Have you ever read the famous children's story, " The Fall of Freddie the Leaf"? Famous author, and educator, Leo Buscaglia defines nicely in this story how death is a part of living, metaphorically, through a leaf named Freddie.
From the beginning Freddie realizes he is one among many that are seemingly just like him. He finds himself one of hundreds born, and growing simultaneously on one tree. Early on, Freddie is befriended by the largest leaf on the tree, Daniel. Daniel educates Freddie, that as a leaf, they have a purpose to make people and animals happy. Provide them with shade, breeze, a spot to play, or romance under. He explains to Freddie about the seasons, the moon, the sun and the stars... he also explains about death.
Following a summer of dancing in the warm breezes and playing with the other leaves, Freddie begins noticing that his friends are beginning to change color and fall. He inquires to Daniel why this is happening. Daniel simply explains that the leaf is dying and moving to a new home. Freddie, is astounded.. "Dying? Not me-" Daniel further explains that nobody lives forever in one place. He explains that we live together in one spot, enjoy the life, and then ready ourselves to live in a different place or way. He explains to Freddie it is painless and natural. He offers to Freddie that he did wonderful things as a leaf.
As the Autumn continues, Freddie sees himself as purple, a wonderful hue that is indicative of the changing process that he has undergone through his living as a leaf. He watches all of his friends change and fall from the tree, even Daniel. Daniel dies just before Freddie.
Freddie finds himself the last remaining leaf , now faced with snow on the ground. Freddie comes to terms with the cold, bitterness, and loneliness that has become his legacy. He is no longer even purple. He is a brown shriveled up version of what he used to be. He decides, I think, that in fact, that is no way to live either. A gentle breeze comes and takes Freddie slowly off the branch. Freddie lets go, and gracefully falls onto a cushion of snow. When Freddie reaches the ground, he finally can see the tree . He sees what it all meant. He remembers the fun and love and laughter he provided to others in his lifetime. He finds out that new life will bud again in the springtime. He is happy that he finally let go.
I thought of this story yesterday morning. I haven't read this book in years, and yet it popped into my head for a number of reasons when I was pondering some big decisions. I had the rare opportunity of a morning alone, sipping my coffee, and looking at the early morning sun shine through the near peaking colors on a tree in front of me. I watched this one clump of pretty, almost reddish colored leaves glistening, and prancing in the warm early Autumn sun. I thought..."I wonder if the tree had a good summer?" I wonder if the leaves realize that their dancing was almost over? (And if they did, would they do something diferent than what they were doing?) I wonder if they felt they did a good job as a leaf? Or better yet, how they worked as a group to provide for the good of the whole? I wondered if they even realized what they did for people, squirrels, cats, the environment... for God by being a leaf?
We all have a Daniel in our lives. Someone who is bigger than life, who sees the big picture.. someone who jumps in head first because he knows that that is what living is all about! He possess the wisdom to know that the fun and mission is simple. He knows you do the best and biggest job you can do with what you are given. Daniel, is obviously a leader. He is classified as the biggest leaf on the tree. I visual him as this huge red maple in his Autumn years. One with a large stem not showing evidence that the elements have affected him. No nicks in his perfect 3-pointed structure. I applaud his mentoring of Freddie. I applaud his staying with Freddie until he knows when it is time for the breeze to take him on to his next journey.
Freddie, is like most of us. Uncertain. In the dark really, about what his purpose is in life. Somehow doubting that dancing in the breeze of life and the comfort and protection we provide to those around us is simply enough. I sense that Freddie doesn't dance as hard, shade as much, or grow as big, because he is always wondering about what is next. He wonders that he is somehow missing something else, or another life. Maybe that of the squirrel, or the the children who play under him. In doing so, his very short seasoned-life becomes eminent. He hasn't quite accepted why he is aging. He doesn't realize that his beautiful purple hue is a result of doing all the good he did for others. He misses the blessing.
In the end Freddie, still holding on to the past, clings to the naked sleeping tree. The sky is grey and cold, and the frost has turned to snow. The tree of life is heading into a natural phase of hibernation and rebirth. He misses the message in himself, and he clings for dear life. He clings to an old message, an old script, because he feels it safer there, than to what lies ahead of him. Even Daniel leaves. Was it a safe place anymore? In the end Freddie lets go, and gracefully succumbs to the breeze that will bring him to his rebirth and new life. He understands the message.
This Autumn ask yourself will you be a Freddie or a Daniel? What beautiful color do you want to show off? How will you want your fall to look like? What do you need to let go of in order to move on to your rebirth?
Falling for October,
Miss Dawn
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Somewhere, over the rainbow, bluebirds fly....
"there's no place home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home...."
I've got rainbows on my mind lately... it not a wonder considering I covered Noah's Ark last week in Chapel at school! I have been teaching God 101 this month, and well.. "In the beginning..." God creates this system of promises, accompanied by signs, that manifest into covenants that fulfill a lifetime relationship between us and our Creator! (If we listen!!!!!)
It's been an awkward year for me. I have not been able to receive my usual "signs" that are delivered with frequency by God.. as I haven't had a preaching audience, in any fashion. I had to go back to ancient times and live in darkness for a bit.. Wait for my Manna to fall from the sky. See the bird with the leaf in her mouth, and and just wait for all the colors to come out.
My kids are my 1st wonder from the Almighty. He speaks to me through them. He tested me this year however, and I need to open my heart and head to other paths in order to find my direction. My GPS had been on auto pilot for too long, or perhaps it just needed new batteries!
I struggled preaching about Adam and Eve the week before last. I have mixed feelings about the temptation toward Eve.. why Adam is so easy going, and why God allowed bad into the Garden to begin with. I question why Jesus' death on the Cross wipes away Original Sin... and why we continue to believe in such a myth so strongly. I do understand now, however, what the pieces represent and why we speak of them. And perhaps that is all I need to understand! As I told the children, that the sign we receive in not listening to God, (our GPS... God's Positive Sign), is a sick tummy and a feeling of shame! We do know however, that one bad apple does spoil the whole bunch! (Lesson learned!)
I did not struggle so much about teaching the Creation Story the week before that... as even my near 5 yr old friends sense there is something to be suspect in God creating everything in 6 days! However, I did tell them that the sign for that is represented in how tired God was that he needed a full day of doing nothing to be the sign of how hard we work all week.
God's signs and wonders continue to present themselves stronger and stronger as we walk through the Old Testament. This week we learn the hilarity of Abraham and Sarah conceiving a child when they were clearly,"beyond". God informs Abrahm, (his name at the time), that he would become the father of many! To rival all of the stars dazzling in the sky! "How could that be???? I am an old man", thought Abrahm. But as Abraham, follows God, changes his course and name, he soon discovers not only is he a father to a nation, but also to the long awaited son, Issac. Sarah, (Sarai), laughed with astonishment of the thought until he materialized and the wonder and sign was born unto them! Proving that nothing is impossible in God's world, time, or infinite love!
Noah had quite a few signs... birds of peace/Holy Spirit, life from an olive tree that came to mean peace, and a bow of color set in the sky to show Noah that God had made a promise and a covenant to the Earth to never flood it completely again. I oft wonder about the shape of the rainbow if you fit over the ark it forms a perfect circle again... a sign to me that God's Love is eternal. There is no beginning , nor end, in His time. The circle is forever.
I often think about the day after 9/11 when it rained so hard and people went to be with their families and friends... their was a rainbow cast so big in the sky that evening... I nearly wept as a sign from God that those who lost that day, had really won. God was telling us all it would be okay.
As the signs come "flooding" toward me these past weeks of school... I am reminded of a few myself. That the winds do die. The storms do cease, dry land will be found when you launch the bird of peace to find it for you, and the bow will be set in the sky! When God strikes a covenant with you be sure you realize that He will be there to own His part of it.
I have a few signs that God and I worked out in past hours of prayer to indicate that I am at least being heard. (I do think it goes beyond that... but my small-minded sense of faith at times wants to know somebody has heard my request! ) Years ago, God and I chose 2 symbols to know that He was around. They have come to mean different things for me. And for that I choose to keep within my covenant with God. However, I don't mind sharing that my totems are the ladybug and white feathers. These things come to me during the oddest times and hours. I have learned that they really find me when my weakness in hearing or seeing my God is present. God loves me so much that he humbles Himself and send me ridiculous totems to show His concern and care. To say the least, I've seen many of these 2 in these last weeks of teaching! I am aware, that I am exactly where I should be.
I think back to the Wizard of Oz, and to a time that the rainbow's colors were bleeding or not visible at all to me. I realized that after teaching Noah's story to my friends last week... God in fact, made my rainbow as shiny as he could. My covenant is strong, and the colors vibrant. I also realized that somewhere over that rainbow my bluebirds still fly, The Emerald City is a myth, The Wizard is present, the yellow brick road a choice, witches die, you know who your friends are, and you can always go home!
Some things, (covenants), that never change.... The show must go on, Christmas is coming, and
bluebirds do fly!
And this will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
Luke 2:12
DG...(Dawn Grinnell/ Dorothy Gale)
I've got rainbows on my mind lately... it not a wonder considering I covered Noah's Ark last week in Chapel at school! I have been teaching God 101 this month, and well.. "In the beginning..." God creates this system of promises, accompanied by signs, that manifest into covenants that fulfill a lifetime relationship between us and our Creator! (If we listen!!!!!)
It's been an awkward year for me. I have not been able to receive my usual "signs" that are delivered with frequency by God.. as I haven't had a preaching audience, in any fashion. I had to go back to ancient times and live in darkness for a bit.. Wait for my Manna to fall from the sky. See the bird with the leaf in her mouth, and and just wait for all the colors to come out.
My kids are my 1st wonder from the Almighty. He speaks to me through them. He tested me this year however, and I need to open my heart and head to other paths in order to find my direction. My GPS had been on auto pilot for too long, or perhaps it just needed new batteries!
I struggled preaching about Adam and Eve the week before last. I have mixed feelings about the temptation toward Eve.. why Adam is so easy going, and why God allowed bad into the Garden to begin with. I question why Jesus' death on the Cross wipes away Original Sin... and why we continue to believe in such a myth so strongly. I do understand now, however, what the pieces represent and why we speak of them. And perhaps that is all I need to understand! As I told the children, that the sign we receive in not listening to God, (our GPS... God's Positive Sign), is a sick tummy and a feeling of shame! We do know however, that one bad apple does spoil the whole bunch! (Lesson learned!)
I did not struggle so much about teaching the Creation Story the week before that... as even my near 5 yr old friends sense there is something to be suspect in God creating everything in 6 days! However, I did tell them that the sign for that is represented in how tired God was that he needed a full day of doing nothing to be the sign of how hard we work all week.
God's signs and wonders continue to present themselves stronger and stronger as we walk through the Old Testament. This week we learn the hilarity of Abraham and Sarah conceiving a child when they were clearly,"beyond". God informs Abrahm, (his name at the time), that he would become the father of many! To rival all of the stars dazzling in the sky! "How could that be???? I am an old man", thought Abrahm. But as Abraham, follows God, changes his course and name, he soon discovers not only is he a father to a nation, but also to the long awaited son, Issac. Sarah, (Sarai), laughed with astonishment of the thought until he materialized and the wonder and sign was born unto them! Proving that nothing is impossible in God's world, time, or infinite love!
Noah had quite a few signs... birds of peace/Holy Spirit, life from an olive tree that came to mean peace, and a bow of color set in the sky to show Noah that God had made a promise and a covenant to the Earth to never flood it completely again. I oft wonder about the shape of the rainbow if you fit over the ark it forms a perfect circle again... a sign to me that God's Love is eternal. There is no beginning , nor end, in His time. The circle is forever.
I often think about the day after 9/11 when it rained so hard and people went to be with their families and friends... their was a rainbow cast so big in the sky that evening... I nearly wept as a sign from God that those who lost that day, had really won. God was telling us all it would be okay.
As the signs come "flooding" toward me these past weeks of school... I am reminded of a few myself. That the winds do die. The storms do cease, dry land will be found when you launch the bird of peace to find it for you, and the bow will be set in the sky! When God strikes a covenant with you be sure you realize that He will be there to own His part of it.
I have a few signs that God and I worked out in past hours of prayer to indicate that I am at least being heard. (I do think it goes beyond that... but my small-minded sense of faith at times wants to know somebody has heard my request! ) Years ago, God and I chose 2 symbols to know that He was around. They have come to mean different things for me. And for that I choose to keep within my covenant with God. However, I don't mind sharing that my totems are the ladybug and white feathers. These things come to me during the oddest times and hours. I have learned that they really find me when my weakness in hearing or seeing my God is present. God loves me so much that he humbles Himself and send me ridiculous totems to show His concern and care. To say the least, I've seen many of these 2 in these last weeks of teaching! I am aware, that I am exactly where I should be.
I think back to the Wizard of Oz, and to a time that the rainbow's colors were bleeding or not visible at all to me. I realized that after teaching Noah's story to my friends last week... God in fact, made my rainbow as shiny as he could. My covenant is strong, and the colors vibrant. I also realized that somewhere over that rainbow my bluebirds still fly, The Emerald City is a myth, The Wizard is present, the yellow brick road a choice, witches die, you know who your friends are, and you can always go home!
Some things, (covenants), that never change.... The show must go on, Christmas is coming, and
bluebirds do fly!
And this will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
Luke 2:12
DG...(Dawn Grinnell/ Dorothy Gale)
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Once Upon A Dream
I know you I walked with you once upon a dream. I know you the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam. Yes, I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem. But if I know you, I know what you'll do, you'll love me at once the way you did once upon a dream.
As I am waltzing around my classrooms, life, and new school, I can't help hum this oh so familiar tune from my all time favorite Disney flick, "Sleeping Beauty". I am as happy as Princess Aurora/Briar Rose brisking around without a care in the world adorning animals, and gazing at my new image in the woodland pool, as the 16 year old Aurora does. Aurora, realizing she is a grown up woman! Aurora, "Briar Rose", (her alias, as the mean and ugly Maleficent is still threatening to end her life, is given this alias by her protective fairies, to protect her).
Ironically I must laugh, as things occur to me...
1.) Is that I feel for Aurora, having to go into "hiding" for a bit in order for her destined life to be protected from Maleficent, while gaining her strength to do what she has come here to do!
2.) That she longingly awaits her true Prince, her destiny, wherever he may be. And yet she knows, somehow, music will be involved!
3.) That my name, "Dawn", in Spanish, actually means Aurora.
4.) And that it was my favorite movie in my early childhood years, according to my Baby Book.
Aurora and I share a kindred past! Aurora is born as a "very wanted child" to a King and Queen. Fertility was clearly an issue, and in Medieval Times, I am sure a blessing to receive whatever gender God bestowed upon you. (That part, I cannot relate too, altho maybe now!!)
She is seen as someone very significant. There are plans made for her from the very beginning. She is betrothed to a 4 year old Prince Phillip as the family is looking forward to her Baptism. There was fanfare and guests, beautiful decor, and then.. Maleficent! A wicked and evil witch, dragon-being that appears and hoists a spell onto Aurora that will not take affect until her dreaded sixteenth birthday. Her fate is a prick, (no.. read on)... from a spinning wheel! A poisonous prick that will end her life forever. Hmmmmm???
"Listen well, all of you. The Princess shall indeed grow in grace and beauty, beloved by all who know her. But, before the sun sets on her 16th birthday, she shall prick her finger, on the spindle of a spinning wheel - AND DIE!"
The parents of Aurora employ the help of the 3 castle fairies... Flora, Fauna and Merryweather to hide, a now, "Briar Rose" in a quaint cottage in the wood until her 16th revolution around the sun. She will then re-appear safely as "Princess Aurora." AH... only in Fairy Tales! I love the fairies.. or fairy godmothers! They are really business women left to the rearing of this innocent child! They are devoid of the abilities of how to sew, cook, bake, sing and sometimes their magic... out of the job market too long! However, they love Aurora and desperately do everything in their power to keep her safe.
