Growth means Change

 

People have asked, “Whatever happened to Roberta?” Well, I am still here! I find lots of wonderful things to post but never quite get around to actually putting them on my blog. This in part is due to my scattered sense of self as I continue to grasp all the changes my husband and I have recently gone through with our business, our family and our dreams.

Last Thanksgiving we were struggling with the idea of closing our business, dissolving a partnership, familial estrangement and the panic that comes with drowning in debt. That was one year ago. What looked hopeless in our eyes was not. So during this Thanksgiving meal we expressed our gratitude for all that has happened since that last Thanksgiving:

In January we closed the statuary, and the world did not end. It was actually a relief. Then we sold our house after 5 years on and off the market. This was a relief, both emotionally and financially. And because we are not quite sure how we want to live (i.e. move into a house, buy a 5^th wheel, etc.) we chose to accept our daughter Faith’s invitation to move in with her family. Talk about downsizing! We are now in the process of paying down debt, and waiting for whatever is next…..

But as often happens, life happens as you wait….and a fine life it is! David is working less and spending more weekends at home (which is a very good thing) and I am working more. I’m enjoying the C.N.A. life skill classes I teach at the college, and the sacred time I spend with my Spiritual Directees. I’m slowly edging away from my role as Director of Spiritual Formation at St. Paul’s as I have recently taken on the position of part-time Chaplain for Assured Hospice here in Sequim! I was not expecting this. But then again, one never expects the gifts God brings. I have so much to learn and look forward to more growth…and we especially give thanks for our recent reconnection with our estranged family members.

As for the blog, I will be posting Advent reflections (which start next week) and of course the Wise Men will be making their annual appearance. They have been with me through all the changes and they too have had to deal with changes – like losing their home on their shelf…you know what whiners they can be!

In the meantime, know that I think of all of you….every day….and am grateful for such wonderful people in my life….May we all be at peace with our own souls….and with one another….

Roberta

unknown territory

 

Family Enjoying Thanksgiving Dinner

at St. Anthony's Dining Room in San Francisco

This is the day on which we give thanks, and oh, do we not have so much to be thankful for?  Besides my usual litany of family and friends I want to give a special thanks to my mother and father, who in the face of bigotry and economic failure in N. Ireland, took the risk to take their 2 year old daughter to seek a better future in a new country, the United States of America.  The year was 1955 and I was two. 

Most of the time I consider that story in the knowledge that I know how it turned out - which is also how I often read the sacred story of the birth of Christ...ho hum. But upon further reflection today I realize that my parents had no idea how they would be accepted, whether there would be work, or how they would provide for their child.  There were no guarantees and yet they took this giant leap into "unknown territory."  Sound familiar?  Is that not what God is always calling us towards? 

There are many stories that have been left untold about our families and we experience new connections and compassion as new ones are  revealed.  Case in point: I just learned from my mother that upon their arrival in San Francisco, my father spent many a long and lonely day looking for any type of work with no success.  What I didn't know was that his biggest joy every day was the knowledge that he would receive a hot meal from a group of Franciscans in downtown San Francisco.  I never knew that my father was on the receiving end of such kindness.  That new knowledge has enlarged my heart towards him and towards the hands of Christ who ministered to my dad and  countless others.  The founder, Father Alfred, opened the doors to St. Anthony's Dining Room (he did not want it to be labeled a soup kitchen) on Oct. 4th, 1950 (the feast of St. Francis) and the Dining Room continues to serve on average 2600 meals a day.  I'm constantly amazed at how God's sheep weave God's grace through all of our lives. 

So when it is my turn today at the dinner table to offer what I'm grateful for, I will mention the boldness and tenacity of my parents in seeking out a better life for their family and for those Franciscan friars who took the words of Christ to heart, "Feed my sheep." 

And as we edge closer to the season of Advent, I'd ask that you consider what "unknown territory" God may be leading you toward?

Happy Thanksgiving

1956 - St. Anthony's Dining Room

"I see God as one act -

just loving, like the sun,

always shining."

- Father Alfred, founder of

St. Anthony's Dining Room

Be Fruitful!

"Preparing food is not just about

yourself and others.

It is about everything."

Shunryu Suzuki

At our recent church staff meeting I was completely undone

by a fruit salad. Really. I was overwhelmed by the beauty

of the fruit - the colors/shapes/textures/ and yet I could not separate all of that from

the inner beauty of the woman who had carefully and lovingly crafted this work of art

for our nourishment and delight. It was a Christ-filled Eucharistic moment.

