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March 11, 2025    

Beloved:
          Daylight Savings Time has me feeling jet lagged despite having been nowhere.  That said, I am loving this springtime weather.
          I’ve tulips and daffodils pushing through the dirt, and this evening will allow daylight enough to walk the dog and clean off a flower bed.
The mere thought of planting something makes me giddy, knowing full well it is ages too early* even to consider so fanciful an idea.  So I sit outside on my porch swing, noting to myself for the thousandth time how lucky I am to have a comfortable, safe house to come home to every day.
          Lucky, fortunate, privileged . . . any word but blessed, for if I choose the word blessed as in I am blessed to have this comfortable, safe house, am I not also saying those without a house are not as blessed as me?  I’m not willing to say that - since I’ve done nothing to deserve more blessing than my neighbors.  I certainly do not work harder than most of them, especially those toiling and trying to raise kids on $10-$15 an hour employment, people who can’t find anything in this town to rent for less than $1000 a month.  I work and go home.  They work and go to their second job.  If I get sick, I don’t lose pay.  If my car breaks down I work from home or call an Uber.  But the slightest crisis (car trouble, sick kid, work injury) may equal disaster for a neighbor who is a hair’s breadth from homelessness every minute of every day.  So no, I cannot think of my home as a blessing, grateful as I am for it.
          The writer Nancy Mairs says in one of her books that the way to love a house is to care for it.  She might have said clean it but since I hardly ever clean anything but dishes and laundry, I choose to say she said care for it, which I am fairly rigorous about.  I have the HVAC guy in twice a year and keep my beds weeded and watered.  My garage is organized and so are my closets, mostly.  Always, always, always gratefully knowing that simple housing like mine is a luxury beyond the imagination of so many people in our community, even more the world over.
          None of which is to say I am not blessed, that we are not blessed.  But rather, let us reserve the word for the things that cannot be bought with the currencies of this world, money, education, social status or power.  Blessings are those things available to everyone for free and originating in the Divine – like hope and love, friendship and connection, gentleness and courage, springtime, sunshine, and birdsong . . . all of them abundant, and within reach for everyone, everywhere.  
          I pray the day is kind to you in every way.

~peace & prayers,
pastor annette

*No planting outdoors before Mother’s Day, no matter how pretty it looks at the store was my mother’s rule.

*A Recipe - Yummy & Quick Stove Top Chicken Breast

• 3-4 good size chicken breasts, seasoned with your favorite (I use Cavender’s Greek Seasoning)  
• 1-2 tbsp olive or your favorite cooking oil
• ½ cup water or chicken broth 

 

• Generously season both sides of meat
• Heat oil in heavy stainless steel or cast iron skillet until water droplets pop.
• Lay chicken breasts in oil, reduce heat slightly and do not touch for 4-5 minutes (until meat can slide without sticking)
• Turn meat over and add broth or water, cover and cook for 5 more minutes.  Turn off heat and remove pan from heat source.  Leave covered for another 5 minutes to rest.
• Slice meat for whatever dish you are making.