As I write this email to you, I can barely sit still because tonight I get the keys to my new house. Chris and I are finally ‘adulting’ and have become homeowners. We are equally excited and terrified by the prospect of owning a home and all the responsibilities that go with it. As Chris and I were house hunting, we made a list of the things that we wanted- a kitchen that we can cook big family meals in, dog friendly yard, enough space to entertain friends and family and a sense of community. We want our home to feel welcoming, like a place where friends and family can gather.

This weekend we will be moving into the blank slate of a house that we will make into our home.  It is a new beginning, a fresh start, a chance to make positive change in our life. I am excited about the potential, the possibilities, the hope that comes with the empty walls and halls. As I dream about paint colors and area rugs I can’t help but get excited for this new beginning, even with the headaches that come with needing a new roof and having a 20 year old furnace that you hope won’t die anytime soon.

As Chris and I settle into our new house, we will find new patterns and a rhythm to life. One thing that I am going to choose is to create more space and time for Sabbath rest in my new home. I want to carve out a time to not just have fun and relax on the weekend, but to lean into the Holy Spirit and commune with God. I want to create a space where I can curl up in a quiet corner and pray, meditate, do yoga. I am going to be intentional about making room for God in my new beginning.

Too often I put my spiritual well being on the back burner. I prioritize other things before taking 10 minutes out of my day to be in quiet prayer. Right now, if I lose the coin flip of who has to walk the dog outside from our second story apartment I tend to not feel like meditating before bed. But with change comes opportunity. With intentionality comes growth.

We all have new beginnings big and small in our lives. Some of us are beginning summer, others are beginning new jobs after graduating college while others retire. Maybe your new beginning is a new workout routine or potty training your little one. Whether your beginning a new week or a new life event, I wonder what changes you might make to create a little more room for God in your routine. Perhaps you could start a new book that feeds your soul, start a new prayer practice, join a spiritual yoga class, or keep a journal of God sightings.
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When you make time for God, God will show up. Sometimes we just need to slow down, be still and listen for the quiet voice of God.  

The Rev. Mandy Hall, 
Director of Christian Formation for Children and Youth

Dear Plymouth,

Recently I came across the poem below in my quarterly Yale Divinity School magazine, Reflections. I found it quite moving and shared it with the Stewardship Board. They found it moving as well as worthy of consideration and conversation. It speaks of the complexity of giving in our lives, of giving as a way of life. It speaks of giving and receiving gifts of all kinds, of the joy and sorrow of giving.

With a name like “Plymouth,” it’s hard to get away from the idea not just of the Plymouth Pilgrims, but from the concept of pilgrimage in general. Our faith is perhaps best described as a journey…not a stable, set-in-stone condition, but one that evokes movement and transformation. Some pilgrimages, like those of Abraham and our New England spiritual forbears are one-way pilgrimages through which one arrives at a new destination. In a recent series of adult ed. forums, Plymouth folks recounted their (round-trip) pilgrimages to the Holy Land, on the Camino de Santiago de Compostella, and in Scotland. Even though their journeys brought our pilgrims back home, pilgrimage is meant to change the way one sees God, self, and other.

But what if one doesn’t have the time, money, physical ability, or inclination to travel on a pilgrimage? For 13th-century would-be pilgrims in France, the answer was to walk the circuits of the labyrinth in the cathedral at Chartres, emulating a pilgrimage to Rome or Jerusalem. Walking the labyrinth is a meditative tool rediscovered in the 1990s by the Rev. Lauren Artress, an Episcopal priest. According to the website of the organization she founded, “The labyrinth is a walking meditation, a path of prayer and an archetypal blueprint where psyche meets Spirit. It has only one path that leads from the outer edge in a circuitous way to the center. There are no tricks to it and no dead ends. Unlike a maze where you lose your way, the labyrinth is a spiritual tool that can help you find your way.”

I’ve used the labyrinth for prayer at volatile times in my life when I’ve needed to find the quiet center, at times when I am in discernment about a significant decision, and at times when I’ve just needed to seek God’s presence through a physical prayer form.

A ministry team at Plymouth, led by Jane Nicolet, has been working for just about a year with our Memorial Garden Ministry Team and our Trustees to design and create such a tool for Plymouth. The Trustees excavated the space, filled in recycled concrete base, and the layer of breeze visible on the surface. The ministry team had a group of 20 Plymouth volunteers, from teens to seniors, place bricks into place to form the circuits of the labyrinth. The Leadership Council authorized financial support from the Memorial Garden reserve fund, memorial gifts given in honor of our members, the sale of several cemetery plots Plymouth owned, and an unsolicited gift from one of our members. Landscaping and two benches will also be added this spring.

I invite you to join us as we dedicate the new labyrinth on Pentecost Sunday, May 20 at 12:15 (after the 11:00 service). Join us to thank our volunteers and to ask for God’s blessing.

So, why and how does one use the labyrinth? For years, members of our congregation have been asking for advice on how to pray. The labyrinth provides a beautiful tool for walking prayer. It doesn’t require years of discipline to encounter…just the will to engage with intention and attention. Even if you have a robust prayer life, I’d recommend trying a prayer walk using the labyrinth to mix it up a bit. It is available to you at any time during the week…unless a service is in progress in the sanctuary or memorial garden.

