Rev. Michelle's Message September 11, 2025

Last week I took my annual post-Labor Day trip to Guerneville, and this year I brought Alexander with me! We had an amazing time and I’ll be sharing some of our adventures with you this Sunday. I keep going back to Guerneville because there is just something about it that I really love. It’s a feeling I have when I’m there, a vibe that the whole place has…

For example, they have some really cool little shops and funky little art galleries and such, but every time I tried to visit them this past week, they were closed. When I finally managed to catch one shop open on the last day, I said to the owner, “I had a hard time finding you open! What time do you normally open?” And she said, “Well, we usually try to open around 11 a.m. but sometimes it’s later. We’re usually here by noon. But honestly, around here we work on river time.” “Ahh, I said, I understand.”

And I did understand. In Guerneville, life has a slower pace. Shops open when they open. It seems that in river time, people matter more than strict time schedules; life matters more. And that’s a vibe I can really appreciate.

Now I’m not saying we should all just do whatever we want with no schedule at all—that would be chaos! But I truly appreciate that slower pace of life on the river and I appreciate that there are more important things in life than opening at a certain, exact time. I appreciate that people and their lives come before set schedules and everything seems to get done somehow anyway. Maybe we could all stand to bring a little bit of that river time-vibe to our own lives.

This Sunday we’re going to look some more at the concept of “embodiment” which Vicky introduced a couple of weeks ago. An important part of embodiment is slowing down enough to be present in our bodies, to let our over-active minds calm down so we can be more in tune with our senses and more present for our life’s experiences.

Again, I’m not advocating for total chaos, just putting people and our lives and needs and experiences above rigid schedules. Slowing down enough to sit at a table on the sidewalk and have a famous Big Bottom Market (now called Piknik Market) freshly-baked biscuit and a cup of coffee and watch the people walk by. In Guerneville, people greet one another on the street, stop to chat, and just generally seem happy, peaceful, and content. If that’s what river time’s about, then river time’s for me!

River Blessings,

Rev. Michelle