the steadfast love...

...of the Lord never ceases...
God's mercies are new everyday...
they are new every morning,
new every morning...

I wake up singing this in my head almost every Sunday. It is very comforting.

Today, I pray for your mercy and guidance to lead me through this morning. I am feeling vulnerable...please help that vulnerable place be open to the blessings you share...
and
be present to your people today...
in worship, prayer, presence and song.
amen.

Aric slideshows...

These are slideshows that Aric's friends made...

oh Holy Stranger...

oh Holy Stranger,
You live on the edge of my sight,
the precipice of my heart,
standing surely in the threshold between my inner and outer world.

You do not beckon loudly.
You announce your invitation to listen
with echoes of patient silence,
breathing on the breeze that makes the trees outside my window tremble...
beating softly with the pulse of my heartbeat...
Waiting.

Lingering outside the doorway, I waste away precious minutes
reading a magazine, running errands, napping, sipping tea
your Shadow outlined in my mind...
Within my interior walls,
I languish, even though I know you are here...
I still choose my isolation as if were a security blanket,
but it is something I Know.

You, oh Holy Stranger,
Pose the threat of Life.
You, oh beautiful waiting One...
offer freedom, communion, and really, really hard work...
and if I invite You to step through
and speak to the deepest ground of my being,
I wonder,
will I listen?
Will I have the courage to see the Holy You?

Please, come in.
Speak to me.
Help me know You.
Amen.

standing among strangers....

so,
I am supposed to be up here in my office writing my sermon about driving in Boston, strangers, the public, and the road to Emmaus...
but after writing the intro, am thinking I need to read a little more to figure out how all this will tie together.
hope it does...
but also am thinking about my life as an artist,
and how it has virtually dried up this past year.
Yes, I have continued to get to the studio at least 3x a month, but with clay, you can't just do three days a month.
I miss it...and almost feel like a stranger to it...instead of thinking about it all of the time. I love thinking about it.
My skills have really lagged...I had such a wonderful foundation when I was throwing everyday a couple of years ago...and although all of that body memory will come back, what I need to do is practise.

Few people are clay prodigies!

Back to strangers, Jesus, and driving.

my heart...

is in a post Easter slump.
How crazy is that?
It could be the black jelly beans I ate today...(sugar low?)
or just perhaps not taking enough time out to regroup.
The train is moving fast, but I just need to reflect and re-orient.

I can do that.
I just need to make it a priority.

Help me reorient, reprioritize, reflect, and renew.

Amen.

All that is holy....

...today.
Lucy jumping on the bed to get a pet,
Dottie rubbing against my ankles while I type...
The wind whipping and whistling and blowing loudly, shaking everything...
The tiny birds nestled in the shrubs in my neighbor's yard...
The quiet house
My full heart
My random thoughts
and Your Presence
keeping me grounded and broken and whole.
Amen.

Friday Five: Time and Transitions

Over at RevGals, Mother Laura helps us adjust to and enjoy Daylight Savings Time and Liturgical transitions from Lent to Holy Week by offering this Friday Five about time and transitions....

1. If you could travel to any historical time period, which would it be, and why?
As a woman, I am not sure I would want to go anywhere back in time...I wouldn't mind going into fantasy time, like to "The Mists of Avalon" because of the mysticalness of it all.

2. What futuristic/science fiction development would you most like to see?
Definitely a robot that will clean my house from top to toe. We must be close to that, right?

3. Which do you enjoy more: remembering the past, or dreaming for the future?
I hope the cherishing of the past, the good, the bad, and the ugly helps me dream for the future, but I guess sometimes it just gives me a more realistic roadmap with which to chart the course. I am a real day by day kind of person...

4. What do you find most memorable about this year's Lent?
The evening we had eight confirmation boys participate in a bible study with our beloved elderfolk and other adults. We had a wonderful evening of getting to know each other and grappling with Luke 15: The Lost parables. It was dear and sweet and lively.

