Goodness Weekly 5.13.24
When life has lost its promise, when it is hard to trust again or feel alive or curious again, love beckons us over and asks, “Got a minute?”
-Anne Lamott
What’s Good
We hosted a lovely tour of the nearly completed Charis Park with a group from Dykema who have partnered with us on the creation of this beautiful new neighborhood park. Every day now something changes significantly in the park, whether it’s new trees and plants being installed or the main walkway being poured. Thank you to Dykema and all the others who’ve joined with us to make this special park a reality.
Message from Jess
Message from Jess Lowry Executive Director, Sunset Ridge Collective
There’s a park coming.
I know, I know, you’ve heard. But really—
there is a park coming!
It’s not finished yet and it’s already my favorite place to be. When I walk our unfinished park I dream of the connections that will take place over coffee on the lawn or Friday night pizza in the park with my kids and friends. I dream of quietly sitting on the bench in the meditation garden and finding peace.
It’s almost time to share it and I can hardly wait.
It’s strange now to think that this space was an empty parking lot. That it was really just left behind. Over the years it was used to host a couple of festivals and a block party, for kids to ride their bikes, and as an outdoor space for neighbors to meet during Covid. For a period of time during the pandemic, our friend Suz planted wildflowers and faithfully watered them every day as a way to spark hope in everyone who saw them.
To think that there was all of this incredible potential just waiting under its hard surface is really quite remarkable. Someday thememory of the parking lot will pass and to those who gather on its grass—it will have only ever been a park to them.
It took courage for the Sunset Ridge Leadership to build this park. It required an openhandedness that the church had not typically been comfortable with. There have been offers to purchase the property, to develop it, and many other ideas of what it could be—all potentially income producing. But the church decided that the very best use of a property we have owned for decades was to share it as a place for everyone–through this neighborhood park, owned by the Sunset Ridge Church and operated by Sunset Ridge Collective.
This dream has been here for a long time, this park—just waiting under the surface to come to life at the right time. It makes me wonder what else is waiting for your courage—some place or person or idea that has just been waiting to be discovered, waiting for someone to look past the hard parts, or the not so warm and fuzzy stuff, and see the beauty.
This week I invite you to open your hands to possibility–maybe there’s a dream waiting just under the surface for you to uncover.
I can’t wait to see what you find.
Love, Jess
This Week
Sunday, May 19th Sunset Ridge Church 75th Anniversary
Coming Up…
Office Closed Monday, May 27th for Memorial Day
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Inhale:
Open my eyes to the dreams that are waiting to be realized around me.
Exhale:
for hope, for reconciliation, for goodness, for love.
