Goodness Weekly 10.07.2024
In rest I catch up with myself and become awake;
I feel and see
and smell and hear and taste
the life I’m in.
And when I do,
I find that it is charmed. “-Justin McRoberts
What’s Good
Interested to know more about Charis Park before our Grand Opening Oct 26th?
MySA visited with Deputy Director, Taylor Bates to learn more about where we started, and where we're going.
"The one-acre park, which will have its grand opening in late October, sits in front of Sunset Ridge Church [...]
Sunset Ridge Collective manages both the church and the park. Years ago, the church created the women-led nonprofit organization after consultants warned [there was no] need for another parking lot, Bates said. With the plans to turn it into something, the collective began meeting with neighbors and consultants. They learned residents longed for a place to engage and connect, regardless of their religious status. Bates said the park is not an evangelical space, adding it was made for the neighborhood and the city to come together and connect."
Read the full article online and tell us what else you'd like to know!
This Week
Saturday, October 12 - Second Saturday
Monday, October 14 - Campus Closed
Tuesday, October 15 - Sarah’s Heart Infant Loss Remembrance Service in Chapel
For frequent updates of One Another Coffee, Charis Park, Scott’s Pizza, and NYX Wellness, please feel free to check our calendar and follow us on Instagram for any updates.
Becoming Stoppable
Jess Lowry, Executive Director, Sunset Ridge Collective
I am unstoppable.
(Insert eye roll here)
It’s funny how we create stories about ourselves that are removed from reality. This is mine.
I don’t think I’m unstoppable in the sense that I am Wonder Woman, or invincible, but unstoppable in the sense that I am often unwilling to be stopped.
It’s no surprise that one challenge I navigate in life is an auto-immune illness. This particular illness is amplified when I am overworking, overstressed, and under-nourished. My unwillingness to be stopped is irrelevant to this condition and my body has become the gauge by which I measure my lack of stopping.
When I am in this unstoppable state I am missing what is most important-nourishment for my body, mind, and soul, presence and gratitude—things that we all need to be a whole person. As Shiloh and I laid on the hill on Charis Park last night, we looked at the stars and sang a favorite Glen Hansard song Star Star. I felt better in that moment than I had in days & I am reminded once again of the importance of stopping.
It doesn’t come naturally.
The beautiful article written about Charis Park also shared a little of my loss journey, and in this one piece of writing I was reminded of the importance of learning to stop in suffering and in joy, and every moment in between.
You see Ava Violet was my fifth pregnancy. I had lost four babies to miscarriage before her, and lost another after her, before Luca, baby number seven was born. I lost two more babies after Luca, and finally Julian, baby number ten was born healthy. And when I hold that young 23 year old woman, I do so with such tenderness and the awareness that she never stopped. Loss after loss, I kept pushing forward. It has taken years of care and support to work through the grief of those losses, all of which I believe were exacerbated by not allowing myself the time and space to pause everything and receive the nurturing care I needed.
In this article celebrating Charis Park, I also recognize that while you would expect I would have learned these lessons, I am not stopping to relish in the joy and celebration of this place that has lived as a dream in my heart for so long. Instead I have a whiteboard filled with the next project or idea or dream.
It’s embarrassing to admit. I’ve preached on rest, I’ve hired a rest coach, I’ve retreated and read and practiced Sabbath, but something in me still believes that if I stop something will fall.
What I am coming to terms with today is that I have it backwards—if I don’t stop the important things fall.
The glimmers of joy with my children, the peace in my soul, the nourishment of my body, the presence of love...
So here is my invitation to you…be willing to be stopped. Don’t simply let it happen to you but choose it. Choose to stop and notice the way the sunlight moves through the trees, the way the eyes of a child hold inextricable magic and wonder, listen to the story, take a deep breath.
And this month as we honor Infant and Pregnancy loss awareness, we hold these tender stories that are central to our community…may we also hold each other tenderly-because we need each other.
Love-
Jess
Inhale:
Open me to the reality that I am human again today
Exhale:
that in stopping I find more than I could ever be on my own strength.
