Hi Everyone!!! I hope you are enjoying these warmer temps (while they last) and are preparing to SPRING AHEAD tonight! Daylight Savings Time begins in the middle of the night, so worship will feel like it's at 8:00am tomorrow (well - 8:05 =), while it's actually 9:00 (9:05)! I hope to see you there! It looks like ol' man winter will try to play a trick on us tomorrow afternoon, as they're forcasting Thunder snow (?!), but we are heading towards mid-March - Spring CAN'T be far away!
I was finally able to take my lil dog Patches for a walk today. Do you know what I found amazing?! As the earth warms up, lots of things are thawing out of the ice. I saw a flower popping out of a snow patch, a picture wrapped in plastic, plastic roses, no doubt tossed from someone's decorative porch bouquet when the high winds of winter took us by surprise last November, a worn out Walmart Scrip card, so faded you could barely make out the signature smiley face and other assorted treasures. I couldn't help but smile and think - all those things frozen so suddenly by the ice and snow are finding their ways back to us as the sun melts the snow! ..
Our hearts are waking up to spring too as we plod through these Lenten days. Thanks so much to all the folks who made soups, breads and desserts for us at last weeks soup supper - it was quite the feast! Please join us any Wednesday beginning at 5:30pm and stay for worship at 7pm! We are using the lovely Holden Evening Prayer to quiet ourselves at the end of the day and reflecting about the spiritual gifts we share as a church.
We talked about laughter this week in our Lenten worship reflection time. I even tried out some "laughing yoga" with the group assembled - do you know once we started laughing, it was so contagious and very hard to stop?! Even if we were "faking it" at first, waves of real laughter began to burst forth, lifting all of our spirits! Laughter is one of the spiritual gifts I have cherished from the people of Gloria Dei and so many people commented following worship that while struggling to get through bad cases of the "Februaries" and "Marchies," it felt SO GOOD to laugh and to NAME that simple thing we can do and share every day, as a GIFT of the Spirit that transforms lives!! The synod has invited me to lead some laughing yoga workshops for this year's synod assembly, so I'll be on the look out for more opportunities to laugh with you soon!
One final note from the week - I had a chance to have lunch with Tina Checkie before she took off for National Guards basic training this past Tuesday. Tina shared with me that one of the things she cherishes most about the people of Gloria Dei, who have been such good friends to her, is the sound of your laughter. It has helped her to face life decisions and situations with strength and "a reason to smile no matter what!" I would say that's a pretty incredible gift you've given! To make you smile, we took some silly pictures together I'm attaching here!
Also, the other picture is of a sign I saw when driving to Appleton on the way to meet Tina and then go to some other work appointments. The funny think about it is, I've been listening to Jewel's song "Hands" a lot as inspiration to use my spiritual gift of laughter with people during these ever anxious times. One of my favorite lines from the song is "Poverty stole your golden shoes, it didn't steal your laughter; heartache came to visit me, but I knew it wasn't ever after..." then the song resounds and concludes with an antiphonal refrain of "In the end only kindness matters...." - and as I'm listening to this, THERE IS THE SIGN in someone's driveway! What wondrous serendipity - dare I say it's even "a sign?!" I know, I know - you're so cheesy PV (as evidenced by the cheese head pic above!)
Many blessings of kindness and laughter,
PV
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