Good Day to you Church!
Well, winter is still hanging on, isn’t it? We had a sub-zero night last night and I, for one, hope that it’s our very last one of the season. When I was a kid, my grandmother cross-stitched everyone in our family a little plaque that said, “I Have Confidence Spring Will Come,” and it’s days just like today that my mind returns to my Grandma’s saying. Hang on just a little while longer, folks. Sugaring is just around the corner, and then spring will be here!
Here’s the news for the week:
Sabrina Petrie’s Birthday
If you see her at the library, make sure to wish Sabrina a happy day on Monday. It will be her special day! 🙂
Arabic Music Presentation
Every month, one of the congregations in PIC takes a turn sharing a learning experience from their tradition. This month, Potsdam’s Majid presents “Arabic Music: Some Influence and Some Authentic” on Thursday, March 24,from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The program will be hosted by Tarik Maatallah, president of the Potsdam Interfaith Community.
This evening of beautiful music will explore the influence of Arabic music in America and the world. The cultural program will be held via Zoom and is part of the Potsdam Interfaith Community’s series of online learning opportunities. Together, we will sample a few songs from Arabic classical music, modern music, and folklore. We will listen to a beautiful blend of voices of Arabs of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths. We will also hear a few social justice and revolutionary songs as well as a few remixes that combine the music of the east and the west.
ZOOM LINK https://potsdam-edu.zoom.us/j/89883420424?pwd=by9Obm45Uk5GVXhEalZNbm94T0pNQT09
Festival of Sacred Music and Text
It’s almost time for the annual Festival of Sacred Music and Text, a yearly PIC tradition that invites congregations to share meaningful music and spoken words. This year’s festival will take place on Sunday, April 10th, at 3pm at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. But before that can happen, congregations need to sign up to be in the program. Do you have a special song or written word that belongs to our Christian tradition that you’d like to share? If so, please let me know! We may (or may not) have enough energy to form a small choir, but anyone is welcome to participate– either in that theoretical choir, or as solo singer/speaker.
The State of the World
Friends, are you feeling discombobulated right now? I am. Spring is coming soon and Covid is in retreat, and I’m feeling optimistic, hopeful, and excited for a renewal of life. But Russia has invaded Ukraine, and the world also feels impossibly topsy-turvy. And I feel that in my body, too. Today I want to remind us that it’s possible to experience more than one emotion at the same time. Right now I’m experiencing hope and excitement and fear and sorrow. And they’re all knotted up together in a strange mess in my guts.
We’ve been through so much in the last couple of years, and just when it seemed like life might get a little easier, all of a sudden, things are complicated in new and terrible ways. When this happens, and your stomach is a mess, sometimes it’s helpful to sit down and figure out just exactly what’s going on inside of you. It can be helpful to actually tease out each emotion and name them individually. Then, the balled-up mess o’ feelings becomes less of a mess and more of an understandable situation. So, what are you going through today in your guts? Do you feel joy and rage? Hope and hopelessness? Sorrow and fear? If you have a journal, or a friend to share with, I invite you to spend some time naming the unknown within your mind/body/spirit.
Proverbs says:
“Anxiety weighs down the human heart, but a good word cheers it up.”
~Proverbs 12:25
Sometimes that good word is as simple as a truthful reckoning within ourselves.
Keep Breathing,
Pastor Katrina