Dear Friends,

This week, a parishioner passed along a wonderful article - Deep roots and wide branches: Polarity Management and the tensions that aren’t resolvable, or, Be More Tree by Elizabeth Oldfield.

I found her words to be a stream of life-giving water in these turbulent times. Below, you will find a few excerpts for your consideration and reflection. 

• I can’t be the only one feeling the need for more spiritual core strength. I am managing two seemingly opposing instincts: I want to resist this reactionary moment by reaching out to those different from me, to model a hospitality I do not see playing out on the world stage. I’m also aware of a desire to pull back into safety, to shelter in sameness and unquestioned belonging. I do not have the energy to deal with Those Guys. Today I am writing about why these two instincts are not opposites, but might instead be poles in a healthy rhythm or two parts of a dance.

• We were always looking for the best arguments from a range of possible perspectives. This process quickly made clear that the semi-concious mental model I was carrying (people who disagree with me are stupid or terrible or both) was not sustainable.

•  Polarity Management is a concept developed by Barry Johnson, and I came across it through Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand, whose Ted X talk is a useful introduction … The key concept is that while many problems have one right answer, polarities have two interdependent answers. They are unresolvable in that sense, so instead need to be managed. Johnson uses breathing as the key metaphor. Inhaling and exhaling are both essential processes. The midpoint between them is not the place to aim for. We must instead do both at the right time. They both have upsides, and, if we only did one of them, major downsides…Inhale, exhale, repeat.

•  My most precious biblical metaphor is a tree. Polarity management is illuminating but still too machine-like for my tastes … Trees are woven through my scriptures. The tree of life in Eden which Adam and Eve reject in favour of the tree of knowledge, a tree of execution at the crucifixion, a whole forest of trees of life in the final book of Revelation. There is one image that comes up multiple times like a leitmotif, it’s repeated refrain calling back and forward through the centuries. Here it is in Jeremiah:

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,

whose confidence is in him.

They will be like a tree planted by the water

that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

and never fails to bear fruit.”

• We have found that being unapologetically ourselves gives others permission to do so too. Our distinctive Christian identity seems to be no barrier to people of radically different outlooks feeling at home in our space. Difference is not, as I am always saying, inherently a threat. It is often a gift. It is certainly more interesting. It is only when we become defensive and defended, anxious and triggered by that difference that it causes problems. Deep roots alone makes us rigid. My husband says “when we don’t welcome strangers, we become strange”. Wide branches without roots leaves us fragile, without the resilience to be of use, long term. The deeper our roots, the more sure of our own belovedness, the more open we are also able to be.

To dig a little deeper visit: https://morefullyalive.substack.com/p/deep-roots-and-wide-branches?r=3n812o&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true

In these times, may we find our roots deep in the soil of God’s grace and our branches spread wide sharing God’s healing that we all may indeed live more fully in the truth of belovedness.

Forward in faith!

During the 1520’s, St. Ignatius Loyola began writing about the emotions that took hold of him — feelings of gratitude and anguish, consolation and sadness — while encountering the Scriptures. Those meditations eventually became the Spiritual Exercises, which were first published in 1548. The object is to help people develop their attentiveness, their openness, and their responsiveness to God.

Join us this week, as our very own Alex Englert offers us an introduction to the practice of Ignatian spiritually.

Calling all tenors! Trinity's adult choir is in need of a couple volunteer tenors. If this might be you, please reach out to our Director of Music Meg Harper at harperm@trinityprinceton.org!

During February, please help our outreach partner Arm in Arm with their "Valentines for Food" food drive.  Preferred foods are: cans of vegetables, fruits, proteins, and beans; peanut butter, rice, cereal, seasonings, honey, vegetable/corn oil, and maseca flour.  Food donations can be dropped off in the red wagon in the hallway by the south transept or the wheelbarrow in the narthex.  Donations of money to buy food are also accepted at https://arminarm.org/valentines/. For more information, contact Melissa Scott at mebscott@comcast.net or Ann Zultner at ann@Azercpa.com.

The history of Trinity Princeton has been documented in many books, but they end with the Rev. Leslie Smith!  We need your help to fill in a Trinity Timeline from 2006 to 2025!

The Trinity Timeline will be on tables outside Pierce Hall. Our centered timeline, on a long sheet of paper, is marked off into chronological increments.  Please add your personal Trinity events (e.g., Weddings, Baptisms, Confirmations, Funerals, and other personal memories) above the timeline and key Church events below the timeline.  You may add anything you want!

The 2006-2025 Trinity Timeline will be outside Pierce Hall for a couple of weeks. Have fun!