In a time when so much feels tumultuous, is a place to be, belong, and become enough?
I find myself returning to this question. The needs around us are real. We want to make a difference—to accomplish something meaningful, to see outcomes, to know that our efforts matter. There is much to care for, much to mend.
Yet in our urgency to respond, we can neglect something essential: our need for a place to dwell. A place where we can bring our whole selves—body, mind, and soul. Where weariness is welcome alongside hope. Where we can ask the questions for which we have no ready answers, find companionship, and give ourselves to the lifelong work of becoming more fully human.
Here at The Meetinghouse, we understand this through a fourfold way: welcome, restore, dwell, and return back into the world.
We begin with welcome. Come as you are, with the life you are actually living. Bring your curiosity, your joy, your uncertainty, your grief. Belonging begins when there is room for us to be present without having everything figured out. Over time, we learn to extend that same welcome to one another.
We make room to restore. The pace of life can leave us scattered, disconnected from our bodies and from what sustains us. Through movement and stillness, music and art, nature and conversation, we begin to attend again. We notice our breath. We discover what needs tending. We allow ourselves to receive care.
We learn to dwell. This may be the most unfamiliar invitation of all: to linger, to remain, to let a place and its people become familiar. To share a cup of coffee without rushing toward the next obligation. To sit with a painting, a question, a sacred text. To return often enough that strangers become companions and our roots begin to deepen.
And then we return back into the world—into the particular lives, relationships, and responsibilities that await us. Into the kitchen and the workplace, the difficult conversation and the neighbor’s need. We carry something of what we have received: a little more patience, a capacity to listen, the courage to act, a willingness to care.
These movements become a rhythm we return to throughout our lives. We offer welcome and discover our own need to be welcomed. We serve and grow weary. We return, receive, and go forth again.
This fall, there are many ways to enter that rhythm at The Meetinghouse:
- Poets & Prophets Wisdom Circle begins October 1, meeting from 4:30–6:00 p.m., with Mirabai Starr’s Wild Mercy guiding reflection and conversation across spiritual traditions. This is a drop in discussion, so come to as many as you want!
- Live Music in Shields Hall, October 2, 6:00–10:00 p.m., and the Acoustic Song Circle, October 4, 2:00–4:00 p.m., invite us into the pleasure of music together.
- Poets & Prophets—A Formational Journey begins October 9 at 10:30 a.m., offering space to attend to who we are becoming.
- Invasive Plant Removal Day, October 10, 9:00 a.m.–noon, invites us to care for the wetlands.
- Wisdom After Hours: Be a Kind Human, a conversation with Bob Martinsen, takes place October 11, 2:00–3:30 p.m.
- In the Gallery, Bill Gore’s The Saugatuck Cosmology continues through October 11. Fruma Markowitz’s Everything Under the Sun opens October 18, with a reception from 2:00–4:00 p.m.
- Forest Bathing, October 18, 1:00–3:00 p.m., offers time to slow down and attend to the natural world.
Alongside these gatherings, our ongoing wellness offerings, including yoga and meditation, invite us to nurture body and mind in community. Ridgebury Congregational Church gathers for worship every Sunday at 10:00 a.m. in the historic Meetinghouse, making room for prayer, music, reflection, and fellowship. As an Open and Affirming congregation, RCC welcomes you wherever you find yourself on life’s journey.
You can explore these invitations and find registration details at meetinghouse.life.
Is a place to be, belong, and become enough?
It is enough to be worthy of our care. And what takes root in such a place can travel far beyond it—in the ways we listen, the choices we make, and the care we offer.
Come dwell awhile. Bring your whole self. There is room for you here.
With joy,
Deborah Rundlett
Director, The Meetinghouse
