Threads

I’ve been thinking about threaded relationships. You know what I mean – those people whom you see rarely, but with whom you’ve got a connection of some sort. You’re linked to them somehow, and it is an absolute delight when you get to see them again.

That happened several weeks ago when someone who was a young adult parishioner in my first call in Richmond showed up, because she had moved to Church Hill and saw that I was presiding here. She’s now a physician affiliated with MCV and has a busy schedule, but she’s here as much as she can manage. Then, a week ago, I got a message from a former parishioner who lived in northern Virginia and has now bought a house here in Richmond. Their child will be attending grad school at VCU so they bought a little house close to downtown as an investment property and housing for their child, and are contemplating a move to Richmond themselves in a few years. They pinged me to ask for a house blessing. So off I went last Saturday with a little house blessing rite printed out and a half dozen Sugar Shack doughnuts in hand, to sanctify that space and to renew our connection.

When we move, or when we lose someone who is a part of our circle, there’s a tendency to think that that relationship is now kaput. And yet time and time again, these threads, these reveal themselves. One of my old acquaintances, an outstanding Old Testament scholar, showed up in a post on my Facebook feed, talking with my doctoral advisor from another institution; I didn’t know they knew each other, and I quickly sent messages to them both, saying what joy it gave me to see two of my favorite people together on social media. A friend from my sponsoring parish in northern Virginia was passing through town and asked us out to dinner. We hadn’t seen them since I presided at the wedding of their daughter, some eight years ago, but I was so glad they reached out. The thread was still there. It didn’t need tending. It didn’t need any sort of refreshing. It was just there.

And so it may be for you, when you think “How long has it been since I connected with him/her? Oh, it’s been so long I’d be embarrassed to call now.”

Don’t be. The thread will still be there. We are connected by threads that run heart to heart, not just in seeing each other each Sunday or every few months for dinner out. There is joy in connection, and there is also grace in connecting after a long period apart.

That gives us the freedom to live our lives in the here and now, without forcing the past to be ever-present. Time will unfold and there will be moments when you reconnect with joy. We don’t have to live in each others’ pockets to live in each others’ hearts.

Or not. The gift of their presence when it was first active still informs the joy of our present. Hold it lightly, and celebrate those who are part of our interconnected web of love.

Be blessed and be a blessing-

Mary+