Sunset

Greetings Grace and Peace
We got an 'extra' hour of sleep Saturday night...Wait it 's 6:45 and Dark! Whaa? Shorter days come like a curtain drawn when we switch the time like this. It makes is sudden not gentle move into the shorter days.
When we lived in Utah we would be able to mark the swing of the sun from South to North and Back as we watched where it set on the Western mountains that were so close to us. You could tell the time of year by how far up the mountains the sun was setting. It was obvious and remarkable.
Here, where the 360 horizon is ours it is a little more subtle. It's over there...or over there. And here in a more southern part of the country the swing of the sun set point is also more subtle. Amazingly so.
You know humankind is still linked to the world, to the sun and the moon, to the earth and the soil.
Don't miss it!

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

the leaf

Greetings
I was walking with a friend of mine yesterday and saw the most beautiful leaf, maple, multicolor on the ground and picked it up...the silk/fake real/ leave in my hand surprised me. I laughed
But I've picked up many perfect leaves like that. In Ohio where the tress are multicolored red and green all together it was beautiful in the fall. We would go to Blendon Woods a public wooded area in Columbus and walk through... all seasons of the year, fall included. It was beautiful.
In my elementary years I dediced to do a leaf collection for a science project. but how to keep them from being just crunchy brown things? My Daddy's idea was to coat them in parafin wax. Whee. It worked well, Finding a wway to mount them was tricky but we did secure them somehow to the pages of my report. They stayed pretty. I was so pleased. And still pick up leaf treasures everywhere.
What fun. Picking up the leaves, trying to figure out with a key what kind they were, but even more my Daddy's love and time.
Oh I miss him, But I also think about others who don't have that kind of wonderful parental memory. Who could I share that kind of love with? How could I support someone who needs to know what a parents love, support and encouragement is all about?
How about you? How could you affirm someone you meet even if only briefly about their work or world or self? Find a way.

God abide

Bobbie Gitlz McGarey
@2005

Stories of our lives

Do you know someone who tells great stories? Who has stories of ...remember when? Well we come to that time of year when we remember when...
What are your remember when's of your life? Of when you gathered with family or friends and you laughed and had a wonderful time?
I have a lot of those, as any who have read some of these musings know. Some of the best are when we would gather at Thanksgiving with folk who weren't able to get together with their own family and we would spread across our whole kitchen counter the foods that made either Thanksgiving or Christmas...thanksgiving or Christmas for them. It was wonderful. We'd eat and laugh and talk and nap and laugh some more. I loved those days when my house was full of folks...
How did my kids feel about that? Well you'd have to ask them.Sometimes we invite a family with kids their ages so we were sure they had some play mates. We had a house then with a downstairs big room with an old carpet. As old and shaggy as it was it was wonderful because we so didn't care what happened to it.. They had great fun times there.
See... ha ha ha ha ha ... I got to a remember when.
Write down a few of those stories for your family. Some day they will treasure what you remember. Do what you can to make it what it needs to be.
God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Fall Blue

Apparently last year I wrote about this too because it came up in the Title line...Fall sky...but it was there again Sunday, peeking through the greyish clouds that blue that said...not summer or spring...Fall. A beautiful sky.
One year in Fall in Utah our trees, which dropped their leaves long after our neighbor had picked up every one of his we were out raking and sacking and putting them along the street where folk would come and get them for their gardens....that year we had a huge pile. The kids and I all fell into that... resting back on that beautiful softness. Comfy and good.
We would just stand there and fallllllllllll ... trusting to be caught. And surrounded in the leaves. It was great fun.
I could hear the cheers and the canon fire from the Utah State Football game. The boom ment good things for our team but who knew what had gone on between had the other team scored too? Fall...ahhhh
Ohio had beautiful spectacular Fall time. The Ohio State Golf Course was lovely as were the Hocking Hills south east of Columbus. We'd go there every year too when I was young.
Sigh. Fall...only to rise again.
See? did you see the Fall Blue sky? It will be there again...
God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

The Ranch

The Presbyterian church synod brought together some of the Small Membership Church Pastors forr a gathering. We had folks from all over. Mostly Presbyterians some Methodists. It was a good time.
I enjoyed the people and some we'd met the year before and it was good to catch up with them. The program was well done, bringing insights, dynamics, evocative, and healing. We all learned a good deal.
We also enjoyed being at Mo-Ranch a retreat center in the TX Hill Country. Near Hunt TX. It is a beautiful part of the world where the rivers run over rock enough to make the water clear and cool. We got to sit for a while in the rapids and to sit later on the bridge and dangle our legs iin the water..
We also got to walk the labrynth. More on that another time. But a reflective time to be sure....

Deep Breath
So what do you feel? How are you feeling about the time. We are thinking those who are being hit by the hurricane and those who are in awe of it's coming. So many in the Gulf of Mexico this year.
We are thiinking about the people who were in the path of the earthquake in Pakistan and N India etc. My goodness. long term trouble there.
And for the joys that keep us going ...we are most grateful.

Deep Breath
We expect a cold front to come tonight and be highs in the 60's tomorrow. Fall...to be sure

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Chaos Theory

This is my own Chaos Theory
Psalm 1

1:1 Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;

1:2 but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.

1:3 They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.

