An Afterthought and Fellowship

It occurred to me while folding laundry and my ponderings about trees and their growing in all seasons, that a good question I might ask is: how would I like to grow? or would God like me to grow? and then I started thinking about my experience at the San Leandro Costco today. I met Pete for lunch in San Leandro where he's taking cable splicing class in prep for the AT&T strike in April. I had a friendly encounter with a middle aged African American woman in the towel aisle. She and I both hoisted a large pkg of kitchen hand towels to buy and agreed that we didn't need this many (10) kitchen towels, but that we would share with our friends and relatives. Then it came out that hers were for her mother, who keeps kitchen towels well beyond their decent looking stage. Why, oh why, do our mothers do that? Mine does it too! It's pitiful! Her mother won't use "fancy" or "cute" towels, so she would be giving her mother the plain muted colored ones.-beige, dark green. We had a good laugh (at our mothers' expense) and it felt very human. I celebrate this event because it has been SO long since I've had a free, human encounter with my African American sisters and brothers. I credit the election of our brother Barack Obama with this happy encounter. I am moved to tears at this development. Thank God Almighty! free at last!

the trees keep growing

blue skies in January, cool air, warm sun, little rain this month, and the trees keep growing. They have lost their leaves a lot of them, but the tree still stands, evidently unembarassed by its nakedness. The tree still stands, impervious to wind, no wind, rain, no rain, cold, grey skies or blue sunshine. I love trees! I've met a few people in the world who are like trees... shelter in the spring and summer, still standing, but bare in the winter. Home for some critters, including the birds who come and go, like the owls outside our house whom we hear soon after dark. No trees? no owls...I love trees!

falling in love

I think I'm falling in love. Driving home tonight I started thinking about the joy on Yo Yo Ma's face as he played his cello at the inaguration yesterday. Irresistible, that kind of joy. Infectious. I started thinking about other men and women I've seen that joy filled doing a thing... dancing, singing, playing music, speaking.. that kind of total engagement.. hitting the baseball out of the park... I tried falling in love with my baseboards as I tenderly brushed them with the paint and brush... it really helped! .. I had no trouble at all falling in love with our babies. They were irresistible. So, falling in love? I know people who are love with the whole world... Andrew Wyeth ws described by a friend as that.. and it was because of his insatiable curiousity, partly, acc. to his friend. Then, i thought of Jesus of Nazareth, a living God! Tried to summon a real flesh and bone human being in my imagination... and what a friggin genius he was, he must have been! If I had Mary Magdalene's genius I would have recognized him truly for who he was. I'm not sure I'm Mary Magdalene. In fact, I'm sure I'm not! but in my own quiet way, I'd like to be....

words can not express

Words can not express how happy I will be to see an end to the George Bush era. I will not villify the man, but I do credit him with the loss of a spirit of good will in this country. That I have seen in so much of the world in which I travel. His politics polarized this country and made it a hostile, frozen landscape. That is where his leadership took us. Not together, but apart. His simplistic solutions to problems reflected a v. immature understanding of the way the world is truly. The result: a nation who had lost its civility and in that regard, the terrorists did win. I will rejoice tomorrow with Americans who look forward to working together, talking civilly, and as Peter Maurin said "to help make it easier for people to be good".. which is our true nature.

can it be three years?

I was driving home from work yesterday and listening to Yo Yo Ma's Songs of Joy and Praise. Listening to Track 7, I suddenly recalled my grandmother, Elisabeth Riegel Witherspoon, and had an image of her playing her violin. Grandmother (Betty to some, Mother to my father) died almost three years ago, January 23, 2006. As a young college girl she attended Oberlin College to study music. She abandoned that to marry my grandfather, a teacher/engineer when she was only 20 years old. My grandfather said to me only a few years before he died, that he regretted that Betty never got to really do what she wanted to do, because she married him. In the moment, I said that she did do what she wanted to do. But, I knew what he was saying. There are things one doesn't do when one chooses one path, and studying violin might have been one. Anyway, back to the song. Listening to this "A Christmas Jig/Mouth of the tobique Reel" I had this strong sense that this was my grandmother playing her violin with other saints in heaven, and she is smiling. Listen to this song of joy... a great expression of "heaven". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5jufFWvp4w

