Sunny and Serene

My good friend Sally celebrates a big birthday today. I won’t tell you the exact number, but she’s now 10 years eligible for AARP membership. You get the idea.

Sally and I have worked together for the last two years, but we’ve been friends more than twenty. When I was considering hiring Sally, the first issue we discussed was our friendship. Both of us felt that our friendship was important and we didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize it. So, we proceeded cautiously, gingerly, hopeful that we could work together and still remain good friends. I think we’ve succeeded. In fact, I think we’re even better friends now because we spend more time together and know more things about each other’s lives.

I describe Sally to others as “sunny and serene.” She has a beautiful smile, a generous heart, and a young face that belies her chronological age by at least ten years. Sally’s family members laugh at the thought that she’s sunny and serene; they know a different Sally than I do.

I also know a different Sally, one with an edge that complements sunny and serene. We recently painted and redecorated our offices. In the planning stage before the work began, a group of our staff gathered to talk about options. A couple of staff members said they would like to have one wall of their individual offices painted with an accent color. Sally listened very patiently and, mindful of budget constraints and the vagaries of egalitarianism and vanity, declared, “There will be NO accent walls in this office.” That was the end of it.

I love Sally. She reminds me of our Saint Clement community. We’re sunny and serene. We have a beautiful smile and a generous heart. But we also have an edge; an edge that is mindful of what’s most important in life and in the world. That’s why we’re engaged in so many efforts that reach beyond the boundaries of our small community: a hypothermia shelter for men in winter; bag lunches for the soup kitchen; thrift shop; work with ALIVE (Alexandrians Involved Ecumenically), and so many other external ministries that look out into the world.

Here at Saint Clement, we are sunny and serene; and we have an edge. Happy Birthday, Sally! Thanks for helping me appreciate this place that I love so much.

-- Pat Jones