The fate filled day arrives... Rose awakes on her 16th day with a spring in her step.. she carried on her normal chores and greets the little animals of the forest, each and every one with a song! She is full of life and exuberance. As she is serenading the Owl, "Once upon a Dream", I only begin to know how happy she is to be thinking of her life, her future husband, Phillip, whom she has forgotten, and more importantly, her destined role as Princess Aurora.
Her voice, is clear and carries throughout the forest attracting all.. and guess who??? Prince Phillip! (She thinks him, a commoner.) Prince Phillip, her disguised Knight in Shining Armor, Her Prince, Her soul mate is captivated and helps her sing this haunting song while they waltz innocently throughout the forest.
Ahhh....
She is called away and then she is faced with her destiny. Her re-entry into the castle! The fairies have done their work.. of course with some added magic when they could muster it... and poof she is a Princess again!
She is plagued with emotion.. "I need my commoner boyfriend.. yet I am a princess".. Not realizing this is exactly how fate operates... partially she thinks of escaping back into her former role of woodland nymph and then.....Maleficent!
She is brought down to a sleepy unconsciousness... witches have the knack to do that to you! Only through the power of love can Aurora rise. Phillip must fight the evil in order to get close enough to his sleeping beauty to bestow the kiss of life on to her lips and awaken her to a life where everyone is happy and filled with emotion in the castle again!
Malificent is defeated- and the couple is free to ..well.. move about the cabin!
Aurora is back to doing what she does!
I am back to my destiny. I am no longer Briar Rose, but Aurora. I am back in my destined role, I am with my valiant Prince, and mkaing life wonderful to the little ones in the forest!
Maleficent is dead!
I love my Fairies...(you know who all are)... and the animals are gathered around me singing again!
The spell is broken.
"Oh my life is changing everyday, every possible way.
Though my dreams, it’s never quite as it seems, never quite as it seems. I know I felt like this before, but now I’m feeling it even more because it came from you. Then I open up and see, the person fumbling here is me, a different way to be. I want more, impossible to ignore...Impossible to ignore. They’ll come true, impossible not to do, impossible not to do.
Now I tell you openly, you have my heart so don’t hurt me, for what I couldn't find!
Talk to me amazing mind, so understanding, and so kind, you’re everything to me!
Oh my life is changing everyday, every possible way.
Though my dreams, it’s never quite as it seems’cause you’re a dream to me.. a Dream to me!"
Guess, who's back? Guess who's back Guess back.... Guess whose back....
And they all lived happily ever after. THE END. Amen.
Welcome back to school. Have a wonderful year!
Miss Dawn
As I am waltzing around my classrooms, life, and new school, I can't help hum this oh so familiar tune from my all time favorite Disney flick, "Sleeping Beauty". I am as happy as Princess Aurora/Briar Rose brisking around without a care in the world adorning animals, and gazing at my new image in the woodland pool, as the 16 year old Aurora does. Aurora, realizing she is a grown up woman! Aurora, "Briar Rose", (her alias, as the mean and ugly Maleficent is still threatening to end her life, is given this alias by her protective fairies, to protect her).
Ironically I must laugh, as things occur to me...
1.) Is that I feel for Aurora, having to go into "hiding" for a bit in order for her destined life to be protected from Maleficent, while gaining her strength to do what she has come here to do!
2.) That she longingly awaits her true Prince, her destiny, wherever he may be. And yet she knows, somehow, music will be involved!
3.) That my name, "Dawn", in Spanish, actually means Aurora.
4.) And that it was my favorite movie in my early childhood years, according to my Baby Book.
Aurora and I share a kindred past! Aurora is born as a "very wanted child" to a King and Queen. Fertility was clearly an issue, and in Medieval Times, I am sure a blessing to receive whatever gender God bestowed upon you. (That part, I cannot relate too, altho maybe now!!)
She is seen as someone very significant. There are plans made for her from the very beginning. She is betrothed to a 4 year old Prince Phillip as the family is looking forward to her Baptism. There was fanfare and guests, beautiful decor, and then.. Maleficent! A wicked and evil witch, dragon-being that appears and hoists a spell onto Aurora that will not take affect until her dreaded sixteenth birthday. Her fate is a prick, (no.. read on)... from a spinning wheel! A poisonous prick that will end her life forever. Hmmmmm???
"Listen well, all of you. The Princess shall indeed grow in grace and beauty, beloved by all who know her. But, before the sun sets on her 16th birthday, she shall prick her finger, on the spindle of a spinning wheel - AND DIE!"
The parents of Aurora employ the help of the 3 castle fairies... Flora, Fauna and Merryweather to hide, a now, "Briar Rose" in a quaint cottage in the wood until her 16th revolution around the sun. She will then re-appear safely as "Princess Aurora." AH... only in Fairy Tales! I love the fairies.. or fairy godmothers! They are really business women left to the rearing of this innocent child! They are devoid of the abilities of how to sew, cook, bake, sing and sometimes their magic... out of the job market too long! However, they love Aurora and desperately do everything in their power to keep her safe.
The fate filled day arrives... Rose awakes on her 16th day with a spring in her step.. she carried on her normal chores and greets the little animals of the forest, each and every one with a song! She is full of life and exuberance. As she is serenading the Owl, "Once upon a Dream", I only begin to know how happy she is to be thinking of her life, her future husband, Phillip, whom she has forgotten, and more importantly, her destined role as Princess Aurora.
Her voice, is clear and carries throughout the forest attracting all.. and guess who??? Prince Phillip! (She thinks him, a commoner.) Prince Phillip, her disguised Knight in Shining Armor, Her Prince, Her soul mate is captivated and helps her sing this haunting song while they waltz innocently throughout the forest.
Ahhh....
She is called away and then she is faced with her destiny. Her re-entry into the castle! The fairies have done their work.. of course with some added magic when they could muster it... and poof she is a Princess again!
She is plagued with emotion.. "I need my commoner boyfriend.. yet I am a princess".. Not realizing this is exactly how fate operates... partially she thinks of escaping back into her former role of woodland nymph and then.....Maleficent!
She is brought down to a sleepy unconsciousness... witches have the knack to do that to you! Only through the power of love can Aurora rise. Phillip must fight the evil in order to get close enough to his sleeping beauty to bestow the kiss of life on to her lips and awaken her to a life where everyone is happy and filled with emotion in the castle again!
Malificent is defeated- and the couple is free to ..well.. move about the cabin!
Aurora is back to doing what she does!
I am back to my destiny. I am no longer Briar Rose, but Aurora. I am back in my destined role, I am with my valiant Prince, and mkaing life wonderful to the little ones in the forest!
Maleficent is dead!
I love my Fairies...(you know who all are)... and the animals are gathered around me singing again!
The spell is broken.
"Oh my life is changing everyday, every possible way.
Though my dreams, it’s never quite as it seems, never quite as it seems. I know I felt like this before, but now I’m feeling it even more because it came from you. Then I open up and see, the person fumbling here is me, a different way to be. I want more, impossible to ignore...Impossible to ignore. They’ll come true, impossible not to do, impossible not to do.
Now I tell you openly, you have my heart so don’t hurt me, for what I couldn't find!
Talk to me amazing mind, so understanding, and so kind, you’re everything to me!
Oh my life is changing everyday, every possible way.
Though my dreams, it’s never quite as it seems’cause you’re a dream to me.. a Dream to me!"
Guess, who's back? Guess who's back Guess back.... Guess whose back....
And they all lived happily ever after. THE END. Amen.
Welcome back to school. Have a wonderful year!
Miss Dawn
Saturday, June 26, 2010
God's Convenience Store... the inconvenient truth
Have you ever played the Lottery? I imagine at some point in life you have, give or take your enthusiasm in such sport. I have discovered that in life, Lottery participation is either more or less depending on how you fall into that play! I understand that it is much like gambling, a quick fix to a waiting for the end of money woes... fixing empty promises. Perhaps for some it is just fun... however I do know that it can be debilitating and dangerous for many. Today's blog is about my need to understand the Lottery culture, if you will... it is one that has perplexed me for some time and one that I cannot ever see me joining. But am I really different in my own need for instant fulfillment?? However intriguing, the quick-fix psychology is making me take a good long look at how we live...
I like to drink a huge fountain diet soda each day. My favorite, when they have it, is Diet Cherry-Vanilla Dr. Pepper otherwise I settle for my Diet Pepsi. Of course, I can fix it anyway I like. Typically for me... lots of ice, to die down the content of carbonation and caffeine, (that's why I need it so large... although my health guru friends often wonder why I drink this chemical concoction, as I eat very good foods all the time). But I know that I can prepare the drink myself, get it to the counter, fork over my $1 or exact change, and hit the road fast to wherever I am headed that day... except when I am usually behind a Lottery player! ugh...
You know this to be true. We have all been there. Me, I think even more. I am as addicted to my fountain soda, I think, as they are to playing the Mega-whatever!
Upon entering the convenience store I case the joint as though I am going to hold it up. I look down aisles, checking for suspicious Lottery frequenters or mere look-a-likes! I usually like seeing some at the counter when I go in. It makes me know that while I am powering up my Dr. Pepper to the brim they are nearly done purchasing their 40 Power ball combinations.
What is a quick pick anyway??? Whatever it is, it isn't very quick- is all I can say!!!
I can hear the requests being made to the clerk from the soda station..."I'll take 2 Baseball somethings, I'll "need" 6 Seasonal tickets.. (I guess if you scratch off enough Christmas presents or Easter baskets you may win a $1 off )... Would it have not been more cost and time effective to just buy your Christmas presents on a budget instead of trying to win them through a 50% chance?
By this time, I feel like this person may be near the end... I have rung up at least $20 in ticket purchases in my head while sipping my Diet waiting in line now to cash out. Could it be possible that this person is ready to go to his car and scratch them off instantly??? Cause I need to be work here pretty soon... Just as the transaction is completed... this machine begins to play a song.... "You're in the money!!" (Personally, The Floyd's cash register sounds in the song Money would be the one I would choose... they should ask you in advance of handing them a winning $1 ticket .. it could make us music people consider playing!
(sshh.. I think I just invented something here!)
Shite... That's a $5 win!!!!... ugh... I close my eyes and know what is coming next, "I'll take...." I look behind me and now see a line wrapped around the store of folks just like me with exact change, a loaf of bread or a complaint that their gas card isn't working right and they to need fuel up to get somewhere quick.
You then see heads drop... sounds of frustration, and me.. I just eyeroll out of my utter fascination and frustration that this sport is so tantalizing for people. My judgement seeps in which is now coupled with anger from being held up, ( a huge pet peeve of mine), and my own angst about what little money I earn... do I really need this $1 Soda pop?? YES I DO!!!!
Being the super efficiently organized person that I am I begin to think why stores haven't figured out how to do this better??? I can figure out 3 good solutions in that 5 minutes of standing there! Why can't there be a space at the counter for folks who just want to play the Lottery?? Like at Stop-n-Shop or BJ's.. the courtesy desk... just for them! It would be great. The person who could help them would know all there is in expediting their order quickly, or not.. I do notice that many of these Lottery players love attention . They love to come in and shoot the day's breeze, find out the daily scuttle but and talk to their merchant like in the old west days. I ask why don't they have a need to be somewhere quickly?? Retired, lonely I imagine. The clerks do need to be available to them immediately though if they should win, and require more instant gratification.
If this business model took place it keeps the rest of the populous happy and fast paced so we can plow through our day too!!! Thus, making 2 types of convenience people. The clerk on the other side could help the exact change person, fix the gas crisis, and get baby aspirin quickly to a parent who has a screaming baby home in pain at 10pm!! (Or a late night drinker who needs food before they don't have time or energy to create at 2am). Ah. Yes.. to have it all figured out. Meanwhile, now that I have a solution, I am still waiting and stewing even more that I have figured out their problem for them, leaving me still waiting!!
Once I see the last of their purchases, I really am annoyed by this part.. the guilt. The person will typically turn around and just when you think they may say that they are sorry for such inconvenience in a convenience store they project and BLAME you for their self-hatred in spending $40 unnecessarily, not to mention causing 40 people to stop moving ahead with their plans! I often love the comments proceeding, "I'll bet you thought you were going to be here all day!!" or even better, "Smile!" :(
The minute I get the chance to break to the counter and hand my money over, I am already out the door faster than Lottery boy can get to his car for the scratch-athon! That annoys me too! I then begin to talk to myself .. did they earn enough this year in winnings to make up for the losses? Is this really important? How is it they have so much free time and expendable income to do this? Then the questions get deeper and even more harsh. Then my guilt seeps in. Meanwhile, I wait and watch the person .. and there disability usually indicates why I was able to cruise to my car at clock speed.
Christian thing? Um.. not sure. Both the Catholic and Episcopal Dioceses here in RI have clear laws about gambling, raffles, auctions and the like. Of course, they would love for your to give/gamble your money on their brand of happiness. Hell, this week in California, Arnold just passed a law finally stopping folks to cash their welfare checks at casinos!!! wow.. that didn't happen instantly did it? Perhaps, the church is a wiser choice. I do question much about this, but ultimately my line waiting days often lead me to a place of serious contemplation about all this instant gratification world we live in. The notion of "free or won" fortunes that our government preys upon the have-nots making false promises for better days ahead if you just take the risk! (Again, sure this isn't rooted in old church philosophy??)
I was a poor economics student in college. I barely scraped by this class.. one thing I did learn though was that there are no free lunches! That was the most valuable piece of knowledge that surpassed most other tidbits in all my collegiate wisdom ironically. And it is true. Eventually a price is paid in life for anything... regardless of how you may see yourself deserving it.
It saddens me that we are a quick fix society. Those of us waiting to zip in and zip out of Walmart or the soda store aren't really any better I guess. Maybe we feel that getting to our next destination holds the same emotional value as thinking you'll get rich over night by taking chance?? As I stand anxiously waiting to get my soda I shouldn't wonder why this person is so in need of these instant poverty remedies.. need is in the eye of the beholder. I could easily place that $1 a day in the basket every Sunday and hopefully it will be given to someone who is REALLY in need!
Jesus reminds us that things CAN change over night, as well as He suggests that waiting to enter into the Kingdom of God is a lifelong process of living, trust, faith and karmic choices. In the meantime, we must wait and trust in God's time for what we want and need. God's Convenience Store is made up of inconveniences designed for the individual to bring us instant gratification with God's peace if we choose to wait in the line of life
Off for my soda,
Miss Dawn
I like to drink a huge fountain diet soda each day. My favorite, when they have it, is Diet Cherry-Vanilla Dr. Pepper otherwise I settle for my Diet Pepsi. Of course, I can fix it anyway I like. Typically for me... lots of ice, to die down the content of carbonation and caffeine, (that's why I need it so large... although my health guru friends often wonder why I drink this chemical concoction, as I eat very good foods all the time). But I know that I can prepare the drink myself, get it to the counter, fork over my $1 or exact change, and hit the road fast to wherever I am headed that day... except when I am usually behind a Lottery player! ugh...
You know this to be true. We have all been there. Me, I think even more. I am as addicted to my fountain soda, I think, as they are to playing the Mega-whatever!
Upon entering the convenience store I case the joint as though I am going to hold it up. I look down aisles, checking for suspicious Lottery frequenters or mere look-a-likes! I usually like seeing some at the counter when I go in. It makes me know that while I am powering up my Dr. Pepper to the brim they are nearly done purchasing their 40 Power ball combinations.
What is a quick pick anyway??? Whatever it is, it isn't very quick- is all I can say!!!
I can hear the requests being made to the clerk from the soda station..."I'll take 2 Baseball somethings, I'll "need" 6 Seasonal tickets.. (I guess if you scratch off enough Christmas presents or Easter baskets you may win a $1 off )... Would it have not been more cost and time effective to just buy your Christmas presents on a budget instead of trying to win them through a 50% chance?
By this time, I feel like this person may be near the end... I have rung up at least $20 in ticket purchases in my head while sipping my Diet waiting in line now to cash out. Could it be possible that this person is ready to go to his car and scratch them off instantly??? Cause I need to be work here pretty soon... Just as the transaction is completed... this machine begins to play a song.... "You're in the money!!" (Personally, The Floyd's cash register sounds in the song Money would be the one I would choose... they should ask you in advance of handing them a winning $1 ticket .. it could make us music people consider playing!
