Dear Fellow Tapestrians,

As I sit here, fires burn in Irvine, Lake Forest and Yorba Linda threatening not only the homes of people I care about, but people I’ve never met. I feel for all of them and don’t want to walk a mile in any of their shoes. At the same time, I’m enjoying the fruit of my children’s (and wife’s) labor in the form of warm garlic pumpkin seeds fresh out of the oven. They’re delicious and I’m enjoying the moment.

Enjoying the moment is an ability that I am really thankful for, as I don’t think everyone is blessed with it. It often makes me cry and I’m not ashamed to embrace that. Happiness CAN make you cry (thank you for that recent reminder Demian).

We often experience a person being less than kind in our day to day lives. I’ve found as I’ve aged that it’s helpful to remember in these moments that I do not know that person’s life experience, their personal sadness, level of tiredness, or frustration, and try to cut them some extra slack. I’ve also become convinced over time that I do this more for my own mental happiness than for theirs.

Amidst the chaos in our home right now, I’ve been able to invisibly observe both of my children learning in their (current) native environment. They have no idea I’m observing. I’m smiling. I’m crying. I’m chuckling. (I’m sometimes even recording, shhhhhh) They’re fully engaged in what they’re doing and clueless that I’m observing and it’s awesome. It’s not every moment but it’s a LOT of moments, and I’m thankful for it. As we head into thanksgiving, I hope you also find your moments that are precious to be thankful for. Being invisible and immersed in the moment is cool.

In looking for inspiration to write this, I spent the past few hours reviewing newsletters and sermons from the past 7 months, when I wrote my first splinters from the board piece. I encourage you to spend some time doing similar if you have the time to do so.

This stood out for me:
"We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature."
— Sonya Renee Taylor

As did this:
“Let the light within you be a blessing to the world.”
—Rev Kent at the end of the service

And finally, for my children and all of our youth and all of us this T-shirt caption made me smile: “You can be anything you want to be in this world. Please be kind.”

Jim Bucklin, Board of Trustees

Jim Bucklin, Board Member at Large