1:4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

1:5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

1:6 for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

We can choose. It's clear.

Let's choose to be happy....
It's clear
God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Earth-shakes

Apparently there are reports coming in of a huge 7.5 earthquake in Pakistan/India/Afghanistan. Rightup in the mountain corner where not only states but tectonic plates run into each other. Pictures show houses in rubble. Much like the tragedies we see here. But unlike the tragedies in our state for strangers. Not only those with the same color passport as yours and mine but others. In places around the world that can be seen on geodesic maps that can be followed in international newspapers...
And we raise up our arms and say..how long O God will the people be able to bear the pain of others.
Tom Paxton in the '60's wrote a song with this chorus
'but if somehow you could pack up your sorrows and give them all to me,
you would lose them--I know how to use them--
give them all to me."

I had not seen that as a song of faithfulness until I started thinking of all the troubles in the world and the work our faith brings to such a time as this.
We could ask for others to give us their troubles and then we would all be healed. There are ways we could do that and ways we need to do this.
but if somehow you could...
We as faithful people could be trouble carriers...and lift the troubles to God.


God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Rev. Dr. Bobbie Giltz McGarey

Consequences

When you were little somehow your parents taught you that your actions have consequences. I remember my parents teaching me those lessons, and bailing me out some times when I was appropriately penitent. One time I remember cutting my bangs, meant to be straight across with curved fingernail sissors. I couldn't figure out how they knew, they looked good to me... But then I could barely see in the mirror on the dresser. And who needs to use mirrors anyway for such a task. Just sit there behind the chair and trim your bangs. Oh and forget to pick up the remnants--evidence.
There were consequences. But not so much for my hair, but for lying that I'd done it. Oops. There in I got in the biggest trouble. I remember being seated in the big chair, that one in my living room right now, and having my parents talk to me about how serious it was that I had lied. Oh just give me the swat and let's go on...But I had to sit there and think about it...
Uh oh...
Adults learn these lessons too. I think they are lessons we learn all the time in different ways.... But in groups we have to learn them and live by them...the ways we behave with one another ...the ways we care for each other. Don't you understand that we have to continue to do this? To live with one another with the law of love.

And that Love is one we learn every day. When love is applied to our lives and how we live and what we do and how we treat one another...then the world will be a better place. All of it..
Share that with someone today.

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Release

There are times when we hold on to things and then suddenly give them away and realize in their release we have them. I had a friend who had a bracelet she really liked. Whenever anyone commented on it she gave it to them and said here... Enjoy it until the next person comes along and says they like it...keep passing it on...telling the story.
Find something to pass along. See how it feels to give it away. Something you like.
See what comes to you in the giving away...

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Fall sky

The other morning when I left early for exercise class I looked at the eastern sky and it was a beautiful sunrise. That kind of day when the blue of the sky says "It is fall now" and the lines of the. Sun rays spreading out from behind the clouds were as clear as if drawn by a fine artist. All this I noted in my car and wanted to share with someone...But who could I call that early and say go outside....
So I was pleased when I got to the class and two of the members were outside and we simultaneously pointed toward the beautiful clouds... Add a deep sigh.
In the midst of a world where several of my people are in the middle of health crisis this moment of peace and somehow promise were most helpful. God had given us all a little gift right there..And we accepted it with gratefulness.
We need those gifts now and then. Those reminders of God's goodness being present in our world. We need those times when we know deep in our hearts that things are just like they should be.
Not because they are so rare, these moments of peace, but because they are so present we need to be ready to see them.
Last night I laughed out loud at our daughter's dog who is staying with us for a month while she works in a hospital as part of her med school rotations. Well the weather reports had been for severe storms to be heading our way and we were thinking what we might do if it got really bad. I look over and ChiliPepper was on the top of the couch somehow having arranged all the pillows around here so only her head was sticking out... She was ready.
What a sense of just flat out funny. Not some long contrived joke...just observation.
look around
find peacefulness anywhere I believe it is there.
God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Fall sky

The other morning when I left early for exercise class I looked at the eastern sky and it was a beautiful sunrise. That kind of day when the blue of the sky says "It is fall now" and the lines of the sun rays spreading out from behind the clouds were as clear as if drawn by a fine artist. All this I noted in my car and wanted to share with someone...But who could I call that early and say go outside....
So I was pleased when I got to the class and two of the members were outside and we simultaneously pointed toward the beautiful clouds... Add a deep sigh.
In the midst of a world where several of my people are in the middle of health crisis this moment of peace and promise were most helpful. God had given us all a little gift right there..And we received it with gratefulness.
We need those gifts now and then. Those reminders of God's goodness being present in our world. We need those times when we know deep in our hearts that things are just like they should be.
Not because they are so rare, these moments of peace, but because they are so present we need to be ready to see them.
Last night I laughed out loud at our daughter's dog who is staying with us for a month while she works in a hospital as part of her med school rotations. Well the weather reports had been for severe storms to be heading our way and we were thinking what we might do if it got really bad. I look over and ChiliPepper was on the top of the couch somehow having arranged all the pillows around her- so only her head was sticking out-- She was ready.
What a sense of just flat out funny. Not some long contrived joke...just observation.
look around
find peacefulness anywhere I believe it is there.
God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005