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Sunday Gathering

August 20, 2023 @ 9:00 am - 12:00 pm

Join us!

We gather in person every Sunday at Central Park Place. We would love for you to join us.

All events held in the Mackinaw Ballroom in Central Park Place (421 Columbus Ave., GH)

Sunday’s Schedule:

9am Pre-Talk:

Meet the morning’s teacher in a small group setting for an open discussion of the morning’s theme

10am Gathering:

Welcome, readings, meditation from a community member, teaching, and music

11am Talk Back:

A chance to share questions, comments and stories related to the morning gathering

C3 Kids:

Each week we provide a safe and welcoming environment for kids starting at 10am. If you are looking for a Sunday morning experience for your kids that includes C3 Values, creative activities, toys, books, games and outdoor fun (when weather permits), we are here to make it happen! Miss Mary is happy to be spending time with your kids!

Sunday’s Program and Reading:

Sunday, August 20, 2023

Letting go: The autumnal invitation of the creative cycle, Part 1.

Question frame: What if heartbreak and letting go aren’t the sign of something going wrong…but rather a sign of something going very right?

Brie Stoner is a Spanish-born writer, musician, and songwriter who now lives in Grand Rapids, and pulls from her multilingual and multicultural background. As a writer, her work has been featured in The Call To Unite: Voices of Hope and Awakening, a book featuring inspirational voices such as Oprah, Tim Shriver, and Elizabeth Gilbert. Brie launched her podcast “Unknowing” in 2021, exploring the spiritual path of creative possibilities with various authors, activists and artists.

Genna & Jesse: Drawing inspiration from their romantic nomadic lifestyle, Genna & Jesse might best be described as modern troubadours, generously offering listeners glimpses of their always-moving world with something fresh, true and genuinely independent. Their music features quirky chemistry, intricate vocal harmonies and ardent storytelling.

Music: Genna & Jesse

Gathering Host: Nelleke Knarr

Music: Genna & Jesse

Meditation: Leslie Newman

Moment of Silence

Reading/Teaching: Brie Stoner

“Heart break is unpreventable; the natural outcome of caring for people and things over which we have no control, of holding in our affections those who inevitably move beyond our line of sight.”

David Whyte

Look, the trees
are turning their own bodies
into pillars
of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,
the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders
of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is
nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned
in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side
is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.