…and hope does not disappoint us.

…and hope does not disappoint us.

                                 

But oh how hope can tease us, taking its own sweet thyme to show up, wandering first through suffering, endurance and character, seeming to spend lots of thyme at suffering as one’s world falls apart, layer by layer. Perhaps there’s a small glimpse of hope as endurance begins, figuring “if I can just stick it out a little longer things will get better.” But endurance takes its own sweet thyme as well, building up endurance it seems, a sense of “stick-with-it-ness.” And then comes character – but what kind of character we ask? It often feels like it’s not a character ‘pleasing unto You.’ But You are gracious and patient, reminding us that this process is about being honest with ourselves, not about perfection. The journey is about authenticity, about bringing all of us to the relationship – all the parts we don’t like, and remembering You accept them all – anger, fear, rage, envy, unmet needs and dreams, sadness. And therein lies our hope: Your grace is sufficient for every single part of our lives however significant or insignificant they may seem. Your thyme is not our thyme. And the journey is not a direct path, a neat and tidy road trip. Neither was Good Friday.

                                    

Hope does not disappoint us. It may be a long thyme coming, but it’s like a mustard seed of faith, somehow enough for the journey. It’s like the empty tomb: Easter always has the last word, weaving the loose ends, hard edges, and dark colors into a tapestry of life and hope.

                                                

 May the journey of this Holy Week bring you hope.  

Read Full Post »

Moving Thyme

For everything there is a season, and thyme for every matter under heaven.

And I am in the season of moving.  In some ways this has been in the making for quite some thyme but the details have made themselves known just recently ~ and have occupied much of my thyme and energy, thus no posts for a while.  I hope to return soon.

The move is temporary and fortunately we don’t have to move furniture, just our personal items and kitchen stuff.  I already sense that our new “home” has many gifts to offer and I’m eager to receive.

If there’s something to sit in, Brita will find it as she did here.  We won’t pack her in the box but we will have to take her and her sister Kendall and our dog Hershey to “foster families” until we find a place of our own.  We will miss each of them dearly.

In the meanthyme, may this month of February bring you some unexpected gift!

Read Full Post »

Friday Five: Beginnings and Endings

 

At RevGalBlogPals, I site I’ve visited often and have decided to participate at, we are invited to reflect on the past and look to the future during this thyme of transition.  Each year around this thyme I think about these things but rarely have I put them on paper, even rarer is putting them where others can read them.  So with a bit of courage in my pocket, here they are:

List 5 things I remember/treasure from 2008:

1) Improved pain management and a little more physical strength.

2) My daughters are finding their way and voice in the world, overall they seem happy and less anxious.

3) I started an online Spiritual Direction Training Program and I returned to work ~ be it very part-time and I really enjoy the work.

4) PIC continues to be a very healing and supportive congregation to be with, including voice lessons with the now former “Director of Congregational Singing” (she’s a music student who’s now off to Mexico to study.)

5)  I continue to be blessed wtih the love and care of family and many friends.

 

List 5 things I am looking forward to in 2009:

1) Regaining more of my health: less pain and increased stamina.

2) The continued blessing and strengthening of relationships.

3) My house finally selling!  (I hope, hope, hope…)

4) Inviting more fun and re-creation and music in my life.

5) Ceasing to lurk at RevGalBlogPals and participating!

 

Thanks for the invitation to put these thoughts on “paper”!

 

P.S.  This is the beautiful artwork found at the RevGalBlogPals site today, it’s a “Celtic Mandala (that) represents life, noting how days and years turn from one to another.”  I love how the images are woven together as one so often finds in Celtic artwork.

 

Read Full Post »

A Fresh Start

Yesterday at our home, we started the day, and thus the new year, cleaning.  Vacuuming crevices and the couch that the dog usually sleeps on, putting pillows and throw blankets in the dryer on “air fluff.”  While the house is generally clean we had a guest who is allergic to cats.  And we have two cats.  Who roam the house freely.  But this morning, as I ponder our cleaning actions I’m thinking it might have been the Spirit’s way of prompting us to start the year with a clean state so to speak.  Now, if I had decided that’s what we would do, and tried to convince my college age daughters of its merit, I would have wasted my breath and might as well have been talking to the cats which I do often anyway.  Of course it helped that yesterday’s guest is boyfriend of daughter 2!

My grandma had this plaque hanging in her kitchen and I think it’s a fine philosophy by which to keep house:

Here’s to a fresh start in the New Year!

Read Full Post »

Sing When the Spirit Says Sing!

