“Change is divine.” We talked about this at Seekers recently. I’ve kept those words with me after hearing them, wondering about them. They feel true, but also hard to reconcile with the pain that often accompanies change. In seeking a perspective on this idea, I turned to Adrienne Maree Brown who writes about her favorite author and inspiration, Octavia Butler.
All that you touch
You Change.
All that you Change
Changes you.
The only lasting truth
Is Change.
God
Is Change.
from Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
If you want to read brown’s writing about Butler, I invite you to start here with this article from the magazine YES!
I mention change because in many ways Pacific Unitarian and myself are both experiencing huge amounts of change. One of my mentors, when she served as an interim minister, was also going through a divorce. She told the congregation, “You are experiencing big changes, a minister leaving, and I am as well. We are doing this together!” While my changes are a cross-country move and a new marriage, we both find ourselves in the middle of change.
I want to invite you, beloveds, as we navigate this big new change, to go easy on yourselves. Grief and heartache are natural reactions to the loss of a beloved minister. Remind yourself that grief is normal, and it takes time to move through it, heal, and accept change.
I also invite you to spend some time contemplating the words spoken at Seekers, “Change is divine” or perhaps what Butlers said, “God is Change.” How are you finding the divine or the holy or the spirit amid change? How is god change for you?
One of the places I find God is in our constantly changing universe. As I learn more about astronomy and the universe, its history, and its present, I am constantly amazed. I take comfort in its mystery, its changes, and its logic.
Be well beloveds,
Chloë Briedé, Interim Minister
