Awakening a Keen Observer

Saturday, July 30, 2005

almost August

When I was a camp counselor the second year in PA we knew that the summer was closing when August came. The corn had grown in the field below the main house and the signs of summer ending were clear. We felt it. The kids were the same. The counselors a little tired with small dramas between them and we knew in a few weeks this unreal world would spill us back into the 'real' world of school and study and...
So August was a 'wicked' month as a '60's song once said.
Today it is August with school starting in many places the first or second week. Families scurry off for vacations and last minute efforts to enjoy summer weather. Here, summer as most of the year is farming time. Something is growing here almost all the time.
I hope that you will know that time is flying. That yesterday is past and tomorrow only a dream. Enjoy the day.
Bobbie Giltz McGarey

@2005

Rev. Dr. Bobbie Giltz McGarey

Friday, July 29, 2005

Vow to stop violence

Just like that it seems the IRA has vowed to stop fighting
"July 28, 2005, 2pm EDT
IRA VOWS TO END ARMED CAMPAIGN IN NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish Republican Army announced Thursday it would end all armed campaigns and work purely through political channels in what could be a historic step forward in advancing the stalled 1997 peace deal."

They are not going to disband they are going to work through peaceful and political means. Wow! This will change the world, that part of the world, and thereby the whole world. Because when Good is decided in one place it increases the amount of good in the whole world. What can we say to this.. Me too!?! Should we not say the same thing to all confrontations about people? About iideologies?

We aren't going to fight. We aren't going to fight with weapons or words. We aren't going to fight with food or water (being withheld and controlled). We aren't going to fight with money and goods. We are going to find a way to get along. A way to get along in the new world that is coming.

This is a huge boost to hope.
What if other ---long time enemies--- Israel/Palestine ---- You name it ...just said no to fighting? The world would change.

Let's change the world.

You and me. Whereever you are in the world. Remember the 60's song..."
Come on people now smile on each other, everybody get together and love one another right now!"


Sounds like a plan

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

I watched the world go by the window of the Space Shuttle and it was amazing you couldn't tell where one country ended and another began. There's a a clue!

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Bird Bath

Out under the trees beside our house we found a broken bird bath when we first moved in. The base of it had split but the top still was ok. We have set it on a tree stump outside the dinning room window. There is a bird feeder nearby but in the summer we don't worry about the seed as much as keeping some water in the birdbath.
We have really enjoyed watching the birds come for a little 'dip'. They so seem to enjoy it. In the mornings it is shaded by the house and in the afternoon though there is more sun there is a bush that keeps it from being totally exposed.
We have ways to get to see some of the creatures that live around us don't we! Not just our pets or those we choose to be in relation to, but also others that are wild in our area. There are armidillo's all around and I saw one skitter through the ceders outside our back window. I see coyote frequently out in the country and deer on occasion. I saw turkeys flying once over the road and have seem them walking around as well. The quail I hear but only see now and then and the Mississippi Kites (hawk) that cruse over as well. I see hawks all the time perched on fenceposts or in trees.

What can we see if we slow down long enough to look? What if we put ourselves where it is quiet enough to hear the animals and birds around? We will get a view of some of the beauties of this world.

Enjoy

Be wll, look around, listen...

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Rev. Dr. Bobbie McGarey

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

What do we know?

The space shuttle circles the earth. They had some trouble when the launch came. There was a loss of a hunk of foam insulation. A big hunk. We hope that things will happen to make sure that the people on the Shuttle will be ok on their return 10 days or so from now. Let's think so. And pray so.

What do we know about the world that will be new? We can now see the weather here and there by satellite. We have warning and information that can help plans be made not only if we should go to the beach, or plan a picnic, or plant a crop. We have many satellites circling around us. One note I read said that the TV network we get is on satellite 121.... how many more are there? how many thousands make our cell phones work...most everywhere...

Let's think about what we do know. God loves us. And if you don't know that... well you do now..
So go and be about your life, sharing the love you have already recieved.

this we know.

