If I can stop one Heart from breaking/ I shall not live in vain/ If I can ease one Life the Aching/ Or cool one Pain// Or help one fainting Robin/ Unto his Nest again/ I shall not live in Vain.

Emily Dickinson

In Untamed, Glennon Doyle suggests our lives are guided by old memos. Memos that tell us about our sexuality, faith, culture, identity, and much more. Krista Tippett often asks guests on the On Being podcast about their relationship with church or God or Higher Power or religion — however they make sense of Spirit — growing up. Both memos and origin stories are keys to self understanding and connection. This poem is part of my faith memo and faith origin story.

Growing up, my family went to St. Mark’s United Church of Christ in New Albany, Indiana most Sunday mornings. I sang in the choir from the age of 5 to 18. Every Sunday, there would be a children’s sermon when the children would come forward to the front of the church and hear a special message. Around the age of 8 or 9, I was asked to deliver a children’s sermon.

I started the sermon with this poem. I am not sure where I found it, but I remember memorizing the text. I remember being nervous and standing in in a short-sleeved pink and white stripe cotton dress in black patent leather shoes on marble floors in front of the church. I remember inviting adults to join me. I probably talked very fast and headed back to pew as quickly as my feet would carry me. That church had been my spiritual home and the place where I found my spiritual voice.

Today, the poem’s themes still reverberate. They require me to serve others. They challenge me to find and live my purpose. They encourage me to be humble, grateful, and generous. They remind me that a single robin matters.