Awakening a Keen Observer

Saturday, December 31, 2005

Eve

Grace and Joy
It is either the last of...or beginning of... I choose to say it is the beginning of a new year. And so what has been, has been, and what will be, will be..with God's help.
We look at the New Year almost at the end of it's day. It will begin about 11am tomorrow 'over-there' and here we wait for another time to mark the time.
But if we all stand with our feet on the same earth...it seems like the day should be the same here and there. Who decided this time difference anyway?
I suppose it was the Sun that comes up in some places hours before others..but really it is the same earth and the same sun and we are all together in this world.
We touch the same earth and 'hold up' the same sky. We become those who are enlivened by our breath or who are wondering and figuring all the time what if...
There only IS and we live in that time of Now and do things that make the next now a little better...not just for us..but for everyone and everything around us.
"What can we see on the horizon?" so sings the song at the end of Return of the King by Tolken.

Good Good Good
God abides and happy new year.
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005 for a little longer.

Friday, December 30, 2005

Friday Part II

Hey There You all.
I found this quote iin an article from the NYTimes. I thought at this time of year it was worth pondering this part.
Remember the song, Don't Worry, Be Happy? Well seems like it fits this time of year.

"John Stuart Mill, f was a determined proponent of the greatest happiness for the greatest number. "Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so," Mill concluded after recovering from a serious bout of depression. Rather than resign himself to gloom, however, Mill vowed instead to look for happiness in another way.

"Those only are happy," he came to believe, "who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way." For our own culture, steeped as it is in the relentless pursuit of personal pleasure and endless cheer, that message is worth heeding.

So in these last days of 2005 I say to you, "Don't have a happy new year!" Have dinner with your family or walk in the park with friends. If you're so inclined, put in some good hours at the office or at your favorite charity, temple or church. Work on your jump shot or your child's model trains. With luck, you'll find happiness by the by. If not, your time won't be wasted. You may even bring a little joy to the world.

Darrin M. McMahon, a professor of history at Florida State, is the author of the forthcoming"Happiness: A History." ""

currently article can be found.. www.nytimes.com/2005/12/29/opinion/29McMahon.html?ex=1136610000&en=8d32bef27aa0db4b&ei=5070

God abides
Bobbie G. McGarey
2005

Morning Smiles

Grace and Peace
I woke up this morning and got my chai and then sat down to see what was happening on Sesame Street. Amazingly enough Grover, (a monster) was trying to prove to the cows on Sesame street that milk comes from other animals besides cows. So he took a trip to Tibet and watched the children there in school, learning and then going home and milking the Yak...then serving them yummy yak butter tea. The smiles and the joy on the faces of these people was so beautiful, their bright colored dress the majestic mountains.
Gladys, John's mother, has been there, Tibet (not Sesame street) and has been served Yak butter Tea and said it has a quite potent taste. Not something she relished being served though all the people wanted her to have some. To refuse a gift of what people had to give would be rude, so she drank several cups.
What do we do to stretch our understanding? Like Grover and the cows...we are not the only ones in the world who bring good things into the world. What can we learn from the rest of the world and the people on this earth where we ALLl rest our feet.
Ok back to Sesame Street. Grover told the cows that here was proof and he had a cup of Yak butter tea. The cow replied well but can they do ballet? She moved off and next scene was filled with cows dancing with tutu's. Grover got in the middle and they said dance with us Grover. Grover tried not to and at one point shouted, "But I haven't stretched out yet!" .I laughed out loud. Children would not have heard that or necessarily understood it but I did. Good Morning!

The silliness of the program is in sharp contrast to the world around us with all the troubles that mean we need 24 hours news.
Or is it? I mean really is it?
Or is there in the world as much joy as there is trial and trouble? I imagine there is! Let's find it this new year let's look for those things that bring joy and share them with others.

We'll remember to pray for the troubles of the world and work for peace and justice. But let's lighten up our hearts so as to receive all the goodness of the world as well.

Bless you these days
God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Intentions

Every new year for several years we have written down our intentions for the next year. We then fold them up and then tear them up in little pieces and put them in a beautiful vase. I looked in the vase and there are a lot of them. What did I write last year? What did the family write? Well that's up to them. And that's the way it should be.
So this year we'll write down our intentions as soon as we are all together and put them there. I have been thinking of what I want to write this year and I've thought of a couple of things that would be good. No I'm not going to tell you. I am just going to write it down.
What are your intentions, that is what is it you wanted to do with your life? What is it you want to do with those gifts that God gave you? What are you going to do with the treasures you hold?
Well you've got a few days to figure that out if you want to do this as the New Year approaches.
God abide with you.

Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Hi Kendalls!

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

How much love?

Grace and peace abound.
I was watching the news when an adv came on about children who are awaiting adoption. I watched and then went to the website that was recommended. www.okdhs.org and then I clicked on the adoption link. I started looking at the pictures and was interested in the family groups looking for their being adopted together. Then I got to the bottom of the page, I had viewed pictures 1-10 of 3320. There were over 3000 I hadn't already seen. Not all the children are from Oklahoma by any means but there were families from where I live.
What a joy it would be to be the parents of these children. We make excuses. We point to other countries and how they treat their children...and then we find this out. What contributions these kids could make. I would love to have a big house and bring in one of these families and enlarge my family. What excuse will I give God?
When you do it to the least of these...Jesus said. Yet we are all too quick to not help someone. To turn them away with a nod or ignore them altogether.
As we approach the New Year what are your intentions for the year? think on these things..

Oh and as I understand we get an extra second... what will you do with your time?

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Measure

Grace and Peace
Here in the US we sometimes have a place in our kitchens where we measure the kids and how they are growing each year. The problem is so many of us move and we leave those marks behind. I wish for my childrens sake we'd have placed a tall piece of paper on the wall and marked on it as the years passed and then we could have taken it with us. My goodness how some years they grew so many inches. And how quickly the outgrew mom and our son his dad.
We sometimes get to places where we need to mark time. I like candles that are natural and burn down so that time passing is shown. We had a long dinner the other night and watched the candles burn down as we talked and laughed and ate together. It was such fun.
Sometimes I think that we need to mark time in particular and important ways because we too often wonder, "Where did the time go?"
And it does change and move on. Our son is 27 today...on the 27th. What a good year for him. I pray for wonderful things. He has brought such delight all along and continues to do so. My Molly, his wife, is as sweet a delight and they seem to be so happy together and learning and loving and it is fun to watch them mature.
Time was once marked by the moon and the length of days. Not by 'atomic' clocks that keep time to the second. We just knew that two moons ago....
What a wonderful world we live in! Full of grace and peace.
How do you measure time? In laughs, in tears, in joys?
May this year be marked with good time.
God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey

Monday, December 26, 2005

Rushing

Grace and Peace
It has been a relaxing morning here at the McGarey house. That's nice. We had a good breakfast together and the John and Johnny have gone out to the guitar stores in the area. Molly and I are taking it even more gently into the day. Sigh.
We do rush around a lot in our world don't we? I mean we do seem to go from one thing to another with something else on our list right after another after another... And we finish one thing and make another list.
I am not saying, mind you, that we shouldn't have plans. But in our lives it is nice just to "Be" sometimes. We don't do that well as a society. Because if you are not 'doing' are you doing what you should?
We rush Christmas. We don't have twelve days to open one or two presents in that time, we make it through, hurry up, get it done. We don't even mark the days between Christmas and Epiphany, when the wise ones appeared, we get the tree down and start thinking about the next thing. I wouldn't be surprised to see Valentines in the stores next week.
Breath of God. We don't have time for a breath of God.
Perhaps in this Christmas-tide time we should take time to breathe. To be present to one another. To write notes to people who are important to us, to be together.
There is a story in our family that I think was about Grandpa Taylor who was making a trek in the India mountains and those who were carrying the load for them stopped one day and said, " we are going to fast we need to rest so our souls can catch up to our bodies. "
So let it be.

God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005


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Sunday, December 25, 2005

Now

Happy Christmas, Merry Christmas, Happy Holy Days.
God abides. That is the message of Christmas. God abides in this whole wonderful world. God didn't set the word a-spinning and then let it tumble through space. God has a plan for our lives. In the midst of those plans sometime we mis-step, but God understands our hearts.
Molly, my daughter (in law) and I were watching White Christmas as I am often doing on Christmas Eve and we commented what if movies showed people working things out right at the point where many movies and stories take them off to be wrong. What if movies had people talking to one another? What if movies showed people asking the other person, Is that what you meant?
Well we know that even though it's Christmas life isn't a movie.
But on today, Jesus' birthday, we know that God's plan for each of us prevails.
May we, who are so richly blessed with this love, share it as we go through each and every day.
Merry, Happy, Joyful
We have the opportunity to change the whole world, as we change our lives within this world.
Blessings to you this Christmas...And always.

