New Haven: The Comfort of Nature

Gray Squirrel (Sciurus Carolinensis) at McDonald's in Connecticut

November of 2010 was a tragic month. I had to return to Connecticut to try to help Anna and Aaron and to attend the funeral of Aaron's little sister Toni (click here, here, and here).. We had just met Toni seven months earlier when John and I went to New Haven in March. On this November day, I stopped at the McDonald's in Rocky Hill, Connecticut for lunch and thankfully found many sparrows and a squirrel to photograph. Wild animals have always provided me comfort during these tragic times.

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?
Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight.

But even the hairs of your head are all counted.
Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

“Look at the birds of the air;
they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,

and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?”

Too often, we feel as if we are all alone. It feels as if the entire world is indifferent to us. I spent time with the birds and the camera as different verses floating through my mind. After a long while of meditation, I knew I was part of Creation and was able to sadly smile and continue to New Haven.

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Quite the Week

Barton Village seen from the Welcome O. Brown Cemetery in September 2010.

It has been a week of disorganization: huge software failures, bad weather, meetings, construction . . . I have been disorganized and frustrated. There was a huge snowstorm here and the awful earthquake in Japan. But now it is Saturday and I can reorganize and move forward. It is snowing quite heavily here (of course), so it will be a quiet, contemplative day. We haven't suffered as millions of other people have suffered this week. For that I am thankful and prayerful.

The fall foliage photographs that I am posting here are from September. After my solo Pageant Park hike, I continued the day at the Welcome O. Brown Cemetery in Barton Village. There are good views of the surrounding hills and mountains, and of the village there.

We are blessed to live in a quiet, beautiful corner of the world.

I was torn whether to photoshop the wires out of the photograph above. I decided not to.

The steeple of St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church in Barton Village.

When I look at these photographs, and think back of all that has happened this week, I realize how fortunate I am. My problems and frustrations have been put into perspective again, and I pray for the safety and recovery of the millions around the world who are suffering this week.

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The Twenty-third Psalm

The Twenty-third Psalm A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul; He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies; Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. — RSV

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A Women's Retreat: The Seasons of Our Lives

On Saturday, May 22, the Women's Fellowship at church held another wonderful Women's Retreat. It was held at Lakeside Haven B&B in Glover, on Shadow Lake. This is the third retreat I have attended and now that I'm back in Vermont I look forward to attending more. The retreats give you a day of tranquility, worship, study and discussion.

The theme for this retreat was "The Seasons of Our Lives," based on the book The Circle Of Life: The Heart's Journey Through The Seasons. I haven’t read it yet, but our pastor recommends it, and her recommendations are excellent. We have four seasons in our lives just as Nature has four seasons in hers. We discussed the significance and meaning of each season for each of us individually. Our pastor provided music for meditation and beautiful journals for journaling and we shared poetry and readings from the book all through the day.

We each contributed something we cooked for lunch. After lunch, we crafted the seasons of our hearts. I choose summer. The retreat was exactly one week before my wedding and the calm and contentment I felt was something that I wanted to convey in my craft. I wanted the warmth of the summer, the symbolic power of a circle and the connection to sunflowers in my creation. My last craft for another retreat featured triangles which, the pastor said, illustrated my connection to the Trinity. During the crafting session, I walked outside to gather my thoughts and photographed the grape hyacinth and the dying tulip that I have published here. I may not be too talented with art, but I was pleased with what I created (below), even though I used way too much glue. The other women created beautiful, strong expressions of the other seasons. I wish I could share them with you here.

We ended the day as we began it: with worship but now followed by a long goodbye session. It was a wonderful, spiritual day. Our pastor is planning many more and I am looking forward to them. I urge you to attend the retreats offered at your church. If there aren’t any, suggest them to your Women’s Fellowship group.

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Centering Thought of the Week from Mary Oliver

Each Sunday, our minister publishes a Centering Thought of the Day in the bulletin. I try to focus on the thought for the week. The photograph is of a hay field behind Barton Mountain in Vermont. It is illustrative of the places where I find meditation easiest.

The centering thought for this week is:

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

The line is from The Summer Day by Mary Oliver. Poetry 180 writes that this poem "holds that the act of attention is a form of prayer." Paying attention to the needs and hopes of others is vital in our lives. Paying attention to nature brings us closer to God.

I hope you find the poem valuable.
May you have a peaceful and attentive week.

