Published in Foreshadow Magazine on July 7, 2025: https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/a-creed-in-santa-cruz.
Illumination
A year after my mother’s death, we went to visit my brothers in Santa Cruz during the week after Christmas. Ohio was cold and snowy, and California was vibrant with life. Little pools of water along the shore line were rich with creatures and color. We went whale watching. We hiked along the bluffs. We looked down at seals who were resting under the piers.
On Sunday, I went alone to church in a little seaside chapel. It was the church of my tradition, with an Episcopal eye for beauty in the arrangement of the sanctuary, and an Episcopal ear for beauty in the words of the prayer book. When we stood for the Creed, I found myself saying it for the first time in a year. And I had a sense that the strangers in that little room had held it for me, that they had been waiting for the moment when they could give it back to me.
I have long-held suspicions about community. I have been hurt by community, rejected by it, required to prove myself within it. There have been times when I’ve disliked and avoided it. But on that Sunday morning, I understood part of its power. It was able to hold my beliefs, even when I could not, and return them to me when I was ready.
KPB Stevens 