Unexpected words, Day 31

- Today I received a an unexpected piece of mail filled with the kindest words. It reminded me that even the smallest, most insignificant acts of kindness can fill the soul of another and add immeasurable light to one's day. May we offer our kindness freely. May we give encouragement extravagantly. May we love in simple words and actions.

What beauty is for, Day 30

The Swan

Mary Oliver

Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?

Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air -

An armful of white blossoms,

A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned

into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,

Biting the air with its black beak?

Did you hear it, fluting and whistling

A shrill dark music - like the rain pelting the trees - like a waterfall

Knifing down the black ledges?

And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds -

A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet

Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?

And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?

And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?

And have you changed your life?

Blessing the mothers, Day 15

Blessing the Mothers

by: Jan Richardson 

Who are our
first sanctuary.

Who fashion
a space of blessing
with their own being:

with the belly
the bone and
the blood

or,
if not with these,
then with the
durable heart
that offers itself
to break
and grow wide,
to gather itself
around another
as refuge,
as home.

Who lean into
the wonder and terror
of loving what
they can hold
but cannot contain.

Who remain
in some part of themselves
always awake,
a corner of consciousness
keeping perpetual vigil.

Who know
that the story
is what endures
is what binds us
is what runs deeper
even than blood

and so they spin them
in celebration
of what abides
and benediction
on what remains:

a simple gladness
that latches onto us
and graces us
on our way.

With a little help from my friends, Day 14

Planning my ordination service has been more emotionally charged than I originally anticipated. There are quite a few reasons for this that I will not explain in the moment. I knew I truly needed to finish things up today and I sat down to do just that while Josiah napped. I looked at my computer screen for far too long working and thinking and envisioning. I would add a song and then take it away. I would re-read a scripture reading that I planned to use and feel uncertain.  I simply could not get over the gnawing, uneasy feeling - something wasn't quite right, I just couldn't put my finger on what I was sensing. Finally I shot off a few texts to different friends. Within the next hour I had several conversations via text, email and phone - we seriously had it all covered. At the end of these conversations, everything had fallen into place. One friend/colleague identified the problem immediately. Once the problem was identified, it was much easier for all the other pieces to fall into place.

If I can offer one word today: reach out. No matter how self-sufficient you believe yourself to be, we need one another. We are not alone.

Grace in chocolate, Day 13

Today was the type of day that leaves you feeling unexpectedly tired by the time the sun has set. I didn't think we has anything sweet in the house until I came across an unexpected, dark chocolate caramel crunch bar. It had been tucked away on a much earlier day and was waiting for just such a night. A perfectly wonderful addition to a quiet Friday night.

Evening Walk, Day 12

The warmer spring nights beckon us to take walks around the neighborhood. Tonight we found ourselves winding around our neighborhood noticing flowers and trees and garden gnomes as we listened to the chatter of a 2.5 year old.  We normally miss so many little pieces as we zoom by in our car. We returned home to see our bunny eating her dinner. Grace comes in simple pleasures.

Don't Worry, Day 11

We've been going to the library on Saturday mornings. Usually, we pick out books for Josiah. Last week, I brought home a book for myself. Felicity by Mary Oliver. The poem below if from her book.


Don't Worry
by: Mary Oliver

Things take the time they take. Don't
     worry.
How many roads did St. Augustine follow
     before he became St. Augustine?

Prayers Echoed, Day 10

Sunday afternoon I joined with other ministers and delegates from other churches in the Central Association of the UCC for our yearly business meeting. 

- Lifting my heart in prayer and in silence with a room full of friends and strangers. There was something about the combination of silence and words, stillness and movement that reminded me of this simple, powerful truth: God is the presence who permeates all of life. God is with us when we pray. God is with us as we live. 

Rain and colors, Day 7

- A short walk on a rainy afternoon that left me a little wetter than I hoped. It seems the falling rain mixed with the brilliant colors of Spring are exactly what my heart needed today.

- The grace offered to oneself in setting a goal that was never going to be met met along with the practice of dusting yourself off to keep going. Nice to see y'all on Day 7.

Blessings Offered, Day 2

Tonight at yoga, the instructor shared this poem with the class. The words reverberated inside my heart. My friends, Love surrounds us.

Beannacht (Blessing) - for Josie

by: John O'Donohue

On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.

And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The grey window
And the ghost of loss
Gets into you,
May a flock of colours,
Indigo, red, green
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
In the currach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.

Nest, Day 1

Every day we look and listen for the sounds of new baby birds. One day, they will be here. Until then, we will watch and wait. I suppose that is something of a lesson for all of life.

Paying attention

A note of invitation: Over the next few weeks, I am making an effort to watch out for something writer Madeline L'Engle calls glimpses of grace, the holy moments we encounter everyday. These moments are always there. They are always calling to us to open our eyes and hearts and pay attention. Paying attention, of course, is the trick of it all. Please join me in paying attention through this Easter seasons. Your holy moments might not look quite like mine and that is ok because they are your holy moments. In the end, my friends, I do not think that it matters if we remember every single moment. What matters is that we recognize God as our companion on the journey, walking alongside us every day.

Will you join me? Will you take the time to notice one or two holy moments tucked away in the ordinary of your day?

remembering to pray (Lent 1, Friday)

What is your prayer today?

A prayer for this day (Lent 1, Thursday)

What a strange world this is, O God.

A world where migrants get a brief Disney cruise before being detained. What deck class were they afforded, I wonder?

A world where air strikes in Syria hit the sick, the dying and the helpers.

Will you forgive us for what we do to each other?

Will you forgive our aggressions - both petty and profound?

