My Christmas message comes through dear friends Terry Hunt and Carol Jean Herring Hunt, wise people who came East from California to Toledo, bearing gifts.
Like many of my dearest friends, they no longer live in Toledo. They now live in Chico, California, closer to Carol's kids and her birthplace. One of the blessings of this holiday season has been re-connecting with them, through a "reunion" dinner at Mel and Annette Wicks, followed by a visit to my place for tea and more catching up.
Terry was a priest at St.Michael's Episcopal Church and then historic Trinity Episcopal in downtown Toledo. From Trinity, he conceived and ran "My Brother's Place," an urban community restaurant where anyone could come for a meal, and did. By the hundreds, daily, for some 15 years. Ever an idea person, Terry founded the FORUM, an innovative way to bring together corporate, political and social leaders of Toledo to envision the city's future, and this led not only to many great projects, like a Riverfront renovation, but also to the creation of Leadership Toledo, still going to this day. The Rev.Terry Hunt left a legacy.
I've always thought he had a unique vision and way of seeing the world ("spiritual seeds," he'd call them), and a Christmas Letter 2012 (below) shows why. Terry understands that we are human beings, mere mortals, who experience life in different ways, make mistakes and learn from them as we go. We are seekers of meaning and purpose. My brother Loren believed this too (I gave him a copy of an An Asperger Journey).
So does Terry's wife Carol, a dedicated nurse who performed wonders through the Visiting Nurses Association here in Toledo, and continued in public nursing for many years in California. She's back "home," and I am glad for her. Carol is a deeply caring person; she brings a special light to our lives, to her children's and extended family's lives, East and West, and to all her friends.
This Christmas letter is one of them, a message from wise people who came East bearing gifts. Merry Christmas every one, and a happy and healthy New Year.
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Terry was a priest at St.Michael's Episcopal Church and then historic Trinity Episcopal in downtown Toledo. From Trinity, he conceived and ran "My Brother's Place," an urban community restaurant where anyone could come for a meal, and did. By the hundreds, daily, for some 15 years. Ever an idea person, Terry founded the FORUM, an innovative way to bring together corporate, political and social leaders of Toledo to envision the city's future, and this led not only to many great projects, like a Riverfront renovation, but also to the creation of Leadership Toledo, still going to this day. The Rev.Terry Hunt left a legacy.
I've always thought he had a unique vision and way of seeing the world ("spiritual seeds," he'd call them), and a Christmas Letter 2012 (below) shows why. Terry understands that we are human beings, mere mortals, who experience life in different ways, make mistakes and learn from them as we go. We are seekers of meaning and purpose. My brother Loren believed this too (I gave him a copy of an An Asperger Journey).
So does Terry's wife Carol, a dedicated nurse who performed wonders through the Visiting Nurses Association here in Toledo, and continued in public nursing for many years in California. She's back "home," and I am glad for her. Carol is a deeply caring person; she brings a special light to our lives, to her children's and extended family's lives, East and West, and to all her friends.
This Christmas letter is one of them, a message from wise people who came East bearing gifts. Merry Christmas every one, and a happy and healthy New Year.
CHRISTMAS LETTER 2012, from Terry and Carol Hunt
While we wish we could be with each of you to enjoy this special season of the year, we must be in the East. Perhaps you will join us there by imagining we are following the Wise men. Yes, I do mean the ancient ones who followed a large and brilliant nova. In this letter we want to offer you a gift of all that we are learning on our journey east.
The three Kings are teaching us not to see ourselves as finished products, but to view life on earth as a laboratory in which we can make mistakes, be forgiven and try again; most importantly our mistakes can help us see who or what we love, and how what we love shapes, or misshapes us!
Strangely these ancient kings have become seekers; not something one would expect on any king. Perhaps it is because they are very old and have learned a startling thing: they were not wise enough to be kings!
They now seek the real King: one who is the archetype from whom all beings flow. They wish to apprentice themselves to him to learn to love as he loves and to right the wrongs his light reveals.
Like these ancient ones, we too are discovering we stand before a mystery and we are that mystery! The questions it asks are: Who are you really, and What is worthy of your life and love?
But the ancient ones tell us not to despair: we are not alone in this universe they say. God sends clues for solving mysteries in unexpected ways, and from unlikely messengers, to those who do such foolish things as follow stars! Terry and Carol
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