One of the members of the Labyrinth Ministry Team, Pat Slentz, will become a trained labyrinth facilitator this summer in a workshop with Lauren Artress at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico.
Deep thanks to all who have participated in helping this dream become a reality here at Plymouth! I look forward to group walks, incorporating the labyrinth into our Sunday evening services, and to seeing you out walking in prayer!
 
Shalom!

Trustees Gary Olsen, Allen Norskog, Tom Dille, Barry Beatty, and Trustee Emeritus Tom Nesler do the initial grading and laying base materials.

Plymouth volunteers completed the layout in one Saturday…many hands made light work!

An aerial photo from a neighbor’s drone caught Plymouth volunteers laying brick into the labyrinth.
 
Here is a guide from Lauren Atress on veriditas.org (download a PDF version here):

Dear Plymouth Family, 

I've been thinking a lot about the time we have in life and how we use it recently. Here is what I would like to share along with an invitation (so if you don't feel like reading more... no judgement and just skip to the end): 

The word “hobby” comes from an Anglo-Latin word “hobi”—a 1400s nickname for a small, active horse. As time progressed, the word evolved to refer to a hobbyhorse, which was a children’s toy rocking horse or wooden figure of a horse. The word hobby evolved from that wooden horse toy to today where it generally means an activity that doesn’t go anywhere or is only for amusement. [1]
 
Hobbies are different for different people. Some people rock climb, some go fly fishing, some do yoga, some hike, bike, swim, knit, gossip, or gossip while knitting or hiking (that is probably all of us)! But when people ask me what my “hobby” is, I have to reply as follows: “If by hobby you mean the activity I do with all my spare time and to which I dedicate vacation days and passion and for which I do not get paid, then my hobby is affordable housing advocacy.” Certainly makes me sound like I am riding a high horse, doesn’t it? Words have a way of coming full circle. 
 
While certainly not immobile or only for amusement sake, over the past couple of years my volunteerism, board involvement, and spare time have all been focused into a passion for this much overlooked area of social justice advocacy. It isn’t overlooked because people don’t care, but rather because it is immensely complicated! It is also particularly nuanced because it is not easily categorized as a liberal or conservative interest. While advocating for tax credits and private activity bonds sounds like a "conservative" endeavor, it becomes an immensely important and "progressive" task when talking about them as essential funding mechanisms for developing affordable housing. 
 
Some (including my husband) might call it my “hobby,” but I now see this side of my life as a part of my sense of call. Affordable housing in its many forms and programs is hard work to advocate for because it requires so much learning: vouchers, water tap fee structures, state and federal tax credits, financing, zoning, the difference between non-profit/ for-profit/ housing authority development, LCCC, LCC, partnerships, Fair Housing laws, proformas, gap financing, CDBG, HOME, board development, debt coverage ratios, fundraising… etc., etc. Sounds fun, huh? It actually is fascinating. Just like learning to fish or rock climb, it takes time, vocabulary, and dedication to acronyms. 
 
Late last month, I used some of my vacation time to go to Washington, D.C. with the National Commissioners’ Committee of NAHRO[2]and other commissioners from Northern Colorado's Housing Catalyst to advocate on Capitol Hill for affordable housing and public housing authorities, their funding, and policy needs. I am careful to keep my work hours, time, and continuing education separate from my affordable housing advocacy--and using personal vacation days to attend an advocacy conference and meetings with legislators on behalf of the "least of these," for those who need supportive services, for the homeless, for the housing insecure, for the dearth of affordably priced and attainable housing in our country is the best and highest use of vacation I can imagine. I do come home refreshed from this use of vacation days because I believe this advocacy matters and am refreshed by being around others who care about the issue.
 
What are passion areas or interests outside of what you do for a paycheck? Call them hobbies or advocacy or passions… whatever they are, I encourage you to nurture them. You never know when something might emerge that is fundamentally part of what you know you are meant to be doing. God can emerge in unexpected and important ways from these hobbies we find in life outside of work. One of my uncles found that his love of surfing in North Carolina translated into amazing work as a mentor for local youth. You never know what your hobbies might become when empowered with an open mind and heart. 
 
Additionally, I want to underscore how easy it is to advocate for issues you care about and how important speaking from a faith perspective can be when speaking about funding priorities. If as Progressive Christians we can learn to speak from our faith, we can have an incredible impact. I have found that my voice as a minister is valuable in the affordable housing conversation and welcomed in those dialogues. Where is God calling you to use your voice? 
 
Lastly, as part of this sense of call to affordable housing advocacy, I have been able to turn my 30th birthday into a gift for Habitat! On Wednesday, June 27th from 6 PM to 9 PM, you are welcome to come celebrate my 30th birthday!* Click here to view the Facebook event.

Comet Chicken in Old Town and Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity are throwing my birthday party and donating 20% of proceeds (all food and drink) to Habitat for Humanity of Fort Collins that evening. In lieu of birthday gifts, additional donations to Habitat are welcome but are not necessary. Both the 20% of revenue and all donations that night will me matched $1 for $1 by Thrivent Financial! This all started with a question: "I wonder if even my birthday can be a gift to affordable housing?" Then I just stood back and watched God and community do the rest. 
 
When you find that hobby or purpose that helps make your day complete, always remember to declare, as my friend Erika, the faith community coordinator for Habitat does, “Let’s see what God will do!” 
 
Associate Minister and Aspiring Houser, 
The Rev. Jake Miles Joseph (or just Jake)
 
[1]https://www.etymonline.com/word/hobby
[2] http://www.nahro.org/about-nahro ​