Going Home

When I first watched this (Libera) performance I was totally smitten!
Like one friend remarked, "This must be what angels sound like!"                             

If you've time to watch (please, don't forget to "mute" my music player!), I'm certain their sweet voices and message will bless you!

Wow, it's hard to believe April 's right around the corner ... another April Fool's Day!  

OK, I think it's healthy to have an excuse to laugh..... but sometimes, don't folks get a little carried away?  I think Life plays enough jokes on us; we don't have to play jokes on one another.

Perhaps we need to ask ourselves, are we feeling foolish in a happy, playful way -- or foolish in a sense that we want to change the direction of our lives?

They say it's human nature to make fun of people who don't fit into our way of thinking.  Long ago, in the King's country they did, in fact, have someone who fit that role:  the Court Jester, or Fool.   

I love this old poem, and hope you'll enjoy it also.

THE FOOL'S PRAYER

by: Edward Rowland Sill (1841-1887)

The royal feast was done; the King

Sought some new sport to banish care,

And to his jester cried: "Sir Fool,

Kneel now, and make for us a prayer!"

The jester doffed his cap and bells,

And stood the mocking court before;

They could not see the bitter smile

Behind the painted grin he wore.

He bowed his head, and bent his knee Upon the Monarch's silken stool;

His pleading voice arose: "O Lord,

Be merciful to me, a fool!

"No pity, Lord, could change the heart

From red with wrong to white as wool;

The rod must heal the sin: but Lord, Be merciful to me, a fool!

"'T is not by guilt the onward sweep

Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay;

'T is by our follies that so long

We hold the earth from heaven away.

"These clumsy feet, still in the mire,

Go crushing blossoms without end;

These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust

Among the heart-strings of a friend.

"The ill-timed truth we might have kept--

Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung?

The word we had not sense to say--

Who knows how grandly it had rung!

"Our faults no tenderness should ask.

The chastening stripes must cleanse them all;

But for our blunders -- oh, in shame

Before the eyes of heaven we fall.

"Earth bears no balsam for mistakes;

Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool

That did his will; but Thou, O Lord,

Be merciful to me, a fool!"

The room was hushed; in silence rose

The King, and sought his gardens cool,

And walked apart, and murmured low,

"Be merciful to me, a fool!"

The Friend Who Just Stands By

Oops ... I hope you'll please 'scuze my tardiness!
This little poem means a lot to me; I hope it will touch your hearts as well. Thank you, Charlotte and Ginger, for providing such a warm and welcoming place for us to come together each week!

The Friend Who Just Stands By

When trouble come your soul to try,
You love the friend who just "stands by."

Perhaps there's nothing he can do--
The thing is strictly up to you;

For there are troubles all your own,
And paths the soul must tread alone;
Times when love cannot smooth the road
Nor friendship lift the heavy load,
But just to know you have a friend
Who will "stand by" until the end,
Whose sympathy through all endures,
Whose warm handclasp is always yours--
It helps, some ways, to pull you through,
Although there's nothing he can do.

And so with fervent heart you cry,
"God bless the friend who just 'stand by.'"

...B. Y. Williams - From the book Tea For Two

Life's Book -

So, I was rummaging through my (pre-internet) collection of poems 'n promises a bit ago -- looking for something I felt called to share. Here's what surfaced.

What a pity, it's tag reads simply, "Author Unknown."

"No matter what else you are doing,
From cradle days through to the end,
You are writing your Life's secret story --
Each day sees another page penned.

Each month ends a thirty-page chapter,
Each year means the end of a part --
And never an act is misstated,
Or even one wish of the heart.

Each day when you wake, the book opens,
Revealing a page clean and white --
What thoughts and what words and what doings
Will cover its pages by night?

God leaves that to you -- you're the writer,
And never a word shall grow dim,
Till the day that you write the word, "Finished",
And give your Life's Book back to Him."

I hope you all enjoy a safe and joy-filled new week!

Legacy

Midst the horror of Haiti's devastation, I nearly missed hearing the following tribute to Miep Gies, written and read by David Harris at AJC.org.
As he says in the last sentence, may we always be inspired.

....and may we continue to hold today's heroes, both here and abroad, in our prayers.
"Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9)

Miep Gies died in Holland this week.

Risking her own life, she, a Christian, helped hide the family of Anne Frank in Amsterdam. After two years, the Franks were discovered by the Nazis and deported to the death camps.

Only Anne’s father survived.

She also was the person who found and hid Anne Frank’s diary, giving it to Anne’s father after the war. “The Diary of Anne Frank” became an international best seller.

But Miep Gies never considered herself a hero, far from it.

She once said: “Imagine that young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty. I’m afraid nobody would ever help other people, because who is a hero? I was not. I was just an ordinary housewife and secretary.”

In fact, this brave, modest woman exemplified the highest human values during the world’s darkest days.

May we always be inspired by her legacy.

-- David Harris, AJC.org

Good morning, S/S friends!

