Fresh Air ...

A few moments alone.  No one in the house but me.  Windows open.   And reminders of the fullness of my life.  Borrowed crib waiting to be returned.  Children grow.  The windows open and the fresh air.  Seasons change.  The toy kitchen set aside for a while.  The cycles.  The faithful dog, wanting to share my space.  The quiet returns temporarily.  Time to journal.  Time to pray.  In my favorite corner of the house that I have claimed.  It brings me peace. I light my candle, reflect on my life and also try to think of people outside of myself.  Perspective.  And the beginning to another day.

I want to thank everyone for your comments on my last post.  You lifted me. 

A Million Oughts...

There are a million oughts in the world.  There's a million ways in which I ought to be serving the world.  But the ways I'm gifted to serve and the opportunities that come to me to serve are not a million.  They're more like one, two, three, four dozen over the course of a 70-year journey.

                     - Parker Palmer, on Bill Moyer's Journal

Don't Hesitate

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don't hesitate.  Give in to it.  There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be.  We are not wise, and not very often kind.  And much can never be redeemed.  Still, life has some possibility left.  Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world.  It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins.  Anyway, that's often the case.  Anyway, whatever it is, don't be afraid of its plenty.  Joy is not made to be a crumb.

                                                 - Mary Oliver

What We Choose ...

What we choose changes us. 

Who we love transforms us. 

How we create reshapes us. 

What we do remakes us. 

- Dr. Eugene S. Callender

Dr. Callender's career covers a broad span of social, political and devotional activism, from walking up the broken stairs of Harlem tenements slums to serving our nation on five presidential commissions under five separate presidents. His tireless work for his ministry is rooted in his deep conviction  that the dignity of human beings is sacred and that people should not be judged by external convictions which are arbitrarily assigned in life, but rather by the possibilities inherent in being a child of God.

America, America

Goodness is stronger than evil, 

love is stronger than hate, 

light is stronger than darkness, 

truth is stronger than lies. 

         -Desmond Tutu

I am not always proud to say I am a Christian nor to say that I am an American (be it naturalized).  Christians have done so many horrible things in the name of God that I shudder at the thought.  Americans have done horrible things in the name of ideology.   Yet today, I feel honored to be both.

To honor 9/11, we had an interfaith service at my church.  We heard from the Torah, the Koran and the New Testament.  There was jazz, Native American flute, Celtic chants, Gospel music and poetry.  There were Jewish youth, beautifully covered Muslim women, Christian children.  There were people of many colors.  Yet we all sang and proclaimed one thing:  Peace, Shalom, Salam.  We all cried at the Jazz musician singing her soulful Amazing Grace as well as the Native American singing America, The Beautiful.

I felt transcended by the desire of so many people around me for peace, for love, for forgiveness.  I believe that God looked at all of the people coming together to proclaim that love is stronger than hate today and that God wept, too, longing right there beside us.