Goodness Weekly 5.29.23

After nourishment, shelter, and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”
— Philip Pullman

A special note: As we celebrate Memorial Day we honor the memory of those who have fallen and we grieve alongside those who have lost the ones they love.

What’s Good:

Last night following the afternoon worship service, our friend Scott opened his pizza truck, Scott’s Pizza for the first time! Scott trained in Naples, Italy and sources many of his ingredients locally, including the flour for his house-made sourdough pizza dough. It was such a treat to get to be the first group to try out his pizza.

You can expect to see Scott’s Pizza truck around here much more often, including at our Charis Park groundbreaking event next Saturday, June 3rd at 10am. We’re so proud of you, Scott!

A Message from Jess

As my dear friend Laura Strong would say, this is a before mascara read.

I wonder what your story is? I love the power of stories—the way that hearing an experience from the life of another person reminds us that we are all interconnected. Taylor shared a part of her story in our Goodness Weekly last week, a story that is sacred and holy to my life, too.

As Taylor mentioned, my daughter Ava was stillborn May 31, 2006 at 39 weeks. I was 23 years old, had been married four years, and was desperate to become a mother. Ava was my 5th pregnancy and the only one who survived past the first trimester.

When I was 22 weeks pregnant we found out she was sick with Dandy Walker Syndrome and was expected to have a 25% chance of survival. All we could do was simply hope and pray that somehow we had good odds, and to continue to walk the journey of constant doctors appointments, monitoring, and tests.

We chose to live every day with hope that things would work out. We learned everything we could about her condition and prepared ourselves for multiple surgeries upon her arrival into the world as the doctors said she would require procedures on her heart and brain. But my beautiful butterfly girl’s heart stopped beating just one day before we were scheduled to deliver her.

*Memorial Garden on the beautiful grounds of* *Oblate School of Theology*

You may have noticed by now that I love music. I was listening to a new song on my drive to work this past week by Hozier called “Francesca”. The chorus says:

If someone asked me at the end

I'd tell them, "Put me back in it"

Da-ah, darlin', I would do it again

If I could hold you for a minute

Da-ah, darlin', I'd go through it again

I heard those words and I felt my heart open up and say, Yes. Put me back in it. I would do it again. Being Ava Violet’s mother changed me. It somehow moved me from the darkest despair into a hope that even on the worst days there is a reason to be grateful, there is a peace that is unfathomable, and as long as there is breath in our lungs there is goodness in the world to enjoy and create.

I don’t have a pretty bowed package to answer the why, and I don’t believe that everything happens for a reason. But I do believe there is always goodness and as Taylor wrote, “these little bits of goodness help mend our hearts back together.” If we let them, they can weave our lives together in a way that makes us stronger and more whole than we were before.

I believe there aren't any coincidences in life. Somehow, in a way I will never understand, my story and Taylor’s were deeply woven together through our two firstborn babies who were both stillborn in the month of May, 11 years apart. They are the origin story for each of us beginning this work here that we call our vocation.

As we prepare to share a summer of stories, I pray that you will find time this week to listen to a story from someone else. I wonder if you might ask a friend to share a sacred story that you may have never heard or a family member to share a story from their childhood. I pray that you can listen with humble curiosity for what you will learn and see from this time.

I hope to hear your story, too. 🦋

Love, Jess