The Summer Day Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean — the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down — who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away. I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Technorati Tags: Mary Oliver The Summer Day faith Del.icio.us Tags: Mary Oliver The Summer Day faith Flickr Tags: Mary Oliver The Summer Day faith


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Contoocook Chicken Coop, Cumin & Curry

About three Saturdays ago, I went to Contoocook, New Hampshire to visit Faith. Faith, with whom I taught in Hartford, Connecticut years ago, was in New Hampshire skiing. But on this Saturday she was staying in to make chili for family that was skiing (and to visit with me!). We had hours of chatting, catching up, chopping up onions and peppers, and comparing teaching notes. I got a great chicken chili recipe that Faith had from the Barefoot Contessa. We went out on a walk while the chili cooked and found this chicken coop down the street. Contoocook is a heavily populated suburb of Concord, so I was pleased to find the chickens there. Hopefully, Faith and our friend Gerri will be back to visit the next time Hartford is on vacation (they are not having a February vacation this year!).

Chicken Chili (from one of the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks) 8 cups chopped yellow onions 1/4 cup olive oil 1/4 cup minced garlic (or 8 cloves) 4 red bell peppers, diced large 4 yellow bell peppers, diced large 2 teaspoons chili powder 2 teaspoons ground cumin 1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 4 teaspoons kosher salt 4 28-ounce cans of peeled plum tomatoes in puree, undrained 1/2 cup minced fresh basil leavves 8 split chicken breasts, bone in, skin on Freshly ground black pepper Cook the onions in the oil over medium heat for 10-15 minutes until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the peppers, chili powder, cumin, red pepper flakes, cayenne and salt. Cook for 1 minute. Crush the tomatoes by hand or in batches in a food processor fitted with a steel blade (pulse 6-8 times). Add to the pot with the basil. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Preheat oven to 350°. Rub chicken with olive oil and generously sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast 35-40 min. Cool. Separate the meat from the bones. Cut the meat into chunks and put it into the chili.

This is the recipe where John and I learned about cumin, which is the 2nd most popular spice in the world after black pepper. We have had bad luck finding brown curry powder in the store. But once John smelled the cumin, he knew that it was in curry. So now we have enough cumin to last a lifetime, but we still don't have a recipe for brown curry powder.



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A Burial

What do you do when the woman you called Mother for forty-eight years is buried with hate, resentment and jealousies? You pray incessantly for a family that most likely never existed. You pray for forgiveness and to grant forgiveness.

There is a new blog about forgiveness: The Sunflower. It is a discussion and reflection about forgiveness in our society. The blog is based on Simon Wiesenthal's book The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgivesness (a link for the book is on the sidebar of The Sunflower). I first read it in 2006 on the recommendation of my minister.

Please go to The Sunflower blog. If you want to join us, buy the book and read it with us. Tell me, Sandy Carlson (of Writing in Faith) or Mary Stebbins Taitt (of so many beautiful blogs) that you want to join, and you will be a contributor. If you don't want to contribute, be sure to grab the feed (by RSS or e-mail) and comment.

What did I do on Saturday? I did not go to the burial. Wingnut and I went to the circus. 

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Blog Your Blessings: Healing Thoughts

video from sandycarlson.net


visit Sandy's YouTube channel for more 

healing words, wisdom and videos

that are "based on prayers and scripture from various faith traditions."

I find that I am using Blog Your Blessings to highlight those things that comfort and heal me. The past six weeks have been a healing time of prayer and reflection. Music, reading, talking, and Sandy's words and videos have helped me realize I am not alone. 

To read more blessings clickBlog Your Blessings
or Blog Your Blessings

Technorati Tags: sandycarlson.net, healing 

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TrevorCarpenter.com: Holiday Challenge

TrevorCarpenter.com: Holiday Challenge:

Since we are coming up on the Christmas season, I thought I’d toss out an idea that just might work. I’m looking for a few people out there who are willing to share their opinion and aren’t afraid of the rest of us debating it. I’m looking for your input on one very tough issue… 

Why do you think Jesus doesn’t have what it takes to be important in your life? 

That’s it. Plain and simple. It’s really not that hard. Everyone reads that and has a response. I know you have some feelings about it, probably even strong feelings. But, are you brave enough to jump in the mix? Are you strong enough to deal with a bit of critique? 

All I’m looking for is that you read that question and take a few minutes to think hard about your response. Then comment on this post. However, if you’re already a blogger, why not put a bit more effort into it and blog it at your blog. Then, just make sure that you link back to this post and I’ll make sure that we all share in the exchange.

This question stumped me. I have fragments of responses in my mind but I think it is such a complex challenge that I need to think and listen to others. I took the time to read the comments at Trevor's post, and while a couple were the mandatory "Jesus is my savior" statement, a couple of them led me to think more fully about what my response might be.

My first thought: if Jesus were important in the lives of Christians, wouldn't we have more tranquility in our daily lives? More peace on earth? If he were important in my life, would I have more peace of mind and less doubt? Does the lack of peace and my doubts mean that Jesus is not important to me or others?

Be sure to click the box on the comment page (hopefully you have gmail so that you can utilize this feature) and follow the comments. Come back if you need to say more. I need to listen to you. Thank you.

The Rev. Chuck Currie: High Point Church: Only Buries Non-Gays

The Rev. Chuck Currie: High Point Church: Only Buries Non-Gays

Also, please read "What Happened to 'Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged?'" from Street Prophets blog.

Rev. Currie provides a link so that you can e-mail the church and request that they re-consider this horrendous action. I did:

I am so dismayed by the actions your church took on the memorial service for Mr. Sinclair. Above all else, Christ wanted us to love each other. He commanded it. Yet more and more in this country and in parts of the world, there is hostility, hatred and judgement.

Please please reconsider for the sake of the family that is suffering so deeply now. Mr. Sinclair was a child of God and deserves our love.

Technorati tags: LGBT faith religion

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Why Can't I Own a Canadian?

Why Can't I Own a Canadian?

I'm going to Bible Study tonight like I do every Wednesday. I am always a bit tense and curious to know if the local homophobe and scripture quoter will be there. He can disrupt the wonderful communion that I find with the others that come to study by justifying all sorts of exclusionary behavior and by out-scripture-versing anybody. His favorite guiding principal is "love the sinner and hate the sin."

You can never win with people like him because the Bible is so full of disparate verses. I've spent a lot of time reading and practicing my replies to people like him. I will never be able to, and never want to be able to, out-scripture-verse him. But I want to be able to reply to him in some fashion.

I keep wondering if my efforts are fruitless anyhow. I doubt that anybody can change the mind of a homophobic fundamentalist conservative who thinks you will go to hell if you don't think right thoughts. But perhaps an accumulation of gentle ideas and suggestions will work.

A fundamentalist conservative god is a dark, angry, vengeful guy, not my nurturing feminine spirit whose only motivation for action is love. I'm pretty sure She has had enough of our hate-peddling here on Earth.

Technorati tags: Bible faith homophobia scripture+verses God

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Straight, Not Narrow: Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Gay Rights

Straight, Not Narrow: Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Gay Rights

"For me, I couldn't ever keep quiet. I came from a situation where for a very long time people were discriminated against, made to suffer for something about which they could do nothing--their ethnicity. We were made to suffer because we were not white. Then, for a very long time in our church, we didn't ordain women, and we were penalizing a huge section of humanity for something about which they could do nothing--their gender. And I'm glad that now the church has changed all that. I'm glad that apartheid has ended. I could not for any part of me be able to keep quiet, because people were being penalized, ostracized, treated as if they were less than human, because of something they could do nothing to change--their sexual orientation. For me, I can't imagine the Lord that I worship, this Jesus Christ, actually concurring with the persecution of a minority that is already being persecuted. The Jesus who I worship is a Jesus who was forever on the side of those who were being clobbered, and he got into trouble precisely because of that. Our church, the Anglican Church, is experiencing a very, very serious crisis. It is all to do with human sexuality. I think God is weeping. He is weeping that we should be spending so much energy, time, resources on this subject at a time when the world is aching."

Desmond Tutu

Verizon and St. Mary Star of the Sea

St. Mary's Church in Newport overlooks the entire city on a high hill. Because of this, Verizon sought a contract with the church to install cell phone equipment in the bell towers around 2003-2004. The diocese in Burlington signed the contract, which would give St. Mary's (or the diocese) an estimated $18,000 to $20,000 in income.


However, when residents in the neighborhood heard about the deal, they objected. They said that transmissions from the towers are detrimental to our health and that Verizon and the Catholic Church could not implement the contract without neighborhood meetings. Which were then held.


Vermont Public Radio also at that time broadcast a call-in show with Scandinavian "experts". These people told us how radiation from the equipment can heat up the fluid within the cells of our bodies. It is a minute amount of heating, but it is unnatural and, therefore, dangerous.

The view of Lake Memphremagog from the church steps.

Verizon was beaten back with testimony such as this. The church lost extra income. There is spotty cell service in Newport. I am not an advocate of cell phones and feel them to be unnecessary (but if you want to give me an iPhone and an AT&T contract for service for one, I will accept the gift valued at $2,500). I think the expert testimony could be challenged and I think the deal with the diocese was a lost opportunity. But I will also fight on to keep cell towers off of Barton Mountain.

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Sunday Links

. . . a longer list than I had planned because I have saved these up for months

Miscellaneous:
Bill Moyers Journal Podcast
Billy Collins Live: A Performance At the Peter Norton Symphony Space, April 20, 2005
Dueling Anthologists At the 92nd Street Y (Billy Collins & Garrison Keillor)
Poetry 180
iGTD (Mac GTD software)
Los Angeles Times: Why do straights hate gays?
AIM Fight
eBizMBA: Popular Blogs
Visualizing Global Web Performance with Akamai

LOLCats:
The World Famous Random Kitten Generator
Slate: LOLCat Slideshow

The Iraq War:
Comey's Dissent at Justice
The Plague: Camus's Fable in Our Time
NY Times: The Line Between Torture and Cruelty
Howard Zinn: Impeachment by the People
Rolling Stone : Was the 2004 Election Stolen?

The Religion Wars:
The Phoenix: Holy War!
Open Source: Hitchins v God
Open Source: The Varieties of Faith and Reason, Take Two

And finally, because of the killing, traumatization and hate:



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Mother's Day: Faith Lived Out in Love

A blossoming tree in the Victory Bog, Victory, Vermont

I hope you all had a pleasant Mother's Day. When we went to church this morning I read the bulletin cover as I always do and was impressed by the meaningful message for today. I decided to type it out in full so that I could remember the original meaning of Mother's Day. This article was written by Sara Webb Phillips on a bulletin cover that seems to be from the UMC. I have searched for over an hour but can't find a thing on the Internet.

In some churches Mother's Day is one of the big three religious holidays, as in Christmas, Easter, and Mother's Day, the closest thing Protestants have to a holy day of obligation. After all, we know that a mother's role is to deliver children – obstetrically once and by car forever after! Young children may honor mothers by serving them breakfast; adult children may return home to worship with their mothers. For some, however, Mother's day can be difficult because their mothers are dead. Others might remember mothers who weren't all that nice or who struggled with motherhood. Yet, the best intention of this cultural remembrance is for mothers to sit back for a change and be receivers instead of givers.

But it wasn't always so. Mother's Day was originally envisioned in the 1870s, not as a day of flowers and presents, but as a day for mothers to make their voices heard. Julia Ward Howe, the author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," was a mother in the days before women were allowed to vote. She asked, "Why don't the mothers of humankind interfere in these matters [of war], to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone bear and know the cost?" thus encouraging a mother's day of working to eradicate war. It was not a day of rest for mothers, but a day of action for the cause of peace!

In today's Acts reading (see below), we remember the story of Lydia, with the genuineness of her conversion reflected in her hospitality. Her home had become a house-church, providing a new freedom for people of mixed classes, cultures, different gender and race. In her actions, she reflected Jesus' words from John's Gospel: "Those who love me will keep my word."

Today, in this season of Easter, we honor women who have nurtured us and lived out gracious hospitality.. May such action continue to stir us to faith lived out in love.

I have chosen The Message version of the text because it sounds so much like life today, making the reading meaningful to me: Lydia could be any of us.
Acts 16: 9-15

That night Paul had a dream: A Macedonian stood on the far shore and called across the sea, "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" The dream gave Paul his map. We went to work at once getting things ready to cross over to Macedonia. All the pieces had come together. We knew now for sure that God had called us to preach the good news to the Europeans.

Putting out from the harbor at Troas, we made a straight run for Samothrace. The next day we tied up at New City and walked from there to Philippi, the main city in that part of Macedonia and, even more importantly, a Roman colony. We lingered there several days.

On the Sabbath, we left the city and went down along the river where we had heard there was to be a prayer meeting. We took our place with the women who had gathered there and talked with them. One woman, Lydia, was from Thyatira and a dealer in expensive textiles, known to be a God-fearing woman. As she listened with intensity to what was being said, the Master gave her a trusting heart—and she believed!

After she was baptized, along with everyone in her household, she said in a surge of hospitality, "If you're confident that I'm in this with you and believe in the Master truly, come home with me and be my guests." We hesitated, but she wouldn't take no for an answer.

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Garrison Keillor

I have read and re-read, and am confused by, Garrison Keillor's salon.com article. It begins by stating something obvious, then, changing voice, goes into this thing about gay marriage (and come on, Keillor! We all have gay friends; we all have gay family members. So quit saying that already!) and, changing voice again, ends up with him reading in a culturally diverse classroom. Keillor should have, perhaps, written two articles. I have read Keillor's writing before and I have not been as confused about what his point was. My conclusion therefore must be that these are his actual thoughts and feelings about gay people.

I don't understand his apology either. When I write on my blog and in comments on other blogs, I will usually walk away from my writing and re-read it later so that I am sure it says what I want and not some stupid inadvertent thing. It only makes sense to do so! I don't want to offend anybody that I don't want to offend. Keillor is a professional writer so he has some procedure in place to do the same thing. This process, of course, helps me identify thoughts I may not have thought that I held. Keillor honestly needs to re-examine his prejudices.

I have admired Keillor for years and I never thought him capable of saying things like this. It is as if his true colors are coming out. I am wondering now if I will be able to listen to my favorite Saturday night entertainment again. Has he ruined his radio show and music for me now? Probably.

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A Prayer in Spring by Robert Frost

One of the only one or two prayers that Frost ever wrote. He summered here in the Willoughby Lake area.

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
To which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends he will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.

What Is Love?

from The Science of Love, MSNBC article at (this link will probably expire after awhile):

Neurobiologist Steven Pinker has written,

"Somewhere in this world of 5 billion people there lives the best-looking, richest, smartest, funniest, kindest person who would settle for you."

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New Paper Calls Gay Marriage "Moral Good"

from Whosever:

Wednesday, 14 March 2007

A new Christian think tank has issued the first articulation of gay marriage as "a moral good" that "spiritually liberates straight people as well as gay people.'" The Institute for Progressive Christianity (IPC) considers the paper - "The Kingdom of God and the Witness of Gay Marriage" - a theological breakthrough.

The academic "white paper" could change the outcome of the great battle over same-sex unions now raging inside several mainline Protestant denominations including the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) and follows the recent ultimatum from the Anglican Communion to dioceses and parishes within the ECUSA to cease blessing such unions and stop consecrating openly gay bishops

The Rev. Mark Farr, an Episcopal priest and IPC co- director, called the paper "a truly groundbreaking scriptural affirmation of gay marriage as an almost iconic window into the reality of God's love."

"The paper recognizes fundamental Christian teaching about the nature of God is central to the concept of gay marriage and affirms gay marriage as a necessary moral good within Christian theology," declared the author of the paper, Otis Gaddis III, Co- Director of the IPC Academic Review.

"These truths integrated into Christian theology illuminate and clarify our understanding of God's plan of creative transformation of humanity into the Kingdom of God - the utopian end of all things," said Gaddis, a self-described "progressive evangelical" and "Nicene Christian" (a reference to the Nicene Creed as a central credo of Christian faith).

The paper "affirms gay marriage as a positive value for the Christian worldview as rooted in Christian Biblical texts and the core Christian doctrines of Trinity, Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension," said Gaddis.

Furthermore, according to Zeus Yiamouviannis PhD, IPC Co-Director of Academic Review, "this paper is innovative theologically because it explains in concrete terms within an evangelical Christian framework how gay marriage doesn't simply spiritually liberate gay people, it also spiritually liberates straight people." In other words, said Yiamouviannis, "this paper changes the dynamics of the entire debate over gay marriage."

"When we articulate gay marriage as a theological good, we shift the burden of proof in the debate over gay marriage in favor of the perspective of God's justice, instead of accepting morally arbitrary right- wing notions of sexuality," said Gaddis.

According to Yiamouviannis, the IPC hopes to use the Gaddis paper to spark "a conversation with conservative Christians, because we deeply root our affirmative case for gay marriage in the biblical witness, and as such we have built a theological bridge for dialogue with all Christians who seek moral guidance from the Bible."

"Progressive Christians have long discussed the need for an articulation of an affirmative and biblical understanding of the ethics of gay marriage," Yiamouviannis added, declaring that the white paper does just that. IPC executive director Mark Farr noted the relevance of the paper's publication (following its formal presentation at the IPC Winter Symposium in Cambridge, Massachusetts on February 24) in the wake of the ultimatum issued in Dar es Salaam by the bishops of the Anglican Communion, and in the context of the constitution action on gay marriage in the Massachusetts state legislature expected late this year.

According to Farr, "paper represents a bold starting point to build a new sexual ethic affirming the spiritual aspects of the gay relationship" in response to the recent call by Michael Ingham, Anglican bishop of western Canada's New Westminster diocese, for a comprehensive 'reformation' of sexual ethics."

The IPC "white paper" as well as two other shorter papers on the subject of gay marriage are available at the IPC website: www.instituteforprogressivechristianity.org .

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Another year without a Valentine

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