Sunny Notes: 12.17.25 - The Ebb & Flow of Hope

I am writing my column this week from the couch in my little Bellingham apartment, early Monday morning on December 15. Yesterday, our talented Choir Director, Ben Workman Smith, led us in "All Music Sunday,” a service full of incredible performances by BUF choir members and musicians. We also thanked our wonderful Audio-Visual Team. And we celebrated BUFsters Sita Amba-Rao and Beth Brownfield as inductees into the Clara Barton Sisterhood of the Unitarian Universalist Women's Federation. The theme of the day was "HOPE," and I sure did feel it. I left buoyed by the music, the gratitude, and the collective energy. 

Today, however, hope has been harder to come by. The morning is dawning windy and gray. As thousands struggle to recover from last week's catastrophic flooding, a quick check of my weather app confirms that another atmospheric river is headed our way this week. A quick check of my news feed tells me that from Brown University campus in Rhode Island, to Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, it has been a tragically violent few days in our world. And these events fall on top of all the other struggles and horrors we are holding in our awareness that affect both our own personal lives, as well as that of the collective. 

It is on mornings like this that I remind myself that it is okay if hope feels just outside of reach. Much like the ebbs and flows we witness in nature and seasonal cycles, hope often ebbs and flows, too. This reminder feels particularly timely as we approach the longest night, the Winter Solstice, on December 21. I will take the opportunity this week to lean into the darkness, knowing that just as the light will return, so, too, will hope. Our Solstice service this Sunday also will offer a wonderful opportunity to acknowledge and lean into the ebb and flow of this seasonal cycle, of light and dark, of joy and sorrow. I hope you can join us. 

— Sunny, minister