Uphill idealist

Every day I receive an email from "The Writer's Almanac" . With the help of a handy audio link, Garrison Keillor reads a biography of an interesting person as well as a daily poem. Today's poem was so impressive that I just had to share it. I hope it encourages each and every one who reads or hears it to..." Practice your own song. Now." Grace and Peace - Tara Letting Go of What Cannot be Held Back by  Bill Holm Let go of the dead now. The rope in the water, the cleat on the cliff, do them no good anymore. Let them fall, sink, go away, become invisible as they tried so hard to do in their own dying. We needed to bother them with what we called help. We were the needy ones. The dying do their own work with tidiness, just the right speed, sometimes even a little satisfaction. So quiet down. Let them go. Practice your own song. Now. "Letting Go of What Cannot be Held Back" by Bill Holm, from  Playing the Black Piano . ©

Confirmation Class Idea: Circles of Faith Paint large wood circles with acrylic paint to represent idea "My faith looks like...". In the past when I've led this project, students will paint ways they live out/experience their faith. (See image sample.)  Projects can be looked back on, added to, or used throughout,  and displayed on day of celebration in your tradition's  Confirmation process. The circle will be divided into 4 sections:  Prayer, Worship, Service, People that help my faith growth . (These are four suggested areas to jump start this project to share with your youth.) Please prepare your youth by sharing this information and also have them wear a smock or clothes that can get paint on them.  Some youth choose to paint pictures as icon for each area and some choose to write out their ideas in text. Either approach is fine. Let me know how the project goes for you if you try it. I'll post our youth's project