Three "Blooms" From the Membership Garden!

By Elizabeth Corbett, Programs & Membership Coordinator

As the season of spring continues blooming around us outside, it seems as if lots of happenings are popping up on the Programs and Membership calendar.

First, a new batch of Westsiders has introduced themselves on the trifold in the back of the sanctuary. If you haven’t been able to get into the sanctuary and meet Curtis, Len, Judy, Linda, Diane, and Elizabeth, check out the link in the Members’ Area. There’s an extra little bonus in the form of new chemistry-related jokes. If you have a hankering to be up on the board and to share your story, just email me at membership@westsideuuc.org , and I can make it happen!

Reverend Carol and I plan to visit The Bottom the first week of May to converse with the staff and find out how we can work together to support the aims of this organization. If you remember, Doretha spoke at a service earlier this year when she outlined the different programs The Bottom offers. They do have a bookstore, and if you have a copy of Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste that you don’t mind donating, please get that copy to Elizabeth or Reverend Carol soon. Judy Winchester also wrote an article for the weekly newsletter about this need. We expect to come back from this visit with many ideas about new Justice and Generosity projects for our congregation to engage in. Reverend Carol wrote in her column last week that “it’s a good idea to expect good things,” and I expect good things will come from our relationship with The Bottom.

This was not a membership activity, per se, but it was a wonderful opportunity to connect with other Westsiders. I offered a two-part auction item to read the little book Love That Dog, in which the character Jack learns to love poetry by mimicking poems by famous poets. And that’s what we did in our two sessions. In the first session, we modeled our poems on William Carlos Williams’ so much depends, and a week later, we wrote poems from Robert Frost’s The Pasture. You can read our sweet little poetry jewels from William’s here and from Frost's poem here. Reverend Carol also wrote in her column last week about the element of surprise when planting a garden, and I was reminded of that element when sitting at the table and creating with Judy and Ellen who joined me. We didn’t know what others would write about or how we’d be able to nurture the growth of each others’ poems. Would someone need help with a rhyme? With honing the topic of the poem? What words or ideas could we think of to help the writer? I think great fun was had by all, and if you’d like to get together monthly to write some poems like these (modeled on other poems), let me know. Who knows what we’ll make bloom!