Java Earthquake

Friends
I read the accountings from those on site at the
Java Earthquake and in prayer came to these thoughts.
The story of the people having to choose to run from
a possible Tsunami on the coast or toward an active
volcano lava flow.. moves me still


Earth shakes
not on our schedule
not listed in day-timers or on any plan
The vulnerable they feel it
and reel in it and share in it
and they cry
"do we wait for the water or run for the fire? "

So much we don't fathom
of the works of the Mother
The Mother Earth whose nature
gave all of us birth.


but we raise up our hands
in prayers and in pleadings
O God give them help
Help them to stand

We send off our 'extra' of money
of clothing
We feel pride in our "oh so generous" spirit.
Oh and finally we'll pray
Please God protect them
Or do we mean O God protect me?

For deep in our spirits
What ever we know
Truly we don't
understand complete loss
Of family or home or community leveled
For we only see with eyes -outside.

But then as we read -
again the accounting
of Christians and Muslims all working for
good
We recognize deeply
what we finally remembered
We are all God's dear children
Hand in hand on this earth.

So raise up your prayer
for sister for brother
where ever they are hurting here beside us on earth
and know when we do so
we live into God's calling
to love one another
for all that we are worth.

God Abides

Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2006

for Katharine and Aaron

we cross the fields
with new sown corn
rising up from rich dark soil
and look across the short green
seeing new life

the sky is blue
and beautiful
promising sun
for us all

Trees canopy the road
and you move into
a new found place
with arches at the gateway
and a whisper heard the length

a place to share your promises
and to realize your first dream
only the beginning of many dreams
to come

couple standing
alone
yet surrounded by love
of all who gather
though the two only see
the other's eyes.
oh how so wonderful
how blessed
how joyful a time
how joyful a time
a time out of time
forever that moment
past and yet present
moving so quickly it all flashes by
moving so slowly it is pressed into the heart.
love present
like a fountain of life
so full of God's love
spilling over into the world
everywhere washing clean
and making new
and with such power and pureness
we all
want to dance.

thanks be to God
thanks be to God

God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2006

Rev. Dr. Bobbie G. McGarey

The Dreams we keep

Greetings
I have been keeping track of my dreams since I was in my early teens. I have several 'dream' books with them. It is always interesting to look back on some of them. I think that people develop over time their own particular set of 'dream' symbols. One of mine is ice skating. When things are going particularly well in my life I will dream of iceskaing even though it has been some time since i've actually skated. But for me, always a non-runner, skating was a way to get speed without hurting my knees. I skated as a child and all through college and after.

I've also had some dreams that I'd call 'big' dreams. About life, peacemaking, group dynamics, and all kinds of other situations that clarified things for me. There were some dreams that woke me with my heart pounding. So very clear. I have a few that are re-occuring dreams. These come it seems as if to give me a message about what is going on in my life.

The Bible is full of dreamers. Full of people who have listened to the voices that come to them in dreams often speaking to them as a prophet. A Prophet that is as one who holds up for them images they need to know. The Biblical dreams often guided the people or changed their direction or path. It was not seen as something so weird, but more someone who was in touch with the creator who was open to the Spirit moving through them in such a way.

How very wonderful it is to have dreams. To be guided by our hearts and our heads supplying images that make our heart stories real. And very real they become.

A dream can be more than a passing fancy of ideas stored int he brain flashing back in snippits to change things in our world. Dreams can be those thing which seem illusive and yet, and yet, and yet, are Right there.
For you to take and for you to enjoy and for you to live into...

Dream a little dream for me... for yourself. Put a pencil and paper by your bed and write down your dreams. Tell yourself as you are falling asleep that you are going to remember your dreams. Find a spiritual director to work with you on your dreams and what you may learn about yourself. And ... so... Sweet dreams... if dreams there be...

God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2006
Rev. Dr. Bobbie McGarey

Wonder of wonder

We were listening to the music from Fiddler on the Roof and enjoyed so many of the songs. Sunrise, sunset, quickly fiy the years.
What a beautiful thought. I was so touched by that song when it was sung at my cousin Janice's wedding some years ago. Now with our own children grown -- it has even more meaning and sentiment. We are blessed to be conducting a service for a young woman and her intended tomorrow in Illinois. We remember her from her 1st grade and growing up in the church we served as she moved from there to college. We are so pleased to see her family and others who have come for this event.
This afternoon we had the rehearsal and all went well. We had a good time in fact. It is a beautiful place where it is being held and we are so happy that we get to share in this moment in all their lives.

Wonder of wonder it is amazing how time moves on and how people grow up and how wonderful things change in so many ways. We all live our lives still day by day. Years roll into years and it is wonderful for us all. We take each step --each breath--never for granted but as a blessing.