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

17,000 mph

I'm watching a live picture of the fuel tank leaving the space shuttle and it moving out into Space. It will be some days until it returns to earth. They are looking to be sure nothing odd happens. Amazing scientific work that happens with these space shots. They are going to the space station.

So does it not seem interesting that this kind of amazing feet is taken for granted? I don't know how many foes were supposed to be watching but perhaps many because of the troubles that have happened before.

When I was in school in Ohio we gathered in the auditorium to watch John Glenn's space flight. He is from Ohio, (and went to college with my mother-in-law Gladys) and so we felt some real connection.

In the days they are above the earth, think of all the things will happen here. What if we surprised them and when they came back we had peace? What if those people who were warring against one another said, this just isn't working, let's see how we can work this out. Do we not also want to be the people who do this for others? What if we could diffuse one person's anxiety or pain today? What if everyone did that? Wouldn't we have peace spreading all round the world... Maybe like the space shuttle at thousands of miles per hour.

Ok let's get started.... 10 -9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 PEACE TIME


God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Rev.Dr. Bobbie G. McGarey

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

looking

A new thing people are doing, that gets you out into the world is called Geocaching. A cache is a treasure. If you go to geocaching.com you can find the location of thousands of caches. All you need is a gps unit that will tell you where you are and the coordinates and a sense of adventure. It is great fun. Tresaures...well mostly little things that can fit in a small box. But you are outside.
People all over the world and country are doing this. looking looking looking and finding.

What is that we look for most? Peace in the world. How do we get peace. We choose not to be those those who stir up others. We choose to be people who bring understanding rether than those who constantly muddy the waters. Someone who stands up for justice.

And in the world we are praying that those people who are looking for answers to big questions will look at the way we care for one another and then decide if they can trust us with their pain or their questions or their joy!
Or will they point to us and say look how they talk mean about each other, how they gossip or spread rumor, or how they don't really care. They don't live to love their neighbor. "What you do speaks so loudly others may not hear what you say."

looking there are lots of people looking.
what will they find?
So, be about the kindess you desire.
Be the love you claim by your faith.
Be the hope of the world.
You know who you are.... be the love of the open arms.
look it's a cache ---a treasure ---

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Monday, July 18, 2005

monday III

Oh Hello Again
So this afternoon I'm trying to pick up some things that I had left out yesterday and.... I put my cell phone in my pocket.
Do I have to tell you the next part of this story? I mean really, has this not happened to you? You know, the phone rings, you know it 's yours, you look around, you take a couple of steps you seem to be getting closer but no phone in sight...you look around the room even more...maybe if I turn around again. Then duh, it hits you! It's in my pocket! Oh my goodness. I was laughing as I said, "Hello".

All right then, I hear you say, WHY are you telling us about this? I mean you were alone. Why would you confess to everyone this is what you did?
Simply
Easily
Truly
Because I thought it was funny.
And in a theological sense...
it IS typical of us isn't it.
We've been promised God's nearness. Always. Jesus Emmanuel. And then we go a'lookin' for him. We go out looking for evidences of God in a chaotic world. God never left. God is always right beside us in the midst of the chaos pushing out the blue. If we'll stop spinning around and think for a minute.

"Hello. Yes, God. What can I do for you today?

God abide.
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

monday II

I've been thinking about how perspectives change. How what we think we know can be retrained to understand something new. Some of these things are early learned. Like the child who reaches that developmental moment when they understand that other people are 'not the momma'.
I started this musing about changing when I listed my local NPR radio station kccu. By that call letter you know something important about me...That I live West of the Mississippi. See all radio stations west of the mississippi start with K. The other side ... W.
They split the country that way in the early days of radio, because, see the perspective was that 'over there' on the other side of the Mississippi would be equal in population, number, busyness for a radio station to the East part of the country. That was a perspective. We look at the world now with present understanding --but that can change.
Christopher Columbus, and other explorers understood this. "It's not what we thought." A change in perspective.
Change is not a 4-letter word but sometimes it is treated as such. As Jerry jeff Walker sings, "Change is a very most natural thing and life is mostly attitude and timing."
Remember, in the world, we learn new things, today we might be wrong.