(sshh.. I think I just invented something here!)
Shite... That's a $5 win!!!!... ugh... I close my eyes and know what is coming next, "I'll take...." I look behind me and now see a line wrapped around the store of folks just like me with exact change, a loaf of bread or a complaint that their gas card isn't working right and they to need fuel up to get somewhere quick.
You then see heads drop... sounds of frustration, and me.. I just eyeroll out of my utter fascination and frustration that this sport is so tantalizing for people. My judgement seeps in which is now coupled with anger from being held up, ( a huge pet peeve of mine), and my own angst about what little money I earn... do I really need this $1 Soda pop?? YES I DO!!!!
Being the super efficiently organized person that I am I begin to think why stores haven't figured out how to do this better??? I can figure out 3 good solutions in that 5 minutes of standing there! Why can't there be a space at the counter for folks who just want to play the Lottery?? Like at Stop-n-Shop or BJ's.. the courtesy desk... just for them! It would be great. The person who could help them would know all there is in expediting their order quickly, or not.. I do notice that many of these Lottery players love attention . They love to come in and shoot the day's breeze, find out the daily scuttle but and talk to their merchant like in the old west days. I ask why don't they have a need to be somewhere quickly?? Retired, lonely I imagine. The clerks do need to be available to them immediately though if they should win, and require more instant gratification.
If this business model took place it keeps the rest of the populous happy and fast paced so we can plow through our day too!!! Thus, making 2 types of convenience people. The clerk on the other side could help the exact change person, fix the gas crisis, and get baby aspirin quickly to a parent who has a screaming baby home in pain at 10pm!! (Or a late night drinker who needs food before they don't have time or energy to create at 2am). Ah. Yes.. to have it all figured out. Meanwhile, now that I have a solution, I am still waiting and stewing even more that I have figured out their problem for them, leaving me still waiting!!
Once I see the last of their purchases, I really am annoyed by this part.. the guilt. The person will typically turn around and just when you think they may say that they are sorry for such inconvenience in a convenience store they project and BLAME you for their self-hatred in spending $40 unnecessarily, not to mention causing 40 people to stop moving ahead with their plans! I often love the comments proceeding, "I'll bet you thought you were going to be here all day!!" or even better, "Smile!" :(
The minute I get the chance to break to the counter and hand my money over, I am already out the door faster than Lottery boy can get to his car for the scratch-athon! That annoys me too! I then begin to talk to myself .. did they earn enough this year in winnings to make up for the losses? Is this really important? How is it they have so much free time and expendable income to do this? Then the questions get deeper and even more harsh. Then my guilt seeps in. Meanwhile, I wait and watch the person .. and there disability usually indicates why I was able to cruise to my car at clock speed.
Christian thing? Um.. not sure. Both the Catholic and Episcopal Dioceses here in RI have clear laws about gambling, raffles, auctions and the like. Of course, they would love for your to give/gamble your money on their brand of happiness. Hell, this week in California, Arnold just passed a law finally stopping folks to cash their welfare checks at casinos!!! wow.. that didn't happen instantly did it? Perhaps, the church is a wiser choice. I do question much about this, but ultimately my line waiting days often lead me to a place of serious contemplation about all this instant gratification world we live in. The notion of "free or won" fortunes that our government preys upon the have-nots making false promises for better days ahead if you just take the risk! (Again, sure this isn't rooted in old church philosophy??)
I was a poor economics student in college. I barely scraped by this class.. one thing I did learn though was that there are no free lunches! That was the most valuable piece of knowledge that surpassed most other tidbits in all my collegiate wisdom ironically. And it is true. Eventually a price is paid in life for anything... regardless of how you may see yourself deserving it.
It saddens me that we are a quick fix society. Those of us waiting to zip in and zip out of Walmart or the soda store aren't really any better I guess. Maybe we feel that getting to our next destination holds the same emotional value as thinking you'll get rich over night by taking chance?? As I stand anxiously waiting to get my soda I shouldn't wonder why this person is so in need of these instant poverty remedies.. need is in the eye of the beholder. I could easily place that $1 a day in the basket every Sunday and hopefully it will be given to someone who is REALLY in need!
Jesus reminds us that things CAN change over night, as well as He suggests that waiting to enter into the Kingdom of God is a lifelong process of living, trust, faith and karmic choices. In the meantime, we must wait and trust in God's time for what we want and need. God's Convenience Store is made up of inconveniences designed for the individual to bring us instant gratification with God's peace if we choose to wait in the line of life
Off for my soda,
Miss Dawn
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Don't force the bloom!
I have felt the need to blog all week and yet I just didn't' know how to tie it all up ... I kept saying don't blog until you really know what you need to say... tonite it hit me.."Don't force the bloom!" Ah... I haven't been reminded of this phrase in some time... and it just crept back in late this afternoon after I watched something happen I did not expect to occur.
Some of you know that I am an avid lover of the Christmas Flower ... The Amaryllis. It is a favorite stemming (hah!) back to my 9th birthday in 4th grade. My grandmother who was a prolific gardner, (among her other Martha Stewart-esq traits), grew Amaryllis in abundance each year. She was a great gardener and friend to me! One particular year just before Christmas time I was enjoying some tea and Scrabble with her and I offered that I wanted an Amaryllis for my birthday that year. I have a birthday during a time NO ONE feels like celebrating anymore- low key and even "I" am sick of opening presents just after Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years Eve antics.. it is just tiresome to have a birthday then! Yet... you never what may happen during a time you dont' force anything upon.
When Grammy and I discussed the thought of this, her eyes literally lit up like the lights on her own Christmas Tree before us. She told me that she thought this could very well happen for me. And it did. There is a famous shot of me in the early 70's with my red, plaid bell bottoms, ribbed mustard-colored turtleneck and my newly hacked off hair...ugh...(I think Dorothy Hamill influenced that one).. proudly displaying the newly unveiled, (took the trash bag down), Amaryllis! Grown by love and hand by my Gram! I loved it... I especially loved that it was already tall and had a big red bloom! I remember gazing at it from all directions and wondering how she managed this task in so few weeks and magically could be delivered to me on January the 3rd in full bloom! I asked her. And she said I grew it for you and when it was ready to bloom, it was ready to bloom. It just happened to be the right time... on your birthday!
Sounds like the story of my life!
Funny. My Gram was a bit of a story teller. (hmmm. wonder if I inherited that trait?) She was a sucker for a good soap, ("Her story"), the Opera.. in which I learned to appreciate its' value and tales of times gone by... a history buff. She surely was an old soul. She loved a happy ending. She loved to make endings happy too. I never forget about the thought though through that Amaryllis that things happen in their own time. Happy endings are natural. True ones anyway!
Several years ago in Science I began to teach the story of the Amaryllis. Why this vibrant red flower blooms during a time when nothing else really is! I often found myself choking back tears relating this story to my own life and how it operates! It became a family comedy where each year now my sister-in-law Jesse gives me an Amaryllis, (or two), for my science lab each Christmas. (She now starts them for me- usually... as one year I got no blooms.. try that with a classroom full of anticipatory 4.5 year olds!) And a personality as mine is who reads into EVERYTHING!
We go through the process of planting one in the class in addition to using Jesse's pre-planted beautifully decorated Christmas gift. Of course we need to go through process but also require another plant to compare and contrast, act as a difference to help us achieve variables and statistical information. So we do. We talk about the parts, the bulb and roots. We plant and water. We speak of the 19 degree day we are planting it on, and speculate how on earth can anything grown under these conditions!? We chart, make graphs, observe and wonder.
We wait....
Soon a shoot! There is upward mobility. Could it be? DO I tell them I have failed this project a time or two before? How do I feel? Well, as any good teacher I act as though NOTHING too spectacular has occurred... although I am not sure I can curb my enthusiasm for anything that is showing positive growth! So. we observe some. Its hard to be 4 and 5 and watch life pass so slowly. It's still hard at nearly 45~ Once the kids are hooked and we go into observation time during science we are noticing larger and larger results! Well, why not? With that much positive law of attraction surrounding it I am surprised fields of Amaryllis' weren't popping out of every desk and table!
I asked them to take out their rulers now and measure weekly growth. Amazing! Amazing that we have engineered such a simple device to measure growth and positive movement for an object but not for spirit! We are all so excited, 16" .. anybody likes those numbers.. then 18.. then 21 or 22". WOWZA! Then it stops and we are left with the top bud. What does it hold? Brilliant red... like my grandmother's favorite handbag or her beautifully manicured nails? Maybe we got a pink one this year? or.. Mixed? How many blooms??? That was the question of all questions. And there is absolutely no way to know until the day arrives. We are now focused on the bloom. When? What? and How? How many???
This one particular year I was waiting and hoping for an outcome to something I wanted so badly to happen. (Not the Amaryllis.. but in my own life). The plant was my living metaphor! Every day I would watch and feel it growing. Other days it just drifted and wandered, or no growth at all. When that year, this particular Auntie Jesse plant grew its' bud, I waited and watched as intently as the children. I wondered how that would look when it finally ripped open and joined the ranks of the loveliest winter flower ever. It peeked. I began to see leaves spreading apart ever so slowly. I began to see color. JUST a tad though. I was anxious for the bloom in my life to happen!
So were the kids...
One day that year, in observation, one of my favorite friends who has trouble with waiting approached our Amaryllis and began to "help it" and pry it apart!!! " EEKS!", I screamed out... "stop right there little sir..." He stopped and looked sheepishly at me and said, "But Miss Dawn it is nearly ready to bloom I am just helping it!" And I sympathized. And empathized. I agreed with him... it was just about ready.. and yet IT WASN'T~
I immediately resorted to this phrase that I believe I was inspired via HS, (Holy Spirit), and said, "You can't force the bloom.!Do you understand that?" The child stood there, with his friends, and of course was saying to himself.. "Sure I can.. what the hell are you talking about lady move over???" And I gathered them around for a religion story about things happening in God's time. I asked.. "What would happen if I were to let you open that bud right now?' The answers were funny and profound for this teacher who is always on another plane when she delivers these lessons. A teacher, who is ALWAYS aware that God can break the barriers with her when she is teaching to young minds! I went on to say.. that there was great potential that the bloom would either never grow and die, or grow a bit, but never realize its full potential. It would never be the vibrant and large blooming flower it was intended to be if I were to not care for it responsibly and force it to do what I wanted! Again, WOWZA!
Don't force the bloom!
Comically it took over my life... and anyone I worked with after that knew the meaning of that phrase when I mentioned it.
I was reminded several times this week of the bloom story. Ironically it happened during an egg hatch in school and in witnessing the growth of a school I am affiliated with now. It also occurred in a moment of my own personal life with someone that was my muse for the 1st time around!
I hatched eggs this week with my Pre-K. I have done this 4x now and still find it intriguing each time. I worry that it really "isn't' going to happen." One year I lost a batch.. same as the Amaryllis.. it never budded. I worry that I' ll never be in situations and moments that I know I can be very effective in. I worry that the people surrounding me won't notice what I am doing, what I am able to accomplish. I worry that I won't witness that big red Amaryllis... the Holy Spirit in full bloom.
It's been a hard year for me. I witnessed a few births this past year. But also waited like the eggs and the Amaryllis. I was careful to not open things jus yet to be opened. And unfortunately when I did It resulted in no bloom or a very small version of it. I have learned that forcing blooms was a lesson outside of Christmas time and was lifelong.
My eggs this year.. even though I experienced some fatality, were the biggest litter" ever!!!!
I was still hatching unexpected ones today and those that I thought might go... lived longer than I gave them credit for! There were a few late bloomers. They sat in the egg for a long time! Way longer than the rest. They were still pecking away today. One teacher asked me if we should go get the forceps! HAH! I laughed out loud!! And said, "No, I'd love too. But because I hate to see something suffer and work so hard for survival. I retorted with, "The manual insists we do not "help" anyone along... it means there is a weakness somewhere and it probably won't survive". That maybe true... But I am a late bloomer and I see the beauty in unforced blooms! I am praying that my new friend lives through her toughest hatching.
All Saints Academy, this wonderful little hidden secret in Middletown has struggled with the numbers in the last few years. I am not sure why. I sat tonight and I listened and cried along with these 8th graders who gave such wonderful testimony to their own hatches in the last years there. I felt renewed and positive and I left feeling like I knew something Holy called me there. I feel very confident in my ability to bloom and hatch eggs... still a bit hesitant and doubtful in the beginning though. There are lots of pecks for me in order to remove that shell but I am most positive to know that that if I don't force my bloom it will all unfold in the the Spirit has intended.
My good friend Jon explained to me this week his desire for a chicken coop. He has many times before. He wants to raise chickens and yield good eggs for sale. Don't we all?? We were thinking about funny names for his business... Coop, and Co-op and Coop. His name being Coop, the business being cooperative and then the obvious, the "Coop". I liked it a lot. He was willing to go into a business with others... human and bird, build a home for all their needs and sell a productive that would be valued the highest around. I am still sticking to that unforced bloom for us all~
Happy Summer everyone, may your growing season bring you into perfect peace with your calling and your waiting time. The harvest is just beyond the shell.
Just wait...
And by all means "Don't force the bloom!"
Miss Dawn
Some of you know that I am an avid lover of the Christmas Flower ... The Amaryllis. It is a favorite stemming (hah!) back to my 9th birthday in 4th grade. My grandmother who was a prolific gardner, (among her other Martha Stewart-esq traits), grew Amaryllis in abundance each year. She was a great gardener and friend to me! One particular year just before Christmas time I was enjoying some tea and Scrabble with her and I offered that I wanted an Amaryllis for my birthday that year. I have a birthday during a time NO ONE feels like celebrating anymore- low key and even "I" am sick of opening presents just after Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years Eve antics.. it is just tiresome to have a birthday then! Yet... you never what may happen during a time you dont' force anything upon.
When Grammy and I discussed the thought of this, her eyes literally lit up like the lights on her own Christmas Tree before us. She told me that she thought this could very well happen for me. And it did. There is a famous shot of me in the early 70's with my red, plaid bell bottoms, ribbed mustard-colored turtleneck and my newly hacked off hair...ugh...(I think Dorothy Hamill influenced that one).. proudly displaying the newly unveiled, (took the trash bag down), Amaryllis! Grown by love and hand by my Gram! I loved it... I especially loved that it was already tall and had a big red bloom! I remember gazing at it from all directions and wondering how she managed this task in so few weeks and magically could be delivered to me on January the 3rd in full bloom! I asked her. And she said I grew it for you and when it was ready to bloom, it was ready to bloom. It just happened to be the right time... on your birthday!
Sounds like the story of my life!
Funny. My Gram was a bit of a story teller. (hmmm. wonder if I inherited that trait?) She was a sucker for a good soap, ("Her story"), the Opera.. in which I learned to appreciate its' value and tales of times gone by... a history buff. She surely was an old soul. She loved a happy ending. She loved to make endings happy too. I never forget about the thought though through that Amaryllis that things happen in their own time. Happy endings are natural. True ones anyway!
Several years ago in Science I began to teach the story of the Amaryllis. Why this vibrant red flower blooms during a time when nothing else really is! I often found myself choking back tears relating this story to my own life and how it operates! It became a family comedy where each year now my sister-in-law Jesse gives me an Amaryllis, (or two), for my science lab each Christmas. (She now starts them for me- usually... as one year I got no blooms.. try that with a classroom full of anticipatory 4.5 year olds!) And a personality as mine is who reads into EVERYTHING!
We go through the process of planting one in the class in addition to using Jesse's pre-planted beautifully decorated Christmas gift. Of course we need to go through process but also require another plant to compare and contrast, act as a difference to help us achieve variables and statistical information. So we do. We talk about the parts, the bulb and roots. We plant and water. We speak of the 19 degree day we are planting it on, and speculate how on earth can anything grown under these conditions!? We chart, make graphs, observe and wonder.
We wait....
Soon a shoot! There is upward mobility. Could it be? DO I tell them I have failed this project a time or two before? How do I feel? Well, as any good teacher I act as though NOTHING too spectacular has occurred... although I am not sure I can curb my enthusiasm for anything that is showing positive growth! So. we observe some. Its hard to be 4 and 5 and watch life pass so slowly. It's still hard at nearly 45~ Once the kids are hooked and we go into observation time during science we are noticing larger and larger results! Well, why not? With that much positive law of attraction surrounding it I am surprised fields of Amaryllis' weren't popping out of every desk and table!
I asked them to take out their rulers now and measure weekly growth. Amazing! Amazing that we have engineered such a simple device to measure growth and positive movement for an object but not for spirit! We are all so excited, 16" .. anybody likes those numbers.. then 18.. then 21 or 22". WOWZA! Then it stops and we are left with the top bud. What does it hold? Brilliant red... like my grandmother's favorite handbag or her beautifully manicured nails? Maybe we got a pink one this year? or.. Mixed? How many blooms??? That was the question of all questions. And there is absolutely no way to know until the day arrives. We are now focused on the bloom. When? What? and How? How many???
This one particular year I was waiting and hoping for an outcome to something I wanted so badly to happen. (Not the Amaryllis.. but in my own life). The plant was my living metaphor! Every day I would watch and feel it growing. Other days it just drifted and wandered, or no growth at all. When that year, this particular Auntie Jesse plant grew its' bud, I waited and watched as intently as the children. I wondered how that would look when it finally ripped open and joined the ranks of the loveliest winter flower ever. It peeked. I began to see leaves spreading apart ever so slowly. I began to see color. JUST a tad though. I was anxious for the bloom in my life to happen!
So were the kids...
One day that year, in observation, one of my favorite friends who has trouble with waiting approached our Amaryllis and began to "help it" and pry it apart!!! " EEKS!", I screamed out... "stop right there little sir..." He stopped and looked sheepishly at me and said, "But Miss Dawn it is nearly ready to bloom I am just helping it!" And I sympathized. And empathized. I agreed with him... it was just about ready.. and yet IT WASN'T~
I immediately resorted to this phrase that I believe I was inspired via HS, (Holy Spirit), and said, "You can't force the bloom.!Do you understand that?" The child stood there, with his friends, and of course was saying to himself.. "Sure I can.. what the hell are you talking about lady move over???" And I gathered them around for a religion story about things happening in God's time. I asked.. "What would happen if I were to let you open that bud right now?' The answers were funny and profound for this teacher who is always on another plane when she delivers these lessons. A teacher, who is ALWAYS aware that God can break the barriers with her when she is teaching to young minds! I went on to say.. that there was great potential that the bloom would either never grow and die, or grow a bit, but never realize its full potential. It would never be the vibrant and large blooming flower it was intended to be if I were to not care for it responsibly and force it to do what I wanted! Again, WOWZA!
Don't force the bloom!
Comically it took over my life... and anyone I worked with after that knew the meaning of that phrase when I mentioned it.
I was reminded several times this week of the bloom story. Ironically it happened during an egg hatch in school and in witnessing the growth of a school I am affiliated with now. It also occurred in a moment of my own personal life with someone that was my muse for the 1st time around!
I hatched eggs this week with my Pre-K. I have done this 4x now and still find it intriguing each time. I worry that it really "isn't' going to happen." One year I lost a batch.. same as the Amaryllis.. it never budded. I worry that I' ll never be in situations and moments that I know I can be very effective in. I worry that the people surrounding me won't notice what I am doing, what I am able to accomplish. I worry that I won't witness that big red Amaryllis... the Holy Spirit in full bloom.
It's been a hard year for me. I witnessed a few births this past year. But also waited like the eggs and the Amaryllis. I was careful to not open things jus yet to be opened. And unfortunately when I did It resulted in no bloom or a very small version of it. I have learned that forcing blooms was a lesson outside of Christmas time and was lifelong.
My eggs this year.. even though I experienced some fatality, were the biggest litter" ever!!!!
I was still hatching unexpected ones today and those that I thought might go... lived longer than I gave them credit for! There were a few late bloomers. They sat in the egg for a long time! Way longer than the rest. They were still pecking away today. One teacher asked me if we should go get the forceps! HAH! I laughed out loud!! And said, "No, I'd love too. But because I hate to see something suffer and work so hard for survival. I retorted with, "The manual insists we do not "help" anyone along... it means there is a weakness somewhere and it probably won't survive". That maybe true... But I am a late bloomer and I see the beauty in unforced blooms! I am praying that my new friend lives through her toughest hatching.
All Saints Academy, this wonderful little hidden secret in Middletown has struggled with the numbers in the last few years. I am not sure why. I sat tonight and I listened and cried along with these 8th graders who gave such wonderful testimony to their own hatches in the last years there. I felt renewed and positive and I left feeling like I knew something Holy called me there. I feel very confident in my ability to bloom and hatch eggs... still a bit hesitant and doubtful in the beginning though. There are lots of pecks for me in order to remove that shell but I am most positive to know that that if I don't force my bloom it will all unfold in the the Spirit has intended.
My good friend Jon explained to me this week his desire for a chicken coop. He has many times before. He wants to raise chickens and yield good eggs for sale. Don't we all?? We were thinking about funny names for his business... Coop, and Co-op and Coop. His name being Coop, the business being cooperative and then the obvious, the "Coop". I liked it a lot. He was willing to go into a business with others... human and bird, build a home for all their needs and sell a productive that would be valued the highest around. I am still sticking to that unforced bloom for us all~
Happy Summer everyone, may your growing season bring you into perfect peace with your calling and your waiting time. The harvest is just beyond the shell.
Just wait...
And by all means "Don't force the bloom!"
Miss Dawn
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
What is hip?
What is hip?Tell me, tell me, if you think you know.What is hip?If you're really hip, the question, "Will it show?"You're into a hip trip.Maybe hipper than hip.What is hip?You went an' found you a guru.In an effort to find you a new you,And maybe even raise your conscious level.While you're striving to find the right road,There's one thing you should know,"What's hip today, might become passe'.
"Hipness is. What it is!Hipness is. What it is!Hipness is. What it is!Sometimes hipness is, what it ain't.
Sure this old Tower of Power tune is fantastic.. and although they are credited with this hipness I still prefer the band 9Teen's version as the hippest!
But, then again, that would be the way I look at this ultimate paragon.. or do i mean perfection?
Or are hipness and perfection in paradigmatic relation with one another?
I guess it all lies in the eyes of the perfect beholder doesn't it? Yet, we as a society have come to learn a far more scary way to look at alternatives. (or none). Lately I feel bombarded by,
"perfectionist hipness." Seemingly, what dons the cover of every magazine in the market check-out is someone telling me how I can be hip! Hip in my fashion, in my diet, my home, my spiritual focus, my parenting, my travel, and even in my retirement. Except, if you are a smarter/sleazier grocery store rag you have appealed to those that "have not" and place your focus on how the movie stars and celebrities who set the model of "hipness" are screwing up... Pointing out their cellulite, their public fighting and essentially their "normal" living. The only folks making out on that trend is the publishers of such literature... and the world rotates again capitalizing on some person's grief in order to make themselves better! Still not hip!
Why does Pottery Barn dictate how hip my home should look? (again, we all do it). Do we not have minds of our own? Why do Brad and Angelina hold the bar on adoption when it's been in vogue for hundreds of years? Why do I need to know that 40+ people such as myself are now the new 20! ( All the while expecting that although we can deprive ourselves of fun food, wine and good living will guarantee that I'm going to look fab, "hip" in my skinny jeans?) Why do I believe that my near 50 year old boyfriend wants that? And why does television not focus on fiction anymore? Why are we forced to watch people mortgage themselves out to live out these daily falsehoods.. (sorry "hipness" ), on "real TV" every night??
I think back to my childhood. I was a child of the 60's and 70's. I grew up in a very normal middle class environment. Our home did not resemble Pier 1 Imports, although it may have looked more like Sears and Roebuck. "The hip" store of my time. Which Tower of Power may have come to call "passe" in their lyrics. Is Sears still around? Anyway. I do not remember this hype.. (or maybe we can abbreviate this word to hyp ? ) I remember needing one winter coat every year. I remember getting 2 pair of shoes in September. One for school, and for Sunday. I remember one meal prepared each night for the "entire" family. There were no alternatives. I remember needing to save for what I needed.. and I remember my parents needing to do that too! I remember much of this simplistic living.. yet when I look at the word "Simple" in the titles of every magazine, yogurt container, grocery slogan, it looks a whole lot different than the "simple" ways I remember from my childhood.
The 60's to some may have been hip to those who grew up in the depression of the 30's. I am certain it is all relative somewhere I guess. ( as my Dad always says). However, it feels much different to me. We are a society much altered even from the 60's model... and yet only 40 years later. We are into alterations and improvements of everything we know: our bodies, minds, our homes, our relationships.. notice that even Christmas Trees look perfect nowadays?? We were real at one time, we have now become, "Pleasantville". Even worse then the 1950's post-war mentality of Mrs. Cleaver, nobody having sex, smoking is fine, cocktails in excess and couples staying married forever. NO...We are worse.
At least the 60's broke us out of that model with mind-altering substances you bought on the street... now, our modern day drug dealers are our physicians! We don't smoke pot or take LSD anymore to "open" the mind... We take anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds to help us "not see" anymore!
We are teaching our children that labels of all kinds are acceptable. We are teaching them that only certain labels in our jeans/genes make us "hip." Certain handbags/baggage make us even more "hip." And far worse labels of people are just as "hip/hyp." Where does it end? I oft wonder if I have the boob job I want, (opposite direction folks), will it make me more hip or not? I think the one that went bigger is now passe?! What happens when boobs are in or out again in 10 years?? How do we change, evolutionarily speaking, if we keep "removing and placing" parts that do or don't belong? At least I know the reason we are losing our back molars.. we just don't need to gnaw raw meat off of bones anymore!
I worry about our future society. I worry about the society we live in. It is a no wonder that half of the planet is medicated! They would have to be to roll with what the celebrities and publicists tell us what is "hip!" How to live in the hippest flat, have the hippest credit cards, and raise our kids in the hippest ways. "Housewives of somewhere..." I often think our kids are going to grow up loving to clone, or resorting to pot! Why does an un natural blonde hold so much power in today's world? It is a flash of "something" that grabs our attention. Isn't it? Or is it the fact we want the appeal she has? I don't know many days I think about doing it just so I can find out! Why not.. everyone else is!
I tell you this perfectionist behavior is a result of needing to control everything around us. We get the immediate things we need or want... or take.. then we forget about those who have helped us or needed us. We don't have time anymore for people or their problems because we are too busy not allowing our kids to self-soothe and entertain themselves with God's greatest toy.. imagination. We are raising people who will not learn how to invent, dream or find fun in their own way.. forget about the "Jones'"... the "Hollywoods" will be holding the bar for us to jump too. Designer birthday parties, coffee, clothing and bling are seemingly all that matters to us.
I think homogenous living might not be so hip anymore...
When we don't measure up.. we pop something! We dye our hair, buy a $500 bag, rat on our friends, covet others, or think we deserve extra "playmates! All because we are told and tell ourselves, "we deserve it." THAT seems to be hip!
I often laugh that women are still the big victims of all of this hipness! Our men complain that it takes so long to do our hair and yet the first thing they do is flip around when the girl who spends $300 at the salon comes along and bitch when we don't put the special energy in it for them. Okay, now I am really confused....
Recently, we were told by Oprah that it is okay to be fat now... we were told by her that it is a sign of something deeper.. duh? Or perhaps it is just easier for her now to say that rather, "I can only eat a certain amount of natural things in smaller portions at my age." It's a hell of a lot
easier to utter, "To hell with what messed me up to get me here, I'll just buy bigger things and do what I want." I am not sure how I feel about that anymore! The term "everything in moderation"seems to enter my mind. But we are not a society of knowing how to live moderately anymore. We are the opposite.
It's a roller coaster of emotional energy I am tired of. If you're a size 2 then you are hip this week in America. A size 2 in Haiti however has a different spin! Men are still heavy... at any age.. albeit, I will say it is hipper, for once, for younger men to be thin and buff in today's world. But as men age, they are falling victim, (worse I think), to the hip factor of what their gal-pal should look like. Standards are different. They cheat because we are told.. "Well, you didn't keep yourself up!" And simultaneously they do not want the drama of what it takes to look like our hip diva trend-setters on the West Coast !
Or has it just become "okay" to do whatever we want in life?
As an educator of young people I watch this stuff go on now. I watch the "L" go on a forehead to another 5 year old.. and I hear words like, "whatever" used. They think it is hip to be uncaring. They have learned somewhere that it is okay to criticize another for their clothing choices and lunch foods. They now know all about kids with "special needs" and use it to their advantage to be "hip" or get out of something. They wear belly shirts, earrings and have dyed hair. They know when someone is "fat" equally as well as they know when somebody else is "phat!"
We are forgetting to be a society of people who are real. I am victim of this myself at times. And it scares me when do we begin to know who we really are and what we really believe in?For years we are controlled . Our parents, the church controls us, tell us what is hip... when we are good and bad, right and wrong. Hollywood tells us. The Internet tells us, and television expounds upon this. Where do we go from here? Who is hip? and What is hyp?
"You went an' found you a guru.In an effort to find you a new you,And maybe even raise your conscious level.While you're striving to find the right road,There's one thing you should know,"What's hip today, might become passe'."
And in the words of FLoyd... "Look around.. choose your own ground..."
"Hipness is. What it is!Hipness is. What it is!Hipness is. What it is!Sometimes hipness is, what it ain't.
Sure this old Tower of Power tune is fantastic.. and although they are credited with this hipness I still prefer the band 9Teen's version as the hippest!
But, then again, that would be the way I look at this ultimate paragon.. or do i mean perfection?
Or are hipness and perfection in paradigmatic relation with one another?
I guess it all lies in the eyes of the perfect beholder doesn't it? Yet, we as a society have come to learn a far more scary way to look at alternatives. (or none). Lately I feel bombarded by,
"perfectionist hipness." Seemingly, what dons the cover of every magazine in the market check-out is someone telling me how I can be hip! Hip in my fashion, in my diet, my home, my spiritual focus, my parenting, my travel, and even in my retirement. Except, if you are a smarter/sleazier grocery store rag you have appealed to those that "have not" and place your focus on how the movie stars and celebrities who set the model of "hipness" are screwing up... Pointing out their cellulite, their public fighting and essentially their "normal" living. The only folks making out on that trend is the publishers of such literature... and the world rotates again capitalizing on some person's grief in order to make themselves better! Still not hip!
Why does Pottery Barn dictate how hip my home should look? (again, we all do it). Do we not have minds of our own? Why do Brad and Angelina hold the bar on adoption when it's been in vogue for hundreds of years? Why do I need to know that 40+ people such as myself are now the new 20! ( All the while expecting that although we can deprive ourselves of fun food, wine and good living will guarantee that I'm going to look fab, "hip" in my skinny jeans?) Why do I believe that my near 50 year old boyfriend wants that? And why does television not focus on fiction anymore? Why are we forced to watch people mortgage themselves out to live out these daily falsehoods.. (sorry "hipness" ), on "real TV" every night??
I think back to my childhood. I was a child of the 60's and 70's. I grew up in a very normal middle class environment. Our home did not resemble Pier 1 Imports, although it may have looked more like Sears and Roebuck. "The hip" store of my time. Which Tower of Power may have come to call "passe" in their lyrics. Is Sears still around? Anyway. I do not remember this hype.. (or maybe we can abbreviate this word to hyp ? ) I remember needing one winter coat every year. I remember getting 2 pair of shoes in September. One for school, and for Sunday. I remember one meal prepared each night for the "entire" family. There were no alternatives. I remember needing to save for what I needed.. and I remember my parents needing to do that too! I remember much of this simplistic living.. yet when I look at the word "Simple" in the titles of every magazine, yogurt container, grocery slogan, it looks a whole lot different than the "simple" ways I remember from my childhood.