We pray you will celebrate with us Katharine and Aaron. And celebrate your own lives as well, grounded in the presence of your Creator.

God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2006

Rev. Dr. Bobbie Giltz McGarey
Oklahoma USA
In case you forgot the words. From Fiddler on the Roof
Sunrise, Sunset Lyrics

(Tevye)
Is this the little girl I carried? Is this the little boy at play?

(Golde)I don't remember growing older
When did they?

(Tevye) When did she get to be a beauty? When did he get to be so tall?

(Golde) Wasn't it yesterday When they were small?
(Men) Sunrise, sunset Sunrise, sunset Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers Blossoming even as we gaze

(Women) Sunrise, sunset, Sunrise, sunset Swiftly fly the years One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears

(Tevye) What words of wisdom can I give them? How can I help to ease their way?

(Tevye) Now they must learn from one another Day by day
((All) Sunrise, sunset Sunrise, sunset Swiftly flow the days Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze

Sunrise, sunset Sunrise, sunset Swiftly fly the years
One season following another Laden with happiness and tears

Blessing to you all

GETTING READY

How do we prepare for something really special, monumental, that is happening in our lives? We make plans, we follow the protocol, we check off the completed tasks and we measure how we believe we did.

There is the joy of anticipation. My Grandmother Bane loved to have people surprise her. Even more she loved and enjoyed the anticipation of people coming. She would do extra things to make ready. She would bake her wonderful biscuits and desserts, and she would polish and shine everything that could be polished. All so that when you came--she could enjoy your presence. It was great.

We prepare for good things.
AND . I think sometimes we dwell on the "what-ifs" or the "if-Onlys" and we have the sense that gloom and doom are sure to follow. We make lists, at least mentally, when this "bad thing" happens... I know that I will feel _____. (empty abandoned hurt lost sad betrayed....)
We talk about when bad things might happen .... So many times we/I worry about things that are highly unlikely to ever happen to me but I still have a plan for if/when it does!

But rarely, very rarely, do we say when this good thing happens...I know I will feel_____ . (joyful, thankful, happy, satisfied, challenged, empowered....)
That would seem frivolous to us and we are so much more pitiful to the world if we wallow (often in contentment) in the oh my's or maybes! The Oh Oh poor me...

What we know, what we can know, is where we are right now and where we are prayerfully heading in our lives. How do we do that? Let's make certain that we enjoy the beauty and the love and the goodness that is so fully evident in this world... and be thankful.

Don't worry...be happy...

God abides ---see there is Nothing- absolutely nothing---to worry about.

Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2006

Artist: Bobby McFerrin Lyrics
Song: Don't Worry, Be Happy Lyrics
Here's a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don't Worry - Be Happy
In every life we have some trouble
But when you worry you make it Double
Don't Worry - Be Happy
Ain't got no place to lay your head,
somebody came and took your bed
Don't Worry, Be Happy
The landlord say your rent is late,
he may have to litigate
Don't Worry - Be Happy
Ain't got not cash, ain't got no style,
ain't got no gal to make you smile
Don't Worry - Be Happy
Cause when you worry your face will frown
and that will bring everybody down
Don't Worry - Be Happy

Dr. B

John and I watched Betsy get ready for her day at the hospital this morning. It doesn't take her long to get ready. And there she is. She has on scrubs, Dr. Coat, stethoscope, and her pager, and her phone, and her keys.
She had to remind me that I didn't need to remind her of ...well anything. That she can do this on her own. I don't have to get her ready for the bus...but then again I never did. She has always been ready.
We watch her with wonder sometimes. We are not amazed she is doing what she is doing it is just that our perspective is that she is our little girl. Now woman.
But that parent thing holds on ... still.

I imagine that the Creator feels the same about us most of the time. Encourages us to do what we should already know to do. And sees us still as a child...


God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2006

Saturday Two too

My email accounts have not been working well the past week or so. I haven't felt well till now anyway but I'll get back to fixing them.
I did read online in the Christian Science Monitor paper, 5/15/06 an article about how well we communicate via email. I began to consider how well this communicates and have decided..to hope for the best.

The article said that
78% of the time the Communicator believes they are clearly communicating. 89% of the time the Reciever believes they are correctly interpreting
----56% of the time the receiver correctly interprets the message.

Slighty over half the time... the other 44%not so much ... humm

From our animal friends who have both basic and complex ways of communicating, verbal, body language, grunts, and moans. (wait sounds like us eh?) We perhaps can learn to not read so much into every humm someone makes or a glance away by an other, or a stare, or... whatever we interpret as being...some deep message. Maybe that is all it was...a sigh is indeed a sigh.
So, when you are emailing someone remember,perhaps, What you think you thought I said was not what I thought you should think about it at all.

except the God abides--that's clear for you I hope!

