Star Words

 For as long as I can remember a group of my clergy colleagues have participated in an annual January event with their congregations called "Star Words." Each member of the congregations receives a star shaped piece of paper with a word on it. I have done this three times, preparing sheets of paper with star shapes and random words inside the star. I've cut out each star, put them all in bags, and invited people in the parish to draw out a star on a Sunday morning in January. People are encouraged to pay attention to the word and wonder how it defines or describes their year.  Last year the star word I picked was "song." I have wondered about this word. How would song describe or define 2020? At first I had no idea. It was certainly a more challenging word for me to imagine than previous words I'd picked, like "Truth" or "Joy." 

As 2020 unfolded a few things happened. First Covid forced us into sheltering at home with on-line worship only options. Providing music in worship became a significant challenge. And, even when we were able to return to in-person worship we were not allowed to sing in person, only pre-recorded or in our homes. Singing is a super spreader of the virus. Thankfully a few people were willing to create pre-recorded music to enhance our worship with familiar voices and music that we tend to sing. The challenge of offering decent sounding music on zoom was one of my biggest learning curves of 2020.

After twenty years of parish ministry I had planned a sabbatical for the summer of 2020. The sabbatical was to begin with a trip to Ireland for an 8 day retreat outside of Belfast with Gareth Higgins and Kathleen Norris. It was a story-tellers retreat. Then I was going to return to the states and head to the upper peninsula of Michigan for 8 days on Lake Superior. There I was going to focus on story telling and writing through a self-led icon retreat. The story of prayer in paint. Then I planned to head to Wisconsin to visit a friend. I was going to head home for a week or so, check in with the parish, and then head off for three weeks at an airbnb, where I planned to kayak and do more work on icon writing. The sabbatical was designed to include a lot of time in solitude, practicing the art of solitude based in part on the book by Stephen Batchelor. 

The Ireland retreat was rescheduled to October and then postponed to 2021. As of today I still plan to go whenever it happens, but it seems to be a roaming event, with changing dates.

I did manage the other parts of the sabbatical, all because they included significant amount of time along, airbnb's and physical distancing. One of the constants in that time of solitude was music. Earlier in the year I had purchased a bluetooth Bose speaker, which I took with me. I learned to stream music using Spotify or Amazon music. I re-engaged in my love of music while I spent time watching sunrises and sunsets, read, knitted, and painted. Song because the undercurrent of daily life. I played around with genres: Yo Yo Ma, George Winston, morning classical Bach, mellow folk from the 70's, hits from 1980's or 1990's or 2000's, depending on my mood. 

Song. A word that I had no idea how it would describe or define my year ended up being one of the primary influences of peace and joy in a year of extreme disruption. Even as I write this I am sitting by the fire, a cup of coffee by my side, and music playing while it snows outside. A bit of tranquility. 

I am wondering about star words for 2021. We are back to no in-person worship. I'm thinking I'll prepare star words and mail them to each person in the parish with a letter explaining them. I'll spend a little time reflecting on my word for 2020 and ask them if they remember what their word was and if it ended up being meaningful. Part of my work is guiding us into paying attention to our inner world, what we think and feel and if we notice how, where, God is present and acting. Star words are just one way to help us notice our inner world and how it connects to the outer world and life we are living. 

For me 2020 ended up playing out in music, in song, which tells the story of a year of extreme challenges, constant adapting and pivoting, with melodies of sorrow, intertwined with peaceful notes,  and occasionally joyful tunes.