Beloved:
          First day back from a delightful time away from email and all things church.  I slept a lot, sewed a lot, spent a lot of time with grandkids, took a little trip with my sister, gardened and did some house projects.  I enjoyed it all and am grateful for the time to rest my brain, body and spirit.
          My garden plot is really coming on.  I’ve put up a dozen jars of pesto and picked bowls of cherry tomatoes two mornings in a row.  I have bouquets worth of zinnias on the stem and two bell peppers on the vine.  My herbs are exploding, so let me know if you want some oregano, chives or thyme.
          The squirrel just showed up to check the feeders he already emptied a few nights ago, so instead he’s chewing a nub of tree branch.  Behind him, workers are laying straw wattles (I had to look up the proper term) in my neighbor’s and my backyards.  They’re planting grass seed over the area they dug up two weeks ago to lay drainage tile.  I’m more hopeful than optimistic that they’ll be back to water what they’ve planted, else we will have our own muddy river every time it rains.  Alas, not everything is mine to fret over.
          Ever am I startled that the world can be so calm in one spot and so chaotic in another.  People the world over can only fantasize about a neighborhood so peaceful and quiet, where it’s safe to sit outside and gardens are a memory.  And not just oceans away, of course, sometimes merely streets.  In cities big and small, including our own.  Why should I be so fortunate while others know only hardship and struggle?  It doesn’t always come down to choices and hard work.  I don’t work half as hard as the single mom who works at Walmart and also drives for Grub-Hub.  No one chooses where they’re born:  suburban North America or Gaza.  I go months at a time not worrying that a hellcat missile will hit my children’s houses or my church, yet grandmothers and pastors in Palestine think about it every day.
          Which is to say that while I am indeed and ever so grateful for this safe and peaceful life, I also try to sit lightly with it, knowing it is so very, very fragile.  We are all susceptible to the disasters, storms and tragedies that fall upon a person or a community in the twinkling of an eye.  Life itself is unfragile – unsusceptible, that is – to the disasters that befall us.  According to the faith within us and we share.  Given freely by the Christ to us all without respect to our fortunes in this world.  This is my comfort and my courage every day, most especially on the hard ones.
          Summer is not quite winding down, but I can feel it coming.  I pray your hearts and hands and mind are well occupied this day.
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~peace & prayers, 
pastor annette

Beloved,

             I’ve been thinking about my grout, the concrete stuff that holds tile in place and gets dirtier the more it’s mopped.   I’ve owned three different houses over the past thirty years, all of which had tile, and not once have I cleaned grout.  The house I now own is more than 30 years old and I can say with some confidence the grout has never been cleaned as  it’s black throughout the kitchen save the pantry floor where it’s a nice creamy beige.  When we decide to clean something really dirty we say we are going to tackle it, which is how I spent a good part of my holiday weekend, tackling my grout.  Like Brother Lawrence peeling his potatoes, the tedium of running my $10 electric scrubber back and forth in that narrow road between each tile became almost meditative, allowing me to think about absolutely nothing.  Rarely can I think about nothing.
             Of course I am nothing like Brother Lawrence.  I complain and procrastinate and am so easily distracted by all the projects I have going in this house.  I do my best to forgive myself, to tell myself the mess is all my own, that it bothers no one else.  Besides, I finish things all the time, just not as fast as I start new things.
             My simple point is this, framing our daily existence as trying to catch up cannot possibly be the life God intends for us, can it?  Two baskets of laundry and stacks of dishes to be put away do not fit my idea of abundant life.  But somehow mindlessly soaping, scrubbing and wiping away thirty-plus years of homemade alluvium is next level happiness for me.
             I fully expect to die with projects still spread out on my desk and sewing table, with unfinished books all over my house and dirty window sills I’ve been meaning to clean since last fall, or maybe the fall before that. And hopefully my grout will have turned black all over again.  Because I was busy NOT fretting about what wasn’t done but enjoying what each day offered.  Of course it’s far easier to write about than to practice, which is why it is called practice.  Like Brother Lawrence said.

~peace & prayers,
pastor annette 

(originally posted June 7, 2016)

Beloved:
          VBS 2016 will go down as the year Pastor Annette didn’t burn the building down.  I was the last to leave Vacation Bible School set-up Sunday afternoon.  “Let me get tomorrow’s dessert out of the oven and I’ll lock up,” I told my excellent 12-year-old kitchen assistant.  The chocolate raspberry crumb bars looked and smelled perfect.  I turned off the oven and set the pan on the stovetop to cool overnight, not noticing the burner still on beneath it.  The retired men’s group arrived a few minutes before me Monday morning.  They had already opened the windows and cleared the smoke.  Some people think it smells terrible.  Compared to, say, six thousand square feet of smoldering ash, I think it smells wonderful.   
          Our other take-away from this week and next is the Habitat for Humanity Builders Blitz house we are sponsoring, which is literally going up as I type.  By day’s end today it will be completely dried in, with electricals and plumbing roughed in, lots of interior drywall and exterior siding hung.  As you can see, I’ve picked up all kinds of builder lingo lately.  I did a quick walk-through this morning and talked with our homeowners, Irma and Oscar.  They are very pleased with the process and with how their house is coming together.  Irma’s new front porch is to die for.  And thanks, to the UBC Gatorade crews coming and going from church to work site every afternoon too. 

Beloved:
 
          My 26th Vacation Bible School at UBC.  It would be 28 but we missed two during the pandemic.  Kids of those early kids now sing and dance and make crafts.  Last night they made paper chain snakes, like the ones who live in the rainforest.  Tonight a guest will bring a real python, and a 36-year-old tortoise, and a bearded dragon ~ as we talk about the wonder of God’s creation and the wonder of their little selves.  I’m never prouder of my congregation than when they spend so much of their precious time to welcome little kids to church.  For my part, I’m as tired as the 2-year-olds by the time I leave the building.  All I can do is feed the dog and take a shower before I fall into bed.  I pick up my book and wake up hours later to take my glasses off and turn out the light.

          Silly songs and paper snakes, popsicles, water games and a full-grown man dressed up like Tarzan ~ having this much fun after all these years must surely mean I’m still in the right business.  There will be time to rest and recover later.  For now this is where I belong.

          In other news, the weather has officially turned to summer, heat in the 90’s and a little rain.  On the good side, my tomatoes will take off now and the neighborhood pool will warm up.  My plan is to wear out my welcome at the pool this year.  But for people living outside, the heat is not good news.  Places where they can get cool are fewer all the time.  A new Indiana law goes into effect next month making it a crime to sleep on public property overnight.  Cities who don’t comply will lose necessary funding from the state.  Thankfully local agencies, including law enforcement, are hard at work creating alternatives for our affected neighbors.  Ministers are preparing for the possibility folks will request staying on church properties.  This is most definitely something we can pray about, and if a meeting (or two or three) would benefit from your input.  But in the meantime, I hope you are making time to enjoy the delights of summer, whatever your favorites are.  I remain ever so grateful for your partnership in the work.  
 
~peace & prayers, 
pastor annette