Dear Friends,

Last week, as I cut behind Canterbury Elementary School on my way home, I had one of those moments where time seemed to slow down for me while the world seemed to keep moving. I paused to watch three girls flying through the air on the playground swings. These were power-swingers, pumping and pulling themselves up into the sky and then falling back and rising backwards up the other side of an ark, pulling their long legs underneath them and then stretching them forward again as they fell forward then rose up into the sky. 

At first I couldn’t hear them; they were a trio of silent movie actors, hair streaming out behind and then rushing over their head and shoulders. Their sneakers looked like pendulum weights on the ends of skinny legs. Maybe they were 11 or 12, in bright T-shirts and shorts. Then, I could hear their voices, but not the words. They had an easy rhythm of give and take: one voice, then another, then laughter, then a pause. Riding an arc of gravity and momentum, they soared up and back with as much purpose and carelessness as waves on a beach.

Then time started up again for me: twittering swallows bisected the blue sky; maples and oaks, leafed-out now, whispered around me, around the three wiry girls. And a message came as clear as the church bell: Summer! 

Even after a long year of school and work and long nights and cold days, summer has returned to Canterbury. The Farmers’ Market resumes, CUCC will worship outside under the maple tree, and together we’ll pitch in and recreate that Brigadoon of friendship and work and love – the Canterbury Fair! But let’s make sure we also pause – for some effortlessness flight, like friends soaring on swings – for those life-giving moments of summer freedom, fresh air, and friendship.

In Peace,

Becky Josephson

Pastor, Canterbury United Community Church