Improvise!

After a boiler which may or may not have "ruptured" during the Arctic Blast of 2023 threw off our plans for worshiping in our own space, Rev. Lara spoke to us about the beauty of improvising, as we worshiped down on Dane St. Thank you to the generosity of Ed and the parishioners of Christ Church for lending us their beautiful space.

== Transcript ==

So to say that Saturday was not the day that I had planned it to be, would be an understatement. I had envisioned spending my day hunkered down under a blanket with the door open, instead I was opening and closing windows and moving space heaters around the building, talking to the fire department, and getting updates from the furnace contractor--were not on my agenda.

I might be going out on a limb here, but I'm confident that Kevin Flynn and Patrick Conner would agree with me. And I'm sure that Barbara Conner never expected to be on the phone gathering supplies, as I called it the "army of space heaters," just like in droves arrived.

So gathering supplies and updating committee and board members, most of the day.

But when a faulty igniter on the hot water boiler, boiler, Andy clarified the terminology
for me so that I'm accurate, thank you, Andy, caused a backup of oil in the unit so that it finally ignited and it caught on fire, thus triggering the hot water boiler to rupture, all bets were off.

Now when I got the call that there had been an explosion and a fire, I had envisioned
the worst. So I was relieved when I arrived to find that the building was intact and the damage was contained to the boiler unit.

Now again, we're still assessing the chimney damage and after things settled down, we found out that a pipe in the coffee room had burst probably from the need to air out the building from the smoke and the photocopier is not happy, shall we say right now, hence no orders of service.

But I'm sure, and I am sure in the coming days, that more will be revealed.

But so far, it's all manageable.

The events of yesterday caused me to stop, to ponder, to reflect, and quite frankly,
they honestly make me grateful, so, so grateful, first of all, that no one was in the building at the time and that no one was hurt. I'm grateful that the damage was contained, grateful for the quick response from the Kennebunk Fire and Rescue and our skillful technician, I think his name was Jake, was it Jake? Jake. Pardon? Joel.

So, Joel from Fielding's heating and cooling.

I'm so appreciative to the legions of members and friends of this congregation that showed up and helped out, to the local clergy that called and texted to see if there was anything that we needed, and to the care and concern that members of our community, the larger community expressed in social media posts.

And I'm grateful for all the volunteers today, those who were willing to figure out things as we go.

To Chris Wells, who 24 hours ago thought that his tech responsibilities were going to be routine. I am eternally indebted to our staff; I've been in touch with both Barbara and Allison, and especially Chris Staknys to you for being willing to change the music at the last minute.

I'm sure there are many others that I have inadvertently forgotten to thank, but please
know how much we appreciate all that you've done.

And all of this got me thinking, how much of our lives are really just a game of improv?

Even though we may go to considerable lengths to conceal it, none of us really know what we're doing. Now, we might have some knowledge, some experience in certain areas, but the overall scheme of things, we are just figuring it out as we go, aren't we?

I think that's why I was and have been so taken with the idea of improv for years when the show, Whose Line Is It Anyway, was on. My Thursday night was consumed with a good half hour of belly laughing. I recently found some of the old clips and just keep watching them, it's so wonderful.

And I love that it acknowledges that we are really just making it up as we go. But as Tina Fey says, there's also some guidance for how we can help ourselves and others to succeed. So to me, it really does boil down to the "yes, and."

One of the first things I learned about improv was that your goal was to always make your partner look good. When I teach and do lead workshops, that is one of my absolute foundational pieces is to always make my co-teacher look good. Because what comes out of that and that energy from loving and appreciating the person that
I'm working with, far outweighs anything that we ever see. So when we are faced with the situation that we are not quite sure what to deal with.

Try "yes, and."

When we find ourselves resistant to new ideas or a different way of doing worship.
Maybe begin with "yes, and" rather than "no, but."

We're scared and uncertain about what our next steps are, how our life may turn out.
Lean in to the "yes, and."

Improvisation dares us to trust our instincts and appreciate others along the way and what they bring to the table. Having the principle of "yes, and" can help us find our direction, keep us on our toes, and help us remain flexible.

Yes and.
Yes and.

Amen.