Christmas Miracle & Some Thoughts
By Teresa Pothier
We were late in venturing out to find our Christmas tree. We decided to hunt a bit more than usual at the Christmas tree farm and found a cute little fir tree. It was the perfect tree. The needles didn't poke you when hanging decorations, and it barely lost any needles through the whole Christmas season. After the new year, we planned to take the tree down and when I went to take the decorations off, I noticed that this tree was sprouting pine cones and flowers! It felt like a Christmas miracle. We decided to leave the tree and see what happened. A couple weeks later, this tree started sprouting new branches! It was truly amazing. As I sat pondering this amazing phenomenon, I decided to research to see if it could actually survive. Guess what; it won't. It has no root system to support it and even though it is sprouting new life, it is, in fact, dead. The only way to actually keep this tree alive was to gather a few cuttings, put them in water and see if new roots would emerge.
We have all been going through so many hard things these last few years. And I have been thinking about how I kind of feel like this tree. I feel cut off from what used to be my normal. I am surviving; I am even sprouting new things and life is happening. But the reality is that unless I can sprout new roots I will not get far. I am slowly dying. I need to cut some clippings and sprout new roots.
Is this all bad? No, I don't think so. It's a process of refining: a letting-go of what has been, of what has become old and what is dying...even though it looks good. Then, starting over with a simple branch, waiting for new roots to grow, and waiting for a new tree to become.
We had to make a very difficult decision in January about going to the Ocala Rainbow Gathering in February. We were all set to go, and about 2 weeks before leaving, our family came down with Covid and we spent the next 4 weeks trying to regain our health. Covid slowly worked its way to each member of our family. Thankfully the kids bounced right back but Ben and I had a slower go. In the end, I'm thankful we hadn't left for Florida and gotten sick on the road.
While stuck at home we've been able to regroup a bit. And dive into a season of learning. Teresa had been taking a zoom class with a local pastor –Osheta Moore– looking at themes in her book Dear White Peacemakers: Dismantling Racism With Grit and Grace . It has been challenging and difficult but so good. Ben has also had the chance to start a 2 month class on nonviolent communication which helps tackle ways of communicating with people who are in crisis or conflict. We have also been able to connect with someone about getting trauma-informed training and were able to go to a conference on missionary care in February.
2021 was rough. We still feel we are being reworked and molded into something new. It's incredibly difficult at times but also really good. We are hopeful for what is to come and know that sometimes you have to walk though hard things to be better.
So what's next for us? We will be continuing to learn about non-violent communication. We will continue to take classes to learn more about peacemaking and how to be trauma-informed. We will continue to work on support raising. We are beginning to form a team to go to the National Rainbow Gathering this summer for the 50th anniversary of Rainbow Gatherings. And we will begin remodeling our upstairs apartment as the next step in creating Places of Welcome where we hope to host and offer welcoming hospitality to those who live in the margins. Learn more over on our Events page!
