Both Sides By Rev. Nina D. Grey May, 2000

My parents weren't farmers. but they were gardeners, seeding and hoeing in the back yard on South Euclid Avenue, between 95th and 96th Streets, and I knew at a very young age that Memorial Day weekend was planting time. I notice seed racks now in stores and remember their gardens and my own in years past. I don't have a plot of earth now, not even a place for a window box. Yesterday I saw a note on a bulletin board, "Would you like to garden?" There are community gardens not far from here! I have sown and watered, thinned and weeded, waited and harvested in a community garden before. I will think about whether I want to do this again. The generative impulse is strong.

In the month of May, we will notice and honor that impulse to care for living things. We'll explore the meanings of remembering and tending in some of our services. On Mother's Day we will honor relationships of nurturers with young people in our community, our city, and the world. On Memorial Day we will remember those who have cared and who do care for us all. We will recognize the teachers in our church school who tend our children and youth.

On May 21, in our Coming of Age service, we will bless and be blessed by young people whom we have tended, who are growing into next stages in their lives. We will mark the special relationships of mentoring and parenting.

In April many of us attended special events in the life of our church, the Lui Collins Concert for young people, and the Talent Auction for the support of our church life. We couldn't help but notice the love and dedication which so many of our members offer us as a community. On May 21, at our Annual Meeting, we will recall the devotion of our leaders and offer our thanks for those whom we elect to positions of responsibility. Our church leaders care for us through willingness, time, and creativity. They plant and nurture the seeds of our living religion.

In this, the spring of our year, we especially honor one who has given us so much nurturing, the Rev. Beth Williams, who is completing her ministry to and with us. With other gardeners of the spirit she has created lovely living blossoms of church life. We know we shall miss her greatly when she has moved on, and at the same time we celebrate with her another congregation's choice to candidate her for Ministry of Religious Education. At the Memorial Day weekend service, she will remember us and the caring we have offered her. She joins in our hope for our community and for a new Minister for Religious Education who will tend us well.

I don't know if there are farmers in our congregation. I do know there are gardeners, of the earth, of the spirit, and of community. This month calls us to tending. Let us remember and honor all who care for young people, for all of us, and for the world.

With love and faith,

Nina