Spring seems to have come early this year. The yellow daffodils have been blooming in my yard for a week; the white ones with an orange center opened this morning. It’s time to stop thinking about it and put the bluebird house up. If I want bold, blue birds to brighten my day and lift my spirits, if I want them in my life, I have to make a commitment and make it now. So far, I haven’t been very good at thinking like a bluebird. Every spring a few birds check out the box only to fly away. So, this year, I changed things around; I lowered the bluebird house, moved it, and after putting it in places that looked good to me, I settled into the basic bluebird wisdom that neighbors and friends had shared. I backed the post up to the hedge and turned the entrance southeast with an open view through neighbors’ yards. I think I may need to add a feeder or two. I feel better knowing I am doing my part, doing what I can do.
The Soul Matters theme for March is not directly about bluebirds, it is about risk. And the stepping off place for taking a risk requires making a commitment. W. H. Murray claims that there is an elementary truth: “The moment one commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never have occurred.”
So I made my commitment. My bluebird house is up and facing a new direction. I feel hopeful and hope feels good. I’m even quietly excited. Maybe birds will come this week. If ever there was a year I needed bluebirds in my yard this is it.
March is also pledge month; the time for each and I hope every one of us, to make our commitment to this congregation for the spring that is awakening. The theme is Better Together. I hear that to mean we are better, our lives are better when we come together, get together, figure out how to be together in love for compassion, inclusion, equality and justice. We are better when we come together in this congregation so that our heart is held and our soul made stronger, in groups so that we find our voice and our voice is heard, in our community so that our town feels like home and we feel like talking with our neighbors and smiling to strangers. Better together when we commit to this place and continue this tradition of inspiration, opportunity, sustainability and hope. If ever there was a year to come out in support of our message of and for life and love this is it. This is the year for all of us to come together in commitment to the presence and orientation and mission and voice of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Hendersonville. Now is the time and the opportunity for each of us to do our part, do what we can do to insure that “Providence moves too. [so ] all sorts of things occur to help” our lives and the world.
We all need our own bluebird moments. We need bold bluebirds in our yards and in our daily lives to ground and sustain and strengthen us. And it is this congregation, this Unitarian Universalist tradition that we make real here in Hendersonville, this community of worship, practice and service, this sanctuary of hope that is always putting up new bird houses as it were, creating opportunities and programs, initiatives and action for all of us. We are needed and we need each other to ground us in care and connection, compassion and commitment whatever the day brings. We are Better Together.
Rev. Jim McKinley