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Friday, December 23, 2005

Almost Almost --Not Yet

Grace and Peace abound
I remember my Mother and Aunt Kat saying that to us...Almost, almost, not yet. as we prepared ourselves for Christmas. It was almost time, but not until we had slept through the night. Oh my... How could that be? How could we have to wait so long. I remember the lights through the blinds in my cousin's room when a car went by, we'd wonder if that was Santa...Oh my we'd giggle and Aunt Kat would come in..."Do I need to separate you two?" No no! We'll be quiet as even then we stifled giggles into our pillows.

Almost almost time we have and live in to mark the coming of Jesus. And here's the good news, it should bring you comfort, Jesus will come in God's good time, ready or not...
So lets enjoy the time, and celebrate the love we share, and know that God's presence in our lives is real. Let that light shine out into the world that so needs to know...
Joy to the world, It's Jesus who came!

God abides, even now and always

Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Thursday, December 22, 2005

'Heart little left of Center'

Grace and Peace
This is the title of a book by William Slone Coffiin, a wonderful theologian and thinker. The heart is you know a little left of center. And perhaps what we need to remember and what we need to do is work----all of us to work to bring it back .. that is... that is we need to bring our hearts to center...bring love to the center of our being and who we are.
We have such wonderful opportunities to do such things. These chances come to us in so many ways. We can be truthful, giving, appreciative, forgiving, hopeful, sharing, peaceful, moderating, and we can be those who lead the world in loving.
We can lead the world in loving and bring our hearts back to the center. Not off sides. Not away from the middle of our chest but right there in the center..that center of love.
Can you think of ways this Christmas that you can do that? Can you think of ways this New Year you can do this. Perhaps this should be the time of year where we think most clearly about centering our hearts on the love we have and on sharing that love all the time.
God abide
Happy Christmas

Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Rev. Dr. Bobbie G. McGarey

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Reindeer on the head

Grace and Peace
When my children were little they had little reindeer soft toys and they would sneak up behind their grandmother and plop it on her head and run away giggling. We called them 'ploopers' it was for them all, including granny, a fun time and they delighted in the time they spent sneaking up on her. And she delighted in not paying attention until they had plopped it on her head.
There is one of them right over there on top of the TV and it reminds me of the joy and delight they had together. They had some really fun times together and she loved all of it. They had such a good time with her as well.
When Gail, one of my cousins, and I were little we would try to sneak around and get the marshmellows our Grandmother left in the pantry. We would sneak down her big staircase, trying hard not to giggle, and crawl behind our Granddaddy's chair and it was the next turn where people saw us. The funny part was our parents pretending not to see us. We would get into the cupboard and take one or two marshmellows and sneak back upstairs. Funny how there were always a box of those Campfire marshmellows waiting us.
We have great joy in sharing little jokes betwen us and those we love. We have things we do each other that are special between us.

I hope that you will find ways to share special moments with those you love... or build them into your life.
Enjoy and be creative and loving .

God Abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Monday, December 19, 2005

let it snow

I looked out as I was locking up tonight and it is snowing. Big flakes. Looking like the mountain snows we got in utah. Really beautiful. I would love to have a day to watch the snow, to sit on the couch and read and drink hot chocolate or tea and watch the snow as it comes down and cleans up the ground. When the world becomes equal. The trees were already decorated with the snow and now it comes to the ground. White Christmas? probably not because it is supposed to be in the 60's by Saturday. Amazing that is a difference.
But tonight it is snow... easier for driving than ice. quieter than rain.
The quiet of snow is a gift to the world. But then friends, isn't that a gift to the world where we have blanket? A gift to the world when we can turn up the heat. A gift to the world as I sit here in bundled housecoat and slippers....
No, I want you to feel blessed. And ready to share with the world around you. ..

Let it snow...
In Ohio they would say that every inch of rain is 10 inches of snow... let it snow...