The 60's to some may have been hip to those who grew up in the depression of the 30's. I am certain it is all relative somewhere I guess. ( as my Dad always says). However, it feels much different to me. We are a society much altered even from the 60's model... and yet only 40 years later. We are into alterations and improvements of everything we know: our bodies, minds, our homes, our relationships.. notice that even Christmas Trees look perfect nowadays?? We were real at one time, we have now become, "Pleasantville". Even worse then the 1950's post-war mentality of Mrs. Cleaver, nobody having sex, smoking is fine, cocktails in excess and couples staying married forever. NO...We are worse.
At least the 60's broke us out of that model with mind-altering substances you bought on the street... now, our modern day drug dealers are our physicians! We don't smoke pot or take LSD anymore to "open" the mind... We take anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds to help us "not see" anymore!
We are teaching our children that labels of all kinds are acceptable. We are teaching them that only certain labels in our jeans/genes make us "hip." Certain handbags/baggage make us even more "hip." And far worse labels of people are just as "hip/hyp." Where does it end? I oft wonder if I have the boob job I want, (opposite direction folks), will it make me more hip or not? I think the one that went bigger is now passe?! What happens when boobs are in or out again in 10 years?? How do we change, evolutionarily speaking, if we keep "removing and placing" parts that do or don't belong? At least I know the reason we are losing our back molars.. we just don't need to gnaw raw meat off of bones anymore!
I worry about our future society. I worry about the society we live in. It is a no wonder that half of the planet is medicated! They would have to be to roll with what the celebrities and publicists tell us what is "hip!" How to live in the hippest flat, have the hippest credit cards, and raise our kids in the hippest ways. "Housewives of somewhere..." I often think our kids are going to grow up loving to clone, or resorting to pot! Why does an un natural blonde hold so much power in today's world? It is a flash of "something" that grabs our attention. Isn't it? Or is it the fact we want the appeal she has? I don't know many days I think about doing it just so I can find out! Why not.. everyone else is!
I tell you this perfectionist behavior is a result of needing to control everything around us. We get the immediate things we need or want... or take.. then we forget about those who have helped us or needed us. We don't have time anymore for people or their problems because we are too busy not allowing our kids to self-soothe and entertain themselves with God's greatest toy.. imagination. We are raising people who will not learn how to invent, dream or find fun in their own way.. forget about the "Jones'"... the "Hollywoods" will be holding the bar for us to jump too. Designer birthday parties, coffee, clothing and bling are seemingly all that matters to us.
I think homogenous living might not be so hip anymore...
When we don't measure up.. we pop something! We dye our hair, buy a $500 bag, rat on our friends, covet others, or think we deserve extra "playmates! All because we are told and tell ourselves, "we deserve it." THAT seems to be hip!
I often laugh that women are still the big victims of all of this hipness! Our men complain that it takes so long to do our hair and yet the first thing they do is flip around when the girl who spends $300 at the salon comes along and bitch when we don't put the special energy in it for them. Okay, now I am really confused....
Recently, we were told by Oprah that it is okay to be fat now... we were told by her that it is a sign of something deeper.. duh? Or perhaps it is just easier for her now to say that rather, "I can only eat a certain amount of natural things in smaller portions at my age." It's a hell of a lot
easier to utter, "To hell with what messed me up to get me here, I'll just buy bigger things and do what I want." I am not sure how I feel about that anymore! The term "everything in moderation"seems to enter my mind. But we are not a society of knowing how to live moderately anymore. We are the opposite.
It's a roller coaster of emotional energy I am tired of. If you're a size 2 then you are hip this week in America. A size 2 in Haiti however has a different spin! Men are still heavy... at any age.. albeit, I will say it is hipper, for once, for younger men to be thin and buff in today's world. But as men age, they are falling victim, (worse I think), to the hip factor of what their gal-pal should look like. Standards are different. They cheat because we are told.. "Well, you didn't keep yourself up!" And simultaneously they do not want the drama of what it takes to look like our hip diva trend-setters on the West Coast !
Or has it just become "okay" to do whatever we want in life?
As an educator of young people I watch this stuff go on now. I watch the "L" go on a forehead to another 5 year old.. and I hear words like, "whatever" used. They think it is hip to be uncaring. They have learned somewhere that it is okay to criticize another for their clothing choices and lunch foods. They now know all about kids with "special needs" and use it to their advantage to be "hip" or get out of something. They wear belly shirts, earrings and have dyed hair. They know when someone is "fat" equally as well as they know when somebody else is "phat!"
We are forgetting to be a society of people who are real. I am victim of this myself at times. And it scares me when do we begin to know who we really are and what we really believe in?For years we are controlled . Our parents, the church controls us, tell us what is hip... when we are good and bad, right and wrong. Hollywood tells us. The Internet tells us, and television expounds upon this. Where do we go from here? Who is hip? and What is hyp?
"You went an' found you a guru.In an effort to find you a new you,And maybe even raise your conscious level.While you're striving to find the right road,There's one thing you should know,"What's hip today, might become passe'."
And in the words of FLoyd... "Look around.. choose your own ground..."
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Dad...Are we there yet?
Instead of calling this year's road trip experience, "Roadtrippin' Vol II", I thought I give it a title that better suits this year's version...."Dad, Are we there yet?"
HAH!!! I know you know what's next...For me, images of 1960's Volkswagen Bus', trips down and up Route 95 searching for the perfect Civil War Battleground to explore. Maybe another whirl through Gettysburg? Williamsburg? Richmond? or for fun... let's go to Antietam for a real taste of battle gore! No sign of "The Mouse" for this girl... or Hershey Park, or even Busch Gardens, (truly don't think it was around in the 60's and 70's anyway!)
Roadtrippin' today...though... even still with a destination of sunny Florida STILL shapes up no differently than it did 40 years ago! That is when one travels in modern day roadtrippin' style!
My trip as a 40-something on the Great super highway of 95 contained many of the same variables as days gone by! All the factors present on the checklist of traveling 1000 miles with children, in the ride that is!!!! Let me recount to you my childhood, jettisoned to now, on a road trip from the very north to the very south... the only real difference... 1 child extra, a ride-a-long school teacher, video and computer technology, "Carla.. the GPS, not-so-know-it-all", medication to prevent car motion sickness (for me!) and 3 very patient adult pilots! Ok.. it WASN'T the same really!!! ALthough, I found myself in the Steve Carrel position of the van at times from Little Miss Sunshine!
Our trip begins the Friday eve of April School vacation. For me traditionally, it was always Washington, DC. Our annual pilgrimage was to go and witness the bed where Lincoln died in mid-April, see the Cherry blossoms and perhaps a day trip to Appomattox courthouse.. maybe Mt. Vernon just for the fun of it! This April vacation I am happy to say that my dearest friends the Perry's and their 4 kids were heading to vacation mecca for their annual pilgrimage during April vacation week.. "Disney World" !!!! (Nana & Pop too!) Seeing I commute to Florida now on a regular basis they were gracious enough to ask me to road trip along and roll me out onto a grassy knoll somewhere in Jacksonville on their way to the promised land! As any budget- abiding gal would do she took the offer... and to no surprise, found myself in the middle of a roadtrippin' adventure I hadn't experienced in some time!!!!
Here, we are all packed. I land at Casa Perry exactly on schedule for a Friday night departure. I arrive to 6 neatly packed and stowed color-coded suitcases. (Not even my organized mother was this good!!) I lay my roll-away and carry-on neatly on top, grab my pillow and x-large Diet Pepsi and in minutes we are all buckled, received safety and exiting instructing, and are now the viewers of tonight's featured film!!! (That is something the Volkswagen did not have- (had that been invented, my father would have taken us to California watching "How the West was Won!") The cabin is a buzz with Super Mario jumps, crashing Pac Man, (honestly I'm too old to know better so I am embellishing), and every other game known to the "DS" system... (again one more piece of technology that is new to the journey....) I did get to bring Lite Bright sometimes on my trips!!)
Three adults worked that day. Two worked with children, and the other with "older children.." , we were all "ready" for the road. As we approached the RI-CT border I began to hear familiar noises around the cabin. " Dad, are we there yet?" from a young 4-year old.... I totally smiled and thought "Kid, if you only knew!" Again, after a long hard day at preschool you would be asking that most important, quintessential question at 4 just under an hour into the trip too! Hell, I work in that same place and wondered it a bit myself.. lol!
The phrase however, did set the tone!
The sky began to darken and cries of hunger then emerged... "Hey , when are we stopping at McDonald's?" Ah... this was the road trip I remembered.. except, I was a passenger in my 40's buckled into a luxury van watching Peter Pan! Once when my Uncle David, on one of his adventures with us in the Bus, was sitting in his " lazy boy" that he and my dad threw into the back of the bus, one of those fate-filled Washington adventures he surely must have known the pleasure of this adventure too... right before HE had kids!!
And then the fights began!!!!!
Capt Hook cannot hold a candle to Capt Ronald McDonald... nor do the Mario Bros trump bathroom pit stops! (By the adults BTW!) Super-sized caffineated sodas and long road trips do not equal easy on and off pee breaks at rest stops! Hell the kids got to use what we did in the old-fashioned days of carriaging down 95.... today if adults did it it would be known as abuse!!! SO- the adults stopped and ran in when they could and resumed the rules of the road! The kids at times got to stay and "use" the comforts of the head on board-
I suppose the McDee's stop would've been just like the old days.. although back then the Happy Meal was only "happy" to my parents who paid under a $1 for a cheeseburger and fries- no toys, nothing to fight over for us- yet still made us happy! Today.. I had no idea that McDonald's took Jaime Oliver's course!!! There was more to choose from then I could possibly imagine. I got something heart-healthy without the put-together dragon... or my evening scotch...and put 4 other dragons together however ... suffice I didn't need that to feel the happiness I was feeling reliving my childhood again!
As the fighting and laughter faded in the back I turned and saw 4 angelic creatures nodded off in PJ's surrounded by animal character airplane neck support pillows, blankies and stuffed dogs...I was wondering why I had forgotten this part of my childhood road trip experience? Ah.. how comfortable.. the knowledge that you could fall asleep and know that 3 pilots would be sailing on through and wake up in sunny F-L-A is enough to put any mind to a sound sleep... until you wake up and find yourself still in Baltimore! Okay.. the adults had needed more Big Gulps and fewer naps...
My 4am shift was greeted with no lav or coffee at 5am as McDonald's promises.. and took us into a cloudy dawn through Washington. (Funny that this was my stop). The remainder of the day was the same, switch hitting the wheel through the god-fearing boredom of the Carolina's...stops to the BK Lounge and more noise from the back over technology I knew nothing of since the early 80's, parents trying to catnap, gossip over events of late, and answering that end-all question.. "Dad, are we there yet???"
I knew at one fuel station we were close, I felt the sweat beading on my brow, the film across my teeth and the memories of college 'all-nighters" swimming in my head.... not to mention the increasing feel of humidity... aaah Georgia was on my mind! The kids were finally saying, "Dad, we must be close I see palm trees!" And suddenly the spirit lifted. Chatter of what might be happening at Cinderella's castle in the air and my good friends praying that Grandma would swoop in and lovingly take their grandchildren to bed, bath and beyond.. (and I'm not speaking of the chain store!) And yes, I knew my trip was closing in on me too! 56 miles to Jacksonville! Those are signs we LOVE to see on the highway of life!
My trip felt like my childhood relived again.. except I guess, that no one vomited, I didn't get to stop in Richmond and see Lee and Grant's whatever....(although Chris really wanted too!) I did get to see Disney flicks on film instead of waiting for them 1x a year on TV, right there in the van, I didn't pee in a pan.. (not saying anyone else did for the protection of the innocent), there was little adult arguing and child discipline, I wore a seat belt the whole time, I traded "I spy" for a Nintendo DS, oh.. and I got to make it to sunny FLA for R&R... so although, the American Family Road Trip has not changed... it was still better than having to walk 5 miles in the snow to school every morning!
I sadly waived good bye to my traveling buddies and jumped into the arms of Jax and was secretly jealous of their next destination, and said "Let's do it all again next week!"
Thanks Perrys!
Love, Miss Dawn
HAH!!! I know you know what's next...For me, images of 1960's Volkswagen Bus', trips down and up Route 95 searching for the perfect Civil War Battleground to explore. Maybe another whirl through Gettysburg? Williamsburg? Richmond? or for fun... let's go to Antietam for a real taste of battle gore! No sign of "The Mouse" for this girl... or Hershey Park, or even Busch Gardens, (truly don't think it was around in the 60's and 70's anyway!)
Roadtrippin' today...though... even still with a destination of sunny Florida STILL shapes up no differently than it did 40 years ago! That is when one travels in modern day roadtrippin' style!
My trip as a 40-something on the Great super highway of 95 contained many of the same variables as days gone by! All the factors present on the checklist of traveling 1000 miles with children, in the ride that is!!!! Let me recount to you my childhood, jettisoned to now, on a road trip from the very north to the very south... the only real difference... 1 child extra, a ride-a-long school teacher, video and computer technology, "Carla.. the GPS, not-so-know-it-all", medication to prevent car motion sickness (for me!) and 3 very patient adult pilots! Ok.. it WASN'T the same really!!! ALthough, I found myself in the Steve Carrel position of the van at times from Little Miss Sunshine!
Our trip begins the Friday eve of April School vacation. For me traditionally, it was always Washington, DC. Our annual pilgrimage was to go and witness the bed where Lincoln died in mid-April, see the Cherry blossoms and perhaps a day trip to Appomattox courthouse.. maybe Mt. Vernon just for the fun of it! This April vacation I am happy to say that my dearest friends the Perry's and their 4 kids were heading to vacation mecca for their annual pilgrimage during April vacation week.. "Disney World" !!!! (Nana & Pop too!) Seeing I commute to Florida now on a regular basis they were gracious enough to ask me to road trip along and roll me out onto a grassy knoll somewhere in Jacksonville on their way to the promised land! As any budget- abiding gal would do she took the offer... and to no surprise, found myself in the middle of a roadtrippin' adventure I hadn't experienced in some time!!!!
Here, we are all packed. I land at Casa Perry exactly on schedule for a Friday night departure. I arrive to 6 neatly packed and stowed color-coded suitcases. (Not even my organized mother was this good!!) I lay my roll-away and carry-on neatly on top, grab my pillow and x-large Diet Pepsi and in minutes we are all buckled, received safety and exiting instructing, and are now the viewers of tonight's featured film!!! (That is something the Volkswagen did not have- (had that been invented, my father would have taken us to California watching "How the West was Won!") The cabin is a buzz with Super Mario jumps, crashing Pac Man, (honestly I'm too old to know better so I am embellishing), and every other game known to the "DS" system... (again one more piece of technology that is new to the journey....) I did get to bring Lite Bright sometimes on my trips!!)
Three adults worked that day. Two worked with children, and the other with "older children.." , we were all "ready" for the road. As we approached the RI-CT border I began to hear familiar noises around the cabin. " Dad, are we there yet?" from a young 4-year old.... I totally smiled and thought "Kid, if you only knew!" Again, after a long hard day at preschool you would be asking that most important, quintessential question at 4 just under an hour into the trip too! Hell, I work in that same place and wondered it a bit myself.. lol!
The phrase however, did set the tone!
The sky began to darken and cries of hunger then emerged... "Hey , when are we stopping at McDonald's?" Ah... this was the road trip I remembered.. except, I was a passenger in my 40's buckled into a luxury van watching Peter Pan! Once when my Uncle David, on one of his adventures with us in the Bus, was sitting in his " lazy boy" that he and my dad threw into the back of the bus, one of those fate-filled Washington adventures he surely must have known the pleasure of this adventure too... right before HE had kids!!
And then the fights began!!!!!
Capt Hook cannot hold a candle to Capt Ronald McDonald... nor do the Mario Bros trump bathroom pit stops! (By the adults BTW!) Super-sized caffineated sodas and long road trips do not equal easy on and off pee breaks at rest stops! Hell the kids got to use what we did in the old-fashioned days of carriaging down 95.... today if adults did it it would be known as abuse!!! SO- the adults stopped and ran in when they could and resumed the rules of the road! The kids at times got to stay and "use" the comforts of the head on board-
I suppose the McDee's stop would've been just like the old days.. although back then the Happy Meal was only "happy" to my parents who paid under a $1 for a cheeseburger and fries- no toys, nothing to fight over for us- yet still made us happy! Today.. I had no idea that McDonald's took Jaime Oliver's course!!! There was more to choose from then I could possibly imagine. I got something heart-healthy without the put-together dragon... or my evening scotch...and put 4 other dragons together however ... suffice I didn't need that to feel the happiness I was feeling reliving my childhood again!
