Hospitality ~ Invitation

The invitation:

Come…bundle up with your boots and woolies to gather under the almost full moon and around the bonfire!

Come…celebrate the darkness on the Winter’s Solstice Eve and give thanks for the Light that is coming!

Come…there’ll be hot cocoa, wassail*, and s’mores.  Bring a plate of cookies if you’d like but it’s not required.

Come…Friday, December 21, 6:30 – 8:30; come for 20 minutes or stay for 2 hours!

Come…follow the luminarias to the barn in the back!

                                                         

   The luminarias were lit…

                                            

The fire roared…

 

                                                   

The table was spread…

 

                                          

A snowperson was built (at least 8 feet tall)…

                             

And, Winter began!

                                                                                

*Wassail:

Mix together 1 gallon of apple juice, 12 oz can of frozen orange juice and 3 cans of water, and 6 oz can of frozen lemonade and 3 cans of water.  Put in cheesecloth or teaball: 1 teaspoon cloves, 1 teaspoon cinnamon or 2 short cinnamon sticks, and 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg and put in the pot.  Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes or more.  Makes your house smell wonderful.  Serve hot!

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Community Spirit

We may live in a small community but we have spirit!  Tonight many of us gathered to cheer on the lighting of the big tree downtown and see the other lights that have been put up for our enjoyment.  I learned that I don’t have a steady hand when taking photos with my insulted mittens ~ but the wind chill was 15 degrees!  So some of the photos have a “special effect” look to them…

  The Christmas Tree at the main intersection of town.

                 

There are trees decorated by businesses or groups ~ here’s a couple of them:

      

Notice that the legs of the reindeer are those of a walker, and you can’t see it but the tree stand is in a commode!

                    

Other lights around the park:

    The first year we lived here I wondered what frogs had to do with Christmas (even if they do croak “Jingle Bells” over the load speaker) but then I realized that they are on the platform along the river…

                    

Also along the river is a papermill, no longer in operation.  I wish I had a good camera, and steady hand, to show clearly the brick building with a candle in each window ~ time to use your imagination:

                                   

I wonder how community spirit is shared in other corners of the world…

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Resting and sleeping ~ there’s room for us all

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Pine Island Presbyterian Church

I sure don’t remember the name Eutychus as one of the Bible characters I heard about in Sunday School nor do I remember it from seminary.  But there he is in the book of Acts, sitting next to a window while listening to Paul preach.  Paul carries on for a while, a looong while, and Eutychus falls asleep and then tragically falls out the window to his supposed death three stories below.  Paul goes down to check on him and proclaims “do not be alarmed, for his life is in him”  and then returns to his preaching.

I thought about the bulb resting before growth (see here) and Eutychus sleeping through the sermon.  Neither is typically put before us as a model of upstanding and righteous faith ~ whatever that might be ~ but I’m venturing a guess more of us can relate to needing to rest or falling asleep during a sermon than we can to standing in front of a burning bush, giving birth at the age of 80 something, or traveling from country to country preaching the gospel.  These obscure stories about little remembered and often un-named folk in scripture remind us that there’s room for us all, even if we don’t feel as if we have our act together.

Lately Christine has been inviting us to lean into the darkness and unknown, Lucy writes of unresolved grief, and Karla ponders living authentically with grief.  I’m recalling an article I read several years ago entitled “The Freedom to be a Mess” (unfortunately I don’t remember the author nor the publication – maybe the title is enough of a message…)  Perhaps all this has to do autumn, with this season of changing and dying, leaves falling from the trees, geese flying south, and fields becoming barren.  It seems that in every direction I’m invited to let go, to surrender, to rest, to sleep – but hopefully not fall out of a window!, to stop trying to get it all figured out.  So I’ll follow the way of the bulb that’s resting, of Eutychus who sleeps yet still receives grace, and see what lies ahead.  

On the worship table, nestled in the basket, were these beauties:

This is the dried form of the “Money Plant” ~ it’s far lovelier in its dried form than when it’s fresh and growing.  It’s a wonderful invitation to surrender to the innate processes of life for beauty to come forth, which sometimes comes late in the journey. 

 

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A Barn’s Perspective on Healing

The Alchemist continues to gather good folk in her back yard, just in sight of my windows so I am privileged to watch these gatherings.  This thyme they gathered on the Autumnal Equinox ~ a day of equal light and darkness, a day of balance.  She seems to be striving for that in her life.

                         

First they gathered at table, sharing in soup, hearty bread, and drink.  Next, an altar was set up by the bonfire ~ a stole bearing the names of Biblical women: Eve, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Ruth, Naomi, Esther, Judith, Mary, Elizabeth, and Mary of Magdala was wrapped around the edges of the altar.   The Circle of Friends candle-holder, which was once placed within my walls, was on the altar as was a basket full of candles (I haven’t seen her do anything significant without candles.)  There was a small bottle of oil and a box of tissues.  A few more people arrived and they all gathered around the fire.  Prayers were offered and sung, pain was named and released and buried, stories were read, gifts were claimed with light, she was anointed and blessings were offered by all.  I could feel it radiating out in all directions ~ a deep sense of God’s healing from the circle.

                          

And this is one of the mysteries of healing that I have witnessed through these windows and over the years: even though the original invitation was for one, healing was offered and received by all in the circle.  Balance came in unexpected ways.

                   

With blessings from

The Barn

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The First of the Season

How do you mark the start of a new season?

 

This is one of my favorite ways: a bonfire and s’mores.  My daughter is having a bonfire with her friends tonight, and I have the official job of starting the fire (all those years in Girl Scouts were good for lots of things including almost always being able to build a good fire.)  It’s a beautiful evening, the temperature is pleasant, and the teenagers haven’t arrived yet!  So I broke open the marshmallows, graham crackers, and dark chocolate Hershey bars.  The first marshmallow burned so I added it to the wood in the fire and got a second one and roasted it just right. 

 Ahhh, the first bonfire with the first s’more…  Here’s to the start of the bonfire season!

~ Cathleen

 

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