Goodness Weekly 09.02.2024
“Knowing a human is never just a handful of things but rather a unique slice of absolutely everything.”
-Donna Ashworth
What’s Good
Our Executive Director, Jess, and Deputy Director, Taylor, are on a week-long rest retreat this week. We are a community that values the health of the whole person, which includes the mind, body, and spirit, and strive to model that in our work here together.
Growing Interconnectedness
Jess Lowry, Executive Director, Sunset Ridge Collective
“Who you are is meaningful for who we are”
This was a line from Sunset Ridge Church’s preaching minister Scott Heare’s sermon this past week that sparked something within me. You see, I am asked with increased frequency—how are you all doing this? How did you make a park, how is a church that was in severe decline making these changes and building a new kind of community? What was the strategy and the process and how do we duplicate it?
These are valid and good questions, to be sure, and there are answers to many of them. Sunset Ridge Church very intentionally chose to be a people who care about our neighbors and our neighborhood regardless of church attendance or religious belief because we believe that all people have a right to flourish and we want to contribute to any small part of that we can.
The duplication part is not so simple–this journey is not formulaic, and there is no roadmap. It is so intrinsically unique and particular as each one of you reading this is, as each person in this community is. There’s a beautiful network of people so woven into this journey that you couldn’t strategize it if you tried.
It looks more like what Pastor Scott said—who you are is meaningful for who we are—each person brings the story they carry inside of them that becomes woven into the story of the community. It reminds me of a beloved quilt on which from the top you see a neat, well composed pattern, but underneath is all threads and stitches.
The story of what is happening in and around our neighborhood is far more interesting than a strategic plan—far more magical if you ask me. It’s one neighbor who questions a rezoning process that sparks a family into a community that sparks a mom and a daughter to enter a park that sparks a whole group of little girls who become fast friends. It’s a guy with a dream of a pizza truck who stumbles into the girl of his dreams on the front lawn (and a baby Sebastian follows!) It’s better than we could have ever dreamed…and I am so grateful that you and I get to be a part of it.
This week I invite you to open yourself to new conversations, to ways of thinking or being present that you haven’t tried before. Maybe it’s a game of ping pong in the park, or talking to a person in line at the coffee trailer, or chatting with a new neighbor. I can’t wait to see what we’ll learn and how this beautiful web of interconnectedness will grow.
Love, Jess
Coming Up
CAMPUS CLOSED Monday, Sept 2nd for Labor Day
Wednesdays Mission Compost Pick Up
Starting in September, Miss Anastasia will be leading storytime at Second Saturdays! Many of our neighborhood families have gotten to know Anastasia over the years through The Twig and will be thrilled to see her in Charis Park.
Lunchtime Yoga Flow with NYX Wellness, Mon-Fri at 12pm, upstairs in Room 200
Sign up for your class here.
For weekly hours of One Another Coffee, Scott’s Pizza, and NYX Yoga, please feel free to check our calendar and follow us on Instagram for any updates.
Inhale:
I set aside my preconceptions and plans
Exhale:
to be present to connection
