoune is sleeping on a hillside under the shade of the Eildon Tree when the Queen of Elfland rides by on a beautiful horse with bells woven into its mane. She takes Thomas on a journey to her realm, where there is feasting and dancing. For Thomas, it seems like the experience lasts for three days. He is returned to the Eildon tree and finds that years have passed, and that he has earned the gift of truth-telling, which he uses to proclaim prophecies. I don’t know if the story happened exactly that way, but I believe it’s true that we can return to a place or a situation with both knowledge of how things have happened before and openness to the possibility of things happening differently this time around.
I don’t claim to have met the Queen of Elfland, but I can relate to returning to a situation and feeling that both only a short time has passed and that many years have passed. As you may know, I served in roles similar to Congregational Life Field Staff for the former Joseph Priestley District in 2006-2008. In the intervening years, I studied and did fieldwork in pastoral counseling, I facilitated workshops, and I served seven congregations in consulting and transitional roles. Attaining my current Field Staff role is like a turn of the spiral, familiar in shape yet open to something new. Returning to associational work feels in some ways as if only a few days have passed, and in some ways it has been a lifetime.
Some things haven’t changed. The dedication that my colleagues bring to supporting congregations and serving our faith is constant. It remains true that helping leaders to talk to each other across congregations and clusters yields powerful collective wisdom. The Love at the center of Unitarian Universalism endures, even as we come up with fresh ways to describe our values and our commitments.
Some things have grown and blossomed abundantly in this work. Technologies like Zoom help us to spend more time in conversation with congregational leaders and less time driving to meetings. The teamwork among regional staff gives congregations access to professionals with deep subject matter expertise in different areas. The creative collaboration among staff makes it possible to create high-quality resources for congregations that can be shared equitably. We are living into interdependence.
Having seen the relationship between congregations and Association staff from various directions and across time, I can appreciate that change feels at once too fast and too slow. If you are feeling confused or curious about how to be in closer contact with us on regional staff, please reach out. Something else that hasn’t changed in this turn of the spiral is that we want to hear from congregational leaders. We are eager to celebrate your successes with you, puzzle through your challenges with you, and elicit your dreams about the UUism of the future. Please email any of us or use a partnership activation request form to start a conversation.
Until then, the circle is open, but unbroken. Merry meet, merry part, and happy May.