Dear Members and Friends,
This week Senior Minister, Rev. Bill Sinkford, offers a reflection:
A few evenings ago, stepping out my front door, I was surprised to find two deer at the top of my driveway. Both were young males with new antlers budding on their heads. They were “playing” with each other, butting each other, head-to-head, as if testing strength and testing what these new growths could do.
They looked toward me across the 40 or 50 feet that separated us and decided that my presence was not reason to stop their play. Their testing of one another reminded me so much of the wrestling that my cousin and I thought of as play when we were boys. All a part of testing out what our bodies could and could not do.
Were these two siblings, or cousins, making their way and searching for their place in the world together?
Then a third deer, a female, ran directly in front of me and up the drive to join the others. After a short time, and I think the opportunity to sample some of the fruit of the crab apple tree at the side of drive, they walked down our street and out of sight.
These deer have apparently moved in. We see them almost every day now. Some of the neighbors have started to complain that these new neighbors are decimating gardens and flower beds. I remain pleased by the surprise of their presence.
I live in the hills in Northwest, only 10 minutes or so from church. In Portland there are many places where 10 minutes can still put you at the boundary between the constructed and the natural environment.
There are certainly reasons why these deer have moved in. Have the drought or the increasing temperatures reduced their food sources? Have the fires caused migrations in search of safety? Has development taken their homes just as it takes the homes of marginalized human folks?
The presence of these deer is the result of serious changes. But I find myself indulging in the pleasure of seeing these other mammals in my neighborhood, enjoying their beauty, their quick grace, strength and agility, their lack of fear in being close to me.
There are dangers in projecting our emotions onto others, whether they be other humans or non-human beings. But on that warm summer evening, it lifted my spirits to have these new neighbors pay me a visit. It was a reminder of just how creaturely we all are, and of how life, in all of its variety, has much to share.
I hope that these warm summer days offer you some pleasant surprises that remind you of the depth of connection in which we live.
This poem has always drawn me in.
A Blessing by James Wright
Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over the barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness
That we have come.
They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.
At home once more,
They begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.
I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,
For she has walked over to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black and white,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear
That is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.
Summer blessings,
Bill