The Soul Matters theme for April is wholeness. “Our understanding of “whole” comes through the old Germanic and Norse languages: hal, haila which give the sense of entire, unhurt, safe; healthy, sound; genuine, straightforward, undamaged, complete. Our word for health has similar roots.”

The theme doesn’t stop with the word. The materials pose the idea as a question; “What does it mean to be a people of wholeness?” What would it be like to feel and practice, notice and appreciate “wholeness?” Being a people, a person of wholeness requires holding up, wholed-ing up the sound, healthy, genuine and good in us and around us. With the question, what can be an abstract idea becomes a prompt and a guide for being and action.

This notion of wholeness isn’t easy to “wholed” and practice; our culture and our conversations more often than not center around the negative or the energy of critique. Frequently we lead with what seems broken or not whole. We can be more concerned with what something isn’t than with what it is.

When you think about it, the very mission of this congregation stands in contrast to negative energy, it is to be a people of wholeness, a place where that which feels broken is embraced and wholeness becomes real, felt and shared. And so often it does this and more. UUFH brings wholeness into our awareness and our world. But right now, as a congregation, as a people, we are in a time which can easily focus us on our concerns. There is the anxiety that always surfaces around the budget and pledge drive. Will UUFH have the resources for the upcoming year to be who we want to be? This year the worries are compounded with the demands and uncertainty of staff retirements, transitions, and organizational changes. It is a lot to take in. It is a lot to embrace.

So breathe and relax a little and settle into to what it means to answer the question by being a people of wholeness. The sun is out, the sky is blue, the birds are singing, and I’m sure the solar panels are humming.

Meg and Todd led the service a few weeks ago to kick off the pledge campaign with their special gifts, talents, message, presence and energy. I so didn’t want to miss it, but what I got to do was special too, I got to be with Family Ministry for the morning. The children and I talked about my upcoming retirement. They helped me think and feel it with them. Then we went outside and worked building the labyrinth that Hannah McKinley and Colby Landers had organized for all of us. We ate snacks and hung out together. After we finished, we came inside for the ice cream social. We got to see everybody who’d been in the worship service. They were all talking about what a great job Meg and Todd had done and what a wonderful service they had shared. Fellowship Hall was abuzz with good energy. Wholeness was and is alive in the world.

Tell me what’s not to love? No, please don’t. I pose that as strictly a rhetorical question. Please hold off, because for right now, life is what it should be. This is what “church”, or rather congregation or perhaps more particularly, community should feel like. And I am going to experience and enjoy it for what it is, I am going to appreciate it for who we are without discount and without critique. So, this is what it’s like to feel and practice, notice and appreciate “wholeness.” So, this is what it means to be a people of wholeness. Thank you Meg and Todd. Thank you congregation. Thank you Colby and Hannah, thank you Family Ministry, and thank you to the children. Thank you each and every one.

Thank you for bringing Easter into my spring and spring into my step. And in this month of Easter, may we all experience new life and wholeness too. Yes, that’s what it means.

— Rev. Jim McKinley, Minister