First of all SOOO sorry about the multiple messages on this post; my computer got in some weird loop and just and kept uploading it over and over right in front of me!! Becuase of this, I imagine I’ve flooded your in-boxes with silly messages regarding this update. Please forgive me.
Now the reason for the post: someone typed this up and forwarded it to Linda; it is the dedication for Lacey’s trail given last weekend. I didn’t clean it up perfectly but it is still worth the read. Thank you and again, my apologies:
Silver Creek has a long history of being a great place to live for both people, and animals.
What impresses everyone that comes into Silver Creek is it’s gentle manner, it’s more leisurely spread out nature, that is home to not only a wide variety of people, but also one that is filled with many barns, horses, pets, fields and wetlands.
Today, Silver Creek is adding to its history by starting to form a trail that will enrich the lives of many and afford them a path to walk and ride on, that is safe, peaceful, and enjoyable.
Whenever a community adds features that bring people together and shares in tasteful ways it’s beauty, it is moving in the right direction.
We are all enriched when our community is safe, and where people share common bonds, common interests and are growing in their understanding of what love is.
Today is a celebration of the kind of community we have been and want to become
So we gather together dedicate the Silver Creek trailhead and trail and in this dedication a vision for our community emerges that includes three C’s
Connection Caring and Coming together
We live in a time when it is very easy for people to separate and isolate. We live in a day of fragmentation.
This vision for a trail counters this tendency as it seeks to connect people and trails, to care for everyone’s well-being and to bring people together who otherwise may never meet.
This trail vision causes us all to think about what is good for the whole more than to fixate only on what is good for a part
It reveals a very real willingness to invest both time, imagination and resources to make something happen that will enrich the lives of many people for a long, long time while at the same time making Silver Creek a safer and more enjoyable place to walk, jog, and ride. Note—I didn’t say run because most of us are not running anymore.
How fitting to have in place at the beginning of the Silver Creek trail, a tree and rock in honor of Lacey Picard.
She is in our hearts and minds this and every day, as someone who lives in our community and one in whom we all care about and hope and pray for a full recovery.
She has brought us together as a community and has spoken into all of our lives. So I would like us to spend a few minutes thinking about the phrase that we find on the rock that is set here today in her honor. Because it is a phrase that means a great deal to Lacey and is worthy of us all taking to heart:
“The power of love is Infinite”
—–Love is truly one of the greatest words in the English language, but surprisingly many people struggle with understanding what love really is.
One of things about love many people to not fully realize is that love is not first and foremost a feeling, for love is an action verb.
—-To love someone is to do something for them that is good
To love someone is to do something for them that meets their need.
The problem with defining love as primarily a feeling is that our feelings change about as quickly as the weather in Park City. We all have sunny days, cloudy days, snowy days, and rainy days.
If we base our love on our feelings, we will be very inconsistent lovers at best.
But when we base our understanding of love as something we do, whether we feel like it or not, then the power of love can reach heights and accomplish things that will unleash it’s infinite power.
It is not that love is without feelings, as feelings often accompany love, but the essence of love as an action verb is to do something for someone to meet their needs and underneath this doing is a belief in the infinite value of every human being.
This means that people are worth the effort that love demands
The more we learn to value every human being, the more we can grow out of our tendency toward self-centeredness and independence into other-centeredness and interdependence.
The older I get the more I like the word interdependence.
To be interdependent means we need each other. To be more emphatic, we really do need each other.
The trail system that begins today cannot be accomplished by one person—it will take many people working interdependently. And here’s the good news, the Silver Creek trail system can be built with love as a major motivation.
Sort of like homemade cooking—-do you know why a homemade meal tastes better, even when it is made identically the same as a restaurant? The homemade meal is made and served with love—-and I would suggest making things with love makes all the difference.
Let us this day thank God for the gift of life, the beauty of this world, and the wonder of all the good things love brings our way as we tap into it’s infinite power.
—-One thing I need to add, that when we learn to love and do something for someone that meets their need, our lives, in the act of loving, become meaningful and rewarding.
In a very real sense. Love is it’s own reward. This means we do things out of love, we receive a reward and when we withhold love, we actually are hurting ourselves.
I experienced this yesterday as I was asked to speak at Rose Park at the dedication of 131 trees that they were calling Gratitude Grove. The grove was being dedicated to police firefighters and the military for their lives of service to all of us . Present at the dedication were children from Bachman elementary school who had made large thank you posters to personally hand to the public servants who were present after the ceremony. Well it was cold and the children were shaking, not unlike some of us here today. And as the choir from West HS was singing a closing song I had a vision to huddle the children near me into a circle and the warm each other up with a group hug.
And it was the best part of my day by far, as the children not only wanted the hug, they began laughing and sharing spontaneous sounds of joy, as we shared love in a most simple way and as they were warmed in the process. In warming their bodies their soul was warmed. My spirit leaped and I realized just how special each child was, just how valuable.
In owning yes in re-discovering their value, I was enriched. A smile broke out on my face and a small tear formed in my eye.
For what is true about love’s infinite power is this, we do not love other’s without being enriched in the act of loving. This experience is one of life’s greatest.
So may this trail be built with love, and may those who step foot on it, sense that it is not just another trail, but one that was built in love for their enjoyment and to make us into a community that is connected is caring and is one that comes together
Shall we pray: Oh God we thank you for this day and this opportunity in which we dedicate this trail to the power of infinite love. As the giver of life and creator of everything that is, we pause to give you thanks for allowing us to be alive and enjoy your world in all it’s majesty and beauty
We also thank you for allowing us to join our hearts together and to dream dreams that
Help us to make our community a better place and one in which people feel connected cared for and can come together
We say a special prayer for Lacey that you would continue to do a miracle of healing in her body and that the love that is here for her this day, would thrill her heart and give her hope to carry on. may the infinite power of love fill her heart this day and be part of her healing process.
We pray for provision in people and resources so that this trail could reach it’s full potential,
We pray for perseverance when the going gets tough, and patience when we want it go faster.
May the end product be better than any of us imagine, may the trail be used more than most of us think, and may the experiences people have while on the trail being delight to their heart, and joy to the heart of those who labored and gave of themselves by putting love in action, to make it happen.
Amen
