very kind...

Purple gifted me with this:
"The Friends Award isn't about being the most popular blogger or having the most read blog. It is just because you consider the author a friend. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

Aw...thanks, Purple.
I blog just because...it is a form of writing that I can just jot notes..just about the ordinary in my life. Thanks...friends and lurkers for stopping by once in awhile. I find the blog community lovely and interesting.

That being said, I don't know eight bloggers that HAVEN'T received this award! All of my bloggy friends are wonderful, deep, and authentic. And funny, too!

However, I can award one blogger who has reached thousands of parents and teachers and others around the topic of parenting and autism and advocacy and education. Jess, the author of Diary of a Mom has created an amazing community of support and friendship--a place where tears flow and laughter floats and caring abides. So, Jess, here you go! What you have done and are doing--is amazing!

Awareness in the village.

My dear friend, Jess, has an achingly beautiful blog dedicated to her family, and dedicated to awareness and advocacy around autism. It's a blog about being family, about the acute joy and pain of parenting, about living life fully, and reaching out and reaching in. Every post hits me in the heart. In a good, growing way(and I am not even a parent.) Anyway. She gave me permission to post her entry, Triage.

It's about helping and being a village and being aware and taking action. Please read it. Please. Then act. Share Billy and Katy and Scott's story.


Triage, by Jess Wilson
My friend, Scott called me yesterday. Whoa! Don’t just keep reading. Click on Scott’s name and read the story. Please. Pretty please. This is important, folks. This MATTERS. You click. Read the whole article. I’ll wait.

“I need help, Jess.”

Sometimes, life is a game of triage.

What matters most? What needs my attention most urgently? Who might literally die if I don’t take five minutes to get educated and HELP.

We fight for a better life for our children.

Scott and Katy are fighting for their child’s life.

We fight for awareness. We walk and hand out buttons and magnets and scream from the rooftops and we watch hours and hours of footage about autism. 1 in 144.

How many people do you know who know what SMA stands for? Yet it KILLS MORE BABIES THAN ANY OTHER GENETIC DISEASE.

We have big names. Bob and Suzanne Wright - love em or hate em, they know people. They know a LOT of people. With money. A LOT of money. And Influence. Yup, a LOT of influence. Jenny McCarthy - love her or hate her, she is VISIBLE. She’s on the cover of magazines. Mike Savage (I’m not giving you the choice on this one and I sure as hell ain’t linking you to him) - hate him, he talked about autism because autism is VISIBLE.

SMA isn’t sexy. It’s heartbreaking. It’s the stuff your worst nightmares are made of. It’s the stuff that no one wants to talk about because we can’t bear the pain of it. But Scott and Katy and so many parents like them live that pain every day.

We HAVE TO HELP. Children cannot die on our watch when they don’t have to. No one should have to live this way.

We are hurting.

They are dying.

Triage.

SMA has been chosen by the National Institute of Health to be a model for translational research because it is the closest to a treatment or cure out of 300 neurological disorders. Think about that. We are this close. This flippin close.

We are all connected. SMA genetic research in the “Genomic Modulation of Inherited Genetic Diseases” project may provide novel insights into potential ways to treat SMA and 40 plus similar diseases:

Tay-Sachs Sandhoff
Parkinsons
Alzheimers
Friedreich’s Ataxia
Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 1
Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 2/Episodic Ataxia Type 2
Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 6/Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 7
Deafness/Dystonia
Myotonic Dystrophy
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
Late Infantile Metachromatic Leukodystrophy
Late Infantile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis
X-Linked Adreno-Leukodystrophy
Menkes
Types A and B Niemann-Pick Disease
Fragile X
Machado-Joseph
GM2A
Gaucher Disease
Sialidosis and Galactosialidosis
Infantile and Late-Onset forms of Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis
Classic Late Infantile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis
You see Fragile X in there, right? I knew you wouldn’t miss that.

They need money. $1.3 million to be exact. They need to help fund incredibly promising gene therapy research.

If beautiful, delightful Billy were your child, you’d have called me too. You’d have called anyone and everyone you know who might be able to HELP. Please, pass this on to anyone who will read it.

It takes a village, friends. And the village that I want to be a part of, no the village that I KNOW I AM A PART OF, fights for its children. All of them.

HELP

Marching in the Light of God

So today, I had the utter privilege and pull to go to the State House to join others for the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry rally and march to the State House to lobby for marriage equality. In short, the Mass legislature will vote today on a ballot initiative to change the constitution to define marriage as only between one man-one woman. This whole constitutional ban on marriage equality is the parting legacy of our former governor, Mitt Romney, who interestingly enough was pro-marriage equality early in his career as Massachusets governor. The whole situation, if I weren't so passionately tied to it, is so odd--because right now, Massachusetts has legal same-sex marriages. So if Mass bans marriage equality, what happens? How would that work? But I digress.

So, the interfaith service was early, 7:30 a.m., so I needed to leave the house absolutely no later than 6:45 in order to park my car, catch the T, and be relatively on-time. Waking up after 6:00 presented a tiny bit of a challenge to fulfill this feat, but I managed. I briefly considered not going, going later, etc. etc....but I couldn't stay away. I didn't have a choice...my whole body, mind, and soul was being called to this service and march of the day. In synchronicity, (if that is a word), one of the speakers talked about how many of us were compelled to be down there today--that it wasnt' an option. It is exactly how I felt...as I rode the T--I was tired, I was coffee-less, I didn't have my clerical collar or even a rainbow pin to show my solidarity...I wasn't prepared, but I was called.

