Southern California has needed this rain. Our native plants and wildlife needed rain. Our hills and valleys, streams and deserts, all needed this rain. I am thankful that we have received rain in abundance this year and bless the life-giving rain.

But now, honestly, I am sick of it. Can we please, please, please see the sun now, and maybe even temperatures above 70?

So anyway, getting back to our monthly themes, life is a journey. Sometimes the road gets wet or bumpy, difficult or dangerous. Journeys do in fact have twists and turns, with both expected and unexpected changes. John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens while we are busy making other plans”.

In the journey of our congregation, we are at an interesting juncture right now. As I write this, we have just competed the second round of voting for a new additional name. Whenever you are reading this, perhaps a week from today, you will probably already have been told the two names that came out on top in the voting. For me, right now, there is the delicious sense of wonder and not knowing.

It is my hope that the voting process, and the conversations over coffee or by text, will have strengthened the communal sense that we are all in this together.  Our interconnected web proclaims that we are, and I think it is right.

The name I submitted didn’t even make the cut, but I liked a handful of those that did. Before I voted yesterday, I hadn’t even fully decided what order to put my top three choices in. My point is that there is that there may not even be one perfect name. But I am ready to embrace whatever the results of the vote are.  I am ready to start the next part of our journey together, and I hope you are too. Together we can show the world what we are made of.

The people of our congregation, both now and in our heritage, as well as the mission statement proudly posted in our sanctuary, are the best representation of what we believe. Not the building, not the name, but us.

May our journey continue to move us forward.