Late Saturday night or very early Sunday morning, however you frame it, we in the USA engaged in the semi-annual ritual of changing
time. We adjusted our clocks to reverse the fall adjustment to daylight savings time. We have again returned to standard time until fall
when we will alter time to meet our needs one more time. I suppose all is well since time, the clock, and the calendar are human
constructs. Why not adjust the time to our whims and desires? I understand that this ritual began eons ago so that farmers would have
ample daylight hours to harvest their crops. In recent time, we clung to the practice so that young children wouldn’t have to walk to
school or the bus stop in the dark of morning. We may have outgrown the need for such time changes, yet it is part of our culture.
Unless of course, if you live in Arizona or Hawaii. These states don’t participate in the time change ritual. As the day to turn our clocks
ahead – to spring forward – arrived, I heard people speak about losing an hour of sleep or losing an hour period. Hmm… I thought,
that’s not even possible. In my mind, we gain an hour of daylight which makes my heart sing with joy. I already imagine the fun I shall
have digging up my garden and sitting outdoors in the long lovely days that are ahead. There is nothing I lose and much that I gain
when we change the clock each spring.
Time, and everything else we experience, is merely a matter of our perspective and our opinion. While I shivered beneath layer upon
layer of clothing and wrapped in a quilt like a burrito, during the winter days, others were cheerful and energized by the crisp cool
temperatures. Our opinions are just that, our opinion. No one person has a more correct or incorrect opinion than another. Most of us
are skilled enough to research and to find sources of information to support our opinion on nearly every topic. For every person who
finds evidence to support taking vitamin supplements, avoiding caffeine, receiving vaccines, eating well in advance of going to bed,
fasting, sleeping eight hours each night, or abstaining from eating meat, there is someone who finds evidence to support a case for the
opposite.
John 15:5 alludes to our oneness with these words: “I am the vine and you are the branches.” Having previously established in John
10:30 that “I and the Father are one”, Jesus gently and eloquently reminds us that there is one vine – one Source. Each of us are from
that same source which is the vine through which life flows to all people, the branches. In our humanness, we suffer when we insist on
seeing ourselves separate from others based on constructs formed in our human mind. This human mind is the same mind that allows
our perspectives and opinions to divide and separate us one from another. While each branch is uniquely shaped and varies in
shade of color and size, they are all part of the same vine. We too, with our differing thoughts, opinions, and perspectives remain part
of the one vine – one Source.
For me, I am going to sit back and savor the early morning hour of sunrise and the longer hours of daylight that invite me to sit in the
backyard at day’s end to bid the sun farewell until morning arrives once more. The abundance of daylight enlivens me and stirs
creative energy deep within. Soon, very soon, the front yard will be an oasis of wildflowers. This year even more grass will give way to
new plantings. Bulbs that were planted in fall are already emerging with their beautiful purple blooms. I named my newly planted
flower beds Covid Gardens in 2020. Perhaps I will be inspired to rename them this year as they expand further across my front yard.
Whatever your thoughts, however our opinions may differ, let’s be friends. Let’s celebrate the joys of life without the need to condemn
anyone or even try to convince another to share our opinion. There are plenty of opinions to go around.
Much love & many blessings,
Rev. Karen