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Betty Giltz

Today is my mother's birthday Elizabeth McLendon Bane Giltz. She would have been 91. She made it to 80 and 5 days. I think she knew that somehow I wanted her to make it to 80.
I read an article about a woman who is 116 years old. She sounded like an interesting woman who lives in a third world country. Places where people, especially women, are most usually vulnerable. Somehow this woman is doing well. I was talking to someone last week whose Grandmother is in her 90's. She and her sister would go Line Dancing every week. That is probably partly why they are still active at their age.
I found some pictures the other day that I know Mother would have liked. It was of her in her 20's with her black hair and her green eyes. She was quite beautiful. She and her friends were close all through their lives. Amazing.
My daughter has those green eyes..and her grandmother's hands...her good heart,,,and her name.
God abides
Bobbie Bane Giltz McGarey
@2005

Sunday, December 18, 2005

4th Advent

No rushing to Christmas
Some years on the calendar we mark the 4th Sunday in Advent and then immediately or really quickly we have Christmas Eve. Sometimes that is the same day. And it seems like a rush to Christmas.
This year, even though Christmas music played in the stores way to early for me, we have a week, a whole week, to really prepare for Christmas. That's great.
A week, a whole week, to anticipate what it must have been like for Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem. (It would be much harder for them now with the WALL that surrounds the town). It would be a whole week for us to finish getting ready. We get to put our tree up. We get to put more lights outside. We get to finish all our preparations that will make it possible for us to be ready. Yes for our family but also for the coming of Christmas. So there is a breath between the 4th Sunday and Christmas.
Be well in this time. B reathe and relax. Be ready in your heart. Don't rush or hurry. Be calm and then you will really be ready to sing the carols. O Little town of Bethlehem, silent night... Welcome the expected one.

It means that our shopping can continue. It means that our cooking can begin. It means that our hearts can be calm and we pray for peace on earth good will to all.
Joy joy sigh.

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Water

agua ahhh nothing like a clear cool glass of water. I like mine chilled a bit but I also know it has it's own way of tasting from where it comes from. The water in Utah was so good. The water in Florida has an entirely different flavor. Who controls the worlds water? Who will control it? Will water be the next "Oil".
Water resources are going to be part of the world's choices as to who has rights to water. Who gets to have the water? There have long been battles over it. There have long been LONG distances that people have to walk for water. There are women today who spend almost half their day walking to water and hauling water. 15% of all water is used for drinking water. Water is going to be needed more and more in the cities. And the more people the more water we need. Water for food, power, life! What are we going to do. If Water is nearby the villages then more girls can go to school in rural third world countries because they won't have to spend so much of their day hauling water for the family.
You know we have to work on this.
Now, I hear you thinking, what does water have to do with this time of year? Everything. Because the world has been moving to a place where we have to think of each other as sisters and brothers in God's eyes then we need to think of what we do and where we spend our money and what that means to others, then perhaps this Christmas season will bring some joy beyond our own doors...
What is it that we need to do? Think outside ourselves.

God comes
God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey

Friday, December 16, 2005

For Granted

I was chatting online early this morning with my neice in New Delhi and she had to go because the electricity went off. That is not unusual. It is there in many parts of the country a 'fact' of life. Some times for hours. So you learn to cope. You save your computer work often, you have a few minute spare battery back up on the computer. And you go on. Adjust.
We take for granted it seems those things which the rest of the world sees as luxuries or totally out of their reach or expectation...oh or need. Have you ever looked at the map, the world at night? I think you can find it with a google search but it shows the world all lighted ...well not All the world. Because a great deal of the world is not lighted. There are people there...but not electricity.
I am amazed it is that way....this world we are in...but it is...
What else do we take for granted? I had a necklace that was made from a copal bean with a painting on it done by some rural women in central america. I wore it to remind myself that some children don't ask their parents what they are having for dinner and either say yes or veto it...but some children ask, "Are we having supper?" And some children grow up knowing not to ask..and imagine being the mother, or dad, who says, not tonight...
We take for granted the love of our families some times and those around us who in community work become as family. Let's not. Let's be ultra aware of the joys that surround us and the blessings we have ... and share..

God abides
Almost Christmas
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005
Rev. Dr. Bobbie G. McGarey

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

To Gift

Gift is now a verb.
You 'gift' someone... You give someone a gift. It is a new way of talking and making a verb out of a word that was a noun. What is that about? Well it is about it seems a way we relate to each other.
This time of year there is a lot of talk and angst about giving gifts. About finding the right present for that certain someone, or certain someones. We become anxious. We try to give 'equal' gifts.... not to much--not to little... and there in the stress comes.

