July 17:
We hear many despairing voices around us today. So many problems look huge and unyielding: climate change, global economic disruption, economic and racial inequality, violence both far away and close by. People are doubting their ability to make positive change happen. How do we doubt this doubt? Where do we find hope when hope is hard to find?
Rev. Elena Rigg:
Rev. Rigg is minister emerita of Unitarian Church North, a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Mequon, Wisconsin, just north of Milwaukee. In 2008, when Elena retired from ministry, she was sad to leave this congregation. She and her husband Dave (a history teacher for forty years) were not sad to leave Wisconsin winters, however, and happily left the snows behind and moved to Fort Myers.
During their seven years in Fort Myers, Elena was active in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fort Myers. In addition, she was, and continues to be, a member of the Florida Community of Mindfulness, a Buddhist mindfulness and meditation community, which has now established a Practice Center in Tampa. Last year, Elena and Dave decided to “retire” again while still healthy and move to a retirement community that could offer services and support as they aged. That decision brought them to Atlantic Beach and to the Jacksonville area, which they are coming to know and appreciate.