Pastor Annette's Blog
"OF ALL THE THINGS GOD HAS SHOWN ME, I CAN SPEAK BUT A LITTLE WORD NOT MORE THAN A HONEYBEE CAN CARRY AWAY ON ITS FOOT FROM AN OVERFLOWING JAR."
~ MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, 13TH CENTURY MYSTIC |
"OF ALL THE THINGS GOD HAS SHOWN ME, I CAN SPEAK BUT A LITTLE WORD NOT MORE THAN A HONEYBEE CAN CARRY AWAY ON ITS FOOT FROM AN OVERFLOWING JAR."
~ MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, 13TH CENTURY MYSTIC |
Beloved.
I heard on the radio this morning that the average American spends less than 1% of his/her time outdoors. Today is a good case for why ~ wow is it hot! The week promises to get even hotter so I must not forget to run an extension cord out to the chicken coop and keep a fan on the hens during during daylight hours. They are much hardier in February than August. To keep warm they can pile all over each other. To get cool they spread out and each scratches a hole in the ground so she can can lay her belly in the cooler dirt. If they can’t get cool, they will easily die of heat stroke. Garden-wise things are pretty good. Lots of tomatoes ripening but I have to pick way early or the raccoons get them. I don’t mind sharing but they are so wasteful, picking a huge one and eating only a few bites and throwing it on the ground. I’ve a table on the screen porch where the barely pink tomatoes can finish their business in safety. All the summer flowers except dragon wing begonias, rose moss, globe flowers, petunias, zinnias and hosta are finished but the fall sedum is coming on beautifully. I planted black eyed susans but the chickens destroyed that patch before it even got going. But they planted their own cucumber patch so I guess it evens out. I still pick a cucumber at day. If we agreed not to be picky, the three of us could live on what I grow in August. It would be an austere diet, eggs and tomatoes, cucumbers and berries, a stem of asparagus here and there. It would also be more than what a good portion of the world eats daily.. We’d be food insecure but not starving, at least not so long as the chickens keep laying. I’m grateful for grocery stores and processed food. By them we can be healthier and the world is better-fed, respectively. But it something to think about, this season when food is so abundant, even in my yard. And, of course, for which to be grateful. Do your best to stay cool today. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette A NEW RECIPE ~ Here’s a keeper, from family circle magazine - the sauce is so yummy. I’m making it for pasta next time. Grilled Summer Vegetables & (No Cook) Red Pepper Sauce sauce ● 1 12-oz jar roasted red peppers, drained ● ¼ cup slivered almonds ● 3 tbsp olive oil ● 1 tbsp red wine vinegar ● 2 cloves garlic, chopped ● ¼ tsp salt ● ¼ tsp black pepper Put all sauce ingredients in blender and puree’ until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until serving. (It fits back into the red pepper jar) vegetables ● 2 large zucchini cut lengthwise into ¼ planks ● 2 large yellow squash cut lengthwise into planks ● 4 bell pepppers, seeded & quartered ● 1 lb asparagus, woody ends removed ● ¼ cup olive oil ● ½ tsp salt ● ½ tsp black pepper Toss cleaned and cut vegetables with combined olive oil, salt & pepper. Grill vegetables 5-6 minutes per side, turning as needed to avoid burning. Serve warm with sauce on side to drizzle on individual servings.
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Beloved:
The man-child who lives in the basement was up before 7:30 this morning, singing a song about a raccoon at the top of his lungs. It is rare for him to be up so early or so happy before breakfast. This week he’s sorting his room, deciding what to take when he moves to college on Saturday. I cooked his 4-egg omelet and might have cried except he was cracking me up with a story about his goofy friend, Winston. The delicacy of these days is not lost on me - nor the privilege it is to raise this boy and his sisters. Nor, nor having always had the marriage, the stability and the money to care for them without fear. Nor that they have been so healthy and teachable. All these blessings are very near the surface of my heart and mind these days, as our family changes again. Twenty-three years ago we started bringing home baby children - now we are launching baby adults, nudging them out of the nest and wondering what to do with the extra room or, In Ben’s case, the extra groceries. It’s equally strange, leaving me equally unsure of what my job is, equally likely to cry or laugh. Only Ben is moving but all of us are headed to a new place where we will learn to be joyful and content all over again. Whatever rearrangements a new school year brings your home, seek the new joy therein. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette Beloved:
Summer! Summer! Summer! Harvest is constant even on my pretend little homestead. Every day I gather berries, cucumbers, eggs and herbs. Soon I’ll have tomatoes enough to can and freeze. Vacation treated me finer than fine. I enjoyed the beach and finished a few overdue projects at home. I spent some very sweet time with Ben outfitting him for college. He leaves in eleven days, not that I’m counting or anything. How very odd to be keeping house for three again so soon; not bad but certainly odd. With all of us legal to drive ourselves hither and yon whatever shall I do with all the extra time? Read more, exercise more and cook more slowly are my goals. My follow-through is yet to be seen. I’ve oodles of email to read and preaching for which to study. This Sunday I’m beginning a sermon run called The Atheist Within. I copied the title from a colleague but with a different bend. I’ve in mind to poke around the places and points in our lives and our life together where we don’t yet believe in God. Some call it functional atheism or practical atheism. Such disbelief may/may not be intentional. It may/may not desirable. But it is interesting and for those who claim ourselves believers it is surely worth reflection. I look forward to the study and worship we’ll share. I pray the day treats you kindly and you enjoy your work. Be a joy to those around you. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette Beloved:
I drove 300 miles south on I-65 this weekend, crossing back into late summer around Bowling Green, Kentucky. Nashville, Tennessee is still overwhelmed with butterflies and barely any trees have turned. My zinnias are done and only the drabbest moths and millers hang around my garden. Looking for something outside to do, I walked around The Hermitage, President Andrew Jackson’s plantation where the oldest trees dropped leaves on paths from the mansion to the overseer’s cabin. No paths connected the mansion to field slave quarters. No paths ran from Mrs. Jackson’s flower garden to the cotton fields. The place is beautiful and haunted, like all truthfully told history I suppose. The Ladies Hermitage Association keeps the place with profound sensitivity to the tension; the opulence and gentility of family life in the mansion was predicated on forced labor in the fields. Apparently Mr. Jackson wasn’t a particularly hard slave owner because he believed happier slaves made better workers and better workers made better business. Early in the 20th century, Tennessee wanted to move the house, raze the ground and build the airport there. The Ladies Hermitage Association fought them, insisting the whole story had to be remembered. Truth telling is risky business in every season. I appreciate those ladies and their dedication to it. Still, if we could hear them, I wonder what those old cedar trees would tell. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette |
I write a Tuesday morning devotional to members and friends of UBC. It is also posted here.
Enjoy! Pastor Annette Copyright
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February 2025
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