We're all in the same boat.....

The wag put it this way: “We are all in the same boat with Christopher Columbus. He didn’t know where he was going when he started. When he got there he didn’t know where he was. And when he got back he didn’t know where he’d been.” So enjoy. Wherever you are, whatever is going on in your life right now is the birthing place of God for you. Say thank you.

-Joan Chittister

Can We Bridge This Gap?

To become neighbors is to bridge the gap between people. As long as there is a distance between us and we cannot look into one another's eyes, all sorts of false ideas and images arise. We give them names, make jokes about them, cover them with our prejudices, and avoid direct contact. We think of them as enemies. We forget that they love as we love, care for their children as we care for ours, become sick and die as we do. We forget that they are our brothers and sisters and treat them as objects that can be destroyed at will.

Only when we have the courage to cross the road and look in one another's eyes can we see there that we are children of the same God and members of the human family.

Henri Nouwen

Pure Hope

The hope
that is left
after all your hopes
are gone --
that is pure hope,
rooted in the heart.

David Steindl-RastGratefulness, The Heart of Prayer

photo from: http://flickr.com/photos/eyes1997/2336815659/

What are you Afraid of?

What you are
afraid to do
is a clear indication
of the next thing
you need to do.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Unless of course it's to ride the Stratosphere in Vegas -
I'm sure Emerson would never have condoned such insanity...:)
perhaps you have done this? Just looking at the picture is making my stomach plummet. What do you sense you are being called to that you are fearful of moving toward?

Pentecost 11/The Mustard Seed

The Tree From a Mustard Seed by Anne Brink of Visible Kingdom
http://visiblekingdom.com/about.shtml

Collect:
We feel like mustard seeds, tiny and insignificant.

Like unplanted seeds, we forget that it is our calling

to be planted in the warmth of God’s earth.

May the Great Spirit carry our seeds to fertile ground

where the roots of our faith may grow deeply

and the branches of our love be broad.

Written for the Union Church UCC of Tekonsha. Copyright Katherine Hawker

Disillusioned?

The function of disillusionment is to make us reevaluate what is really worth pursuing in life.
Disillusionment is a very important thing.

Until we find ourselves disillusioned, we are far too inclined to worship what is not God.

Joan Chittister

Let Your God Love You

Be silent.
Be still.
Alone.
Empty.
Before your God.
Say nothing.
Ask nothing.
Be silent.
Be still.
Let your God
Look upon you.
That is all.
He knows.
He understands.
He loves you with
An enourmous love.
He only wants to
look upon you
with his love.
Quiet.
Still.
Be.
Let your God - love you.

Edwina Gateley

Road Crossing

We become neighbors when we are willing to cross the road for one another. There is so much separation and segregation: between black people and white people, between gay people and straight people, between young people and old people, between sick people and healthy people, between prisoners and free people, between Jews and Gentiles, Muslims and Christians, Protestants and Catholics, Greek Catholics and Latin Catholics.

There is s a lot of road crossing to do. We are all very busy in our own circles. We have our own people to go to and our own affairs to take care of. But if we could cross the road once in a while and pay attention to what is happening on the other side, we might indeed become neighbors.

Henri Nouwen

Wounded Healers

"Nobody escapes being wounded. We all are wounded people, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. The main question is not "How can we hide our wounds?" so we don't have to be embarrassed but "How can we put our woundedness in the service of others?" When our wounds cease to be a source of shame and become a source of healing, we have become
wounded healers."

Henri Nouwen

Art by Sister Mary Grace Thul http://www.sistermarygrace.artspan.com/

"owning love
is like trying to take possession
of the air."

rodney smith

Return trip please...

"You won't get into Narnia again by that route...
Of couse you'll get back to Narnia again some day...
Indeed don't try to get there at all.
It'll happen when you're not looking for it...
Bless me, what do they teach them at these schools?"

C.S. Lewis

Love vs. Justice

Look

what happens

to the scale

when love

holds it.
It stops

working.

D. Ladinsky, Love Poems From God p. 238

High Time for Tea?

"It's high time the Church's unity
didn't depend on
women fading into the middle distance
in a nice floral tea dress."

Maggi Dawn, commenting on the Lambeth Conference which begins today in Canterbury, England.


to read the entire post on her site click here. this quote from that posting struck a deep chord within me...

Fear of Freeways?

