Rev. Michelle's Message May 22, 2025

Hello everyone! It’s been quite a while since I took two Sundays off in a row, so I feel like I’ve been gone forever and I am so looking forward to being back with you all this Sunday! Time off and self-care are such an important part of a healthy work-life balance, but I will be glad to be back in the pulpit where I am my happiest and most fulfilled self.

I greatly enjoyed my time off. The first weekend, I rented an Airbnb in the Santa Cruz Mountains with a hot tub, and basically spent the whole weekend soaking in the tub, reading my book, and sitting outside just gazing at all the beautiful trees and listening to the birds. I did some hiking including a hike up to a lookout point where I could see nothing but trees and where I spotted an osprey’s nest (see pic below)! I could hear mama osprey talking to her chicks and could see movement, but I didn’t have my binoculars with me. I only knew it was an osprey because I used my Merlin Bird ID app to identify it.

If you like birds and you haven’t already downloaded this amazing and completely free app, you should do so immediately! Whenever you hear a bird you want to identify, you open the app, press the microphone icon, and voila! It tells you with amazing accuracy what bird it is! There were so many birds at the place I stayed, it was just wonderful. I felt particularly connected to mama osprey with her babies since it was Mother’s Day after all. Reunited with Paco, my mom, and Alexander on Sunday afternoon, we had a lovely Mother’s Day dinner at Zelda’s On the Beach in Capitola.

Last weekend, we journeyed up to Santa Clara for the Special Olympics Spring Games where Alexander competed in swimming and won three gold medals (see pic)! We were pretty worn out after a full day in the sun, so it was nice to sleep in and relax on Sunday. I hope you all enjoyed your guest speaker, Rev. Dalia Adams, who was my counseling teacher in seminary. I heard it went well and both the workshop and Sunday talk on forgiveness were helpful and valuable. 

Special Olympics events are always a wonderful and inspirational experience. As I was thinking about what a remarkable organization Special Olympics is and what a difference it makes in the lives of so many folks with disabilities, I began to realize that Special Olympics is an awful lot like the kingdom of God Jesus was always talking about in the gospel accounts. To find out just how Special Olympics is like the kingdom of God and how it can inspire us to build a more inclusive and accepting society, come to church this Sunday! I can’t wait to see you there!

Sunny Blessings,

Rev. Michelle