The gas stove comes on,
the sun and the temps falling -
Evening settles in
or
Evening settles in,
the sun and the temps falling -
the gas stove comes on.
All over, over all God,
The Good Shepherd, Dupre, Julien, 1851-1910
Ok - I'm back. The thing was that we were heading off for this tulip cruise and we were getting shafted by Delta, but 2 or 3 gate officials and things worked out. The Netherlands has been really lovely! Tomorrow - the tulips!
Like coffee with cake,
like quiet in the city -
sunshine after rain.
And then I guess this is Sunday -
Dear Lord,
Thomas believed when he saw the wounds in your body.
Help us believe when we see the wounds in your world.
Thankful for these things -
People, Earth, Waters, Fish, Plants…….
Now our minds are one.
The beginning of Ganonyok, Seneca version of the Haudenosaunee Thanksgivng Address, "The Words That Come Before All Else." We went to the presentation at the United Conference at NMU. Here are two links to two expressions of the complete address -
God of all life and death,
we pray to you from the valleys of dry bones -
- Gaza
- Ukraine
- Iran
- and other places that go in and out of our news consciousness where people (and indeed all Creation) is suffering, including our own United States.
Breathe your word of life to us all,
that your Creation might rise up and live and thrive like a daffodils in springtime.
We pray today in the name of Jesus who said "Consider the lilies...."
All Knowing God -
Moon sparkles on lake,
moon shadows on front yard snow -
lunar eclipse - not.
Glorious full moon last night. Got up at 5:30 to check for eclipse - fully clouded over. Went back to bed; got up at 8:30; made "full moon waffles" to compensate.
Bonus factoid - Writer's Almanac says Beethovan's Moonlight Sonata was published on this day in 1802.
Ok - making brownies. See if you can guess what happened -
Melt one stick butter,
Six ounces chocolate chips.....rats!
Black beans are not chips!
Yup - we had a half bag of "chocolate chips". Dumped a quarter of a cup into the bowl before I realized "wait a minute, those are black beans, not chocolate chips!" Had to pick them out - they're soaking and will get made into something tomorrow!
Faithful God -
trusting in and living by a promise,
Abram left "his own" for "a place called Away" (1).
It leads me to ponder what promises I live by,
where I look for help,
who I trust to keep me as I go out and come back.
I would like to trust your strength more than my own,
your vision more than the popular culture's,
your grace more than fame or fortune or pensions.
I'll need your help to make it so.
(1) Gordon Lightfoot, from "The Canadian Railroad Trilogy".
A prayer for evening -
Hot dogs in a jar, (1)
jar in the solar oven -
sure enough - cooked 'em.
(1) "jar" or "pan"
Ok - you put stuff in a canning jar with hand tightened lid in the solar over and it acts like a pressure cooker. So we have 3-4 more sunny or partly sunny days. Then we'll move on to something else besides the contents of the solar oven!

Giovanni Bellini, Presentation at the Temple, tempera on panel, c. 1469.
(Today is The Feast/Festival of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, also observed as Candlemas - the day when people would bring their candles to the church to have them blessed. A nice article about it here https://www.plough.com/en/topics/culture/holidays/a-light-to-lighten-the-gentiles)
Sky-candles twinkle,
full lantern moon glows to light
the world's living room.
La presentación de Cristo en el templo by Kelly Lattimore
Robert Burns Supper -
Grace, Haggis, Toasts, Auld Lang Syne -
missed it again - Rats!
(It was last night. Maybe next year. I always think you could do it with a pasty instead of a haggis!) There was a professor in the geology department where I went to college that used to do a Robert W Service dinner each year. My roommate was a geology major and would go. "There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold...."
Heavenly Father, Mother, Parent, Friend -
I am trying to wait patiently for you to walk by, to take away the sin of the world,
but it still seems to me that the wicked prosper and the good die young.
Help me spot you among all those passing by, find where you are staying in our world and rest my heart there.
So I am finding it increasingly hard to keep "Israel" as the people of God separate in my mind from "Israel" as the contemporary political entity. I am going to try to m use "the people of God" or even the Anishinaabe term "all my relations". The reality is that humans cannot just be at peace with each other without being at peace with the creation around them. So -
They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall become like a watered garden, and they shall never languish again. Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them and give them gladness for sorrow. Jeremiah 31
They are on their way, Lord -
The gas stove comes on, the sun and the temps falling - Evening settles in or Evening settles in, the sun and the temps falli...