Choosing to Live Locally

November 13, 2018

Beloved:


            The roof below my window is dusted with snow and the leaves are down. On sunny days I can see junked cars on the ridge beyond our house.  Today it’s cloudy, so there’s no sparkle through the trees.  From this sweet perch in this warm house, it would be  a sorry choice to complain about one’s life.  Still, I feel extra weary lately, craving flannel, tea and bed.  Given half a chance I believe I could sleep a week.


            I’m not sleep-deprived or sick.  I’ve nothing particular to avoid at work or home.  Honestly, I think I’m overwhelmed with news.  Depressing news.  Hateful news.  Trouble and division and doomsday kind of news.  Information overload of the wrong sort of information.  Then my Bible time is in the prophets, who are hardly better.  They’re mad about everything!


            But then this morning’s Richard Rohr reading proposed a different slant on things.  Regarding difficult situations, e.g. my current gloominess, ask yourself, is this problem something that I truly cannot alter or is it caused by something I am choosing?  It’s true I cannot much alter the state of world affairs.  But I need not choose hopelessness, either in attitude or behavior.  How I feel need not be how I act.  What I fear need not drive me to my bed.


            Jesus talked endlessly about the choice to see or not to see, concluding that blind people are those who refuse to see (see John 9).  To that end, I’ve decided to change the day by changing what I look at.  No News November is my plan.  Or maybe, No National News November.  Instead, I’m going to live locally, as locally as possible.  Keep head, heart and hands to the most immediate moments and to the life within them.  My darling girl almost home from college and old people at the grocery store.   Downtown dogs on leashes and the FedEx man at my door.  Woodpeckers in the trees out back and dog videos on YouTube.  What news they bring will be the news I choose, then see if the news doesn’t fill me up like some grand Thanksgiving feast, instead of wearing me down to nubbins. Speaking of Thanksgiving, I pray a perfect one for you and yours. 
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            Don’t forget our annual Potluck Thanksgiving meal this Sunday, following the worship service.  Also, please note that the November Church Council meeting has been moved from this Sunday, November 18, to the following Sunday, the 25th.  We hope to see you for both important events!

~ peace & prayers,
pastor annette