Both Sides By Rev. Nina D. Grey September, 2002

I often talk in this column about my view from the window, the lake to my right and in front, stretching to the horizon. I can also see the tall buildings to the north in the loop and beyond. Today I see also the pillow of clouds at the horizon and above them the darkness of thunderstorm clouds. Daily I am aware of the immensity of this Midwestern city. But rarely do I look down, down, down to the earth in the distance in a gap between clusters of buildings. And today I do, my eyes drawn there by a light receding around a curve. It is a train, what kind I do not know, where exactly it is going I am not sure. Is it the Metra, just taking people to the loop? Will they just walk into buildings on their way to work? Or are they headed to places farther on?

I live by myself in an apartment high above the earth, separated by walls and floors, windows and concrete from other dwellers, even from the birds who sometimes fly this high. But daily I am reminded by my view of my connections with everything and everyone. Everything is connected to everything else in this interdependent web of our existence.

I felt this most profoundly this summer, spending time as I did with my family, sister, niece and nephew, brother and sister in law, daughter, son in law and grandchild; grieving the loss of an aunt with an uncle, her brother, and other family - aunt and cousins. I felt it in response to deep losses: my aunt, a dear colleague -- Rev. Rudy Nemser -- and two of our longest time members and dearly beloved -- Arnita Boswell, and now, most recently, Alex Coutts.

I feel connections in the grieving we do together as a community and as families, and I feel them, too, with the spirits of those who have gone before us. They left us a profound legacy of integrity and giving, a legacy which strengthened the bonds of human to human and left us richer. I feel this connection with the visitor and newcomer to our church, whose eyes and voices often tell a story of seeking a community which will nurture their spirit and support their journey. I feel it in the excitement we generate in response to ideas and feelings which grip us, and also in our moments of wondering where we are and where we are going. I sense it in the joy we find in being together, a community of all ages; in our celebrations of beginnings and endings and changes; in the ways we discover to respond to injustice in our wider world.

Let us begin this new church year with a deep sense of our interdependence. Let our life together be an expression of our caring for one another and also of our caring for all beings beyond our door, for nothing, not stone nor creed nor philosophy, not death nor grief nor any other thing separates us from the unity of life. Let the love we hold for one another become a welcoming greeting to all who come into our community seeking a religious home. Let us be sure to help each other know, oldtimer and newcomer alike, that we cherish both our individual, unique selves, with all our diverse expression, and the underlying, common, interdependent weaving of being which holds and keeps us together and helps us grow.

With love, in faith,

Nina