The past year has been like no other in our lifetimes because we have been living with the COVID pandemic since March 2020. Rev Sam and Leah are planning a way for everyone in the service to participate to honor your personal milestones of the past year and to offer a way to grieve for the ways the pandemic of the past nine months have affected us.

 

We’ll be remembering major life events such as births, deaths, marriages, graduations, retirements, and other major life transitions (as you define them).

 

Please send Sapphire a picture (office@albanyuu.org) and a description of your milestone that we can include in the service. The deadline is 10/28 which is coming soon! 

 

The photo could be of a person or a pet, or of a memento like your pet’s collar, or of a celebration or event.

 

This year we’ll also be including a ritual of grieving and release. For this, please bring with you to the service an object to have blessed and are then willing to let go of. Something from nature like a stone or a leaf, or a scrap of paper and pencil. We’ll invite you to “release” it into nature after the service by burying it, putting it in or on a wall, or casting it into water as a way of letting go of the grief that we haven’t been able to celebrate our transitions in the ways we would like due to the pandemic.  

 

Families, look for resources for helping children to grieve the pandemic in upcoming RE Roundups and in The Treehouse.

 

A reminder that Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday, Nov 1 as well. Remember to set your clocks BACK one hour before retiring on Halloween night!