So, the service/rally was great. The speakers, fabulous, the music wonderful. But the march...oh, my. The march...even for me, a seasoned advocate and marcher on many issues and occasions, I just was overwhelmed by a deep surge of pride and passion and rightness....I waved my United Church of Christ Celebrates Marriage Equality sign, and sang with my colleagues, "We are marching (singing, dancing, steadfast, joyous, voting) in the light of God" as we walked through Boston Common, and through the small throng of "Let the People Vote" group....I smiled at them, and as we crested to the sidewalk, a huge cheer went up from the State House steps, of the already gathered groups of advocates under the Mass Equality and my whole body absorbed the joy and solidarity of the moment...it felt like a deep fountain of God's spirit welling within me and I was unbelievably proud and humbled and blessed to be there, in that moment, in that space.

We continued to sing, on the State House steps. We sang patriotic songs, sacred songs and hippie songs. I went to the street to hold my United Church of Christ sign, so people driving by could see it. Three people came up to where I was standing, and said, "I am UCC, that is my church...Thank you!"
I am so proud of my church, that I can advocate in its name, in Jesus' name, that all people are loved and cherished by the One who made them.

When I got back to the office ( after a pastoral visit at 10:00 a.m.)I wanted to go back to the State House. But instead, I called my representative one last time to ask him to consider my rights as one of his constituents, and I called my Senator to thank her for her support. And I sat down to write, even though no hastily or carefully penned words can truly capture this experience I had this morning.

It is now 1:39 p.m., and the legislature was to convene for the vote at 1:00 p.m. Guess what? By a vote of 151-44 , our lawmakers did the right thing to protect all their citizens--they voted down the ballot initiative. This is Good News, indeed!

Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Amen.

for Cindy...a blessing prayer and deepest gratitude

Cindy Sheehan has resigned from....her work as an peace activist. I have never met Cindy, but her work and tireless commitment to the anti-war effort has been moving, deep, costly for her, and heroic.
And, for her, and many others, to no avail.
There seems to be no end to this crazy mess of an unnecessary war...
There is peace worker fatigue and people, I think, feel helpless thus apathetic about this war, which we will pay for later.

but, for Cindy...
I want to thank you for your courage and your voice,
your unrelenting stand
for holding our Congress, on both sides of the aisle, accountable,
for being one amazing woman.

My prayer for you is love....and stillness...
wholeness and rest...
and blessing upon blessing upon blessing.

privilege and honor and rights

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to celebrate the 1,000 signer of the Religious Declaration of the Freedom to Marry in Massachusetts, sponsored by the Religious Coalition For The Freedom To Marry The signer was the Right Reverend Gayle Davis, The Episcopal Bishop Suffragen of the Massachusetts Diocese. One very dignified and cool and courageous woman, if you ask me. For me, the event was amazing and inspiring...Governor Patrick showed up as did the Speaker of the House, the President of the Senate, all who spoke passionately about working together to NOT allow a vote on a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as strictly between a woman and man. There were a good many state legislators there, which was heartening. I was particularly moved by the presence of the lineage of clergy who founded this movement and took stands for the freedom to marry in places and congregations and cities where they stood in defiance with their denominations or religious groups as well as public opinion...I am grateful. Humbled and grateful.

And yes, I contacted my legislators, one of which thinks it is fine to put minority rights against public opinion. Unfortunately, one of the things we as a human race do not do well at en masse is protect those who have less power.
I am not so sure why my marriage is such a threat to others or the moral fabric of the country. Even if it were, it is not the job of the government to legislate morality, but it is the job of the government to protect the civil rights of its citizens. I love this quote from Thomas Merton on Sojourner's daily email:

I have the immense joy of being [human], a member of a race in which God became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.
- Thomas Merton
from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander


In any case...it was a privilege to get to be there, to sign the document myself, and to see democracy in action.

peace day

The original intent in the establishment of Mother's Day was that it was to be a day for women to call for Peace. Julia Ward Howe, in 1870, wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation to unite women against war...inspired by the work of Ann Jarvis, who organized Mother's Work Days (beginning in 1858). The purpose of the Work Days, or Work Groups were first, to improve sanitary conditions in military camps for both sides of the Civil War, and then later, shifted focus on the reconciliation of Confederate and Union neighbors. In the late 1850's! How progressive and edgy!

Howe wasn't sucessful in her attempt to get formal recognition for Mother's Day, but we still have her prophetic call:

"From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
...Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace..."

Wow. These words are better than bouquet of teleflora flowers or a box of chocolates. (Don't get me wrong, I love flowers, and someone dear to me is a florist who is one of the most generous and loving and committed people I know.) But, let's get to the root of things....let's celebrate Mothers Day in its orginal intenti--not the way that Hallmark hijacked it...by working and talking and creating our dream of peace for the devastated Earth and the great human family....

I love you Mom~
You ROCK!