Text Box: Interfaith Celebration Gathering Sunday, August 13, 2000 Interfaith Celebration Gathering Service Service agenda: Opening Prayer Readings Message OPENING PRAYER: Dear Mother, Father, Great Spirit, God, please hear my prayer. Hear me, oh Lord, as I cry out in my pain. Please know that while I do not welcome the pain, I welcome the lessons that it brings. Help me to be open to learning them. Guide and direct me in growing as You would have me grow. I ask this knowing that all I need do is ask and it is granted. AMEN READINGS: Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health. Carl Jung In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends. J. Churton Collins Trouble is only opportunity in working clothes. Henry J. Kaiser There is no education like adversity. Benjamin Disraeli Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later. Frederic Chopin MESSAGE: Memo to My Poisoners: Thank You! I came to a startling realization this week—I probably need to thank the people who have created adversity in my life. Without the trials and tribulations, the problem, challenges, and relationship glitches, I would have missed valuable lessons. I was reminded of this by a television commercial this past week. The ad was for clothing for pre-teens and teens. The pitch was “When you look good, you feel good.” There was a time a few years back when I would have agreed with this statement. I enjoyed nice clothes, and shoes to match, and really felt a whole lot better when I looked good. I had more confidence, was more outgoing, and even solved problems better when I looked good. Unfortunately, it took the ravages of pesticide poisoning to show me that how I look is not really connected with how I feel, or how I function. When my body became swollen to the point that the only things I could wear were my nightgown and robe, I began learning this valuable life lesson. Kind friends, at my request, brought me an extra-large, fushia cotton gauze dress. This dress replaced my nightgown and robe as the clothing I wore on my infrequent outings to the doctor. For the first time since I was young, I went without makeup most of the time. The me to whom I found myself relating during this time was nothing like the me I had gotten used to over the years. Of course, this whole process required that I connect with who I am on a very deep level. It also led me to connect with God at a much more profoundly deep level than I had previously experienced. God was my sustenance, my road map, and my guide. Without God’s help, I was just a person living a hellish nightmare. With God’s help, however, I was a person having a growth experience. Since those time, I have given away three wardrobes of clothing. Clothing is now something that is necessary for living in society, but not something that is necessary for me to feel good about myself. Every day is now a good day to feel good about myself, regardless of what I am wearing, what our house looks like, what our neighbors think, or what other folks think about me. Whatever covers the swelling is what I wear. This is only one of many lessons I have learned since I was poisoned in 1996 by the indiscriminate application of RoundUp in our yard without our knowledge or permission. So, I suppose I need to thank the people who were responsible for poisoning our yard, killing our cat, and almost killing me. Without their help, I would have continued on with my assumption that how I looked actually had something to do with how I feel. I also would have missed out on a wealth of other valuable lessons I could not have and would not have learned. After all, we humans like safety and security. Unfortunately, our most valuable lessons are learned in perilous times, not in safety. Just as the oyster creates a beautiful pearl from the irritation of the grains of sand that get into its shell, we re-create ourselves when inspired by adversity. And, when we put God in charge of this re-creation, we finally begin to learn about our magnificence that has been there all along. May God add a blessing to these humble words. AMEN © 2000 Rev. S. Suzanne Fisher