Sunny Notes: 06.03.26 - Trusting the Dots
In my column last week, I shared I often have a difficult time giving myself permission to rest. Another area of difficulty for me is around receiving. Whether it be a compliment, an offer of help or support, or a gift, it is just so darn hard for me to receive it. This past Sunday, the service devoted to "Our Shared Commitment to Ministry" pushed me to the limit of being able to take in so much kindness and love—my receiving muscles were maxed out!
Revs. Barbara Wells ten Hove and Tessie Mandeville truly outdid themselves in the planning and leading of a worship service that I now count among my peak experiences in this lifetime. To all who contributed to making Sunday so special (and there were many), THANK YOU! The words...the music...the slideshow…the chalice...the flowers…the gifts...the cake...the support from my colleagues...the welcoming of Chase and our family...and the stole, holy wow, the stole—Francie and Drew, I'm lookin' at you! (see the attached photo of me with Chase, the Sasquatch cake, and the stunning stole—thank you, Kathryn Allen, for taking this pic!)
As I shared in my Reflection during the service, my road to becoming a minister was long and winding with many bumps along the way. In the years before I heard the clear call to ministry, when there were so many unknowns in my life and I had so much fear, I kept the following quote on my office bulletin board from Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address:
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future—you have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever, because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.”
Standing at the pulpit at BUF, looking backwards, all the dots have finally connected. And I don’t just mean they led to my becoming a minister—I believe all those dots also led to Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship. I am so grateful to be here with you all. Thank you for the honor of being your minister.
With so much love and gratitude,
Rev. Sunny, minister