5. How will you spend your time during this upcoming Holy Week? What part do you look forward to most? I look forward to a peace vigil we are planning for Wednesday, marking the anniversary of the war in Iraq...and I look forward to all the services...and I feel certain what I will look forward to the most is a nap on Easter Sunday afternoon!

What if...

I heard about a church today that orders its liturgy around "A Time for..."

I love it.

What would it be like to have a liturgy that hung on:

A time for welcome
A time for peace
A time for friendship
A time for letting go, making amends
A time for reflection
A time for sorrow
A time for celebration
A time for risk
A time for belonging
A time for wondering
A time for gratitude
A time for blessing

Hmm. Maybe a little long, but I like framing worship in a way that is accessible and participatory...and different.

I also would love to engage our adults in a faith formation series that included a writing of a statement of faith just like we ask confirmation students to do.

What else. Hmmm. The idea of boards and commissions becoming spiritual communities....there is a book about that, I think. I don't know it.

I just wanted to remember these thoughts.
On to supper, and then meeting.

Peace to you!

a Monday day.

So, Mondays are my day off.
Today, I allowed myself to sleep in, as I didn't sleep well in the night. I didn't get up until after 9!
Then, I cleaned the kitchen,
ate girl scout cookies and coffee for breakfast...
read a book about being a suicide survivor,
resisted the urge to check work email/do work...
walked Venus Las Vegas,
did an errand...
sketched,
thought about rolling out some tiles,
talked to God,
petted Lucky,
decided to read a novel,
then my beloved called because the red line train was stopped and could I come downtown and find her?
so, I did.
Got caught in traffic.
Found her at Tremont and Park.
Got lost going back,
so took the long way through Kendall Square (don't even ask how I ended up there)
Dropped beloved off at work,
Went to grocery store...
thought about exercising,
Made italian vegetable soup instead...and tuna salad for lunch tomorrow...
thought about doing some work,
breathed,
and blogged instead.

I need to remember that Sabbath is rest.
Just however that happens,
but the important thing is to
allow myself not to produce.
Not to create, if I don't feel like it...
but just be in my skin.
However that unfolds.

So, as unmonumentous as today has been,
however mundane it has been...
It has been a gift.

As the sun sinks behind the houses across the street..
and the shadowed branches of the leafless trees silhouette my windows,
this pause is just to say...
dear sweet One,
I am grateful for this day.
Truly.
Indeed.
Amen.

The feast of heaven.

so..
it has been a thoughtful week in ministry.
I coordinated the worship service last Sunday to include the participation of children, and it was a big hit. I was chafing a bit, because it was still a traditional service, and frankly too long for children. However, the parts the children did--acting out scripture, leading the Psalm, writing the prayer of thanksgiving was wonderful. I know the adults loved it, but the question is, what did the children experience? How did they feel?

Then, Tuesday, I celebrated monthly communion a the nursing home. The group this month was not as conversant as they can be...more of the people in their little worlds than usual. In any case, it was hard--it made me wonder, what is "age appropriate, developmentally relevant" worship for the nursing home population that I serve?


The best thing, though, is when I was serving communion, and I placed the host on one woman's tongue, and she looked at me and said, "What the hell is this?" and I stopped, and said, "Well, it's the bread of life" and she said, "it has absolutely no taste" to which I responded, "hmmm. Yes. you are right. It is supposed to be the feast of heaven, but I suppose this doesn't taste like it." She spit it out.
It was an honest, alive, real moment.
And,
it made me think.

God of the table,
Love at the feast,
Help me remember
the moment,
the honest truth,
and be faithful
in relevance,
respect,and practise.
Amen.

It is snowing

...again. The third time this week. and it is March 1. My beloved and I had decided to go on a day trip today to SOMEWHERE. But now, it is grey and white and wet and slushy and not a great day to sightsee. Movies, I think we will do. Or...just home reading books. Who knows. Everybody but me right now is still snuggled up in bed.

So, on to writing my homily for tomorrow.

Then maybe, if I hurry, I can go back to bed, too! ;-)