Willing to Receive a Blessing?
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Can you imagine how the disciples felt about being called to be companions with Jesus, this charismatic person who spoke surprising things about God’s love to crowds gathered around him?
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Reflections on Baseball During Pride Month
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I struggle at times with my son's passion for baseball. I have posted about the behavior of some of the folkx in Future Stars and Little League- the way they bully and yell at the each other, take it all so seriously, and have taught my son new turns of phrase like "that sucks" or "we're screwed," or have told him to "walk it off" or "don't rub it" when he is really hurting to the point of tears (I have stepped in and will continue to do so).
Read MorePuzzles and Problem Solving
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Problem solving and/or making choices are like putting a puzzle together.
Read MoreEver-Present Seasons and Random Events
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No matter how much you anticipate it, wish it were different, or enjoy it just as it is, the seasons are always with you, embracing you with messages.
Read MoreHoly Spirit Doves, Chicks, and Parakeets
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Clive’s 4th grade class has been raising baby chicks. It has been a community endeavor. We all watched with breath held and eyes wide open as the little cracks appeared in the eggs, and the chicks wriggled out one by one.
Read MoreEver Going to Change
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It’s never going to be finished, is it?
Never going to change
that split between the haves and the have-nots
so obvious throughout the centuries
Read MorePreparing to Bloom
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I received a lovely gift surprise this week. (And as you ‘all know, carefully thought-out handmade gifts are my “love language.”) I was deeply touched to unpack a Harry and David carton- and discover a rustic, handmade wooden box filled with Paperwhite (Narcissus) bulbs-already planted in a fertile soil mix- and just waiting for me to water them and put them in the window, or outside in the garden.
Read MoreWhat To Do For Lent
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So here we are, less than a week before Lent 2023. What does that mean for us, for you? I have been listening, for the better part of my life, to all kinds of suggestions as to what I should or should not do, what I can or cannot do, what the season is about, and how I can be more prepared for Easter.
Read MoreHeaven and Earth Collapsing @ Mt Shasta
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Thin places are those rare locales where the distance between Heaven and Earth collapses. -Eric Weiner, Man Seeks God
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Love's Pure Light: A Shape We Did Not Foresee
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“I cannot tell you how the light comes, but that it does. That it will. That it works its way into the deepest dark that enfolds you though it may seem long ages in coming or arrive in a shape you did not foresee.” -Jan Richardson
Read MoreMoving Beyond the Pattern
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Patterns of behavior can be very comfortable. Yet, as you look around you and back a couple of generations, we see how much these expected behavior patterns have changed.
Read MoreNovember is Gratitude Month!
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I am so glad to be greeting old friends (mostly clergy) in our Social Media Group that gathers every November to engage in the spiritual practice of posting 5 things we are grateful for each day.
Read MoreA Call For Perspective
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For the disciples, trusting Jesus during his public ministry seems to be going well as Jesus feeds the multitude, gives sight to the blind, and heals the sick. And then - Wham! One fine Friday their entire world turns upside down! Their perspective is thrown out of whack.
Read MoreSigns and Markers on the Journey
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Wisdom has built her house; she has set up its seven pillars. She has prepared her meat, mixed her wine, and set her table. She has sent out her servant girls to wave signs and call from the highest point of the city, ‘You who crave simplicity…Turn in here!’” -- Proverbs 9
One of my favorite places on Christy’s family farm in Arkansas is the Native American Marker Tree.
Read MoreThe Healing Circle Explained
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A guided meditation on “conscious” breathing is used to still the mind and bring us in touch with the body and the divine that resides within each of us. The meditation leads us to directing Divine healing energy to those entered into the Circle. The meditation also reminds us that as we direct God’s Healing Love to others, that Love must flow through each of us, and each of us needs to be open to accepting the share of that Love meant to heal the wounds each of us carry within.
Read MoreThe Wisdom of Trees
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Wisdom is a tree of life to those who take hold of her. And happy are all who hold her fast.
– Proverbs 3: 18
I asked Clive over breakfast if he could name his three favorite things from our trip. Touring Warner Studios’ “The Making of Harry Potter” for his birthday in London was a given. But he surprised me when he mentioned, "the tree at that old church you really liked." I realized he was talking about the tree he was climbing around in while I was sitting on a bench praying and clearing energy with my ankle propped up at Glastonbury Abbey. In fact, I noticed, all the favorite things he mentioned from our trip had to do with trees, animals, or being out in nature.
Read MoreBecoming Portals for the Holy
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We will understand the journey past only as we continue to embrace the path before us. We come to understand that we are {portals for and} bearers of the Christ light, and that the holy is born in us, only as we enter the mysteries of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany again and again.” – Jan Richardson
“I am a portal for the Holy!” - Mary in “The Magnificat.”
This pandemic feels like one long winding portal that never ends. We notice it’s getting lighter sometimes and then we realize it’s just a sky window or a well-lit place- and the portal continues. Never in my wildest dreams did I believe we would be preparing for our second annual Zoom Christmas Eve service. The trauma is real, it gets harder to measure time, and beloved rituals like this continue to hold us and help us mark and light the way on this journey.
Read MoreNavigating Portals of Light, Shadow, and Mystery: Advent 2021
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“So, when the blessing comes, take its hand. Get up, step through the portal... Set out on the road you cannot see... in Advent seasons past, we have journeyed through darkness. desire, preparing a space, hope, birthing, and welcoming. We will know these places again and again in our lives because God’s path unfolds not in a straight line, but in a spiral. We emerge onto each new threshold with the experiences of the passage we have just made…. But we will understand the journey past only as we continue to embrace the path before us. We come to understand that we are portals for and bearers of the Christ light, and that the holy is born in us, only as we enter the mysteries of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany again and again.” – Jan Richardson
Read MoreConnecting the Dots on the Roundabout Way.
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(Thanks to Jackie Freitas for bringing up this scripture in our Thursday evening Council Meeting)
“God did not lead the Israelite people along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land… Instead God led them on a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea.” -Exodus 13: 17-18
My Son is really good at doing mazes and puzzles. One of his favorites is “connect the dots.”
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