As long as I can remember, a framed cross-stitching hung in my mom’s kitchen that read, “Bloom where you are planted.” Staring at it over a bowl of cereal was part of my breakfast routine for years. Thirty years later, and with every new phase of my life, my mom still says to me in the most matter-of-fact way possible: “Well, Colette [insert sigh], just bloom where you’re planted.” My mom is a realist if I’ve ever met one, and she accepts change and growth like a champ. She knows, as I’m beginning to learn, that embracing the chance to replant ourselves can be full of opportunity and promise.
Love First took root in a community of loving people who nurtured and tended Love First to produce its first bloom – for which we’re eternally grateful. But it’s time to replant ourselves elsewhere and to imagine what it would look like to grow – and bloom – in a new community, surrounded by new and loving people who want to make it their own.
We couldn’t be happier to announce that Love First has found this new community at St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in Hingham, Massachusetts. Together with the Rev. Tim Schenck, the Rev. Jack Clark, and Sunday School Director Alexis MacElhiney, and with the blessing of the parish vestry, Love First will continue growing in love at St. John’s.
Our move to St. John’s is a chance to see a new version of Love First, to see what it looks like in this new community, and to continue doing what every Love First parish does: use the gifts of our community to deepen our love for one another, our neighbors, and our God. And we are grateful that St. John’s is ready to help us nurture this program so it can continue to grow and bloom in likely – and unlikely – places.
In the coming months, we can’t wait to show you what our new home looks like!