As the fighting and laughter faded in the back I turned and saw 4 angelic creatures nodded off in PJ's surrounded by animal character airplane neck support pillows, blankies and stuffed dogs...I was wondering why I had forgotten this part of my childhood road trip experience? Ah.. how comfortable.. the knowledge that you could fall asleep and know that 3 pilots would be sailing on through and wake up in sunny F-L-A is enough to put any mind to a sound sleep... until you wake up and find yourself still in Baltimore! Okay.. the adults had needed more Big Gulps and fewer naps...
My 4am shift was greeted with no lav or coffee at 5am as McDonald's promises.. and took us into a cloudy dawn through Washington. (Funny that this was my stop). The remainder of the day was the same, switch hitting the wheel through the god-fearing boredom of the Carolina's...stops to the BK Lounge and more noise from the back over technology I knew nothing of since the early 80's, parents trying to catnap, gossip over events of late, and answering that end-all question.. "Dad, are we there yet???"
I knew at one fuel station we were close, I felt the sweat beading on my brow, the film across my teeth and the memories of college 'all-nighters" swimming in my head.... not to mention the increasing feel of humidity... aaah Georgia was on my mind! The kids were finally saying, "Dad, we must be close I see palm trees!" And suddenly the spirit lifted. Chatter of what might be happening at Cinderella's castle in the air and my good friends praying that Grandma would swoop in and lovingly take their grandchildren to bed, bath and beyond.. (and I'm not speaking of the chain store!) And yes, I knew my trip was closing in on me too! 56 miles to Jacksonville! Those are signs we LOVE to see on the highway of life!
My trip felt like my childhood relived again.. except I guess, that no one vomited, I didn't get to stop in Richmond and see Lee and Grant's whatever....(although Chris really wanted too!) I did get to see Disney flicks on film instead of waiting for them 1x a year on TV, right there in the van, I didn't pee in a pan.. (not saying anyone else did for the protection of the innocent), there was little adult arguing and child discipline, I wore a seat belt the whole time, I traded "I spy" for a Nintendo DS, oh.. and I got to make it to sunny FLA for R&R... so although, the American Family Road Trip has not changed... it was still better than having to walk 5 miles in the snow to school every morning!
I sadly waived good bye to my traveling buddies and jumped into the arms of Jax and was secretly jealous of their next destination, and said "Let's do it all again next week!"
Thanks Perrys!
Love, Miss Dawn
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Come Together
"Here come old flattop. He come grooving up slowly. He got joo-joo eyeball. He one holy roller. He got hair down to his knee Got to be a joker he just do what he please... Come Together right now over me!
I know, Miss Dawn's got her Beatles going on again.. and yes, she usually does, although in reflecting upon today's Gospel this song just keeps "coming over me!"
I have to laugh thinking that although this song is portraying the Beatles individually during a time of angst for them it also makes me think of Jesus coming into the room to visit the Disciples during their angst that first day of the week after the Resurrection. (still Easter).
Honestly, get the visual as you sing along.. HAH.. I can't help thinking that if John Lennon were present that fate filled evening this is somewhat how he would describe Jesus' surprise visit! The Disciples, all but Thomas, waiting in a room... Kind of like Paul not being with the group much in those days. Forewarned to meet there by Mary Magdalene, (the Yoko Ono sideboard), they awaited the man to cross over that proverbial crosswalk from Heaven to Earth in his white dazzling suit and say "Hi guys... I told you this would happen." And so he did. "My peace I leave you, my peace I give you." Such powerful words to live by.
" I know you and you know me, One thing I can tell you is you got to be free." Come together, right now, Over me!
This broken and repaired Jesus was back to the very people who spent His final days in hiding. Afraid of what may happen to them. Not being near Jesus in his final hours. Here Jesus was back with them risen, and telling them in his groovy way that although they are frightened by this mess that he leaves with them with His peace.... So Come together, right now over me!
Jesus breathes new life into them and gives them a dosage of Holy Spirit to over come the fears, carry on and keep Jesus' peace inside them to face the harder days ahead. He was there to let them know he had not given up on them. He was there to build real discipleship now!
The disciples know that they are staring into the sweetest joo-joo eyeballs they have ever seen. They are believers! He got feet down below his knees- implying that he isn't kneeling anymore. He is Risen, stand up straight and believe.
Thomas, our doubting friend of the bunch is absent for this meeting. I love teaching this Gospel to children as I immediately follow up with a delicious snack of course... "Thomas' English Muffins!" You know the ones with lots of holes!! No one knows where Thomas is the day Jesus' comes back. Fishing? Downtime? Anxiety? Who knows. But he is informed when he does come around finally that in fact Jesus kept His promise. He was back and bigger than ever! A doubter by trade, Thomas replies, "I am sorry, I don't think so."
"Unless I see him with my eyes and place my finger into his wounds, "hold you in His armchair so you can feel His disease... will I believe!" Funny way to think of this isn't it? All 10 who were witness to Jesus assured Thomas that this was real. (Remember Judas is gone). How could Thomas, and more importantly why would Thomas not believe these folks who had become such a tight knit group? He surely heard the premonition, the prophesy, "He got early warning, he got muddy water, He one Mojo Filter.. and He said, "One and One and One is three," professed over and over by Jesus in the days leading toward this. Why would one doubt? Thomas must have "been so good lookin' it was so hard to see." Come together, right now, over me~
The next week in the same room Jesus shows himself again. This time Thomas is present. He still is reluctant until Jesus approaches him.. right in-his-face-style work... (sometimes as Jesus does for us all), and proclaims to Thomas that, in fact, this is, really real! It all did happen regardless of what seemed impossible and doubtful. After Thomas held Him in his armchair he surely knew that a living Christ was before him. He dropped, not having feet below his knees, and professed publicly the error in his ways. The spirit moved upon Thomas. The roller coaster was over.
"Blessed are those who do not see, but believe." says Jesus. Come together right now over me! Go, tell the world I would like them to begin doing that very thing each week.
And so we do.
The Walrus
I know, Miss Dawn's got her Beatles going on again.. and yes, she usually does, although in reflecting upon today's Gospel this song just keeps "coming over me!"
I have to laugh thinking that although this song is portraying the Beatles individually during a time of angst for them it also makes me think of Jesus coming into the room to visit the Disciples during their angst that first day of the week after the Resurrection. (still Easter).
Honestly, get the visual as you sing along.. HAH.. I can't help thinking that if John Lennon were present that fate filled evening this is somewhat how he would describe Jesus' surprise visit! The Disciples, all but Thomas, waiting in a room... Kind of like Paul not being with the group much in those days. Forewarned to meet there by Mary Magdalene, (the Yoko Ono sideboard), they awaited the man to cross over that proverbial crosswalk from Heaven to Earth in his white dazzling suit and say "Hi guys... I told you this would happen." And so he did. "My peace I leave you, my peace I give you." Such powerful words to live by.
" I know you and you know me, One thing I can tell you is you got to be free." Come together, right now, Over me!
This broken and repaired Jesus was back to the very people who spent His final days in hiding. Afraid of what may happen to them. Not being near Jesus in his final hours. Here Jesus was back with them risen, and telling them in his groovy way that although they are frightened by this mess that he leaves with them with His peace.... So Come together, right now over me!
Jesus breathes new life into them and gives them a dosage of Holy Spirit to over come the fears, carry on and keep Jesus' peace inside them to face the harder days ahead. He was there to let them know he had not given up on them. He was there to build real discipleship now!
The disciples know that they are staring into the sweetest joo-joo eyeballs they have ever seen. They are believers! He got feet down below his knees- implying that he isn't kneeling anymore. He is Risen, stand up straight and believe.
Thomas, our doubting friend of the bunch is absent for this meeting. I love teaching this Gospel to children as I immediately follow up with a delicious snack of course... "Thomas' English Muffins!" You know the ones with lots of holes!! No one knows where Thomas is the day Jesus' comes back. Fishing? Downtime? Anxiety? Who knows. But he is informed when he does come around finally that in fact Jesus kept His promise. He was back and bigger than ever! A doubter by trade, Thomas replies, "I am sorry, I don't think so."
"Unless I see him with my eyes and place my finger into his wounds, "hold you in His armchair so you can feel His disease... will I believe!" Funny way to think of this isn't it? All 10 who were witness to Jesus assured Thomas that this was real. (Remember Judas is gone). How could Thomas, and more importantly why would Thomas not believe these folks who had become such a tight knit group? He surely heard the premonition, the prophesy, "He got early warning, he got muddy water, He one Mojo Filter.. and He said, "One and One and One is three," professed over and over by Jesus in the days leading toward this. Why would one doubt? Thomas must have "been so good lookin' it was so hard to see." Come together, right now, over me~
The next week in the same room Jesus shows himself again. This time Thomas is present. He still is reluctant until Jesus approaches him.. right in-his-face-style work... (sometimes as Jesus does for us all), and proclaims to Thomas that, in fact, this is, really real! It all did happen regardless of what seemed impossible and doubtful. After Thomas held Him in his armchair he surely knew that a living Christ was before him. He dropped, not having feet below his knees, and professed publicly the error in his ways. The spirit moved upon Thomas. The roller coaster was over.
"Blessed are those who do not see, but believe." says Jesus. Come together right now over me! Go, tell the world I would like them to begin doing that very thing each week.
And so we do.
The Walrus
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Good Friday...Indeed it is Good!
Good Friday... all I can hear over and over, "Miss Dawn, Why is it so good??" Good Question!!!
Well, another Good Friday is behind us. Once again, (and reluctantly), I offered my annual Good Friday Camp to wee people. A day to truly walk with Christ during his final hours. This past year, I have been somewhat out of the direct spotlight of Christ...or so I thought. Not teaching Sunday School or Chapel for about 9 months brought me to a new way of being with God. There were moments this past year where I questioned my own walk with Christ. I began wondering if my service had expired. However it did not take long before God picked me up and began to utilize my God-given talent in teaching folks about His life story... God teaching me that at some point We all Walk the Way of the Cross!!!!
(If we are to be any part of the Body of Christ that is!)
Once years and years ago I helped run Vacation Bible Schools for Trinity Church in Newport. An assistant priest at the time and myself would discuss each Spring my willingness to help the church put together children's programming for their VBS. It was a volunteer position for a week. I often felt as time came upon us..."Perhaps this summer I shall take it off completely... just rest." And each year I found myself in Fr. Dave's office discussing the theme of this year's camp once again. One year I related my tiredness to him. I told him I was thinking that God might have had enough of my work and to maybe give someone else a try! He asked me why then, was I sitting before him? My reply was that although I have never earned enough financially to give in the way I'd like too, I felt my stewardship was the least I could. (Mind you, Trinity was not my parish, nor my confirmed faith.) I told him that I get a special joy and confirmation of God's messages after teaching/preaching when I relate God's stories to children. I told him somewhere along the way I learned how to express God's message to children. Dave laughed at me... he said, "Dawn, you can run, but you can't hide from God!" Of course, I agreed and said that none of us can. He went on to tell me that he himself questioned his going into the priesthood. He told me that he really thought it the last occupation he would choose... although God had other plans. He said, "Don't worry... God finds you and better yet.. He WAITS for you!" Hmmm... indeed he was correct. I thought I had given my last Good Friday Camp- I was wrong!
This year's Good Friday Camp ran as a well-oiled machine. It should, I have been doing it for about 5 or 6 years. The efforts of preparation for it remind me of the 6 weeks of Lent as we prepare for our walk with Jesus. There is lots to do... lists to create, supplies to gather, quiet reflection, selection of help for the event. It doesn't seem to get old either! (Although, I am!) The kids are just as enthused ... the story hasn't changed in 2000 years... and technology has not moved it into a new place of media hype.
This year however brought some differences for me. The building changed .. the teachers changed .... some of the kids changed ...but the message remained the same. And really, I didn't change! God, found me in all my shortcomings and plopped me right back to a place where I can change the world again! Incredible. Talk about redemption!
For me, Good Friday this year wasn't just about a day's agenda to plow through with 40 friends. It held much deeper significance. It was truly a walk through Jesus' last week of strife and conflict. It was a reminder to me that even Jesus was revered as a hero on Palm Sunday and crucified 5 days later! It hurt to know that His people would spare a murderer over him. His best friend would deny him. Another close friend turns him in for a few coins, and the rest fall asleep on him! It was sad really to watch Peter try to act in violence in Jesus' name when really just minutes later he wouldn't begin to not know anything about Jesus or His ministry. It especially hurt to watch his friends, one by one, save their own asses, and hide just when he needed them most! It further hurt to consider how folks ridiculed him, teased him, accused him of lying and mayhem, and better yet were so incredibly jealous of him that they would go to any measure to make sure no one knew of him anymore... allow His light to shine! I actually choked back tears after relating this to my young friends. I knew EXACTLY how all of these things felt! Truly. And yet, I was not facing death on a cross. I already had.
These feelings began early that morning. I had a flash of all the horror before I even got to the camp. I found myself uttering, "Father, please forgive them for they know not what they have done," in the Stop-n-Shop with my 3.5 year old nephew going into his first Good Friday Camp! "What you saying Aunt Dew?" I just mumbled, "Nothing..." and that he should help me pick up the proverbial Cross, (the themed snack made from Ritz crackers and Cheeze-Whiz), with me and continue on to Golgotha!
Good Friday Camp, to me, (I have joked for years), is my "penance". I speak for 5 hours straight... haha.. I know... and TRUST me it does exhaust me! As we began the tedious task of painting all 14 stations.. I began to wonder about my own 2mile walk to the hill. I wondered about how I have dropped my cross 3x! (or more!) I remembered a kind woman, (many), handing me a towel along the way to wipe my face. I was hoping I left a lasting memory with her too at some point in my tenure. I felt for Simon , a strange man in a strange land being forced into a situation that he knew nothing about.. fearing that helping this rebel would lead him into a early grave. Instead good things came to Simon, besides his conversion! I thought of those continuing to revile Christ along the way... taunting him with remarks..."You deserve everything you got!"... "This is your karma!"... "Go back to Florida ... I mean Nazareth, where you belong!" and I wondered how it felt for Him when He knew he wasn't a Blasphemer.
As I was on the walk to Golgotha thoughts about the events were racing through my head. I think about how Pontius Pilot was put in a precarious situation and how cleverly he tried to get the people to choose Jesus over Barabbas. Pilot was a smart and clever military man.. he knew that Jesus was not a real threat.. (which meant he was secure in his power). Surely, he could blind the Jewish people by convincing them that a Barabbas out walking the streets was a far cry from a Jesus professing peace and equality.. favoring the unique and meek of this world... and yet, his plan backfired. He too was looking for Jesus to confess to a sin he did not commit to make it easy upon himself, and thus the decision was placed in the hands of the scared and fear filled! Death is an inevitable outcome in a tug of war.
They stripped Jesus of his belongings. They played a game to keep his things. Heirlooms made from his Mother just scattered about the few who could've cared less for the "seamless" labor and love of how they were made. The feeling as though they somehow "deserved" these items. Jesus however, never blinked an eye in the end. He continued to help the grief stricken. Those that could not be healed. He assured the many heartbroken, that in fact, He would come again. He told the children he loved them. They meant the most to Him. The 2 criminals on either side of Him were even interested in His story. One in fact told Him he believed, and asked Jesus if there was a place for him in Heaven.... Jesus invited him along for the ride.
As we remember, His best friend Mary, John, the Disciple he loved the most, and his Mother stood beside Him in his final hours. Thankfully God did not allow the struggle to last forever. It was a quick death! Jesus' body was laid to rest by a kind and giving man named Joseph. He had followed Jesus, and felt that Jesus deserved a place to rest. A new cave... this time not one inhabited by animals in which he first came into this world. It was a prelude to new life.
