When disappointment comes, God,
and disappointment will,
may we find
strength to grieve,
patience to sit with the moment,
imagination to seek alternatives,
and courage, hope, faith, and love
to give them a try.
We pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Category Archives: Family
AdventWord 2022 – December 16 – #traveler
I traveled to my son and daughter-in-love’s home to see my granddaughter.
There I, the traveler, enjoyed coffee in a cup celebrating another traveler.
In person.
In our mind.
In our heart.
In our soul.
In solidarity with a fictional character (or is he?).
Travel comes in many forms.
And in every form, those who make the journey are travelers.
And in some cases, coffee makes it better.
Photo: 2 April 2022, North East, Maryland
AdventWord 2022 – December 14 – #beloved
Lucy has grasped the heart of everyone in her family as firmly as she has grasped my thumb.
She is beloved.
Photo: April 7, 2022; North East, Maryland
AdventWord 2022 – December 10 – #flourish
It is Human Rights Day. The world would take steps toward the time when all people could flourish, if we all respected and protected each other’s human rights.
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every[person seeks] equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt, 1958
Perhaps we can start, in those small places where we find ourselves, to honor the human rights of all we meet that we all might flourish,
Photo: 20 December 2018, New York, NY; display created by Tricia.
Filed under Advent, Antiracism, Family, Human Rights, New York, Photo, United Nations
AdventWord 2022 – December 8 – #breathe
I once believed that breathing was automatic. It is something we did without thinking about it.
Then came workouts with NK Bordy Philosophy. Nicole spent most of our time telling me to breathe, training me to breathe in ways that would effectively support the movements I was doing.
It seems unlikely that I was thinking about breathing in this childhood photo.
It also seems likely that some serious breathing was taking place to support this level of noise.
Photo: circa 1954/5, Grove City, PA
AdventWord 2022 – December 6 #welcome
One of my first meetings with my first granddaughter.
She welcomes me to her world.
Photo: 1 January 2022, North East, MD
AdventWord 2022 – December 4 #delight
At the end of Eric and Essie Koenig-Reinke’s wedding.
It has been a while.
But delight lasts a long, long time.
Photo: 8 June 2022, Union Presbyterian Seminary, Richmond, VA
Filed under Advent, Family, Louisville, Music, playlist, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
AdventWord 2022 – December 2 #ready
The Rev. Essie Koenig-Reinke celebrates communion at the service where she was ordained as a minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She was ordained by the Presbytery of Baltimore at Dickey Memorial Presbyterian Church (DMPC).
If ever anyone was ready for ordained ministry (and most folks who reach that point are), Essie was. Her ministry at DMPC and beyond os a blessing.
Photo: 14 November 2021, Dickey Memorial Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, Maryland
Filed under Family, Photo, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
24 November 2022
Walking. Playing with Henrik.
Native American Heritage Day
Day of Mourning
Thanksgiving
The Prayer – Supaman
For My People – Litefoot
Wash Your Spirit Clean – Walela
Calling the Spirit Back – Joy Harjo, feat. Rahim Alhaj
Red Streaking into Water – R. Carlos Nakai
Residential School Song – Cheryl Bear
Missing You – Joanne Shenandoah
Sagan’s Song – Nizhóní Girls
Golden Feather – Robbie Robertson
500 Years – Annie Humphrey
Sovereignty Song – Keali`i Reichel
Remember – Indigenous
Nightmares and the American Dream – Annie Humphrey
Raye Zaragoza – Raya Zaragoza
Native Child – Thunder Bird Sisters
Children of the Blackfeet – Jack Gladstone
The Art of Survival – Bill Miller
NDN/Alien – Blackfire
Odana – Mali Obomsawin
Once an Eagle – Teagan Littlechief
6 Thanksgiving Myths and the Wampanoag Side of the Story
What Really Happened at the First Thanksgiving? The Wampanoag Side of the Tale
400 Years later, ‘we did not vanish’
How to talk to little kids about Thanksgiving, explained by a Native American children’s author
PC(USA) leaders continue their work dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery
October 13, 2022
Every year on this date, I find myself in mind and spirit and heart at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. With my father, I sit in the right field stands watching Game 7 of the 1960 World Series.
62 years ago today, my father took me out of school on Neville Island for the day. We travelled 11 miles or so to see the game, to see history.
Heavy underdogs, the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the New York Yankees when Bill Mazeroski hit a home run in the bottom of the 9th inning.
The memories of the day remain clear. But time has blurred the source, particularly in regard to the game. Some of it, I believe I still remember on my own; some is from remembering each year; some I remember from reading, seeing photos, and watching clips on TV (see below), and some is from watching the full game for the last ten years through the magic of film transferred to DVD.
Whatever the source, the memories remain of one of the most special days of my life.
Filed under Family, Pittsburgh Pirates, Sports
Along the Graybeard Trail 