It has been a challenging week ~ not Thanksgiving but the days previous.  A tangle with institutional injustice.  Again.  I made the necessary phone calls, wrote the appropriate letters, and asked for support and prayer.  But my head kept getting in the way; I was thinking too much.  And then I felt the Spirit nudging me ~ go to Choir Practice.  Sing.  Give voice to the hope and faith that has been planted deep within.  And sing when you get home.  You’ll get through this by trusting your soul, not your mind.  Sing some more.

And once again Spirit was right; I wasn’t surprised for I’ve learned to follow Her nudgings.  The anthem chosen for today was “My Soul in Stillness Waits”  by Marty Haugen ~ the beauty thyme and thyme again with Scripture and sacred music is it feels like it was written for me, for the week past and the weeks ahead.   

“ For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits; truly my hope is in you.

Verses:

O Lord of Light, our only hope of glory, your radiance shines in all who look to you.

     Come, light the hearts of all in dark and shadow.

O Spring of Joy, rain down upon our spirit; our thirsty hearts are yearning for your Word.

     Come, make us whole; be comfort to our hearts.

O Root of Life, implant your seed within us, and in your advent draw us all to you.

     our hope reborn in dying and in rising.

O Key of Knowledge, guide us in our pilgrimage; we ever seek, yet unfulfilled remain

     Open to us the pathway of your peace.”

On this First Sunday in Advent, the theme was waiting: waiting in faith that the seed has been planted, trusting that God is at work while we wait.  So as I learn to wait and trust on a whole new level, I hold fast to the words Jan Richardson shares here at The Advent Door: “But perhaps, instead of a cozy welcome into the season, this is precisely what we need as we enter Advent: a heaping serving of mystery, a vivid reminder that we can’t know everything, can’t see everything, can’t predict everything that will happen in the days to come.”  She’s right ~ this is not the cozy image I had hoped for this Advent.  Instead it’s a thyme of seeking without knowing the outcome ~ of my appeal to the institution, of how the Holy One may chose to be present at any given moment, of what Advent might look like 4 weeks from now.  It is a thyme of waiting and trusting, and of lighting candles as we journey through these days.   

                                          

The prayer offered each thyme the choir gathers became enfleshed for me this week:

     “O God, Grant that what we sing with our lips we may believe in our hearts, and what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our daily lives. ”

Singing and waiting my way through Advent…

Read Full Post »

Thanksgiving “Sandwich”

As I walked to the driveway to greet my youngest daughter who was arriving home for the holiday weekend, my heart smiled: I was welcoming her home, my parents had arrived earlier from 3 hours away, and soon my oldest daughter would return home.  This is one of the experiences of being a member of the “sandwich” generation and I was especially aware of it last night as we all gathered around the table, sharing stories and laughter and good food.  I’m equally aware that many in the sandwich generation often face more challenges and struggles than joy.  Today I’m grateful for the joy.

One of my Thanksgiving blessings is being the middle of the sandwich:  surrounded by those I love who are both younger and older.

 

These hands prepared the meal and the table, offered thanks, enjoyed the meal, and cleaned up as they have in years past and will in years to come.   These hands have been joined by others throughout time, wishing that they could have joined us today.  And, before the day is finished, these hands will probably hold a turkey sandwich to end the occasion.

May your hands hold the blessing of a sandwich in whatever form you desire!

Read Full Post »

“We have not passed this way before”

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Worship Arts Table

We have not passed this way before…

The Hebrew people heard these words as they prepared to cross the Jordan River and into the promised land.  The way was made clear for them, they were provided for ~ the water which had filled the banks to overflowing simply stopped.  The journey ahead wasn’t always easy and smooth yet they traveled on.

We have not passed this way before…

Today our country crosses a threshold that we have not crossed before.  Somehow, the way will be made clear even if it doesn’t happen on our desired thymeline.  Lucy shares this thymely quote: “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but rather the certainty that something makes sense regardless how it turns out.”  Faith.  Hope. Trust.  Remembering we’re not ultimately in control tho we do have responsibilities in the process.  And Christine shares a beautiful blessing, a way to be as we wait in these thymes, which you can read here.

We have not passed this way before…

Before the Hebrew people journeyed, before God’s coming into the world, before our country was founded, before you or I took our first breath, there were the earth and the heavens, the rivers and oceans.  This song was our benediction response (from the Iona Community) this past Sunday and I offer it to all as a blessing for these thymes as we pass into new lands:

 

The peace of the earth be with you, the peace of the heavens, too;

the peace of the rivers be with you, the peace of the oceans, too;

deep peace—falling over you; God’s peace – growing in you.

Read Full Post »