Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, May 3, 2026
It’s wonderful to be here with Durham Friends again. I wish we could be there in person. Thank you Leslie for the invite and for serving as elder for the whole body. Thank you Ken Jacobsen, my partner, for serving as my elder.
Wunee keesuq-Good Day. Nutus8ees- I am called Gail Melix also known as Greenwater. I am a member of Sandwich Monthly Meeting on Cape Cod, and a member of the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe in Patuxet, Ma, the land’s first name, also known as Plymouth. I have two faith communities, Indigenous and Quaker which share many of the same values. I find that they fit together well in beauty and in truth.
I was flooded with ideas of messages to bring today. After worship with discernment I found myself deeply led to speak of Joy, and to do this by sharing some of my stories that express HOW I experience Joy. I’m finding that the presence of joy, peace, and kindness is needed everywhere I go. Joy, peace and kindness is the presence that is needed now, paired with love. The despair that many of us are experiencing cries out for this Joy… to balance us into well- being. Can we go about cheerfully sharing our joy with one another?
I climb trees, I decided I couldn’t surrender this childhood joy. One day, I was in the arms of a white pine: silent, holding completely still. A blue heron lit on a branch, two trees down, about a yard from me. I waited and watched wondering when she would notice me. She did. We locked eyes for a good two minutes, before she hopped up and off the branch with a six-foot wingspan and flew, maneuvered—I don’t know how—through that dense thicket of pine branches, and with such Grace. I wanted to shout: Yes. Yes. Teach me that. Teach me that form of grace! Sometimes our hearts are made to be full to bursting with longing. I’m often suddenly surprised into joy when I’m in the natural world and I find that my faith accompanies me.
I have my favorite trees and anticipate the sighting of them. When I place my hands on a tree I feel an exchange of energy: a back and forth greeting and a response of shared delight. There is a sense that we are comforting one another. Even as a child, I had trouble keeping my hands off my favorite trees, and why should I? Is it a surprise that we should have favorite trees, the same way that we are drawn to a closeness and fondness for certain aunts, uncles, and grandparents?
When I hold completely still and quiet, hidden in a tree, all life around me loses the tension that exists when I am visibly present. The birds and the two- and four-leggeds come back out into the sun and air, once again. I sometimes wonder if we become invisible when we are so still. I’ve had songbirds light on me as if I’m a limb on the tree. I do know that if I sit long enough in stillness day after day, there will come a time when I transform into a feeling of oneness with all life; my separateness disappears. I am a part of the pulse of life, just one being in the web, no more or less important than other life. No hierarchy. I am fortunate to have this traditional knowledge, received from my F/father, my ancestors, and from Nature’s teachings. It is reaffirmed by Creator every day. One day while looking up into the tops of several very tall white pines that the sun was streaming through, I became aware of how very small I am. I am not the center of the world. Giving up ego for the reward of greater potential becomes a gift. I was given to understand that the face of Creator can be seen everywhere in the beauty of creation, and the Joy this brings is given freely to us.
I acknowledge and honor the relationship that I have with water during my walk by squatting on the bank of the Santuit River and submerging both hands in the water long enough to leave my scent in the river. I anoint my forehead with river water from one hand and the nape of my neck with the other hand, so as to carry her scent. I am in the river, and the river is in me. We are one. After all, we are 50-75 % water, the average being 60 percent water. Of course we are related: kinfolk. Some days I am given to singing or humming to the river. A soft singsong that has words or not, maybe hummed, is pleasing to do and appreciated by the river. If the songs have words, they always express gratitude and may be the same words repeated over and over. Wampanoags have appointed water keepers, always women, whose service it is to sing to the water. If we bear witness to the beauty of Nature And witness to the ways she suffers, we might be led to discern what is ours to do.; perhaps to be the voice for those who have no voice. What we love we protect, but for the desire and commitment to do so.
Creator and Christ are in the Joy I feel when communing with Nature. Because of this deepening relationship I have a greater ability for peace, deep listening, reverence and joy. These are sacred experiences, where joy and healing are being co-created by God and humans. There’s a reawakening to wonder that has created a wider path to my heart, and thus, to love.
I love to tell the story of the buttercups and me. Worshipping outdoors in the grass one day my attention was drawn to a patch of buttercups I was sitting next to. I love that deep yellow shade and their cheerful faces. I decided to hold them in the Light from a place of gratitude…. Suddenly, during worship, I realized that the buttercups were holding me.
I come to the path with this question, where will I find delight and joy today?
And now I’m asking you, where will you find joy today and how ill you share it?
I’m reminded Jesus came to teach us how to find joy. He said, “Never stop walking this road of love…as you walk in my ways my love will remain in you. I am saying this so your hearts will be filled with the same joy I have.” John 15: 9-11. First Nations Version of the New Testament, an Indigenous Translation
This joy that permeates the natural world that we discover in Quaker worship also permeates our shared inner universe of love.
Thank you friends. I love worshipping with you. Let’s move into this worship now.
Today’s message included excerpts from the article, The Delight of Being Alive, by Gail Melix, Friends Journal, February of 2025: https://www.friendsjournal.org/the-delight-of-being-alive/
