Beloved:

     So the gist of my annual check up yesterday was, “Well Annette, when our women bodies turn fifty   . . . . . .”  Every variation on this theme was discouraging but none more than, “our favorite carbs are the enemy; pasta, potatoes, bread.” The enemy of weight management that is, how it takes more exercise and less food to achieve the same results. I intended to ask about my failing memory but, of course,  I forgot. Sigh . . . Sigh! Sigh! Sigh!  Why can’t knitting be exercise and bagels a superfood?  I’d be the Michael Phelps of 50 year old women!  

     My doctor isn’t one to coddle and yet she’s wonderfully able to tell the truth with enthusiasm for all the good things about turning fifty.  Friends confirm her words, calling it their favorite decade so far.  According to them my need for social approval will drop dramatically.  My sense of purpose will clarify. Nearly grown children will take flight and need me less and differently. Time for my interests and my marriage will grow.

     I sense these changes already and wonder about spiritual ones too. After thirty years of effort will trust come more naturally than worry?  Will faith be more like falling than climbing? Will attachment to things lose their charm?  Will today be my favorite day of all?  I can’t say for sure but it’s something to think about when I pedal the bike or gnaw my kale.  

     I pray the day brings finds you active in faith, warm in love. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette


My 2 Favorite Kale Recipes:

1.  Kroger sells a salad in their deli called "Superfood Salad" with kale, edamame, cashews, etc.  Very yummy.  

2.  Soup with Kale 

Ingredients:
* Any pot of yummy tomato based vegetable soup or stew with or without meat.  
* 4 leaves of kale with the veins removed.  

Make the soup. 
Stack the greens and roll them up like into a tube.  Slice the tube very thin so you have narrow ribbons of kale.  

When soup is nearly finished, stir in the kale.  


Truth is, I mostly hate kale.  I find it bitter and chemically tasting.  Removing the veins helps.  I have to hide it in other stuff.  

Beloved:

    I don’t want to jinx it by saying so but today may very well be the first normal day our household has had since December 20th.  Cody, our beloved ten-year-old golden retriever, died the day after Christmas.  The weather caused chaos at home and stranded our son in Florida.  Sudden deaths of friends’ loved ones touched us deeply.  The transmission went bad in Mariah’s car and I smashed the front end of mine by hitting a deer. This are just the highlights.  

    Given the dark side it is easy to forget the joy.  Having all three of my kids home is the purest  contentment I know.  Carl had a birthday.  Ben brought two extra boys from Wabash, Yang Yang (China) and Young Ho (Korea) who are precious as sons to me now. Having fed them for nearly three weeks, I worry they aren’t eating well.  I’m positive Young Ho isn’t dressing warmly enough.  Carl and Emy road tripped to Arkansas, making daddy daughter memories to last a lifetime.  None of us was hurt in the deer accident.  I got some extra special time with three of the ten little people who call me NetNet.  Here I am with Henry, of the Louisville branch.  

     For all I know, this day will be no more normal than the last 25.  Maybe it will be surprisingly sad or incomparably joyful. Maybe it will be boring, which wouldn’t disappoint me a bit. Whatever it brings, I have the very best folks with which to meet it.  And I have much faith that whatever happens, God is in the mix somewhere, doling out the divine necessities to carry us all from hour to hour.

    I pray you find yourself full of hope and leaning toward joy the whole day long. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette