Gratitude November 9

Wait, I missed yesterday!  I thought I posted.  I usually write in the morning, or try to, but yesterday I was at the food pantry and then came home to various meetings.  My apologies.

So, today I'm grateful for yesterday.  I'm grateful for the staff at Ulster County Community College who learned about the pantry and are bringing students to it.  So many students don't have access to food on campus, and they don't know the pantry is there.  Thank you, Lynn and Stephanie, for advertising and for enabling students to have healthy food while studying.

And today I'm grateful, as I have been for so many days, for the love of Christ.  I've been drawn lately into a deeper desire to pray - or a desire to pray more deeply - and a growing sense of God's love and presence and mystery.   As the dark grows outside, as fall turns toward winter, I'm more turned toward the light of Christ.  Our chapel is cold in this season, but Jesus is there making it warm in spirit.  So that's where I want to be.  I'm grateful beyond words for this life that lets me be there.

For what are you grateful today?

Gratitude November 7

Today I'm grateful for my community.  I am at the end of my rope with several tasks today - finding health insurance for next year, preparing a document for printing - and in each case I have a companion who is there with technical expertise, or simply the perseverance and stubbornness to keep going when I want to give up.  I'm grateful for Elizabeth, and Sarah.  Thank you.

This morning I read that the road to salvation is simply to keep doing the daily things, and speak only kindness.  I make it so complicated and strenuous sometimes, I'm grateful for the reminder that the simple, right things are what the world is made of.   I am frustrated with these issues today, but they don't have to make me part of someone else's hard day.  As I write, I release my frustration to God and breathe in gratitude.  I will have health insurance, somehow; the letter will get printed.  And I will pray for those who do not have decent health care, or access to computers that drive them crazy!

For what are you grateful today?

Gratitude November 6

Wow, where do I start?

I'm grateful for my friends, our friends, the friends of the Companions.  Yesterday we had an open house, a housewarming I guess, to celebrate being in this new place.  People from various parts of our lives came and met and shared the blessing of this house and this community.  For the second day in a row, I was overwhelmed by the amazing people in my life.  How did this happen?  For many years I was so closed off to the beauty of the world, the beauty of other people, that such people and their gifts just didn't show up as part of my world.  Now they're everywhere.  I know they aren't different.  I let love into my life, and it flooded in.

I'm also grateful for one more day of warm weather, a morning I could go for a walk without a jacket and then sit on the deck and watch the river.  The cold is coming, but not today.  I will still go for walks in the cold, and likely still sit on the deck, but it will be different.  Today is today.  I'm grateful for the ability to cherish this.

What are you grateful for?

Gratitude November 5

Today I'm grateful that Daylight Savings Time is over in the U.S.  This may not seem like much, but it is to me.  I love the sunrise, especially now that we are back on the river, and I have missed it for the last month.  By the time the sun is coming up, we are at Matins and I can't see much of even the dawn.  By the time we're done, the sunrise has happened.

I also love to go for a walk before Matins, but not in the dark.  I used to run in the dark, with a flashlight, but that got old (or I did!).  I love the stars, but I want to be able to walk in the light.

I know that as winter approaches the light will come later anyway, but for now I have a reprieve.  Night will come earlier, but that actually is OK for now: we sing the Phos Hilaron, "O Gracious Light," welcoming the light of Christ as the earthly light fades.   In a few months I will welcome the later light, but for now I'm grateful to have the early morning light again.

What are you grateful for today?

Gratitude November 4

Today Elizabeth and I are leading a refresher course for graduates of the Making A Difference workshop offered by the Mastery Foundation.  This is an all-volunteer organization devoted to fostering leadership in religious communities and communities where religion is a source of conflict.   We work in Israel and Palestine, in Ireland and Northern Ireland, and in the U.S.

Today 15 people will gather in person and online to empower ourselves for ministry.

I'm grateful to have found this community, and to be enabled to serve others through it.  I'm so grateful we have this new house to host people in.  I'm grateful for the ways I've been empowered through this work, and I'm grateful for the amazing people I get to meet and work with through it.

If you're curious about Mastery, go to www.masteryfoundation.org

Bless you in your ministry, whatever it is and wherever it is happening.

Gratitude November 3

Today I'm grateful for our Coffee Table Communion group.  We gathered and read Sunday's Scriptures, and really delved into what it means to bear one another's burdens, and to bear witness.  It's always a joy to be with them, but today was just very rich and powerful.  I'm praying to know more about what witness I am called to bear, and what burdens.  It can be tempting to assign myself burdens and ignore the ones that God might have in mind for me!  Can I choose my burdens, please? I'm reminded that Jesus promises that his burden is light.  Perhaps if I trust God to show me my burden, it will not be as onerous as I fear - or as the one I might choose for myself!

I'm also grateful for friends who remind me to treat creation with reverence.  We're being besieged by several species of insect right now, and I'm feeling desperate and violent.  Laurel and Cathy found a pupa, something waiting to grow.  I knocked it off the side of the house, and they were horrified: "You don't know what that will become!  It might be a beautiful butterfly!"  And they took it to a nearby tree and made it a new shelter.  I was humbled (and hoping it is not more of the stink bugs or the roach-like things).

What are you grateful for today?

Gratitude, Day 2 (and 1!)

I challenged myself and those who read our newsletter to a daily practice of gratitude this month, and I pledged to post on mine each day.  Then, whoops!  A family emergency completely distracted me.  So for yesterday, November 1, I'm grateful I could be of service to others experiencing crisis.  I was not raised to think I could contribute; I was more typically the problem than an answer!  So it's a gift to be able to be present, not having to fix anything, just being with.

Today I'm back home, and it's been another busy day.  I'm grateful for returning home, for having a home to return to.  I'm grateful for the money to buy groceries, and the car to go get them, and the time to prepare healthy meals for us.  I'm grateful for those who come to see me in spiritual direction.  And I'm grateful for the beautiful, bizarre gourds that are on our kitchen table!

I'll try to post the picture of them.  I'll be grateful when my computer finds it!