Friday, May 16, 2008

Me Camping? Stop Laughing!

Yep, I'm going camping and you would too if you were going with Chuck Wiggins to hang out with his alltime favorite musician. You can read more about it at Chuck's blog, Entering the Noosphere. I encourage you to play the video at the end of the post - Chuck probably looked much like this kid when he was a youngster.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Day 21 Resurrection Stories - Mother's Day

In these last few minutes left of Mother's Day all I can think is "God, I hate this day." I miss my mother even though she's been gone 12 years. I will never get used to it - I've just tried to adjust to it like a person who has lost a limb. I think the resurrection part of this story has yet to play out. My beliefs tell me that I am separated from her temporarily and I will have eternity to yell at her for not letting us know sooner that she had breast cancer while hugging her for handling it with so much courage.

I also hate this day because I was not able to have children. I was fearful of adoption because of the unknowns. I have great respect and admiration for the people who were not as fearful as I. There have been signs of life as I have grieved the loss of the unborn over the years. I was a teacher for 23+ years and had the priviledge of mothering many children. It took me awhile to understand that there would be children in my life.... just not the way I thought. Even now at 53 I have a friend who has asked me to babysit her three boys once or twice a week this summer. What a wonderful arrangement - I get to hang out with them and then send them back! It's a gift to be trusted with someone else's children. It gives me hope that I might have been a decent mom if I had been able to have my own.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Day 20 Resurrection Stories: Solomon Lee

Yes, I know I'm on story 20 and Ascension Day was May 1st and Pentecost Day is May 11th. So I have reached half of my goal and still want to hang in there with reflecting on finding those stories of new life. It is a spiritual discipline for me given my temperament and fatigue. It gives me hope and in sharing we can carry a small bit of hope to others.

So, for Story 20 I want to share a poem written by Solomon Lee who is ten years old. He is the first child in the pic. The pic was taken over a year ago so he's even more handsome now. Please read his poem and see if you agree with me that minds and hearts like Solomon's can revive new life in the midst of what we hear in the media. This is in his spelling, punctuation, etc. Makes my teacher heart flutter!

Why Fear?

Why fear the bully,
Or writing from scratch
Why fear those
Who think rap isn’t crap?
Yes, you can fear the massacre,
The mystery
The immigrants.
But why fear the stupid people
The goray, grotesque facts of life
Like the old age Christans being devoured by lions
Fear can be blissful,
Like a horror movie (too freaky for me.)
But don’t be scared of hell threats,
Fatigue and cancer you shouldn’t fear
But be cautious in life
Don’t fear, you shouldn’t
For I fear humanity
It doesn’t feel good, trust me
For I’m Solomon Lee!