Thoughts on the season

As some of you know, I was gone the weekend of the 13th and 14th of this month for the graduations of two of my grandchildren, Randall lll (Master of Social Work at Appalachian State University), and Sarah Jane (Bachelor of Science in Nursing, cum laude,  at Western Carolina University). It was a bittersweet experience, remembering their mother,  Elissa, who received her MSW just months before she died in 2017, and their grandfather, the Rev. John K Earl, MD, who had died just two months prior, were examples and beloved mentors to them.

So, joy and sadness intermingled, and there were tears of both kinds in our large extended, blended families as we took up more than two rows in the places of celebration. I had a slide show running in my head as we waited for our children's names to be called....all of the milestones along the way in the past 26 years , the challenges,  the many celebrations leading up to this one, and the journey through loss and grief in their teenage years. Their own search for spiritual formation and support during that time, yielded a church more targeted toward young people, a place where they could grieve, a place where the other parishioners were not actively grieving their own loss of the same person, a place a bit less restrained and a bit more spontaneous (they had a band). While their roots are in the Episcopal Church, they have ventured into another tradition, and it has served them well on their journeys so far. God, who loves us, works everywhere, through all things for good.

As the young people we have reared and love line up to receive their just rewards from the work of preparing themselves for  work and a life beyond the one we have shared thus far, let us trust them to find their passion, and use it to respond to the needs of the world. Also, to find the community that feeds them best during this time of transition, let us clap as loudly for that as we do for the honors they have earned.

Sarah Jane will be welcoming new souls into this life as a Mother/Baby nurse, and Randall is giving very serious consideration to being a hospice social worker, among other choices before him.

Well done, my precious ones, well done. Thanks be to God.

--Kathy Gray