We are entering a season of abundance—those few weeks each year when we celebrate, despite the anxieties and uncertainties that loom ahead. No matter our circumstances, many of us will find ways to be generous.
For many of us, as we near the end of our calendar year, this is also a season of reflection. True reflection is grounded in what we know to be true already and the imagination to find hope for the future. As I think about the past year at Aurora Commons, it has truly been a year of abundance—specifically, an abundance of people. Our staff team now includes 19 members, 14 of whom have been with us for a year or more. We faced some incredibly challenging days—days when we couldn't meet the demand for our programming.
On those days, we ran out of hot meals by am, and sign-up lists for advocacy and our clothing closet filled up for the day within the first hour of opening.
Yet, there was never a scarcity of love and care for one another. And it is this love that binds our community together. An average strawberry contains around seeds, meaning each fruit holds the genetic blueprint for new strawberry plants.
Each plant, in turn, produces about 32 strawberries. So, in one season, plants could yield 6, strawberries—or 1,, seeds. In this way, each strawberry carries the potential to multiply itself, to share life abundantly. The lesson here is that strawberries produce life— not just for themselves, but for others as well. This life is deeply dependent on factors beyond its control, such as soil, water, and climate, but it thrives nonetheless. It would be easy to get stuck in the reality of scarcity our neighbors experiencing homelessness and poverty face as they attempt to navigate the broken systems of social services in their pursuit of health and healing.