Blessed are the Merciful

I'm feeling just sick about the situation in Gaza.

saints be praised! Celtic prayer

Last night we got on skype with Robbie in Edinburgh. It is hard to believe that we can see his face and hear his voice and he can see us and hear us with only a fraction of a second delay. After his bout with food poisoning he looks like he lost a few lbs. (he says 10 lbs over a few days) His trip has not been without its bumps, starting with the emergency landing in Iceland, the flight delays, missing orientation at the university, and then being sick for 12 hrs. He is sharing a flat with freshmen at the U of Edinburgh, whom he has hardly seen because they are starting classes and getting settled in too. He was feeling pretty poorly last night and so we summoned all the wisdom we could to offer suggestions and hope to bolster him. Okay, which saint to we pray for in this circumstance? Well, we called upon St. Patrick and St. Andrew, because they are local to the British Isles... and to St. John Baptiste de la Salle, patron of teachers, and beloved by us, former students of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. This is a public shout out and thank you to those saints upon whom we called last night and to the saints in Robbie's life here on earth. Thank you! today is a better day...

a little church, now community center

Today's readings tell of Jesus' encounter with a leper. The leper asks Jesus to be made clean. Jesus does will it.. and the leper is healed. Jesus tells him to go to the priest and to make an offering as Moses prescribed it, but then to keep the story to himself. Of course, people heard what had happened and wanted to know more. They sought Jesus out, but Jesus had retreated to a quiet place to pray. I'm struck in this moment by the necessity for Jesus to go back to the Father after he'd been the vehicle for the leper's healing. How exhausted he must have been, being a human vessel, being constantly compelled to bring healing to all those who sought it. Eventually, he was led to the cross... I have given it all, my life, and now, you can know the love of the Father forever. Remember me, He and the cross say. I have given it up for YOU. The leper was one of us along Jesus' way. The leper had an inkling and the kind of desperate hope that this man, Jesus had the power to heal even leprosy. Jesus, in his compassion could not refuse him. He would not refuse us either. This picture is of a little church, now a community center, in Pt. Reyes Station. I wonder if there's a cross around.

super califragilistic expee alidocious

how do you spell it? um diddle um diddle um diddle eye. is that right? I tutored today and we worked on vocabulary.. words with the root "nom". Nomenclature, anonymous, homonym, renown... and others I can't remember. I am amazed at how students "know" words. Some can spell anything they've laid eyes on once. Some can glean from anything spoken: the word and its meaning. Some can not remember words of a certain family ... my son said he didn't have a vocabulary to discuss theological topics like the Incarnation. Really, I ask? he's been taking religion classes for years! or is that just an excuse? or is that true? he has a vocabulary for facets of human experience that I don't, like sports and the dynamics therein, for example. He can talk about the San Jose Sharks play by exciting play, or the Oakland A's, or the Pomona Pitzer Sagehens. I think I need to find just a friend or two to talk theology with me, so I am not disappointed when my kids can't create dinner table conversation for ME. I'm reminded though, back to vocabularies, that the Body needs all of its parts, as Jesus said. Like the rowers in a crew boat, we each bring our particular strength to bear... and then, oh! the power!

pt. reyes again

Pete and I headed out into the fog around the Bay and up into the Pt. Reyes National Seashore today. I fully expected more if not a lot more fog along the coast. I was wrong! It was stunningly sunny and warm and calm. We saw several herds of elk up close. All we could hear were the sounds of the crows from the tall eucalyptus and of the surf way down below us. We hiked along the furthest trail at the end of the Point, and met many happy hikers along the way. This place is a treasure! We've hiked there in rain and wind and sunshine. I love California!