Will the time come when there are no strangers or enemies or classes or targets?

God, I hope so.

(written by: Rev. Whitney Wilkinson)

The spacious world of God (Lent 1, Wednesday)

Prayer is the way we work our way out of the comfortable but cramped world of self and into the spacious world of God.
- Eugene Peterson

O God, Give us the courage to live in such a way that our inner space grows and our comfort decreases.

We can not do this alone (Lent 1, Tuesday)

For thousands of years we have gathered in circle - around fires, around bodies, around alters - because we can't do this alone. 

~W. Muller

We meet together week in and week out. We struggle with one another. We bear with one another. We open our spirits to extend grace to one another again and again and again. The community of the people of God is a broken community. (We always have been) But, we are made holy because the Spirit of God is among us. We are made new when we give ourselves to each other...because we were never meant to be alone.

God is already working (Lent 1, Monday)

The people of God are the hands and feet of God in the world. 

We are "little Christs" bringing light into the darkness, bringing hope to the hopeless, bringing healing to the wounded and hurting and the broken. 

True Confessions: Statements like these scare me. When I think about them I begin to feel small and hopeless and powerless. I can even begin to wonder:

How can I be the light of Christ? My candle barely flickers.
How can I bring healing? There are many days when I can not see past my own wounds.
How can I bring hope? I could never admit how often I feel hopeless.

Then, of course, there is the question of where do I even begin.

The response to all of these fears and concerns is always the same. We do not bring God into the world. God is always here. God is always working. God is always healing.

We just have to open our eyes and hearts to see and join in.

A prayer for this day:

May I have vision and Courage to join God in the places [God's] already working rather than feel responsible for bringing [God] with me. 
~ Justin McRoberts

Beloved: the name is the starting place (Lent 1, Sunday)

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the Wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. 
Luke 4:1-2

Over the fall and the winter, Josiah has become enamored with watching football. He delights in clapping at the television saying go go or ohh ball or come on or throwing his hands in the air as he proclaims touchdown. I blame his father.  What my 18 month old son does not realize is that it is all over. Yesterday, he kept looking toward the television and saying  come on even though there was no football to be found.

We ended up turning on the television and watched downhill skiing. Apparently it was just as good because Josiah pulled out all his sports words with and proclaimed them with joy. As we were watching skiing, I remembered Picabo Street, a skier who famously named herself.  As the boys watched sports, I began to wonder what I would have named myself. I am certain I would not have settled on Amy even though I can not imagine another name at this point.

What would you have named yourself? 

As the text above begins, Jesus is entering the wilderness for a 40 day period of fasting and prayer. He contends with the devil - he contends with brokenness and evil and the inner voices which always seek to tear us down. But, he enters the desert still sopping wet with from the waters of baptism. A baptism where he was named by God, Beloved. 

I imagine that knowing who he was, was strength for him in the desert. I imagine that his name, Beloved, rang in his ears again and again and again as he contented with the bareness found in a desert - literal and spiritual. The thing is, Beloved  is not just God's name for Jesus. Beloved is God's name for you and me as well.

Whichever roads you may travel over the next few days and weeks, my prayer is this: that you may know that your name is Beloved.

Beloved Is Where We Begin

If you would enter

into the wilderness,

do not begin

without a blessing.

without hearing

who you are:

Beloved,

named by the One

who has traveled this path

before you.

without letting it echo

in your ears,

and if you find

it is hard

to let it into your heart,

do not despair.

That is what

this journey is for.

this blessing will free you

from danger,

from fear,

from hunger

or thirst,

from the scorching

of sun

or the fall

of the night.

that on this path

there will be help.

that on this way

there will be rest.

that you will know

the strange graces

that come to our aid

only on a road

such as this,

that fly to meet us

bearing comfort

and strength,

that come alongside us

for no other cause

than to lean themselves

toward our ear

and with their

curious insistence

whisper our name:

Beloved.

Beloved.

from Circle of Grace

Do not leave

Do not go

I cannot promise

But I can tell you

I can tell you

I can tell you

Beloved.

The Painting and Poem were created by the ever talented Jan Richardson. 

A Prayer to Welcome the Sabbath (Lent 1, Sunday)

::Prayer to Welcome the Sabbath::

Lord of Creation,
create in us a new rhythm of life
composed of hours that sustain rather than stress,
of days that deliver rather than destroy,
of time that tickles rather than tackles.

Lord of Liberation,
by the rhythm of your truth, set us free
from the bondage and baggage that breaks us,
from the Pharaohs and fellows who fail us,
from the plans and pursuits that prey upon us.

Lord of Resurrection,
may we be raised into rhythms of your new life,
dead to deceitful calendars,
dead to fleeting friend requests,
dead to the empty peace of our accomplishments.

To our packed-full planners, we bid, "Peace!"
To our over-caffeinated consciences, we say, "Cease!"
To our suffocating selves, Lord, grant us release.

Drowning in a sea of deadlines and death chimes,
we rest in you, our lifeline.

By your ever-restful grace,
allow us to enter your Sabbath rest
as your Sabbath rest enters into us.

In the name of our Creator,
our Liberator,
our Resurrection and Life,
we pray.
Amen

Taken from: Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne et. all.

Church is Cancelled:: Sunday, February 14, 2016

Hello All,

I just wanted to post a note letting everyone know that church is cancelled tomorrow morning, February 14, 2016.

Your pastor from Texas can not even begin to imagine a windchill of -35. It sounds like a frozen death to me. Please stay inside. Please care for yourselves and check on your neighbors.

As always, I am available by phone or email or text.

Hugs and Prayers,

Amy