Suddenly I see

Did this song make your toes tap? It always does for mine.

Friday is Y-day

Today is the day I head out of town with 8 students, one other adult leader, tons of luggage, snacks and some butterflies dancing in my stomach.

It's been a while since I've gone on a weekend trip with a group of students. I've checked my to do list, my what to bring list and have a 3 ring folder with every person's info, my driving directions,a list of restaurants in the area, and a tax exempt form for good measure.

If you think of us this weekend, pray for our safety, fun and opportunity to learn some things about God, ourselves and each other. It will be a great opportunity.

Today is Y-Day as we are headed to Youth Quake Encounter in Pittsburgh.
Only 3 1/2 hours on the road and we'll be there.
Adventure awaits.

Bird on a wire

Sitting suspended by telephone wire,
totally unaware of the conversation and communication going on beneath it.
Huddling into itself in the cold of the day, it's head almost disappears into it's body like an ostrich burying it's head in the sand.
Seemingly unaware of the pigeons on the wire with him, he happily huddles into the gray feathers of himself.

At a moments notice, he could take flight and head to a warmer town with more sun and less sub-zero winds, but he stays - content where he is.

This bird sits content in mid winter on a wire, while I daydream of places filled with sunshine and warmth.

Yet, I'm not the one with the wings, am I?
Does he know what opportunity he has, then again do I?
If I had wings like him, I'd hope I'd fly!

Sweet River keep me rolling

Earlier this week I spoke of how I was needing some good "summery" music to get me past the cold and mid-winter mood that has settled over my neighborhood and mind. This morning I thought I'd share one of the groups that spend a great deal of time playing on my ipod, all year round. "Waterdeep" is a great indie (sort of) group that I really love and hope you will too.
Here's is a singalong version of their song, "Sweet River Roll." This song is indeed a melancholy one, but somehow the chorus fills me with hope.
May hope keeps you rolling through your week too...



Here are the lyrics if you prefer to read them:

Homebound Henry's got a tumor in his head
He wakes up every morning after dreaming he was dead
He used to think that life was boring, but now that's not the case
He turns to his wife in the evening, he says "Honey I'm afraid I'm gonna lose this race."

Sweet River, roll all over me
Sweet River, roll all over me

Soaking wet Juliet- she lives in a well full of tears
Her husband left her for some bimbo after twenty-two years
Now she's got to start all over, but she's just so terrified
She thinks it woulda been so much easier if he woulda just died

And I'm lookin out my car window sittin' in the pouring rain
Although your house is fifteen miles away, I can still feel your pain
I've thought and prayed and worked it through about a hundred times or more
How your soul just cries to everyone to help you get up off the floor
Right now it's morning, you're probably sleepin', totally unaware
of the flood of kisses you hold back by the way that you despair
It ain't me I'm talking about here, or anybody else you can touch
That's all I want to say right now, I don't want to say too much

except Sweet Jesus, roll all over me
Sweet Jesus, roll all over me...
You gotta come down and just set me free

Our world is no place for hate

Painting from the Wooster Collective

It is discouraging to me that one week into President Obama's installation as the leader of our country that I seem to be bombarded by negative, racially charged, cynical, hateful, and angry political sarcastic comments on blogs, Facebook and the like.

I will not reply to your statements in the same attitude or tone, but I find it totally unacceptable to not reply to these inappropriate statements in some manner.

When people are put in the spotlight, they often become the subject of criticism. In the case of any president, criticism is something to be expected. However, comments based solely on the basis of a persons race is not something that I would have expected to see and hear in the USA in the year 2009. How sad that in a historic moment that greater includes all humanity, some of humanity continues to try to isolate and divide.

Martin Luther King Jr once said,

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

So in the name of love, light and human decency, no matter your political compass, do not become an agent of hatred. Hatred and darkness can only be dispelled by light and love. Make a difference on your Facebook, your website, or your blog; and stand up for the promise of a country where, "...all PEOPLE are created equal."


Image from Miami University

Two more reasons to smile

I've been singing with the kids at my church (First Lutheran of Jamestown NY) for a few months now and we've managed to learn a nice number of songs in our Sunday School opening so far. We usually sing for the people that attend our breakfast fellowship the first Sunday of the month.

Here are two photos of the group a few Sundays ago.

First serious.



Then not so serious.



Here's to many more reasons to SMILE!

Sleeping with Bread: Carlos Santana and a cold, cold Monday

As I was wrapped up in my piles of covers this morning I dreaded pulling myself from their warmth to move the cars and run the kids to school. The cold seemed so overwhelming this morning, seeing my breath as I scurried to get into the iced over car. My nose froze from the inside out, if you know what I mean.

As I let the car warm up, I started fiddling with the cd's that were in the armrest compartment and happily came across "The Best of Santana". I remember picking up this CD at a yard sale a few summers ago and smiled as the conga drums opened the first song on the CD - Jingo!



There is a great deal for me to accomplish this week.
1. Get over the fact that warm this week is going to be a high of 20, maybe.
2. Prepare for a Jr. High youth trip to Pittsburgh for next weekend. Eight students, two adults and one of my favorite cities: Pittsburgh!
3. Make sure my remaining 1/2 of family is set for the weekend at home.
4. Get the laundry done.
5. And all the things that are escaping my memory at the moment.

In all this cold and things to do, listening to Santana this morning was a great reminder to me of something that I can hold on to in the midst of almost anything. Music is an immediate mood lifter for me. So this week, as I scurry around. I'll be scurrying to some Santana, and whatever else helps me dance through work and living this week.

Let go of the winter blues and hold on to the music that inspires you to get out your dancing shoes and samba all week long!



What are the things that give you life, help you press on in the midst of challenge and keep on dancing? Please share what helps you in the comment section. Have a great Monday!

Jesus walks with me

This image came to me after looking at my icon of Jesus the Pantocrator. Here is is Wikipedia's explanation of the icon:
Icons of Christ Pantocrator
The oldest known icon of Christ Pantocrator, encaustic on panel (Saint Catherine's Monastery)

The iconic image of Christ Pantocrator ("Christ, Ruler of All") was one of the first images of Christ developed in the Early Christian Church and remains a central icon of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the half-length image, Christ holds the New Testament in his left hand and makes the gesture of teaching or of blessing with his right.

The oldest known surviving example of the icon of Christ Pantocrator (illustration, right) was painted in encaustic on panel in the sixth or seventh century, and survived the period of destruction of images during the Iconoclastic disputes that racked the Eastern church, 726 to 787 and 814 to 842, by being preserved in the remote desert of the Sinai, in Saint Catherine's Monastery.[5] The gessoed panel, finely painted using a wax medium on a wooden panel, had been coarsely overpainted around the face and hands at some time around the thirteenth century. It was only when the overpainting was cleaned in 1962 that the ancient image was revealed to be a very high quality icon, probably produced in Constantinople. The subtlety, immediacy and realism of the image are immediately apparent when the image is compared to any of the more familiar stiffened and hieratic icons— following the same model (illustration, top right)— that were painted after iconoclasm had been decisively rejected. Christ here is Christ the Teacher: the gesture of Christ's right hand is not the gesture of blessing, but the orator's gesture; the identical gesture is to be seen in a panel from an ivory diptych of an enthroned vice-prefect, a Rufius Probianus, ca 400, of which Peter Brown remarks, "With his hand he makes the 'orator's gesture' which indicates that he is speaking, or that he has the right to speak."[6]

What does each painting speak or say to you?

Painting by T.L. Eastman / January 2009