What if we gave someone the gift of our prayers for them every day for a year? or if we gave someone the gift of our time either we would call or write to them or keep in closer touch with them? or if we gave someone the gift of hope? or if we gave someone laughter? or .... You fill in the blank..You can I know you can!

What if gifting someone meant bringing out in them the best that they can be?

There are many gifts to be given. The best are free.
I saw a woman with a beautiful child in the store the other day. She was shopping for gifts. I suggested that she had the best one right there and all she needed was a little bow...she smiled and said that is the truth.
Having my mothers with me for Christmas some years ago was a great gift.
Being with family is a gift.

Be together, be present to each, be A present to each other...
bless you
God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Rev. Dr. Bobbie G. McGarey

Snow Cotton

I was driving yesterday out west of where I live and there was 'snow' cotton beside the roads. Apparently it has been a wonderful year for the cotton crop around here. The bails, modules, most covered and sitting in the field waiting for a ride to the cotton gin, the bails are everywhere. But then too there are piles of remnant cotton along some roads, a pile or two in the fields, and it looks like huge snow flakes.

Along one part near Faxon there are several places where the cotton balls have stuck in the trees. Decorating the leafless tress with balls of white. It is an interesting sight.

We sometimes do get snow here. Unlike other places more northerly where we've lived there is little preparation for what to do in snow. There aren't plows that come and make the street passable and there aren't as many sand/salt trucks, and well we just mostly hunker down when it snows.

What things in your world remind you of something else? What things in your world challenge you to re-member when? What things in your world help give you grounding? On the radio I heard that remembering can be helpful to us in so many ways as it helps the brain to get it's pathways established again. Well that's good. Word has it in my family that I'm a keeper of the family memories...

This time of year for many people it becomes a re-member when time. Will I remember the snow cotton some day down the road... I bet I will
God abide with you

Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Saturday, December 10, 2005

growing moon

tonight the moon is larger
than it was before
we wait now for it's fullness
to come

tonight it seems much closer
the blue skies frame it's light
and stars are brighter brighter
we wait the full moon's light

tonight we see our breath too
we count the temperatures winter sign
and so we see the day pass
we wait... come full moon come

and it will come
in it's good time
growing like the hope in our heart
that comes when we wait
come full moon come!
the 15th....

Believe

Greetings
I was a little cynical in the writing of yesterday and today I woke and the Miracle on 34th Street was on as I drank my morning coffee and had a little oatmeal.
Do you know the story? There is a newer version out now with a wonderful person to be the Santa. Basically it is all about belief. It is a movie that you know ends well though you may not know exactly how that is going to happen.

Do you believe. What else is Christmas really about. Christ-mass. that time when we celebrate that the greater, the greatest gift ever can be ours, given freely and fully ready, completely ours. That God-with-us, that Christmas is all about. That love of God for each of us that comes because we let Go of reason and we become instead the ones who understand that place in our hearts that we seek to fill with things, or gettings, or power over someone else, that place, that place has already been filled with God's gift of Jesus. Perhaps when we hear the words, They laid him in a manger because there was no room in the Inn should hearten us...because there IS room in our heart.
X=Mas X is the first letter, Chi, in the word Christ in Greek Christos. Nothing can take us away from the meaning... See,
Pray, believe, expect, receive.

God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Friday, December 09, 2005

what matters

Grace to you
We want some times to be the ones who know something first. We want to be 'in the know' and to be 'left out' is really an odd feeling. But then, now and then, we find out something by chance, or on purpose, that we wish we didn't know. Those are the kinds of things that change our minds about someone else usually. Something they have done, or left undone and in its knowing we can't go back.
We can't go back to the trust we had of that other person because we 'know' something that usually for me disappoints me about them. You know what I'm talking about? Something that they did or said, usualy behind our backs, that makes us no longer feel like we can trust them. Ergh...uuuhhhooo! uhg.

So what do we do with such information. Perhaps we can go to that person and say, I heard something and it disturbed me. I heard you said something or did something that hurt me or someone I love, and now ... I can't look at you the same. And then you begin to try and see in their eyes a 'knowing'...I know--you know --that I know-- what you didn't want me to know---

I had a friend who knew me so well that I could not keep a secret from her. But then again neither did I ever want to. Maybe then what we learn most is that is what real friendship is about---no secrets. No whispering behind the back.
Only kindness matters.

