Today is Good Friday. It has been, in fact, a wonderful Friday. I hope and trust it has also been for you all.

The Christians among us have a special relationship with today. It marks the commencement of a deep reflection about one’s relationship to the divine, about the scale and grandeur of a simple bond and trust in faith. In just two days there will be the celebration of the power and possibility of resurrection.

I won’t attempt to comment in more detail on the meaning of the second most important sacred moment in Christian liturgy and practice. Perhaps calling it second is already too far outside my expertise, but I just would like to share a moment about how I have commenced my own period of reflection.

This morning I took some time to work with my hands to help build a garden. Moving the soil that with yield food for a family that I care about was a beautiful deep and quiet gesture toward divinity. A small act of service as the symbol of my faith in the power of stewardship and community.

This afternoon, a long walk along the coastline of this exquisite island left me humbled and inspired. Sunlight glistening off the water danced with seagulls and geese. Eagles and ravens crisscrossed the sky and forests above while the air was cool in my lungs and the sun warm on my face. With each inhale great memories came rushing back, and each exhale brand new ones were etched into my mind as heirlooms to save for my future becoming self. I was heart and body. My head had no need to judge, discern, or derail. I was very much at peace.

I want to share my gratitude and honor for being a part of this group with you all. I want to share that the questions still remain, those savage and beautiful questions. They remain but within them I remain as well. I am slowly, quietly a little at a time recognizing how I can also deepen my experience while being open to the unknown. That for me “resurrection” is not a dredging up or a repeating, but an emergence mixed with a remembrance in the face of the divine.

How can reflecting on our inherited experience serve the practice of becoming our new emerging self? What does it feel like to both be actively engaged in leadership in the world while settling in to the to faith and constancy of a supporting role in the play of life?