God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Mellow Monday

I went outside early this morning, we had an errand to run, and was in the yard for a while just watching the birds and feeling the wind. The temperature was perfect, mild, and the fluffly low clouds blew quickly by. Deep breath. Quiet morning. Sigh.
When are we really ready to stand in the world and enjoy that moment. The wind, like the flowing water of a moving river, only passes by this place once and then is off.
Every day, find some way to mark that day. There will be time enough for hurrying. "Be Here Now" as Baba Ram Dass wrote in the '60.

God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Rev. Dr. Bobbie Giltz McGarey

Sunday, July 17, 2005

The book

I finished the newest Harry Potter book this afternoon. What a good read. I mean it really does put you in a different world. And the story again is well crafted. I enjoyed it. My daughter also read it, her own copy in Tulsa, and we talked briefly after we'd both finished. We agreed that we like it .

Deep sigh.
I can imagine some vacation time of reading all the books in order and then the final 7th book that is coming. You know few authors, that I remember so skillfully brought together characters like this. Oh I have a lot of other favorite authors, but Rolings surely is moving up the scale. And so many folks are reading and talking to each other about it.

Good and bad/chaos and order all these the stuff of which good fiction is brought together. The troubles that one experiences are not much different. People using power over others and the consequencs of such action. No necessairily magical but power over never--rarely bringing true peace.

God abide
I'm gonna get some sleep
Bobbie G. McGarey
@2005

Friday, July 15, 2005

Love's the Only House

(WRITTEN BY tom douglas/buzz cason)
SUNG BY MARTINA MCBRIDE

I was standing in the grocery store line
The one they marked express
When this woman came through with about 25 things
And I said don’t you know that more is less
She said this world is moving so fast
But I just get more behind with every day
And every morning when I make my coffee
I can’t believe my life’s turned out this way
All I could say was

Love’s the only house big enough for all the pain in the world
Love’s the only house big enough for all the pain

He was walking by the other day and I said
Hey baby how you been?
Yeah I got me a little girl now and she’s 4 years old
And she’s got her daddy’s little grin
And you only want what you can’t have
And baby you can’t have me now
I gave me heart to another
Yeah I’m a mother and he’s a father
And we’ve got each other
And I found out the hard way that

Love’s the only house big enough for all the pain in the world
Love’s the only house big enough for all the pain

You drive three miles from all this prosperity
Down across the river and you see a ghetto there
And we got children walking around with guns
And they got knives with drugs and pain to spare
And here I am in my clean, white shirt
With a little money in my pocket and a nice warm home
And we got teenagers walkin’ around in a culture of darkness
Livin’ together alone, and all I can

Love’s the only house big enough for all the pain in the world
Love’s the only house big enough for all the pain

And I can’t explain it and I can’t understand
But I’ll come down and get my hands dirty and together we’ll make a stand
Somewhere cross the parking lot some bands playin out of tune
City streets are gonna burn if we don’t do something soon
And senorita can’t quit cryin, baby’s due now any day
Don juan left, got sick of tryin
No one there to show him the way she came down to the grocery store and
She said i, I wanna buy a little carton of milk but I don’t have any money
I said hey I’ll cover you honey cause the pain’s gotta go somewhere
Yeah the pain’s gotta go someplace
So come on down to my house
Don’t you know that

Love’s the only house big enough for all the pain in the world
Love’s the only house big enough for all the pain

++++++
WHAT it is that we are to be about for our neighbors and the strangers.
God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005
Rev. Dr. Bobbie Giltz McGarey

