Forgivness Sunday

                                                       

 Forgiveness Sunday.

I love Forgiveness Sunday.  Everything we need to know is right there.  We are all sinners, and by the way, I am the worst.  We learn that we have the gift of repentance that we can turn and live by loving and forgiving our brother.  It's a short journey and we begin as we end, in the resurrection of Christ where the bonds of death can no longer hold us captive.  Nothing now can separate us from the love of God.  Here we are on this forty-day journey and in the end we begin where we end at the cross and the life-giving tomb.  Beautiful.

Please forgive me, the sinner, because I know my actions and thoughts have had far reaching effects.

Christ is Risen!

Along the Way

I feel like I am on this journey into the complete unknown, but not unknown.  I have not been where I am going, but feel like it is where I have always been heading.  I know it is crazy that I do the work I do and have no money to do it with.  It is just that I can't not do it.  I feel most alive when I do my work for the Chicagoland Green Burial Society.  I feel the hum inside me and the light ahead.  I keep moving.  I keep trusting that in the end, I will be able to fund this work, and I will be able to support my family all the while  making things right for all of us when the time comes and hearts are broken.  I just hope that this work helps people begin to see their life in joy, peace and love and have no fear of death.  Death certainly causes us pain when someone we love dies, but it need not be feared.  Fear keeps us from saying what needs to be said.  Fear keeps us from fighting the good fight. And fear paralyzes us.  May we move forward in truth and love.

Simple Beauty

I have fallen head over heels in love with the beauty of Illinois prairie-lands.  Don't get me wrong, my true and best love is Wisconsin.  I love her rolling hills, forest and the glacial formations.  Truly, Wisconsin is a gem.   But, the prairies have taken this woodlands girl and said, "I know we will not be your true love, but why not love the one you're with. There's always room for one more."  Since I had nothing better to do, I fell for the beauty of the prairies.  They are majestic and quiet.  These are not obvious beauties, they are subtle and worm their way into the soul.  I look out on a prairie and I am awed of their simple, essential beauty.  They give nothing more and nothing less that what is needed to make the heart sing.

I will take a moment to speak to the skies of the prairies.  I have never seen skies like this - open free and blue!    Sometimes the skies just take my breath away, and I look out and think anything is possible here.  The skies are open, and so my soul opens, seeking new possibilities and new beauty.

I am most grateful to be here.  All around me I am reminded to seek the simple and beautiful way.  I am reminded open my heart to love, and even make room for new adventures - ones I  never in my wildest dream thought I would ever dream.  I am grateful to be here.

Power of Love

Love never ends.  I believe there is always room for one more in your heart to love.  I believe that when you love someone, in some way, you are saving them and yourself from the storm that buffets us in this life.  Love becomes the safe haven.  Love nurtures a weakened soul, and body (since we are one, body, spirit, intellect). I believe that we are created to meet each other where we are, and love each other knowing full well how inadequate our love is compared to the Love that is eternal.  Yet, we love, and learn to love more in each day of our lives. Love is an act not an emotion.  Love is doing something for someone when we don't want to because we know the other person needs something  and we can give it. Love is giving what we can, and not knowing the results.  We are all members one to another just by the simple fact that we are all human. Let us love one another.  Let us exorcise love in all things.  The more we practice, the better we can love.  Love hopes all things. 

Pascha Eggs

I love decorating eggs every year.  I love that each egg is different from any other egg I have ever made.  I love that I create eggs for the moment, for the feast and that each moment and each Pascha is unlike the next.  These little creations, little works of art that last so briefly, reminds us that each moment is but a gift and a thing of beauty that passes away to the next.  On Pascha, we are reminded of this passing through this life, and into the next.  May we remember to love the moments we are given as beautiful works of the Lord.

Dead Already

Dead already.  I have been thinking about this for a few weeks.  We, as Christians say that we have been crucified and buried with Christ at baptism.  We die Him in a death like His and  when we come up out of the waters and  we are live in Christ.  We live no longer for our own petty desires, but to strive to live as Christ on earth, to be Christ-bearers in the world.  If, in fact, we are dead to this world, to our sins, and alive in Christ why then do we seek out other things to distract us from the Gospel, from the life-giving, love creating words that we love one another just as Christ loved us?  I think of the Band of Brothers episode when a solider was so scared he could not move and many other soldiers came to him to tell him how to behave in a war zone.  Finally, a soldier who had displayed amazing courage, told him that he was looking at it wrong, and that he was already dead.  Then he could go do the work of a soldier.  I wonder if we think of ourselves as already dead what we could achieve in truth and love.  Would we be afraid to reach out to our brother who suffers if we already knew we did not have to worry about keeping everything together?  If we were not afraid of losing our home and security, would we reach out to those all around us who suffer in silence or right out loud? As we approach the death and resurrection of Christ this weekend, as we travel under that winding sheet and  and kiss the gospel, maybe we can remember that we are already dead, and alive in Christ.  If we are alive in Christ, let us embrace each other even those who hate us and forgive all by the resurrection of Christ.

I'm So Fired Up

Tomorrow is the big one......It is our first big time presentation in front of folks I don't know.  Having said that, I can't wait.  I have always been like that.  Opening night could not come soon enough as far as I was concerned.  I always just wanted to be on the stage doing the thing.  For those who know me, this might be a strange thing to find out about me.  I have a softer voice than most folks.  I always worked on projection of my voice.   I know I can have volume, but making it work has sometimes been a challenge for me. My neighbor in Hamilton says that everyone in the neighborhood knew I could be loud.  Having kids will do this to a person. At any rate, tomorrow, I get to stand and speak about things dear to me, and things I know are important for folks to hear.  No one wants to talk about death.   The industry knows it, and has made it their business to keep folks from exorcising their rights under the law.  In Illinois, the industry has lobbied to have the law change in 2009 so that we no longer have a say as to who can handle our body in death.  That is so not right.  It is so wrong,  I wonder why there are not riots in the street, but then again......no one wants to talk about death.  They can do what they want and most of us follow along because we don't know we can do something different.  So, I am fired up.