Chad Snyder

Hold this As it holds us Not tight, not grasping But gently, like a kiss A breath This joy, this sorrow It all comes from the same place A place of holiness, of wholeness We build that place, from, with, and in Love

There is a kind of music in gathering It’s familiar, this tune We’ve sung it together before Or if not sung, hummed along Or tapped our fingers, maybe just a little off the beat It’s familiar, this tune And yet We can never quite know it Because it is never quite written By the gift of our shared presence We sing into being each time we gather A new verse Never the same as the first

Fire is simple, really. A spark, a wick, oxygen to burn. Just chemistry, physics. Science. And yet. And yet. In the flame We see … dancing We sense gathered community We hear - yes hear - truth in its light We imagine a hope A love That flickers sometimes But still burns Before us And in us.