Purple flowers for the International Day of Peace
21 September 2015
Thanks to Jeff Geary
Category Archives: Friends
Purple flowers – guest collection #17
For all who work
I give thanks this day for all who work –
whether that work is
paid or unpaid
honored or unrecognized
whether that work
earns a pay check or simply involves the day-to-day tasks of living
whether that work is
a labor of love
or somehow combines all of the above.
I give thanks for all who have lived and died
to protect the lives and rights of those who work.
I give thanks for all who live and give of themselves,
and risk themselves,
to make a better world for all who work.
I confess and grieve that the life I live,
the privilege and comfort I enjoy,
too often rests on the backs of brothers and sisters who work.
I recognize that all too often sisters and brothers work
in dangerous conditions, in situations where they are exploited, violated.
I pray that the day will come when all people have work to do
work that is safe and meaningful,
work that is honored and valued,
work that pays a wage that allows the workers
to provide a decent living for themselves and for their families.
I pray that I will receive the grace and the wisdom and the courage
to in some small way
make a contribution to the dawning of that day.
I give thanks this day for all who work.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Current Events, Family, Friends, Human Rights
Adventures with the bandanna – first Pirates game
The bandanna, accompanied by Elisabeth Lee, Don Jang, and John Gingrich attended its first Pirates game on August 14, 2015 at Citi Field against the New York Mets. The Pirates, no doubt inspired by the bandanna, won in extra innings as they did the next night when Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Bob Brashear joined our group.
14 August 2015
Filed under Baseball, Friends, Pittsburgh Pirates
The run – 15 August
The bandanna ran its first structured race. With my trainer Nicole, I ran in New York in support of a friend’s son who organized a 1-mile fundraising run in memory of his grandmother.
Purple flowers – Grace Bickers’ home
Thanks to Grace Bickers and her family for a lovely dinner with Tricia, Ryan Smith, Sera Chung, and me.
Grace, Sera, Ryan, and I all worked together for a stretch.
Grace’s family even had a purple flower in the window.
1 August 2015
Louisville, Tennessee
Adventures with the bandanna – running with a friend
The bandanna ran with a friend today. Running after a friend would probably be more accurate. Thanks to Laura VanDale who went to the Tennessee Recreation Center for Students under the Big Tent with me. She lapped me several times, but I did the running.
31 July 2015
2015 Joint North-South Prayer and Worship Liturgy (8.15 Anniversary)
From my friends Kurt Esslinger and Hyeyoung Lee comes an opportunity to pray and witness for peace on the Korean Peninsula.
This coming August 15th, 2015 will mark 70 years since Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial control as well as Korea’s division into two zones based on the decision of US and Soviet Union officials (with Koreans conspicuously absent). Thus began a cycle of conflict and violence that Korea has yet to escape. Christians in South Korea first learned that Christians still lived in the open North despite severe restrictions on the practice of their faith. South and North Christians met face to face for the first time in 1988, despite it being illegal with participants risking arrest upon return to the South. Since then, South Koreans and Christians of the world helped convince the North to give Christians some breathing room to worship and practice in public, although full freedom to practice is still restricted. Since 1988, the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK – South) and the Korean…
View original post 843 more words
Filed under Friends, Uncategorized, Worship
Unexpected
I read today
of grief and loss
of love and faith
and unexpected
saw your name.
Eyes leaking.
I read on
and the cold, stark words
confirmed that
you were dead.
Into eternity’s void
I stared and hoped
you knew,
and somehow in grace’s mystery
know still,
My admiration for your work
My appreciation for our collaboration
My gratitude for the moments our lives touched
And the ministry we shared.
Thanks be to God.
For Carol Eberhart Johnson
13 July 2015
13 July 2015
Manhattan, New York
In response to the killings at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church
From my friends who have commented on the act of terror that involved the killing of nine people, nine of God’s children, nine of my brothers and sisters, at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, I share, with permission, some words that touched me:
This is outrageous – this white terrorist murderer said “you’re raping our women and taking over our country and you gotta go” before killing 9 African Americans, and Fox is trying to spin this as the nutty right wing “Christian persecution” complex that somehow this is part of the war on people with traditional values. This was racial hatred – our own particular American sickness. The white shooter has not been portrayed as a “thug”, or even a terrorist, even though he has a mug shot and was arrested twice in the last 3 months. “We do know we’ll never understand what motivates someone to do this” (Governor Nikki Haley) Yes, we do understand what motivates him – he told them – racial hatred. And a white terrorist, according to the media, must have some sort of mental illness, or bad childhood, some reason to explain his actions, other than that he was raised in the US, where racial hatred is taught and not addressed and is so rampant that our media give this white kid all kinds of white privilege.
– Patrick Evans
What happened in Charleston was not random or senseless. It was an act of domestic terrorism fueled by ever present white supremacy. Church, let’s not live in denial.
– Christine Hong
Senseless (adj.): A word that forever needs to be extracted from our political and national vocabulary, especially after instances of mass violence. We can make sense of the horrific murders of nine black South Carolinians gathering for Bible study– and it starts with confronting a culture which idolizes guns and violence and refuses to acknowledge white supremacy.
– Kyle Cristofolo
Recent events are almost incomprehensible. From the precious lives lost, to how it happened, to the fact that these acts of hate happen way too often, to the policies that allow them to happen, to the hatred and bigotry that undergird the violence. Wish this wasn’t true. RIP, our fellow humans, brothers and sisters, and neighbors. It seems almost trite to say that we send thoughts and prayers to the impacted community…right? But maybe we do that, in combination with holding onto conviction and hope for a better tomorrow, that we have the courage and will for justice to co-construct better and more peaceful communities and country.
– Ester Sihite
And finally, my own words:
I grieve for my brothers and sisters, unknown to me in person yet my family nonetheless, who were killed in Emanuel AME Church. I rage against the racial hatred and anger that apparently resulted in the killing of God’s precious children. I ache at this bloody reminder of the power of the system of racism to shape our behavior. I hear a call, again, still, to work with my sisters and brothers more creatively and effectively to dismantle racism and to build community and to address gun violence. And I pray for the grace and courage and faith and hope to respond.
With thanks for my friends.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Antiracism, Current Events, Friends, Gun Violence