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2006

Wedding witness

What does it mean to witness?
as a Verb Websters' online says
Main Entry: 2witness
transitive senses
1 : to testify to : ATTEST
2 : to act as legal witness of
3 : to furnish proof of : BETOKEN
4 a : to have personal or direct cognizance of : see for oneself b : to take note of
5 : to constitute the scene or time of 2 : to bear witness to one's religious convictions

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Main Entry: 1wit·ness
Pronunciation: 'wit-n&s
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English witnesse, from Old English witnes knowledge, testimony, witness, from 2wit
1 : attestation of a fact or event : TESTIMONY
2 : one that gives evidence; specifically : one who testifies in a cause or before a judicial tribunal
3 : one asked to be present at a transaction so as to be able to testify to its having taken place
4 : one who has personal knowledge of something
5 a : something serving as evidence or proof : SIGN b : public affirmation by word or example of usually religious faith or conviction
Grace and Peace. Today I get to be a witness for a wedding. I am not performing the service and I know the parents of the bride more than I know the bride or groom. (next week another wedding this time John and I will share the service).
Now we have theological meanings, legal meanings and possibly others. Legal meanings are when you see something and tell someone about it..in court. Like the time I witnessed an accident and was summoned to court to testify. Theologically witnessings are when you see something 'awesome' and tell someone about it.. So not so different indeed.
We'll promise today to uphold this couple. We promise to share the good news. WE promise to lift up before others the beauty we behold. We promise...to be good-news tellers in all we do. What are you to witness today about the Awesomeness of God?
Tellers---transactors of Good News.

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2006

Illusion

Grace and Peace
It seems in this world we live in illusion. We watch movies, read fiction, and television that takes us on far journeys and into strange situations.
So, what is our ground?
I once had a professor who said, "depression was a broken illusion that has not been replaced by another illusion." Do you agree?
So are illusions good or not good? It depends.
If we pretend that we are not the people we were created to be--then perhaps we live in an illusion of being something better...or worse.
Lives of importance are lived by those who are truly themselves in manor, word and action.
Illusions...sometimes helpful...
But delusions, eh, well, not so much.

God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2006

Sunny Side

"Keep on the Sunny side always on the sunny side, keep on the sunny side of life. It will help you everyday it will guide you all the way if you keep on the sunny side of life."
I remember that song from my Mom singing it. She really tried to live it to its fullest. No matter what happened she would try and try to keep on the sunny side. She would work hard at this but there were times when she just couldn't --get there-- and if you have ever heard the saying, If moma's not happy nobody's happy, that applied. Sunday afternoons seemed to be particularly melancholy for her. We would often take long drives around central Ohio, have our evening meal out, and get home about time for Bonanza. And the next day she would be fine, at least better. ( One of her rules for girls and women was "Wear some lipstick, you'll feel better.)

It seems however to me that there are certainly different ways to look at the world and the sunny side seems to be one choice we have. Choice I mean that choice. We choose to be on the sunny side...looking at the world through the lens of Hope and Love and Peace. or the other side -chaos.

Sunny side sounds good to me...
Even if some days it feels like 'over-easy' *

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2006

* sunny side up is the way you cook eggs with the yolk up
over easy is with them turned over for just a minute...

Randomness

Oh my the old faithful web cam is down while they rebuild the lodge. Sorry to have misled you perhaps.
-- I have a code-in-my-dnose. (cold in the nose.). argh this too shall pass.
-- When did fences big spiky ones solve anything? Look at Berlin, Israel, I'm not convinced. Seriously we can't feed the elderly --but we can build a fence?
-- A volcano erupted in Indonesia. That's on the edge of what is geographically called the ring of fire. We're on the other side. We do all live in the same world righteo?
-- my dad made up this saying: "All people good or bad are just the same when happy or sad." he would sign it eciruam ztlig.. What a teaser.
-- Does anyone remember Kent State? May 4, 1970? Perhaps time to review.
--- Once my son said. "there has to be a better way." When observing two kids fighting.
He also visited a church with me preaching where in the Lord's prayer we say debts they say forgive us our sins.
We would refer to it as the sinning church.
-- Once Marsha G. in my elementary school was cheating off my paper. The problem was her head was directly over my left forearm, and the problem with that was I had a cast on my arm, and the problem with that was that I suddenly, seriously not knowing she was looking on, raised my forearm and clopped her pretty sharp in the chin. The teacher laughed after finding out Marsha had not been knocked out or injured. He'd been watching. Ah Mr. P.J. O'Rouke you were the best 6
th grade teacher ever.
-- I still have the cold. but now a very VERY deep voice. oh my
rrrrrr

You all take care, will write again later.
God abides
bobbie giltz mcgarey
@2006

Old Faithful

Our family went on a great vacation to Yellowstone National Park in WY USA. Wow what an awesome place. This is long years ago and yet the beauty of it is incredibly etched in my head and heart. Today a friend sent me a link to the Old Faithful Webcam. It refreshes itself every 30 seconds. You can see the clouds in the sky, people walking up to the benches along the area, and then Old Faithful.
http://www.nps.gov/yell/oldfaithfulcam.htm

We apparently can be at two places at once. Me here in Oklahoma watching the web cam of Yellowstone, or Mt.St. Helen's in Washington State... or three or more places.