And I was not the only one to take a photo of this offering.

We all felt the "everything" that the author of this quote speaks of.

For a moment we hesitated about digging into that pineapple,

but we did so with gusto and do you know what it tasted like?

PURE LOVE

Thank you Elizabeth Sepesy

for gifting us with your fruitfulness

the grateful leper

Jesus healed 10 lepers in today's Gospel story.

Only one came back to give thanks. The Samaritan.

Even after being healed he would still be considered an Outcast.

And yet, there he was - Grateful as could be.

Rumi says it best:

"Thankfulness

brings you to the place

where the Beloved lives."

I would love to have a reference

for where this artwork came from?

Angel Filled Advent

"Wouldn't it be wonderful
if Advent came filled with angels and alleluias?

Wouldn't it be perfect

if we were greeted on these December mornings

with a hovering of heavenly hosts

tuning their harps and brushing up on their fa-la-la's?

Wouldn't it be incredible

if their music filled our waking hours
with the promise of peace on earth

and if each Advent night we dreamed of nothing but goodwill?

Wouldn't we be ecstatic

if we could take those angels shopping,

or trim the tree, or have them hold our hands

and dance through our houses decorating?

And oh, how glorious it would be

to sit in church next to an angel

and sing our hark-the-heralds!

What an Advent that would be!

What Christmas spirit we could have!

An angel-filled Advent has so many possibilities!

But in lieu of that,

perhaps we can give thanks

for the good earthy joys we have been given

and for the earthly "angels" that we know

who do such a good job of filling

our Advent with alleluias!

Ann Weems from Kneeling in Bethlehem, p. 16

Top 10 Thanksgiving Thoughts

American soldiers praying before feasting

These wonderful Thanksgiving Thoughts are from the more-than-wonderful Joan Chitister...Enjoy!!!

1. It’s important to dot our lives with unscheduled as well as scheduled feast days. That way we remember that we are able to make joy as well as to expect it. Or as Lin Yutang, the Chinese philosopher put it: “Our lives are not in the lap of the gods, but in the lap of our cooks.”

2. Food and feasting are the things that remind us of the unending glory, the limitless love, of God. Voltaire said of it: “Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.”

3. A Jewish proverb teaches us that “Worries go down better with soup.” Treating food as a sacrament rather than a necessity reminds us that, in the end, there is always more good in life than bad. The trick is to notice it.

4. To love good food is a measure of our love of life. Food preparation teaches us to do everything we can to make life palatable, spicy, comforting, full of love.

5. Sitting down to a meal with the family—table set, food hot, salad fresh, water cold, dishes matched and food served rather than speared—may be the very foundation of family life in which we celebrate our need for one another. The loss of the family feast may do more to loosen the family bonds than any other single dimension of family life.

6. One purpose of feasting is to get back in touch with the earth that sustains us, to glorify the God that made it and to pledge ourselves to save the land that grows our food.

7. In this country, we are conditioned to think that taking time to eat together, to make a meal an event rather than an act, takes time from the important things of life. That may be exactly why we are confused now about what the important things of life really are. “Happiness,” Astrid Alauda writes, “is a bowl of cherries and a book of poetry under a shade tree.”

8. Good food is the hallmark of every season: fresh fruit in summer, roasted chestnuts in the fall, warm bread in winter, oyster stew in the spring. Leslie Newman says of it. “As the days grow short, some faces grow long. But not mine. Every autumn, when the wind turns cold and darkness comes early, I am suddenly happy. It’s time to start making soup again.” Good food is the sacrament of life everlasting.

9. Food doesn’t have to be exotic to be wonderful. Peasant societies give us some of the best meals ever made. It is always simple, always the same—and always different due to the subtle changes of sauce and cooking style that accompany it. As the Polish say: “Fish, to taste right, must swim three times—in water, in butter and in wine.”

10. To be feasted is to be loved outrageously.

That last one is my favorite! Thank you Joan Chitister for the gift of words that you bestow on us.  May we all love outrageously in our thanksgivings!

Todah

"Feeding the hungry

in Christ is a
greater work than
raising the dead
in Christ."

St. John Chrysostum

Turkey with all the trimmings!
Holy Food for Holy People