The Journey of Love from Age to Age, by Rev. Linda Olson Peebles, June 7, 2009

The Journey of Love from Age to Age by Rev. Linda Olson Peebles

     When our youth group went to Boston this year, to visit places special to our Unitarian and Universalist heritage, we went to Walden Pond, to see the homesite Henry David Thoreau built and was inspired by.

     People bring rocks to Walden Pond – to say “I love the journey to visit this place; and I love the meaning of Thoreau’s life.” Visitors add their rock to a pile of rocks that people from around the world have been adding to for about 150 years - that’s probably about five or six generations. I myself have gone there on and off over the years for more than forty years - a couple generations.

     The thing about taking a rock to Walden Pond:

     First, you have to know about it. Unless someone’s told you, you don’t realize until you go there the first time – and realize you have no rock.

     Second, you have to remember! Before you leave home, you have to add to your packing list – 1 rock, from my neighborhood. I have forgotten, and when I get there, I feel sad. This spring, when I forgot, I finally remembered in New Jersey, and the youth helped me not feel sad. They found a couple big rocks alongside the turnpike, and that’s what we took with us to Walden Pond.

     Third - and this is the kicker – you have to carry the rock from your car in the parking lot, on a long hike half way around the lake, up hill and down on a rugged trail. When you are by yourself, that rock can get heavy. When you have fellow travelers, you can take turns carrying the weight.

     When I take the walk around the Pond, with my rock, I remember other walks that I’ve taken there. I remember when I was a youth, walking with my sweetheart, first learning about myself and about Thoreau. I thought of him as I did of myself back then – a young idealist, a hippie, a civil rights protester.

     I remember when I was a young adult and first started taking teenagers, as a very new UU – I thought of Thoreau as I did of myself then, someone who was making connections with the history of our founding fathers, of Unitarian ideals, and with the fabric of the Concord community, and with sharing all this with young people.

     I remember being a middle-age adult, walking there with my roommate from seminary, after we’d both been ministers, and I was in Boston as a leader in the UU denomination. I thought then of Thoreau as a part of our UU history, as someone whose writings inspired Martin Luther King to make a difference in society, for people of all races.

     Each time I go – I see the pile of rocks, and think of all the rocks that were brought there in years past – by me, and by those I taught. And of course there are so many other rocks, brought by people I never knew.

     The journey has become not just the miles traveled from here to New England. The journey has become the years traveled, the years between Thoreau and King and me; and the years traveled between the young me and the older me, and now this still older me!

     Here at our church, in our RE learning groups, in our adult covenant groups, in our Sunday morning worships and our Wednesday night meetings, we have the chance to take journeys together, with people who are older and young than us, and with the older and younger parts of ourselves. We travel through time in stories we tell and things we learn. And in our church year, our annual traditions are like the rock pile – we come to them each year, and remember and discover – the September Water Communion, the Pet Blessing, the Working Together weekend and Walk to Help the Homeless; the Auction and Thanksgiving bread communion, the Mistletoe Mall and Solstice and Christmas Eve services; the Chalice Theatre, the Easter Egg hunt, the end-of-year potlucks and bridging ceremonies.

     You may not need a rock to say “Here am I again. I love the journey.” You maybe keep that in your heart. But I hope you will always be awake to the journey – with all the different people of different ages, helping you to carry that message throughout time and across the miles; and with the “you” you are now and all the different ages you have been and will be – as you travel through time and across the miles. And I hope you will help others carry the rocks of respect and love, inheritance and vision - remembering we’re all on the journey, no matter how young or old, no matter what race or ethnicity we are. We’re all on the journey, no matter how much we change and are different from one another, and ourselves in different ages. We’re all on the journey to honor life and love.

     Carry that rock, find people to help you carry the rock, and remember the rock. And may the journey be joyful and filled with love for every age!

• Star Trek Fan, Daughter, Wife, Mother, & Person of Color by Stephanie Tanner Weber