Uphill idealist

I think I've found home. Seriously. Only in England do they combine the wonders of tea, a humanitarian effort and W allace and Gromit . I do believe it's time for a holiday and a spot of tea, Yorkshire Tea .

Last summer, the children of First Lutheran Church got excited about helping children in a small village in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. My friend Sally and her family are currently on a long-term mission there and she let me know that most of the children slept on the dirt floors of their family huts without any barrier between them and the ground. Sleeping directly on the ground can cause a multitude of health problems, but these children's families could not afford the $2.00-$3.00 cost for each child to have a bed roll or bed mat. When our VBS kids heard this news, they knew there was a way to help. Over that week of VBS the children and parents collected enough money so that one-hundred mats could be purchased. This week was the celebration of Ethiopian Christmas and it was time for the bed mats to be distributed! How fitting that on Epiphany, the feast that celebrates the Three Kings giving gifts to the Christ Child, that these children would receive this small gift of a little com

(Image from Praying in Color blog - it is an example of a one person prayer .) When I was small and very squirmy, my Dad used to give me offering envelopes to doodle on in Church. I would cover every square inch of the paper and even open the glued edges to have more space to draw on. I never totally dawned on me that this act of drawing could in fact be a prayer practice. As a teen, I struggled to find a means of prayer and devotion that I would be consistent in participating in. Now that I think on it, much of my journals would be drawing and doodles. As an adult, I have had more consistent periods of time that I've journaled my prayers - and even then the drawings are always there! Even over the last few months, I've been contemplating on paint/praying the Psalms. Isn't it funny how serendipity brings things together? I think this is a forest for the trees kind of moment for me. My drawings are prayers. Really, no joke - no farse - it's not cheating. Drawing, paintin

Albert Einstein said that Insanity is: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Some times I wish problems would simply disappear. The little Pollyanna in my head will distract me and by nature of the business of life; I am successfully distracted from dealing with what needs to be dealt with. The coming of the new year brings with it a multitude of resolutions for many people. Fill in the blank with whatever resolution has been buzzing about your mind..." This is the year that I will....: loose that weight, quit smoking, take that trip I've been dreaming of, and so on and so on. I don't mean to come off as sarcastic, but there is a clue (often one I've honestly missed) generally right before the word 'resolution' when people use it and it's "new". In order for a resolution to make an impact, it require some new perspective or motivation. In the last year, there were some issues that kept dogging me that I did not

The Arts Council of Chautauqua County is calling all writers and artists to get involved with a unique creative arts project mash-up. The Arts Council For Chautauqua County is accepting submissions for “3rd Street Canvas – An Urban Literary Trail”, an initiative that will display the writing of community members on buildings and other structures on and around Third Street in downtown Jamestown. The goal of the project is to give the community an opportunity to participate directly in a public art installation created from their own writing. The 3rd Street Canvas project will be the first art installation of this kind in Jamestown. Submission details: All entries must be received by February 9th to: 3rdstreetcanvas@gmail.com. • Submissions should not exceed 125 words and can be of any genre: poetry, prose, micro-fiction, autobiography etc. • Each piece must have a title • A brief 4-6 sentence narrative describing the author and the inspiration behind the submission is also necessary. (