The Coalition gathered leaders, founders and elders to Seattle at the end of January. We met in ceremony, we met for discernment, we met in the huge former home of displaced, wealthy, settlers. The huge rooms made that so-called wealth hard to forget.
It was a time of warmth and vulnerability and extended learning. For some of us it was a time to move awkwardly through unfamiliar, but, treasured practice. I found it both deeply comforting and challenging to go back to being in no way an authority. As a teacher, professor, and professional child care worker for the last few decades, it’s been a while since I’ve been one of the least informed about how things work in a given room. What a blessing to revisit the level of trust required of children towards their elders.
In my Christian tradition we have a beloved passage about Mary the mother of Jesus: “But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.” That is how I feel about this leadership summit, especially when I remember that, never mind the Renaissance paintings of Mary standing palely and contemplatively by some window over some landscape or other, she was treasuring and pondering while actively parenting Jesus for years! Within 33 years she had raised a loving man who laid down his life to change the world. May we all ponder so productively.
We spent time at the summit learning and contemplating, speaking and listening, and eventually broke out into three working groups. Our discernment and work centered around next steps for the Coalition. We discussed, and wrote about how to shape the Coalition into a recognizable culture, a group of eldered workers and visionaries and volunteers, and a covenanted coalition of people and working groups spread across lands and continents as time goes on.
It was a joy to break bread together, to put faces to names, to swap stories and nicknames, and to walk in a beautiful neighborhood. The weather was gorgeous for us – and the sunsets seemed to linger and linger. On our last night we were invited to take time to be creative and there were lots of materials for creating visual art. I found myself going back to my comfort zone of words and in thinking about the work the Coalition is undertaking I wrote a poem for Sarah.
It was lovely to meet you all.
Until we meet again, may your ways be blessed.
In 100 years (for Sarah)
Sitting in the beautiful ruins
under young trees becoming ancient ones
we give grace-filled space for each of ours to be their very own – and still be ours.
We greet our kin every morning
with the sun
with love
with respect
with gratitude.
They are many
Feathered
Four legged
Finned
Two legged
Many Celled
One Celled
Ancient and brand new.
Our living systems
hold them all
learn from them all
nurture them all.
Each child is cherished
because
all the children are all our children
Every night we gather and sing the sun down
sending our gratitude and respect out to the universe and
Home to our hearts.
Melissa Kelly is the mother of Madeleine, and wife of Deren Kellogg whose parents, Jan & Earl Kellogg, have served in the larger Mennonite community for decades. She is a rare Seattleite who was actually raised there, but, isn’t so rare in her deep love of the place. She has been a grad student, a post-doc, a professor, a nanny, and is now a member of Seattle Mennonite Church running the office there. She has written scholarly works, curricula, and website posts, but, prefers to fall back on early study with Nelson Bentley and write poetry.