Those of you who know me well are aware of the fact that i do not travel by freeway due to a fall i had many years ago in which i damaged my inner ear and was plagued with vertigo. Cars passing in my peripheral vision made me dizzy and then i would panic and slow down - i would not recommend doing this on the freeway :)

Well i'm here to tell ya that this past Saturday I drove on I-5 from Mill Creek to Capitol Hill (about 20 miles) and the world did not come to an end.....I am so proud of myself! There was an iffy moment or two while i drove over Lake Union (another phobia of mine - crossing bridges) but I kept repeating the mantra "I can do all things through Christ" (and yes i was saying it very very loudly).....I never thought I'd see this day :) It's as if I reclaimed a piece of my former life - the one in which i was more independent and less fearful.

We all struggle with fear in some way- whether it be fear of confrontation, driving on an overpass (ok....i'm not quite ready for that yet - just looking at them in this picture is giving me shortness of breath) , loss of a relationship or job or home, discovering a lump, etc. etc.

Fear is not bad in and of itself. We need it to survive. It is only when we allow it to control us that it becomes a negative. Roseanne Cash said the the key to change is to let go of our fears and so I am letting this one go! (I feel so empowered!)

A Conversation Starter....

"A literalist interpretation of Scripture tells us that God is a rock that sent a bird to cause a virgin

to give birth to a loaf of bread.

And this is supposed to be an improvement on obtaining a chiseled code of conduct from a flaming shrubbery in a cloud.

If a literal understanding is all

that is required for faith,

then I'm a yellow ducky."

-- Rabbi Ben Sylva

HT to Lisa

Got Crab?

It was Crab Fest at Uncle Bob's last night!
28 of them, all lined up and ready to be consumed.....yum!

Deep Breath

From my breath I extract God.
And my eye is a shop
where I offer
Him to the
world.

Love Poems from God by D. Ladinsky, p. 126
photo from here.

Time Heals?

"Time Heals", people say.
This is not true when it means that we will eventually forget the wounds inflicted on us and be able to live on as if nothing happened.

That is not really healing: it is simply ignoring reality.

But when the expression "time heals" means that faithfulness in a difficult relationship can lead us to a deeper understanding of the ways we have hurt each other, then there is much truth in it.

"Time Heals" implies not passively waiting but actively working with our pain and trusting in the possibility of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Saint Henri Nouwen


picture from harpreet.in

Who you Callin' Baby?

"If we really had come a long way,
nobody would be calling us baby.”
Flo Kennedy

Tell it like it is Flo!!! I recall the days of Virginia Slims. All the "cool" women smoked them - perhaps it was the word "slim" in the title....I myself was a Benson & Hedges Longs kind of gal.....sigh......I guess the good old days weren't actually that good, were they?

The Gospel = Success

"Christianity gives much to its adherents, but it is always perverted when it is presented as a success story. The gospel may do a great many things for us, but is deeply misunderstood if it is interpreted merely as a psychological instrument for our help. It is, instead, a relationship which begins with a dangerous and uncalculating commitment."
Source: Elton Trueblood: Confronting Christ

Drawing Nigh on the 4th of July!

Yes you did see this one last November
but sometimes I just can't help myself and after all,
today IS the Fourth of July!!!!

...and Jay, one of our favorite models here in the Young Men's Department of Sears Roebuck & Co., is also drawing nigh in what every "groovy guy" is going to be wearing this 4th of July!

Karen and the Squirrels

My friend Karen has an "issue" with squirrels - she doesn't like them getting into her bird feeders and describes them as "rats with fluffy tails"...She and her husband Bruce trap them and then take them for long car rides to "relocate" them to uninhabited parts of town....So when I saw this picture of this very dapper squirrel on another blog I thought that perhaps it was one of "their" squirrels "on the lam" (and if you are familiar with that last phrase then you are very old indeed!)

Wanted - Dead or Alive!
Sammy the Squirrel a.k.a. Chippy, Nutter, & Cheeky
Last seen at the Home of Karen and Bruce Noble who placed him in their Squirrel Witness Protection Program.....
Wanted for crimes committed against bird feeders in the area!
If you see this squirrel DO NOT APPROACH him -
(he may be carrying a concealed weapon under his fedora)

Is there a Narciccist in Your Life?

Half of the harm that is done in this world

Is due to people who want to feel important.

They don't mean to do harm -

but the harm does not interest them

Or they do not see it, or they justify it

Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle

To think well of themselves.

-- T S Eliot, The Cocktail Party

The Thread you Follow

There's a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. But it doesn't change. People wonder about what you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread. But it is hard for others to see. While you hold it you can't get lost. Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old. Nothing you do can stop time's unfolding. You don't ever let go of the thread.

The Way It Is, New & Selected Poems

by William Stafford