The rest we know to be History! The rise 3days later that Mary Magdalene was witness to let us all know that out of darkness comes light! No one can keep us in a cave, no matter how large the stone. God has work for us to do and we must keep our attention on that work and let God continue to resurrect us into the light of a new day. The Disciples were called to believe that Jesus had come back- they were invited to touch and see a Risen Jesus!
Hallelujah, Hallelujah He is Risen!
Happy Easter,
Miss Dawn
Well, another Good Friday is behind us. Once again, (and reluctantly), I offered my annual Good Friday Camp to wee people. A day to truly walk with Christ during his final hours. This past year, I have been somewhat out of the direct spotlight of Christ...or so I thought. Not teaching Sunday School or Chapel for about 9 months brought me to a new way of being with God. There were moments this past year where I questioned my own walk with Christ. I began wondering if my service had expired. However it did not take long before God picked me up and began to utilize my God-given talent in teaching folks about His life story... God teaching me that at some point We all Walk the Way of the Cross!!!!
(If we are to be any part of the Body of Christ that is!)
Once years and years ago I helped run Vacation Bible Schools for Trinity Church in Newport. An assistant priest at the time and myself would discuss each Spring my willingness to help the church put together children's programming for their VBS. It was a volunteer position for a week. I often felt as time came upon us..."Perhaps this summer I shall take it off completely... just rest." And each year I found myself in Fr. Dave's office discussing the theme of this year's camp once again. One year I related my tiredness to him. I told him I was thinking that God might have had enough of my work and to maybe give someone else a try! He asked me why then, was I sitting before him? My reply was that although I have never earned enough financially to give in the way I'd like too, I felt my stewardship was the least I could. (Mind you, Trinity was not my parish, nor my confirmed faith.) I told him that I get a special joy and confirmation of God's messages after teaching/preaching when I relate God's stories to children. I told him somewhere along the way I learned how to express God's message to children. Dave laughed at me... he said, "Dawn, you can run, but you can't hide from God!" Of course, I agreed and said that none of us can. He went on to tell me that he himself questioned his going into the priesthood. He told me that he really thought it the last occupation he would choose... although God had other plans. He said, "Don't worry... God finds you and better yet.. He WAITS for you!" Hmmm... indeed he was correct. I thought I had given my last Good Friday Camp- I was wrong!
This year's Good Friday Camp ran as a well-oiled machine. It should, I have been doing it for about 5 or 6 years. The efforts of preparation for it remind me of the 6 weeks of Lent as we prepare for our walk with Jesus. There is lots to do... lists to create, supplies to gather, quiet reflection, selection of help for the event. It doesn't seem to get old either! (Although, I am!) The kids are just as enthused ... the story hasn't changed in 2000 years... and technology has not moved it into a new place of media hype.
This year however brought some differences for me. The building changed .. the teachers changed .... some of the kids changed ...but the message remained the same. And really, I didn't change! God, found me in all my shortcomings and plopped me right back to a place where I can change the world again! Incredible. Talk about redemption!
For me, Good Friday this year wasn't just about a day's agenda to plow through with 40 friends. It held much deeper significance. It was truly a walk through Jesus' last week of strife and conflict. It was a reminder to me that even Jesus was revered as a hero on Palm Sunday and crucified 5 days later! It hurt to know that His people would spare a murderer over him. His best friend would deny him. Another close friend turns him in for a few coins, and the rest fall asleep on him! It was sad really to watch Peter try to act in violence in Jesus' name when really just minutes later he wouldn't begin to not know anything about Jesus or His ministry. It especially hurt to watch his friends, one by one, save their own asses, and hide just when he needed them most! It further hurt to consider how folks ridiculed him, teased him, accused him of lying and mayhem, and better yet were so incredibly jealous of him that they would go to any measure to make sure no one knew of him anymore... allow His light to shine! I actually choked back tears after relating this to my young friends. I knew EXACTLY how all of these things felt! Truly. And yet, I was not facing death on a cross. I already had.
These feelings began early that morning. I had a flash of all the horror before I even got to the camp. I found myself uttering, "Father, please forgive them for they know not what they have done," in the Stop-n-Shop with my 3.5 year old nephew going into his first Good Friday Camp! "What you saying Aunt Dew?" I just mumbled, "Nothing..." and that he should help me pick up the proverbial Cross, (the themed snack made from Ritz crackers and Cheeze-Whiz), with me and continue on to Golgotha!
Good Friday Camp, to me, (I have joked for years), is my "penance". I speak for 5 hours straight... haha.. I know... and TRUST me it does exhaust me! As we began the tedious task of painting all 14 stations.. I began to wonder about my own 2mile walk to the hill. I wondered about how I have dropped my cross 3x! (or more!) I remembered a kind woman, (many), handing me a towel along the way to wipe my face. I was hoping I left a lasting memory with her too at some point in my tenure. I felt for Simon , a strange man in a strange land being forced into a situation that he knew nothing about.. fearing that helping this rebel would lead him into a early grave. Instead good things came to Simon, besides his conversion! I thought of those continuing to revile Christ along the way... taunting him with remarks..."You deserve everything you got!"... "This is your karma!"... "Go back to Florida ... I mean Nazareth, where you belong!" and I wondered how it felt for Him when He knew he wasn't a Blasphemer.
As I was on the walk to Golgotha thoughts about the events were racing through my head. I think about how Pontius Pilot was put in a precarious situation and how cleverly he tried to get the people to choose Jesus over Barabbas. Pilot was a smart and clever military man.. he knew that Jesus was not a real threat.. (which meant he was secure in his power). Surely, he could blind the Jewish people by convincing them that a Barabbas out walking the streets was a far cry from a Jesus professing peace and equality.. favoring the unique and meek of this world... and yet, his plan backfired. He too was looking for Jesus to confess to a sin he did not commit to make it easy upon himself, and thus the decision was placed in the hands of the scared and fear filled! Death is an inevitable outcome in a tug of war.
They stripped Jesus of his belongings. They played a game to keep his things. Heirlooms made from his Mother just scattered about the few who could've cared less for the "seamless" labor and love of how they were made. The feeling as though they somehow "deserved" these items. Jesus however, never blinked an eye in the end. He continued to help the grief stricken. Those that could not be healed. He assured the many heartbroken, that in fact, He would come again. He told the children he loved them. They meant the most to Him. The 2 criminals on either side of Him were even interested in His story. One in fact told Him he believed, and asked Jesus if there was a place for him in Heaven.... Jesus invited him along for the ride.
As we remember, His best friend Mary, John, the Disciple he loved the most, and his Mother stood beside Him in his final hours. Thankfully God did not allow the struggle to last forever. It was a quick death! Jesus' body was laid to rest by a kind and giving man named Joseph. He had followed Jesus, and felt that Jesus deserved a place to rest. A new cave... this time not one inhabited by animals in which he first came into this world. It was a prelude to new life.
The rest we know to be History! The rise 3days later that Mary Magdalene was witness to let us all know that out of darkness comes light! No one can keep us in a cave, no matter how large the stone. God has work for us to do and we must keep our attention on that work and let God continue to resurrect us into the light of a new day. The Disciples were called to believe that Jesus had come back- they were invited to touch and see a Risen Jesus!
Hallelujah, Hallelujah He is Risen!
Happy Easter,
Miss Dawn
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Off with their Heads!
I just came back from Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland". It was as I expected... dark and strangely real. Really, how can it be anything else coming from him?? I've never seen more head offing's by the largest head you've ever seen, 3D Reality, and even more grim, the search for the truth! Tackling your biggest fears and looking them straight on, or through the proverbial "looking glass", up close and magnified can scare anyone into not telling the Queen of Hearts that you ate her Tarts! I contemplated this spiritual journey so much today that I stopped at Barnes and Noble on my way home to pick up a copy of Alice's Wonderland... a blog is to come!
But for now.. the main event... and that is answering to sentences before the verdicts...as the Hatter is faced with... and unfortunately many of us in this lifetime.
The Mark Gospel tells the story about the fate of John the Baptist. His head was off'd!
In preparing a Sunday sermon, even for myself, I am forever perplexed as to how to handle delivering such a vulgar text to children... (I should just consult with Disney.. as they do it ALL the time!) Quite often I jump to a reading from the morning instead! Most Gospel readings are easily communicated to the young. At times, some lack the substance of a good tellable story. No meat in which to sink my story-telling brain into! Others can be too abstract and short... and yet I seem to make it through.. (quite often, and not intentionally, delivering the message through the child, who in turn tell the family who couldn't make heads or tales out of the sermon in "big church." ) And lastly, there is the Gospel story which really isn't tellable to children. (There are a few...) But for now, I am lucky to live in the moment of communicating my thoughts to the grown-up worshipper!
Refresher: John the Baptist= Cousin to Jesus through Mary, son of Elizabeth and Zacchariah (aging parents thought to be unable to conceive), reportedly born 6 months prior to Jesus' arrival. Elizabeth's womb lept when a pregnant Mary visited her, grows to be a great prophet, lives an ascetic life.. in the wilderness preaching about the coming of one greater than he, claims he baptises with water, while one greater than he will baptise with the fire! He is "wild and woolly".. dressed in his animal fur and eating locusts and honey .. greeting people in the river Jordan prophesying and cleaning them.. preaching loudly about what is to come.
Ok.. you remember now? The untellable part.. the beheading. A very gorey and gruesome telling by Mark, who transcribes from Simon-Peter, the manner in which John faces his death. John is critical of King Herod and his wife Herodia. They have an incestuous marriage that is also considered adulterous. (Now.. its getting good.. how on earth could this juicy story be communicated to children???) HE is quoting scripture and Jewish law that firmly spells out that what these two are doing is clearly wrong. He is not quiet about this! As well he shouldn't if one is considered a prophet. It is unclear however if Herodia's divorce from her husband.. (Herod's brother), to marry Herod is considered sinful in the eyes of theologians.. as a.) she did divorce him/lived separately from him and b.) could remarry if it so pleased her if that was the truthful case. The reality I'm afraid though, is that Herodia was also Herod's niece.. yuck. and found to be in a pleasing marriage previously to Phillip. Nothing wrong with him according to the story.. she just wanted another man. NO sign of his infidelity, unfaithful behavior. Supported her, cared for her, etc.. good husband.. she just wanted another man! Oh and yes.. which happened to be her husband's brother... another Jewish/Biblical No-No. (and Phillip was still alive!)John does not make this easy for them. He is prophet.. prophets are not quiet even to those in authority. Those of means and/or living the exact way they want never want to be questioned. They have large agendas to fulfill.. no one will stand in their way! We know what happens to those who prophesies and speak up.. one of 2 things.. they are the receivers of wheels full of grease or.. off with their head. We know John's fate. But there comes a time when the moment of truth is given to the executioner. Unlike Alice's tale, most of us do not know when that day will arrive.
"A prophet is a truth-teller and often governing authorities don't like a truth-teller telling the truth about them." "A prophet is one who speaks to those in power. A prophet usually gets into trouble for criticizing the governing authorities. Those authorities often imprison or kill that prophet in order to silence him. The prophet becomes a martyr.. one who dies for the faith." Interesting set of defining terms. A prophet is the proverbial, "whistle-blower".. one might say. All truthful to me... however..it is clearly up to the listener to decide who in fact is being employed to prophesies God's truth or their own! or Am I late? or is just a figure of my imagination??
The one called to say, "prepare the way of the Lord", however had no other agenda. He did his thing. He baptised folks in a river. He preached and shouted to all that would listen about the love that was near and here to save us all." He defended scripture, sure. But so did many Jewish officials and high priests. They just weren't "loud." Prophets are always loud.. they quite often get in trouble for "opening their big mouth"... exposing the injustice, telling the media the "real-deal." The punishment in society for calling a spade a spade is quite often a large one.. (unless you can afford high end counsel or decide that the exposition of the fake or defending of the truth is more important than your own welfare.)
Prophets don't lead a life they cover up. They wear what they want. Drive what they want. Live wherever they need too.. they lay it all out there... (As our friend Alice does. She quite often tells those around her who and what she is once she figures out that is what she is here to do.) They know what they are called to do. The deal they make to this is between them and their creator.. not for someone else's judgement. Whether or not they decided to give up a materialistic life is not a mystery. They certainly don't act duplicitous by "preaching one thing and living something different." If you were a prophet ... (and I believe we are all prophets on some level), and you choose to drive a a ride for "the people" then you should also own the fact that you do so to live in a home worth 2 millions dollars on the water. However, don't preach about poverty and service, and hide your assets aways! John didn't. He wore his craziness out in the public eye... as does the Mad Hatter... who isn't so mad ! He lived the way he thought God wanted him too.. he lived the way he could better hear the word of God...most importantly.
Herod liked John. That's the irony of the story. He enjoyed his preaching, his work with others. Thought him a holy man. Herodia on the other hand, did not! She had a mission in her mind and that was to remove that which caused her to examine her life and actions. (Our Queen). She couldn't by law do anything with John. (Unlike the Queen). She wasn't in the authority to do so. It wasn't until Herod "opened his big mouth" at a birthday, given by him, in his own honor, that prompted him to make a deal he couldn't get out of. Herodia's daughter gave a dance performance for her step-father.. one is led to believe it may have been promiscuous although scripture does not support this. How ever it was performed was so appealing to Herod that he in fact promises her anything at all that she may want.. boasting.. even half of what he owns! (Remember this promise is bellowed throughout a large party with many ears and eyes watching). Historically, Salome, (a name that is widely known but without evidence to be truth), asks her mother what it is she should ask for. Well.. Herodia can't resist but to ask for John the Baptist's head.. on a platter no less! Surely Herod cannot turn down a "deal" made in public. She manipulated her husband to do exactly her bidding in order to take care of a "loud mouth." How Herod must have felt. To be the one credited with killing the Baptiser! It may have been one thing had he really despised him. But, he didn't. A man of Herod's power and status could've eliminated him any time previous to this occasion had he felt threatened by his power. Herod was guilt ridden. He had no choice but to execute John. John's head was served up on the silver tray to Herodia as ordered by her to her daughter.
I write this story to you as someone who had a head-offer in their life.... was very influential in the direction or future of my life and fate. Someone who caused significant damage to me like Herodia does to John. Cut my head off so to speak. Ironically, this person, claimed publicly that they in fact they were here to do this work.. referring to themselves very loudly and openly, as "John the Baptist". "The wild and woolly beast sent in to shake things up.. be the loud mouth and prepare the way!" When in fact they were the Queen of Hearts. They were claiming to be a prophet. They were claiming the right to behave in a way because they were authorized by "God" to do so.
The story of Alice is one of opposites. One of questioning if the glass is half full or empty. Whether time is measured by the day or by the hour- it is story to help us believe that we are capable of doing 6 impossible things before breakfast everyday. Are we too big for the rabbit hole? Or, is he mad? or Am I?It is interesting- because they're are no clear answers and no, one Queen, who gets to pass judgement on others fates, eliminating those before they get too close to the truth! "Off with their heads"... "No soup for you" (Seinfeldian), mentality that really can affect us.
John's death did not put an end to his legacy. NO- in fact it helped him to become even bigger than who he was. He still does not hide his fate or his mission. Jesus still was the way after John's death. Jesus is still the way after his own head-offer did away with him! Alice found out that she needed to face her stuff head on. She was rocked with confusion about life and death throughout this story but when the blue caterpillar informs her that death is impossible and that transformation is always the next step she discovers that you no longer have anything to fear. She looks into the face of the deck/death and screams, "You are only a pack of cards!" She knows that one person's view isn't enough! It's YOUR reality that is real!
John knew who he was. So did Jesus. And in the end so did Alice!
The sequel to follow...
Mad as a Hatter in Newport
But for now.. the main event... and that is answering to sentences before the verdicts...as the Hatter is faced with... and unfortunately many of us in this lifetime.
The Mark Gospel tells the story about the fate of John the Baptist. His head was off'd!
