{"id":97,"date":"2022-11-04T06:54:51","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T06:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/?p=97"},"modified":"2022-11-04T06:54:51","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T06:54:51","slug":"on-the-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/04\/on-the-edge\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Edge\u200b"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This Sunday I was on edge. \u00a0It maybe started even before I began my day. \u00a0The service left me in tears several times. \u00a0It was just that kind of day. \u00a0Janne preached about praying for each other, to be really\u00a0<em>for<\/em>\u00a0each other, not just with each other. \u00a0It made me wonder about my place in church. \u00a0I do pray. \u00a0The formless void silent meditation kind and the kind where I put voice to my intentions. \u00a0I hold your children in my prayer, for their joys and sorrows and for the inspiration and challenges they bring me. \u00a0Sometimes you are in my prayers whether I know you or not, intending for your great good and the realization of your beauty and wholeness. \u00a0I wondered though, who might be praying for me? \u00a0And like I said, I was on edge.<\/p>\n<p>The edge for me on Sunday was that feeling of separation that is illusory, but sometimes feels real. \u00a0I was the only one signed up to teach and didn\u2019t know who else might come. \u00a0I had a strange interaction with my co-parent in the parish hall that made me wonder if I was missing something. \u00a0I thought about the worship associate who spoke of friends and strangers helping her in a time of need and wondering why I was so hesitant to ask for that help last year when I was in need. \u00a0It was because I was on the edge.<\/p>\n<p>It seemed like it took me the whole day to come back from that edge. \u00a0Two teachers showed up to help me practice spirit play. \u00a0When I got home I journaled and came up with a list of people in our community who are praying for me, if not in a formal way, in an informal way without a doubt. \u00a0A subsequent conversation with my co-parent brought us back into balance and I remembered and was grateful for all those friends and strangers who did show up and help me when I was in need. \u00a0I came back home in myself; back into right relationship.<\/p>\n<p>There was a gift on the edge in addition to all the gifts I found when I moved away from it. \u00a0We had a wiggly class on Sunday and the children had a hard time listening to the story. \u00a0They could hardly make it through the wondering questions. \u00a0When I asked them, they would give me answers like, \u201cnothing in this story was the best part\u201d. \u00a0And then other kids would parrot that answer. \u00a0At one point I stopped and told the class that I was feeling sad that they weren\u2019t participating thoughtfully and asked them to please participate with their whole selves. \u00a0When the next child made the flip answer that nothing in the story was important, I looked at her and asked her again. \u00a0And her eyes wavered. \u00a0And she looked at the story. \u00a0And she answered the question. \u00a0A small bit of connection. \u00a0A small meeting right at the edge.<\/p>\n<p>I am grateful to be a part of our community. \u00a0I am grateful to work with adults and children to explore the joys and struggles of life. \u00a0I am grateful that I am a part of this whether I feel myself on the edge or not. \u00a0It is wonderful to move away from that space and realize it was just something inside of me seeing separation and that the more true story is that I was totally surrounded by love and connection the whole time. \u00a0This realization turns this story from separation into invitation. \u00a0Who else is on the edge here at Unity? \u00a0How do we reach out and remind them that we are connected and not alone? \u00a0A potent question for me in this political landscape. \u00a0Who is on the edge? \u00a0Can we invite them into connection? \u00a0What story do we want to create?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This Sunday I was on edge. \u00a0It maybe started even before I began my day. \u00a0The service left me in tears several times. \u00a0It was just that kind of day. \u00a0Janne preached about praying for each other, to be really\u00a0for\u00a0each other, not just with each other. \u00a0It made me wonder about my place in church. \u00a0I do pray. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-category"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions\/99"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}