What is it we want in life? To see as much as we can? Do we then want to be 'in control' of all we see-- Like the Queen or king of the world? Do we trust the world to go on without us paying attention? Luckily it does. What if one person was in charge of the sun rise/setting? Could anyone maintain that much concentration?
We change TV channels faster than the earth spins. We can on some TV's watch one thing and record another. We are determined to be in touch.
What if our prayer was that God's will be done? We can do all we can do where we are...but we are not, thank God, in charge of it all. We live into the life and the world we have. We make changes in the world in our sphere where we are knowing we are instruments of God's love. (or we may be instruments of love).
Old Faithful. 50-60 minutes refreshes itself.
Be well and faithful
God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2006

Ohio River

My husband John was born along the Ohio river. Our children were born later, 30 years and 33 years, along the Ohio. on the KY side. It is a big Eastern river that runs full, and fuller, all year.
We lived not far from the river in KY about 40 miles west of where they were born. I could see the river from my hospital room. Later we would take trips to go to the river for picnic lunches. We went out onto an island in the river once for a day of camping with friends.
One of my books that I re-read every year is Siddhartha by hermann Hesse. The river plays an essential role in the story.
We have all probably heard that when we stand in the river we are always in a new river...for it flows beyond us. We watch time pass as it 'rolls' along.
What do you use to mark the passing of time? A river running by? The clouds flying above? The corn or wheat growing?
A child growing? A tree growing?
let there be something outside yourself or your daytimer to mark the time...

Way down upon the Ohio River...
Let the river roll
God abides
bobbie giltz McGarey
@2006

my m's broken

I dropped something on my computer... it's ok but the m key snapped off and i haven't had a chance to take it in as they will replace it. So...what that means is that every time I want to type an m --I have to pause and concentrate on hitting this one spot....and viola... m

( We depend a lot on wholeness. We depend on things being lined up as we expect. We forget that the one constant is change. We depend on all the letters being in line. Once some years ago a toy came out that had a keyboard for the children to use. The letters were lined up alphabetically.... Sounds good...But think...the organization of the keyboard that almost everyone uses is not alphabetically...but in line with the frequency of the letters. If a child learned this toy keyboard, they would be always translating their keyboards to what is the regular one... humm Then there is the Dvorac keyboard arrangement for right or left hands. See we don't know it all do we? )

Back to the lost/broken m....


Now you wouldn't think the m would be so very important... but it is when it's not working... you begin to think of all kinds of m words that you want to write.... _ercy, _erry, _arvelous, yu__y, and for _e there's _cGarey!

Do we always yearn for that which we don't have? Is that a normal human trait to want what we don't have? Or, are we trained to yearn for something that makes what we have look not as good? Is there satisfaction?

I believe there is... When we say thank you for all that we have. I believe we may learn to live our lives in a way that brings us joy and satisfaction...for we have all we need and even more...


There's more to be learned in this world.... and we already have all we need...

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2006

Time flies

Grace and Peace ...

I was in my daughter's apt and on the wall she has a picture of us last year at my graduation. What a fun time! But it doesn't seem like a year ago. It seems the time was closer and also farther away --at the same time.
I have pondered "time" here before . It still baffles me In ways that are unexpected. There are moments that take a long time to pass, and other time moves so quickly. What makes the difference?
As my mother aged she was always commenting about how fast time went--How quickly the days seemed to pass. I was surprised when she would say this because I might have guessed for her that the time was going slowly--that her days were tiresome to her.
Young children on the other hand when put in 'time-out' remember that minutes can hardly be comprehended to pass at all. I remember a time out I had as a child. (To be honest-- it wasn't the deed that got me there--it was about lying about the deed.)

When we experience the passing of time we recognize then how precious it is. How quickly time goes and how we cannot recapture it. We can remember when-- and compare now to then... but we cannot go back.

And perhaps, though fiction would tell us otherwise, it wouldn't be good to go back, because if we did, what would happen to Now?

Ah but if for just a moment we could hold time... and live into it's beauty ---we would live our lives in the wonderful Now... and be blessed.
Time flies... catch it while you can.

God abide with you
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2006