Hawks on the nest

As Johnny and Molly drove with me to Chattanooga, OK Sunday I pointed out one of two hawk nests near the road and you could clearly see a Hawk on the side of the nest. We went by too fast to say what kind of hawk it was...but it was beautiful.

What keen observations have you been making these days?

Here are some things that come to mind for me.

1. I like mild winters
2. When people I love hurt, so do I.
3. It is harder to let go that you think it will be.
4. Some people just don't get it.
5. Some people will surprise you with kindness

As I left the Parish this week moving on to another Call I got the sweetest note from a young woman. Some times you do get to know what people think about you and how your life has touched theirs. It's good that I didn't read it before lunch...because when I did read it I cried...happy cry. How very dear of her to write this for me.

I read this ... God has more zest for you than you do for God.
That's good news... Go find God out there...right there...or share God with that person right there with you.

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2008

Ending and Beginning

Grace and Peace
An influential man, Dr. Jack Stotts, a Presbyterian minister, Seminary President at McCormick and Austin, and many other things to his credit.... http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2008/08059.htm died today.
He and his wife were traveling through Utah about 10 years ago and stopped in and took us to dinner. He could not see you for 10 years and still remember your name, your spouses name, and other details about you. It was a gift he had and that was a part of his ministry, he remembered you.
One of the women who grew up with us in Utah and for whom we conducted her wedding a few years ago delivered a baby on the 21. Macara Lynn She is a beauty. Brand new life with all the potential before her.
Her birth reminded me of a lecture by Muhammad Yunus: Doing Well by Doing Good, he is the founder of the Gramene Bank that makes micro-loans to poor people. He won the Nobel Prize in 2006 for his work. He said that each child born has unlimited potential to do what they were created to do given the opportunity and support.
Look what Jack Stotts did with his life and look what Macara may do with her life... what wonders lie ahead.

With so great a cloud of witnesses before us, can we not all strive to do and be our best.

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2008

What's your Sign?

Grace and Peace

So, I'm driving down the road, I'd not passed another car in 10 minutes and I see a man walking on the side of the road facing the traffic. I can see as I approach a sign with lettering ... it read... Love Life.
The man was in other ways not remarkable. He was a traveler, not hitchhiking but walking toward traffic, and he is backpack and his clothing said this was his home, this road he was on, where ever that might be.

Love life! The sign was hand printed the same on both sides. What in the world could have brought him to a place to have written this? What joy or what feeling of the goodness of life could have left this man to have this as his 'sign'?
I didn't ask him so I can only conjecture what it may mean to him.

But then as I kept going I wondered, What sign would I carry? What sign or message would I want to share with the world, with everyone who passes me on the road? Well I have the Presbyterian Seal on my car. I have an old Austin College sign on the back window and Ohio State on the side. But, what message do I have for the world?

See me shaking my head and hear a sigh.

Perhaps, friends, this is something we should each of us consider. What sign do we leave with the world when we pass by? Does our presence even in passing make someone smile or do we leave a different message? Do we leave affirmation or judging in our eyes with people? Or do we leave no impression at all because for whatever reason we have chosen to ignore them?

Well, have a good Sunday and think about this. Leave me a note at the comment spot at the bottom if you figure out your sign....

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2008

Happiness

When we connect with the ground of being and also the truth of our experience there is a capacity for joy that is radically different than the happiness we hear about all the time.
Rabbi Joanna Katz

A friend sent me this quote and I wanted to share it with you. What do we learn from this? Is it true for us all? I think it is true for us all. It seems to me that all too often we seek a happiness that is measured in quantity, enough. You know, when we have enough... we will do fine...we will be happy...we will have no stress...
I don't think so. I know a lot of people with a-whole-lot who are aching for happiness. I know people with very little who are joyful to the bone. What about you?
What would it take to make you happy?

Rabbi Katz says when we connect with God and with our truest self we find bliss.
Good luck to you
have a Bliss-ful 2008

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2008

Epiphany After

It is the day after Epiphany. it is time to take down the Santas on the mantle and let them rest another year. it is time to unplug the lights on the tree outside and all the other things that we bring out for Christmastide.

What else have we called out of ourselves that we put away that we should keep OUT all year? Is there a spirit of Christmas that we should hold all year? Should we keep the lightness of Spirit that Christmas brings? Should we keep the kindness to strangers that Christmas brings? Should we keep looking out for the poor, the lonely, or the stranger? Should we take care to write people we haven't been in touch with all year and yet that wait to write at Christmas?
Well Yes.
We should do this ...
We should reach out always, love always, hold always, do all the things that we know to do at Christmas. Sing Joy that Jesus is here every day.
:Rise, Shine give God your Glory Glory.

Here we go.
God is good all the time, All the time, God is good.

God abide
Bobbie Giltz. McGarey
@2008

2008

I like even numbered years. Ok, silly I know. I'm not sure when I figured that out or granted to even numbered years a feel-good just because it was even.
But there are reasons that people believe things that are equally questioning...Believe that days can be predicted good or bad by where the moon is in your sun sign. Believe that there is nothing that can be done to change the world...

See, I believe that we can change the world. Right where we are. It's that Butterfly effect

. An illustration of the butterfly effect - the idea in meteorology that the flapping of a butterfly's wing will create a disturbance that in the chaotic motion of the atmosphere will become amplified eventually to change the large scale atmospheric motion, so that the long term behavior becomes impossible to forecast. www.cmp.caltech.edu/~mcc/chaos_new/Lorenz.html

There seem to be opportunities we have each of us to live our lives so that the effect we have on the world around us...and thereby the whole world.
Someone recently asked me what we can do about all the people who hate us (The United States) ?
I said Love your neighbor as yourself.

How do we live into new habits and ways of living and dealing with one another?

Let's work on this this year.
Happy New Year.
God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2008