Merging is an Ongoing Journey - A Returning Memory

Yesterday at the start of his sermon, Pastor Jody mentioned an experience that brought him back to one from his childhood.  After church I was thinking of many things that would bring back memories in my life, and especially church memories - like smells and song tunes.

I also have a few apps that like to bring back memories too.  My main app that does this is called Timehop, which shows me things I have posted on social media and pictures I have taken a year ago, 2 years ago, etc.  It's nice sometimes to have that yearly reminder of things.  Anastasia likes it sometimes because I can show her pictures of herself when she was younger.

But, it also brings up memories of things I posted.  And reminds me of things that at the time were hard but now first of all seem not that far away but also feel like such a long time ago too.

Screenshot of 3/13/2020's blog entry

Two years ago yesterday, I wrote this blog entry in what at the time I thought was just going to be a small series tracking the transition of being a member of the United Methodist Church of Wappingers to a member of Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church.  It was not really the start of the pandemic, but it was the start of being locked down in homes and when church buildings were closed.  We had done all this prep work to prepare for the next day.  And then we had to wait.  (And wait and wait it turns out.)

I remember a lot from this particular day.  I had been working on the photo presentation for the service.  I was fielding email questions from people of whether or not we were having the service.  I was feeling a bit of anxiousness about the day.  And then I got the email from our pastor at the time saying we would have to postpone the service because we couldn't meet together.

Everything I had been working on stopped.  (For the better honestly, I was able to better refine the photo presentation and add music doing it a completely different way!)  The emails I had fielded had to be replied to saying we were postponing with a date to be determined.  And then there was the wait that I described in the blog entry.

I'm not sharing this because it is a sad memory.  Because everything that has happened since has been great.  And even though it has only been 2 years, I feel like I've been part of of the church for longer than that.  That's how welcoming it was for me.  Even in the strange times we were in.

I'm sharing this because it is a memory that returns, at least on a yearly basis thanks to my apps.  And now, it will be twice a year since I'm blogging about it!  And I'm sharing it because it is a memory that led me to reconnecting with someone, and making connections with others.  And though at the time it was stressful and full of anxiety I can look back now and remember what it led me to.