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Great Friend

One one day I got two phone calls. One from someone in a relationship that is full of joy and hope and expectation. And the second was not the same.
What does God want for us? I think to live our lives to the fullest. And sometimes that is with someone else. But the other person can also be a great friend. Not a good friend, but a great friend. And that greatness is what good relationships are about anyway.
A good friend is there for you, stands with you, cries and laughs with you and abides with you. A great friend does all the above and also calls out of you the best you can be. That Great friend is the kind who sees beyond all the 'front' that you might show to the world to the heart of your hearts and who says I see you and I love you still.
And I think Great friendships are mutual. That is to say that a great friend is someone for whom you do the same thing. We have mentors and angels who come our way and do the the Great friend part but we are to fill that great friend role for them. Those Mentors are important, to be sure, but let's talk about the great friend a little more.
Great friends have a presence in ones' life that is sometimes every day and sometimes it is just knowing that GREAT friend is there. Always avaliable and you can always depend on them. Always.
We work to make good friends, people we can rely on, let's work for a while on Great friends, being and making one.
May that Great friend be part of your life today.
God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005
Rev. Dr. Bobbie G. McGarey

Friday, July 08, 2005

Light is worth the Candle

I just heard a song by Eric Bibb called the light is worth the candle. You can look up the lyrics but it's message, in serveral differnt forms is about life.
How do we spend our lives? Do we spend it making others happy? Making them happy by helping them find the deepest needs they have and helping them find satisfaction and peace? That's important. It's important that we work for sharing satisfaction and peace.
The word for quenching thrist is slake - to quench a thirst.
I think the world is thirsty for the water that will satisfy one to the deepest part of their bone.
So in making people happy, perhaps if we helped them understand they have what they need. Ok ok I know there are those who are in such hurt and poverty they cannot see this....and it is true. We lift everyone up to a standard of life, of food, of shelter, of safety, and then we can tell them about God's love. There are certain needs which if not met, nothing else is important.
But isn't that about justice and sharing out of our bounty, our incredible bounty? I think it is.
The Light is worth the Candle. There is work to be done. Let's work together for the world God has given us to make a loving place.
God knows you and loves you still.
God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Rev. Dr. Bobbie Giltz McGarey

Saturday, July 02, 2005

American Values

4th of July

My "people" passed this as they came to the US. Some came a few years before but most in the early to mid 1800's. My people came from Germany, England, Scotland. They were welcomed with these words. Have we forgotten them? Or do they only apply to that one port of entry? American Values. Remember them. Live them..

The New Colossus is a poem that American poet Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) wrote in 1883 for the Statue of Liberty, New York.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles.
From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips.

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

God abide
Bobbie Bane Giltz McGarey
4th Generation Immigrant
@2005

rev. dr. bobbie mcgarey

Life

As I watch a little of Live 8 and the concerts that are trying to raise the awareness of individuals about MakingPovertyHistory (www.one.org) and it's wonderful. It is because if we can open the eys of folks all around to the needs of our neighbors. And I'm trying to remind myself that there ar40e people nearby who need help hope and encouragement.
Truly we see the needs of others in the world as our needs. If people aren't fed, or educated, then they are vulnerable to others who will influence them with the simpleness of food or clean water. And we recognize too late that we are too late.
Who do you know who is hungry? Perhaps hungry for some support. A mother who needs a hug because she is overwhelmed with the care of two children. A child who needs encouragement with their schoolwork and being told they are valuable individuals. Anyone who does not know to the depth of their hearts that they are beloved children of God.
That might be the lady sitting next to you iin a fancy restruant who think that things and shoes that are $140/pair. (By the way they look like flipflops with jewels and a high heel) Or fill in whatever you want as something that is obscene iin it's cost but we pay for it anyway. How much for coffee with a name and a little foam?
Seriously.
Really
Honestly

This is the time. Becuause we don't know what tomorrow holds except another full measure of the love of God. Our 'cup' of fortune of God's love runs over. Let's get a cup for our neighbor.

God abide
happy 4th of July.

Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005