Here I go again, borrowing from my daily meditations "sidekick." This one struck a chord for me; perhaps it will for someone else? It’s my “today” wish that each of you experience brand-new reasons to smile and give thanks.

The difficult spells in our lives come to an end. And no matter the depth of our disturbance, we will survive.

We forget that the depths teach us how to better appreciate the heights.
Sorrow heights joy. Depression heightens laughter.

We wouldn’t know the joys and laughter, were it not for the sorrows.

In them we learn to be patient, waiting for the wisdom, which will light our way. In them we learn to listen for the Guidance that beckons us forth.

We must reflect on the troubling experiences we’ve passed through of late.

They made us wiser, they gave us strength.

They changed us, moving us ever closer to the men and women, whole and happy, we desire to be.
Difficulties often precede enlightenment.

They pull us inward; perhaps push us to search for our connectedness to God, and connectedness that is at home in our hearts.

The paradox is, that these painful periods strengthen our oneness with Spirit.

If the day looks bleak, I will accept it as a hand reaching toward me, to pull me forward, to secure my place in the Spiritual family.

Abundance

Like the poppy boutonnières associated with Memorial Day, their images on canvas appear indefinite.
Their abundance is intoxicating!



I admit to struggling at times with a (mis)perception of lack … becoming unnecessarily anxious when household staples wane or economic “what-if’s” grab hold of my conscious.

My G.M. is fond of reminding her team, "Perception is Everything." How much better, then, to realign my focus, to the Source of all things!

He did not teach us to pray, “Give us this day, a bakery.”
Rather, our daily bread.

In her book, “Work in Progress”, the amazing Kristin Armstrong reminds us, “…our God equips us mightily, but He does it in an ‘on-demand’ sort of way. We are supplied just enough for where we are right now … but not enough for us to rush on ahead without Him. We have to stay connected to the Source if we want to ensure our supply.”

I’ve seem stuck in rut of late, re. nourishment. Sooner or later, everyone returns to that place where their bodies are nourished. OK. That being the case, then why do some folks stray from those places where their Souls are nourished?

Being without a nearby “home” congregation, I want to (belatedly) thank Charlotte, Ginger and all of you for allowing me a venue in which to nourish my Soul!

Have a safe holiday weekend!

God's Accuracy

I received the following e-mail from a dear friend on Easter Sunday; then spaced sharing. My prompt? ....Noting the watermelons in Safeway! Did I count their stripes?* Well, ya!

How lovely to think about the way our Creator God planned everything so carefully and perfectly, everything with a plan.

God's accuracy may be observed in the hatching of eggs.
For example,
The eggs of the potato bug hatch in 7 days;
Those of the canary in 14 days;
Those of the barnyard hen in 21 days.
The eggs of ducks and geese hatch in 28 days;
Those of the mallard in 35 days.
The eggs of the parrot and the ostrich hatch in 42 days.
(Notice, they are all divisible by seven).

God's wisdom is seen in the making of an elephant. The four legs of this great beast all bend forward in the same direction. No other Quadruped is so made. God planned that this animal would have a huge body, too large to live on two legs. For this reason He gave it four fulcrums so that it can rise from the ground easily.

The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs first.
A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first

How wise the Lord is in all His works of creation! God's wisdom is revealed in His arrangement of sections and segments, as well as in the number of grains.

Each watermelon has an even number of stripes on the rind.*
Each orange has an even number of segments.
Each ear of corn has an even number of rows.
Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains.

Every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even number of bananas, and each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even number and the next row an odd number.

The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to the minute in all kinds of weather.

All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks

The Lord specified thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundredfold - all even numbers.

God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specified times during the day, so that Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he had a conservatory containing the right kind of soil, moisture and temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by the flowers that were open and those that were closed!

Thus the Lord in His wonderful grace can arrange the life that is entrusted to His care in such a way that it will carry out His purposes and plans..... and will be fragrant with His presence.

Psalm for the Workplace

In response to the economy ~ and like so many other businesses, my workplace has had to implement certain cost-savings measures. No fun. Needless to say, stress levels have escalated proportionately; most days last week I arrived home mentally exhausted.

“Something’s gotta give.”

Then, what do you know! While searching for some tax papers last night, I discovered this Psalm and wanted to share. ‘Wish I knew who originally penned it, so I might give credit where credit's due.

The Lord is my real boss, I shall not want.
He gives me peace, when chaos is all around me.
He gently reminds me to pray and do all things
without murmuring and complaining.

He reminds me that He is my source and not my job.
He restores my sanity every day and guides my decisions that I might honor Him in all that I do.

Even though I face absurd amounts of e-mails, system crashes, unrealistic deadlines, budget cutbacks, and an aging body that doesn’t cooperate every morning, I still will not stop – for He is with me! His presence, His peace, and His Power will see me through.

His Faithfulness and love is better than any bonus check.
His retirement plan beats any 401k there is!
When it is all said and done, I’ll be working for
Him a whole lot longer and for that, I bless His name!