Rubi and Nori's Excellent Adventure

 Just now I am sitting in the Slowter Room at the First UU Church of Columbus, OH. The Slowter Room sits off of the Worship Hall and is a comfortable room for people who, for whatever reason, can’t be in attendance in the Worship Hall. I am guessing nursing mothers or parents with small children. Of course, no one is in the Worship Hall on Sunday mornings now; First UU of Columbus, like All Souls, is zooming their worship services. They were, however, kind enough to let me camp out in their parking lot and use the facilities while I am here.

I have travelled almost 1300 miles in two days and have one more long stretch to go before I reach my Sunday destination. It has been an easy start, though; last night I stayed with my sister in Lawrence, KS and Rubi stayed with my niece and her dogs. Tonight, we are in a safe neighborhood in Columbus and tomorrow we will have another long day of driving, leaving only a little bit to go on Saturday.

I confess it feels a little surreal that I am actually doing this. As one friend remarked to me a couple of days ago, “You know when you sent me that blog post about SUV RVing and said you could totally do this, I didn’t think you actually would!”

Another friend texted, “Hey, I want you to know that I truly ADMIRE what you are doing with this little adventure of yours. It did not make sense to me at first, but then I realized it makes PERFECT sense. It’s YOU following your heart. I’ve not always been very good at that. I usually manage to talk myself out of my own adventures, big and small. Since facing my own mortality I aspire to live more authentically, more from my heart, and less from my (sometimes screwed up) head! You’ve inspired me to do this even more! So hey, keep me posted. Bon Voyage!”

Both of those comments made me realize that I have once again, taken on something big without bothering to think about the difficulties I might face. The other time I realized this was shortly before walking the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain. After several people told me in admiring voices how brave I was, I began to think maybe I had bit off more than I could chew. But wasn’t it just walking??? Five hundred miles?

These types of exploits are certainly nothing I would have attempted in my younger years. Like my friend, I would have talked myself out of them, let fear make decisions for me rather than love; let my list of limitations hold me back, rather than leading with my dreams. Certainly, a benefit of growing older is that I am more confident in my own skin and in my own dreams. I do not fear failure—or worse, looking foolish--as much as I did when I was younger.

Still, as I logged the miles over the past two days, I sometimes wondered aloud at what I was doing and why.  It is not like I was ever the camping, hiking, peeing in the woods kind of lesbian, even when I was younger. And now here I am, age 58, embarking on this great unknown journey. And I confess, more than once, I have asked myself, why??

The answer to that question, I have come to realize, is why not? Why should we let a pandemic limit our horizon? Why should we let social distancing keep us from the wonders of this world? Why should I let the fact that there is no place to blow dry my hair into its proper volume and height keep me from expanding my vista?

Of course, I will be very careful, wearing masks, using hand sanitizer and washing my hands frequently. But more importantly, I will be choosing to live life out loud, presenting a wider vista for All Souls on Sundays, and connecting my words with the landscape of our nation.

I have no idea how this will turn out—it’s a Grand Experiment!—but already I know that when I risk my comfort and sense of safety to meet the world head on, I will learn some new things about myself, my world, and my sense of place.

How does where I am impact who I am, my sense of self, my sense of safety? Each of us has a comfort zone or bubble or context in which we live and move and have our being. We orient ourselves to our place like a pin marking where our car is parked on a handy smart phone app. We navigate our lives by these familiar mile markers. What happens when that familiarity is gone and in its place are unfamiliar   markers with no known context?

And how does Place impact what I speak about on Sunday? My goal is to preach from places that are connected with the Sunday service theme. What will that look and feel like for me? For those who tune in to All Souls Sunday service?

These are things we will discover over the course of the next several weeks. I look forward to being on this journey with each of you, this Grand Experiment that will have ramifications for each of us who choose to join in.