Jewel sings.... JEWEL LYRICS

"Hands"

If I could tell the world just one thing
It would be that we're all OK
And not to worry 'cause worry is wasteful
And useless in times like these
I won't be made useless
I won't be idle with despair
I will gather myself around my faith
For light does the darkness most fear
My hands are small, I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
But they're not yours, they are my own
And I am never broken
Poverty stole your golden shoes
It didn't steal your laughter
And heartache came to visit me
But I knew it wasn't ever after
We'll fight, not out of spite
For someone must stand up for what's right
'Cause where there's a man who has no voice
There ours shall go singing
My hands are small I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
But they're not yours, they are my own
I am never broken
In the end only kindness matters
In the end only kindness matters
I will get down on my knees, and I will pray
I will get down on my knees, and I will pray
I will get down on my knees, and I will pray
My hands are small I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
But they're not yours, they are my own
And I am never broken
My hands are small I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
But they're not yours, they are my own
And I am never broken
We are never broken
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's mind
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's heart
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's eyes
We are God's hands
We are God's hands


In this Advent time prepare your lives, be clear with one another, and with the One whose birth changed the world forever.
God Abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Thursday, December 08, 2005

flying dancers

There was a special on Great Performances with the training and the dancing of young men who are amazing. They can almost fly. Seriously from a flat footed stance they launch into the air and tap their feet together and it is beautiful to watch.
Have you ever dreamed of flying? Though gymnasts, skaters, and dancers move through the air it takes effort---and practice and skill and practice and practice...and a soul that flies too.
Like musicians who have the touch and make musical notes fly it comes from practice and through the soul.

What is it then that makes your soul fly? That challenges you to leap up in the air, in a metaphorical sense perhaps, and then land soft as a dove..

Is there something? Does reading a wonderful story? Does prayer and meditation? Does a long hot shower? How do you soar?

In this Advent season be lifted by the hope and the grace and the peace...No matter how flat-footed you start... You can fly.

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

beautiful morning

I woke at 4am.... and went outside with Betsy's dog. My goodness I forgot it was December until I was about 10 steps from the door. Luckily I'd put on some shoes to go out the temperature is in the 20's. burr.
As I'm standing in the yard I looked up and saw he navy blue sky and the stars just right there. The Big Dipper so clear in the north East sky and the beautiy of all the stars, You could see so many the sky seemed to be so clearly lighted. Thousands of stars. amazing.
We are made of stars... the dust of our bones are the elements of the universe. We are wonderfully and beautifully made! and we live our lives into that beauty.
We don't always walk in Beauty as the beauty Way prayer calls us to.
We don't even look up and see the beautiful morning and the stars.
We sometimes stumble through our days without seeing the hawk on the wire
or the sunrise or sunset
or the clear air after a day of big wind
or the face of a child wonderment
or the eyes twinkling of the experienced
or the happiness in a voice
or the hand on a paper
....
but sometimes we miss those gracious gifts that are ours to share all around.

so be alert
be aware
be joyful to the bone
each and every day
God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005
Navajo prayer
In Beauty may I walk.
All day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.
With dew about my feet may I walk.
With Beauty may I walk.
With Beauty before me, may I walk.
With Beauty behind me, may I walk.
With Beauty above me, may I walk.
With Beauty below me, may I walk.
With Beauty all around me, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of Beauty,
lively , may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of Beauty,
living again, may I walk.
It is finished in Beauty.
It is finished in Beauty.
A Navajo Prayer

Sunday, December 04, 2005

What fun

What a good time it was with the children sharing the worship service with our Lay Pastor today. The story told and then enacted. Oh the little angels and shepherds and our red-headed little girl baby Jesus.
How fun it is to know that things are always a surprise with the work of sharing the Word. And that we need to be ready for ever such a surprise. One little girl played the baby Jesus last year and she was an angel this year. And ahhh their talking along as they went on and as they waited for their part. Some folk took some cute pictures of their children.
Santa came too. They had a good time and two of the older gentlemen had their pictures sitting on Santa's knee. now that one needs to be a poster!
What fun!
We know in the world that we need fun. We need fun in our lives that makes us laugh and smile and that we know how God's love is there to surprise us in so many ways.
Hey. Be surprised today!
That's God's gift to you.
and smile!
God abide
bobbie giltz mcgarey
@2005