also a joy!  For the first time since I arrived in Houston, I was able to gather with interfaith colleagues and meet them in person.  And it was the first time many of them had gathered for an interfaith event and seen each other since COVID.  And so, there was joy and beauty in the midst of pain and terror.  So it goes with life itself. As we move into April, there will be more and larger gatherings at church – a memorial service for deForest Ralph, a prayer vigil for Trans Lives, the Kilgore Lecture, and so on.  There will be much joy as we gather together in person and resume some of those large church events.  There will also be grief and pain for all that we have lost and how much the world has changed over the last two years.  The pandemic is a traumatic event that has happened to us.  We have been irrevocably changed by it and there will be no going back to things as they used to be. And so there will continue to be adjustments to our lives and to the church and there will be still more new things to learn.  There will be beauty and peace and joy and there will be grief and pain and fear.  So it goes with life itself. So it goes with all of us making our way, together. So it goes, in Love, Rev. Michelle]]>