Joy and woe are woven fine by William Blake


“Joy and woe are woven fine …” This is the first line of a William Blake poem that I discovered as I was preparing last December for a memorial service I led for someone from the wider community. It was my first UU memorial service. I was struggling to find words to share in the service that would be meaningful to the loved ones who were both grieving a painful loss and celebrating a remarkable woman whose life had touched so many. These words by Blake resonated with me and have taken up residence deep within me. Like the threads of a garment, joy and woe are finely woven together into the fabric of our lives. Love is woven into grief; happiness into sorrow; beginnings into endings.
I am in a place this week of being keenly aware of this paradox of life. This coming Sunday, our annual Animal Blessing service, will be my last at UUCF after over a year of ministry. It began last summer as I served as summer director of religious exploration, then 10 months as ministerial intern, and finally five weeks as summer minister. It has been a year where joy and woe have been woven fine.

I remember with such fondness the Together Times with the children in worship last summer at Oakton Elementary when Summer Minister Eve Steven’s series about the history of UUCF inspired an interactive UU family tree and a march with protest signs through the auditorium. I find myself smiling and chuckling at the memory of the Ingathering service last September, as Rev. Jennifer Brooks, Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig, John Monroe, Pawel Jura, Linnea Nelson and I simulated rivers, lakes and oceans with billowing blue fabric, told a story with fish puppets and a huge stuffed bear and read from little fish sticky notes the gifts that each person at UUCF brings to this congregation. We have laughed and danced (remember that worship service?) and celebrated this past year!
Oh but we have also known the heavy weight of grief this past year. We have lost dearly beloved members of our congregation and many have experienced the loss of friends and family members. One of the most painful losses this past year for many of us was the suicide of our Director of Music and Arts Pawel Jura – someone we had grown to really admire and care about. I don’t think any of us knew how deeply woven pain was into the fabric of Pawel’s life. And with his death, I feel as if I have been left with a little wound within me that contains a mixture of grief for all of us who loved and miss him, gratitude for his life, sadness for his pain and a sweet tenderness for the special memories that I will always carry with me. “Joy and woe are woven fine.”
And now, as I come to the end of this full, challenging, beautiful year, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for all the ways you have supported and encouraged me to learn and grow both as a minister and as a human being. I now head off into a new adventure and won’t be able to be in touch with folks at UUCF for the next year but I want you to know that you will be with me in my heart the whole way. I am really excited and looking forward to the work ahead for me – chaplaincy at the Hebrew Home in Rockville, MD, and studying for my credentialing interview in 2016. I am really excited for you too and all that is ahead for UUCF this coming year of new beginnings. I will miss you and I look forward to next year when I can come back and reconnect, sharing the stories of joy and woe that have shaped and deepened our spirits over the previous year.



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