HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

 The heart can think of no devotion

Greater than being shore to the ocean;

Holding the curve of one position.

Counting an endless repetition

~ Robert Frost

 

This past week in Bible study and in my weekly “Spiritual Literacy Small Group” I had occasion to reflect on my grandmother and my mother. The phrase I used for both is they had a “deep river faith.” 

 

Many were blessed by these women, I, doubly so, because they raised me; both were constant, consistent, steady, weathering whatever season, sorrow or renewal.

 

One of my favorite images is sunlight on water, the liquid light glistening like jewels. The light shone in Gram and Mom, was reflected in their actions, they carried the light with them, bore light through the dark and scary places and taught others to do the same.   

 

The opening poem by Robert Frost was introduced to me this week during small group.  I was paused by the line “being shore to the ocean.”

Emma and Dorothy had and maintained the right perspective, a humility of service and self-awareness, knowing who they were, grounded, strong and in service to the faith they professed, blessed be, in how they lived.

 

There is a rhythm to the ocean, “an endless repetition.” Mothers have a routine of care and nurture, they set the schedules and the order of the home. My mum was  into her 80’s still cooking the holiday dinners that fed our brood, she taught Sunday School for 65 years (!!); Gram was in her 90’s still baking bread during winter and sitting on the glider in summer shelling beans. 

 

I think of both often and especially on this Mother’s Day.  After each school day when I’d come home and change into my play clothes, gram asked me, “Tell me, what did you learn in school today?” During the high school years, when awakening early was a hassle, mum would enter my room and say, “Come alive, Sally!” 

 

This day and ever onward I will trace the river’s flow within me, I will learn its rhythms, I will be constant, I will live boldly for I am Emma’s youngest granddaughter and Dorothy’s youngest child --- blessed to be a blessing.

 

....shameless.....

 

"Spring....when God tarts it up a bit...." ~ Anne Lamott

...shameless..... we are once again having a "typical" spring here in southwestern PA and the Divine is on a "tart tear" with so many blooms and buds, colors and greenings .....it is shocking and it is glorious!

As a kid, about once a quarter and more so during summer, my father would set-up the screen,  get the slide projector, invite family and conduct a slide show. It was nice to gather together, mum would have a tray of cookies (always a bonus) and some seasonally appropriate beverage and always coffee. Being a self-absorbed youngster, I wanted the photos of family, of people....yes, of me!  I endured the many slides of trees and rocks and rivers and flowers and more flowers and yes, hey, there's another photo of a flower.....

As one matures and realizes one is not the sun to everyone else's universe, appreciation grew for the photos of nature in all her glory. In the age of reflection and re-membering, I am blessed to have been raised in a home by parents who respected and celebrated the WOWs of the created world.   The month of May was when we'd make trips to the local greenhouses for mum to purchase flowers that would be planted around the house, hung on the porch hooks and placed in the good sun places and windows inside the home. Always the nurturer, mum tended these plants and flowers year round, maintaining nature's beauty as a daily practice. 

Meanwhile, dad was outside prepping the ground for the garden and going to "Westermans" to buy plants and seeds in readiness for planting. My father's gardens were precise, perfectly placed and balanced; they were a geometric dream of lines and produce. 

An important spiritual practice is to notice, to do so one needs to slow down and set the intention to sense the beauty of spring ---- the sights, the smells, the touches, the sounds, the tastes. 

What a gift is this season of renewal and possibilities ---- make the most of it, point out the gifts to another and be WOWed together!  Get a notebook and every day write down your WOWs and the Beauty you evidenced.  

BARE FEET, BUTTERFLIES and BEING ALIVE!

 The plan worked!  

A member of the Children's Ministry team had the idea to purchase cocoons, tend them, and if the timing was correct, to have hatched and set-to-soar bundles of butterflies on Easter Sunday!

It did. We did and the kids already jacked-up on jelly beans and chocolate were cranked!

Easter that year was warm with bright sunshine and the kids came preening and prancing in their holiday pastels.  I had begun the Children's Sermon talking about having "Easter Feet" and that the disciples were so excited about finding the empty tomb and a Risen Jesus that they "ran out of their shoes" going to and telling everyone about this greatest of good news!  We too need to have "Easter Feet" and I removed my shoes and socks and went barefoot.  As I expected and hoped so did many of the kids. 

To this barefoot bunch jiggly with excitement, a couple members of the Children's Ministry team brought forth the boxes now filled with butterflies waiting to be released. "Should we go outside and set these butterflies loose as a symbol of Easter?" asked the 70 year-old ministry team member.  "YES!" shouted the children in reply. 

The sanctuary of this particular church had long, pointed at the top, plain, vertical windows placed along both sides of the sanctuary that provided a perfect view from the pews of the lawn outside. The packed congregation went to the windows to watch the butterfly release.  It was a grand moment!  One of those rare times in congregational life when the plan just works.

Much like the butterflies now set free, the barefoot gaggle of children also had no desire to be confined and brought back into the church building.  They ran and shouted, shirts quickly became un-tucked, clip-on ties were discarded, hair ribbons came undone, some wrestled and rolled all in joyful jubilation!  To me, watching from the inside and attempting to move ahead with the service, it was a near perfect picture of the celebration of the Resurrection.  

The couple of members of the Children's Ministry Team could not corrale the children. There was ZERO chance now free and outside and on major sugar highs running in the sunshine and broad expanse of lawn that they were going to go back inside.  It was obvious that the Children's Ministry team members were not capable of catching the children and that they wanted to yell and threaten in a Jesus-y way of course to get the kids back inside. One would watch and witness several little blond heads bobbing up by the windows and then see a "blue hair" or a "gray head" stomp by with clenched jaw and clutched hands.  We watched and chuckled and then some of the parents went outside to assist in bringing in the children and there was much rejoicing.

What better way to celebrate Easter than to cut loose and run free!  To run and dance and wheel and turn and gather together and enjoy being alive!

As is true like 100% of the time, for lessons of how to be a disciple, look to the children --- freedom and abandon and squeals of joy be yours this Easter Sunday!