Dear Member/Friend,
Lately I’m reminded how very precious life is.  I notice this when I take my clothes off at night.  I hold them against me and feel the heat my body leaves behind.  I remember it on a winter’s night when it’s shivery cold and I stick my head under the covers to get warm.  I feel it in the breath of my so-loved golden retriever Sammie when he’s too warm and still wants kisses and hugs or in the outline of his warmth on the rug beside my bed where I step in my barefeet first thing in the morning.  His love warms me.  I especially notice the fading of bodily warmth when I minister to someone very close to leaving this earthly experience.  True, the physical body is dying, but their vital life force, the essence of God, is not.  It  is simply in the process of relocating itself, all part of the unknowable mystery of Life.  What an astonishing, miraculous, eternal creation of love we are.
I’ve been privileged to do memorial services recently where the overwhelming love of the families has been so evident you could almost hold it in your hand.  If it were possible to literally touch love, this would be the time.  It reminds me so clearly that every person is an expression of God.  I marvel at the fact that I am a part of their lives at this so important time and I feel incredibly blessed to meet many of these people who, but for this life changing circumstance, would never be a part of my life.  I’m reminded that there are no accidents, even when it feels as though there are.
As I write, it is a chilly day.  I read what I’ve written and it looks more apropos for a winter’s day but what I’m talking about is so much more than a physical condition.  I’m talking about life itself.  It’s about the very beat of your heart that is God as you.  It’s about the eyes that allow you to see the world as you choose to see it, God looking at the world through you . It’s about this incredibly intricate and intelligent body you’ve been given to use while you’re here and how it adjusts itself to whatever circumstances it finds itself in and though temporarily things may seem off balance, it always finds its way back to Truth, to health, to wholeness, to God. It’s about the wonderful opportunity you have to live life in honesty and integrity and love, in a way that satisfies your soul.  It’s about aligning head and heart and in the process discovering yourself.
I used to smile with amusement when my stepmom called my dad “precious one.”  Now I know she had it right.  Life is so precious and it happens only one moment at a time.  No matter how we try, we can neither rush it nor slow it down.  We can simply and wisely, savor each one.  May you accumulate a multitude of precious moments in your life,
Love and blessings,
Rev. Doris