Goodness Weekly 6.03.24

Jun 3

“Live as beautifully, bravely, and kindly as you can…”
-unknown

What’s Good

Charis Park has grass! The one-acre lot has suddenly come alive with a vibrant green color and the beautiful plants and trees that continue to be installed. We are planning for a soft opening of the park in the next few weeks–follow @charis.park on Instagram to see our daily progress and stay up to date.

BEAUTIFUL COURAGE

Message from Jess Lowry Executive Director, Sunset Ridge Collective

I stumbled across this memory showing my son Julian sleeping with a beloved My Little Pony doll that was gifted to us from a family friend who grew up and no longer needed her. This sweet girl knew that we were starting the adoption process and thought our future daughter might like her.

Julian insisted on keeping the pony safe until his sister came and did exactly that for three years until we met her. I took this picture almost three years to the day before we met Shiloh, and eight years after we lost our first daughter, Ava.

This past Friday, May 31st, Ava would have been 18 years old. And today I visited a tree farm to choose a tree in memory of our precious grandfather who passed away at the beginning of the year. The tree will be planted in Ava’s Butterfly Garden at Charis Park to provide shade for a butterfly bench representing a great-grandfather next to his great-granddaughter.

I lost my belief in coincidences a long time ago. And so I know that the timing of these important moments is not coincidental. I know this in the same way I know that last Thursday morning while I was sitting in the meditation garden at Charis Park holding a dear friend in my heart the sky parted and the sun shone through, taking my breath away.

You can call it coincidence if you want, but where is the magic in that? I read once that mystery isn’t something you cannot understand–it is something that you can endlessly understand. There is no point at which you say, “I’ve got it.” Always and forever, mystery gets you.

I think in this world that causes us to (rightfully) hold our breath with fear, it is the moments that take our breath away that give us the courage, the strength, and the hope to be able to keep living. Mystery, wonder, and curiosity are portals to this courage and I believe that they can be some of the very practices that move us into love and into peace.

I hope this week that you can find the places where wonder is just waiting for you to notice, that you let go of the thought of coincidences and open to a curious mystery for what beauty awaits you. There is beauty all around us, even in our grief, in our fear, in our tiniest seemingly insignificant moments—in the eyes of the person in front of you. May we be people with the courage to open our hearts to it all.

Love, Jess