In preparing a Sunday sermon, even for myself, I am forever perplexed as to how to handle delivering such a vulgar text to children... (I should just consult with Disney.. as they do it ALL the time!) Quite often I jump to a reading from the morning instead! Most Gospel readings are easily communicated to the young. At times, some lack the substance of a good tellable story. No meat in which to sink my story-telling brain into! Others can be too abstract and short... and yet I seem to make it through.. (quite often, and not intentionally, delivering the message through the child, who in turn tell the family who couldn't make heads or tales out of the sermon in "big church." ) And lastly, there is the Gospel story which really isn't tellable to children. (There are a few...) But for now, I am lucky to live in the moment of communicating my thoughts to the grown-up worshipper!
Refresher: John the Baptist= Cousin to Jesus through Mary, son of Elizabeth and Zacchariah (aging parents thought to be unable to conceive), reportedly born 6 months prior to Jesus' arrival. Elizabeth's womb lept when a pregnant Mary visited her, grows to be a great prophet, lives an ascetic life.. in the wilderness preaching about the coming of one greater than he, claims he baptises with water, while one greater than he will baptise with the fire! He is "wild and woolly".. dressed in his animal fur and eating locusts and honey .. greeting people in the river Jordan prophesying and cleaning them.. preaching loudly about what is to come.
Ok.. you remember now? The untellable part.. the beheading. A very gorey and gruesome telling by Mark, who transcribes from Simon-Peter, the manner in which John faces his death. John is critical of King Herod and his wife Herodia. They have an incestuous marriage that is also considered adulterous. (Now.. its getting good.. how on earth could this juicy story be communicated to children???) HE is quoting scripture and Jewish law that firmly spells out that what these two are doing is clearly wrong. He is not quiet about this! As well he shouldn't if one is considered a prophet. It is unclear however if Herodia's divorce from her husband.. (Herod's brother), to marry Herod is considered sinful in the eyes of theologians.. as a.) she did divorce him/lived separately from him and b.) could remarry if it so pleased her if that was the truthful case. The reality I'm afraid though, is that Herodia was also Herod's niece.. yuck. and found to be in a pleasing marriage previously to Phillip. Nothing wrong with him according to the story.. she just wanted another man. NO sign of his infidelity, unfaithful behavior. Supported her, cared for her, etc.. good husband.. she just wanted another man! Oh and yes.. which happened to be her husband's brother... another Jewish/Biblical No-No. (and Phillip was still alive!)John does not make this easy for them. He is prophet.. prophets are not quiet even to those in authority. Those of means and/or living the exact way they want never want to be questioned. They have large agendas to fulfill.. no one will stand in their way! We know what happens to those who prophesies and speak up.. one of 2 things.. they are the receivers of wheels full of grease or.. off with their head. We know John's fate. But there comes a time when the moment of truth is given to the executioner. Unlike Alice's tale, most of us do not know when that day will arrive.
"A prophet is a truth-teller and often governing authorities don't like a truth-teller telling the truth about them." "A prophet is one who speaks to those in power. A prophet usually gets into trouble for criticizing the governing authorities. Those authorities often imprison or kill that prophet in order to silence him. The prophet becomes a martyr.. one who dies for the faith." Interesting set of defining terms. A prophet is the proverbial, "whistle-blower".. one might say. All truthful to me... however..it is clearly up to the listener to decide who in fact is being employed to prophesies God's truth or their own! or Am I late? or is just a figure of my imagination??
The one called to say, "prepare the way of the Lord", however had no other agenda. He did his thing. He baptised folks in a river. He preached and shouted to all that would listen about the love that was near and here to save us all." He defended scripture, sure. But so did many Jewish officials and high priests. They just weren't "loud." Prophets are always loud.. they quite often get in trouble for "opening their big mouth"... exposing the injustice, telling the media the "real-deal." The punishment in society for calling a spade a spade is quite often a large one.. (unless you can afford high end counsel or decide that the exposition of the fake or defending of the truth is more important than your own welfare.)
Prophets don't lead a life they cover up. They wear what they want. Drive what they want. Live wherever they need too.. they lay it all out there... (As our friend Alice does. She quite often tells those around her who and what she is once she figures out that is what she is here to do.) They know what they are called to do. The deal they make to this is between them and their creator.. not for someone else's judgement. Whether or not they decided to give up a materialistic life is not a mystery. They certainly don't act duplicitous by "preaching one thing and living something different." If you were a prophet ... (and I believe we are all prophets on some level), and you choose to drive a a ride for "the people" then you should also own the fact that you do so to live in a home worth 2 millions dollars on the water. However, don't preach about poverty and service, and hide your assets aways! John didn't. He wore his craziness out in the public eye... as does the Mad Hatter... who isn't so mad ! He lived the way he thought God wanted him too.. he lived the way he could better hear the word of God...most importantly.
Herod liked John. That's the irony of the story. He enjoyed his preaching, his work with others. Thought him a holy man. Herodia on the other hand, did not! She had a mission in her mind and that was to remove that which caused her to examine her life and actions. (Our Queen). She couldn't by law do anything with John. (Unlike the Queen). She wasn't in the authority to do so. It wasn't until Herod "opened his big mouth" at a birthday, given by him, in his own honor, that prompted him to make a deal he couldn't get out of. Herodia's daughter gave a dance performance for her step-father.. one is led to believe it may have been promiscuous although scripture does not support this. How ever it was performed was so appealing to Herod that he in fact promises her anything at all that she may want.. boasting.. even half of what he owns! (Remember this promise is bellowed throughout a large party with many ears and eyes watching). Historically, Salome, (a name that is widely known but without evidence to be truth), asks her mother what it is she should ask for. Well.. Herodia can't resist but to ask for John the Baptist's head.. on a platter no less! Surely Herod cannot turn down a "deal" made in public. She manipulated her husband to do exactly her bidding in order to take care of a "loud mouth." How Herod must have felt. To be the one credited with killing the Baptiser! It may have been one thing had he really despised him. But, he didn't. A man of Herod's power and status could've eliminated him any time previous to this occasion had he felt threatened by his power. Herod was guilt ridden. He had no choice but to execute John. John's head was served up on the silver tray to Herodia as ordered by her to her daughter.
I write this story to you as someone who had a head-offer in their life.... was very influential in the direction or future of my life and fate. Someone who caused significant damage to me like Herodia does to John. Cut my head off so to speak. Ironically, this person, claimed publicly that they in fact they were here to do this work.. referring to themselves very loudly and openly, as "John the Baptist". "The wild and woolly beast sent in to shake things up.. be the loud mouth and prepare the way!" When in fact they were the Queen of Hearts. They were claiming to be a prophet. They were claiming the right to behave in a way because they were authorized by "God" to do so.
The story of Alice is one of opposites. One of questioning if the glass is half full or empty. Whether time is measured by the day or by the hour- it is story to help us believe that we are capable of doing 6 impossible things before breakfast everyday. Are we too big for the rabbit hole? Or, is he mad? or Am I?It is interesting- because they're are no clear answers and no, one Queen, who gets to pass judgement on others fates, eliminating those before they get too close to the truth! "Off with their heads"... "No soup for you" (Seinfeldian), mentality that really can affect us.
John's death did not put an end to his legacy. NO- in fact it helped him to become even bigger than who he was. He still does not hide his fate or his mission. Jesus still was the way after John's death. Jesus is still the way after his own head-offer did away with him! Alice found out that she needed to face her stuff head on. She was rocked with confusion about life and death throughout this story but when the blue caterpillar informs her that death is impossible and that transformation is always the next step she discovers that you no longer have anything to fear. She looks into the face of the deck/death and screams, "You are only a pack of cards!" She knows that one person's view isn't enough! It's YOUR reality that is real!
John knew who he was. So did Jesus. And in the end so did Alice!
The sequel to follow...
Mad as a Hatter in Newport
Saturday, March 6, 2010
"Bless her heart!"
I'm writin' y'all tonite about living in the South! Many of my friends have spent some time living just South of Newport, (if that is REALLY true!) Or, so they tell me! I have had the best time in my home away from home that I can sit here on this warm Saturday eve in late winter/early Spring dreaming about good ol' southern hospitality!
I love the South. I always thought one day I would live there. Once, years ago, I imagined honeymooning in New Orleans. (mind you, never been hitched). Scarlett O'Hara tells Rhett Butler when he asks her, "Scarlett would you ever marry for fun?" Her response.. "Fun for whom?" However, I began to think I could and should be residing there. It always appealed to me. The 80's brought on Steel Magnolias and JFK. Although, Burn Notice... sealed the deal for me! I wondered about attending worship services in the South, pretty dresses, and just enough gossip to intrigue even the most humble Christian! I wasn't wrong... except I thought I would love grits!
When I think of Southern living many interesting details immediately come to mind. Obviously the weather is glorious most of the year. It is like living in Spring, (my favorite season), ALL year... (although, the Tulips still only come out when they're supposed too.) With the exception of that blast of wilting humidity that arrives around late May/June, I have grown very fond of my southern hood. I quickly figured out that "their Summer is our Winter." My childhood friend Wayne lives in the Orlando area. When I asked him about the move to the South, he said, "Dawn, we just stay inside all Summer. October is perfect until May. No shoveling or outrageous heating bills.... c'mon down!" I thought... hmm... that's seems appealing enough. Go home for Christmas snow and be done! I spent much of last Summer there.. and honestly, he was right. Weather at this point in life does make a difference. I love the fact that my god Ra, begins sunning me around this very time, and ends before Thanksgiving. It's a wonderful thing, that Vitamin D !
Besides the temperature.. most importantly is the temperament! Good ol' southern hospitality! It took me a spell to g'it this one...Boy-Howdy... Sometimes I say.. yes.. indeed this is surely the place and other times...."um... speed it up, I could be dying tomorrow!" It is truth when folks tell ya that life is slower and nicer past the Mason-Dixon line. Being kind takes time!!!!
For example, I found a good hair salon finally , (let me define salon... one that is not in someones garage and sells products that have not been distilled in someones backyard!) Anyhow. I have pretty low-maintenance hair.(I am not a full on platinum blonde!) I go in for treatment about 3x a year. My usual appt here is not nearly 4 hours... okay.. let's be fair, perhaps, it was a slow rainy day or that the girl sensed my anxiety as I would much rather have a molar filled than be there.. but none the less.. in the North a filling and my hair usually take about the same amount of time... in the South, it is a personal day from work! I told myself that was okay as perhaps that is the "true mission" of a salon, a day of pampering!
The Publix.. a rather hip chain of grocery markets. (I much prefer to the Winn Dixie or the Piggly-whatever!) There motto, "Where shopping is a pleasure!" I have decided, is really a fact. The 2nd least favorite thing I hate besides the hair salon, is grocery shopping! Just can't stand the crowds and searching for what I need. Mostly though, it's the lugging of my purchases. Upon a rather large shopping excursion... without male company... I happened in the check-out line and I began to bag my own groceries. (comes naturally). Some poor clerk comes running over and quietly sates, "Ma'am what ever on earth are you doin'?" I am dumbfounded and explain that I am baggin' my supplies and I assure them that I intend to pay for them.. (haha) She looks up at me and says, "You're from the North aren't you?" Perhaps, my accent? Perhaps my buttoned up attire? Or simply my work ethic??(Over zealous and over worked way of living).
I sheepishly nodded and smiled... She said, "That's my job." I agreed to let go of this task, be a Belle, or a customer, and move ahead with my adventure. I was telling myself though, "Relax, and enjoy this, this is what woman do here in the South." No sooner had my bags been in the carriage, I place my hands upon the handle of the cart, and the clerk again states, "M'aam.. where can I take you?" "TAKE ME????" I respond and say " Um... no where my shopping is complete, thank you." She said, "Well then fine ma'am, allow me to walk you to your vehicle." She rips the cart from my hands and proceeds out into a 60 degree evening... I am thinking to myself... "Oh shit, do I have cash on me???? We get to the car and I slip her a few bucks and she looks at me as though I have now committed mortal sin..."No thank you ma'am we are not allowed to accept tips. Is this your vehicle? Please pop the hatch for me." I am stopped dead in my tracks staring at her. "Keys ma'am?" I reach for the keys fumbling around in my handbag.. get the car open and I watch her LOAD the groceries into the car!!!!!! I am grateful, but thinking a million thoughts right now.. "Why can't it be snowing? Why can't it be 10 degree wind chill? Whatever happened to Almacs on Bellevue Avenue???"
I sat in the car. I stopped and I watched her retrieve other carriages in the lot scattered here and there and I said.. " THAT's WHY they don't have a carriage depot!!!!!" Okay.. I am officially loving the South! I only wish they had her drive home with you so you could walk those bags up 2 flights of stairs! Oh well...small southern baby steps!
The Suite of lovely Spanish-style, stucco apartments I stay in has a paperboy... if you will. It reminds me of the old show Melrose Place. This place is located on a main strip similar to Thames Street. Paper-people are almost non-existent in cities, and they certainly don't ride bicycles and hum a paper at your door to deliver the morning news... no it is far better than that. There is a paper boy who comes to call at 6am faithfully and the reason I know this is because his beat up pick up truck comes barreling into the complex exactly at dawn and is playing music I would normally find exciting exactly 12 hours later! After the first few mornings of thinking a neighbor had a really loud TV or little kids, I realized that this is how he woke his clients to the delivery of the days' news! Then it became exciting! What would today be???? Def Leopard?,Skynryd?, Styx?, ACDC?, ZZ Top?.. a southern rockers dream reveille! Then Sunday came. The southern hospitality was even present in our paperboy... I lay there, it's quiet as you would imagine on Sunday, 6am.. and I detect a familiar melody...." We've only just begun.. white lace and promises.. " I lay head faced down in my pillow smiling! And softly sing, "A kiss for luck and we're on our way!" I giggled so hard that I was even now loving our paperboy even though my head was still rocking from the Disco 70's band the evening before."
Life in the South is really forgiving.
Many other instances remind me that I like this way of living as, "You are the customer, the little lady, the girl in need of a 4 hour salon treatment and lovingly referred to as "Sugar"...except for the times when I hear, "Bless her heart!" Well. let me say.. when YOU are the one who is the recipient of heart blessing! Well... thankfully years ago, my friend John educated me on this one! John, a friend and colleague, would often use the expression, "Bless her heart!" during times when we were speaking of someone who... well.. needed to be "blessed".
I guess!! Forever, I never knew what this meant, except, that" I" thought it meant his Christianity shining through! I always took to heart his kind blessings and wondered how on earth he could be, "blessing her??" Well. I did not need to spend years in Mobile, as he did, to understand what this truly meant! I had a good southern mentor! Again, just the South's way of being hospitable! (Even, if the grocery clerk said that to me on her way back from my car!)
I can see why people move there. I completely understand why folks HATE living here after being there. (The frigidity on all levels!) I can even see why the men are attracted to "Belledom"... although I TRULY struggle with that one! But, I can say that I have never been welcomed so graciously, treated so decently, and made-over...sometimes so fakishly, (WHO CARES!) then in the South! It is a nice place to visit and live. Where else can you get 10 months of Spring, $1.75 Sam Adams drafts, $63 Dirty Martini's, Valentine's Dinner at a posh country club with the loveliest octogenarians, alcohol and popcorn at the local movie theatre, Indian grocery stores, and a Nascar watching boyfriend! The only thing missing is my platinum doo! (And that's only because I can't sit in the chair for 8 hours!!!)
Damsels in distress???.. maybe... however I have learned that this isn't the worse thing. The South is a flashback at times. It is a reminder that men are men and women are ladies.
We Yankee-chicks sometimes need reminding!
A girl gets used to her life in the South. My airport scenes now end something like this...
Scarlett: "Rhett, Rhett, - Rhett, where shall I ever go? What shall I do?"
Rhett Butler: "Frankly Scarlett, I don't give damn."
Scarlett: "Rhett, don't. I shall faint."
Rhett Butler: "I want you to faint. This is what you were meant for. None of the fools you've ever known have kissed you like this, have they? Your Charles, or your Frank, or your stupid Ashley!"
Scarlett: "Tara! Home. I'll go home. And I'll think of some way to get him back. After all... tomorrow is another day."
Bye y'all,
S. O'H
I love the South. I always thought one day I would live there. Once, years ago, I imagined honeymooning in New Orleans. (mind you, never been hitched). Scarlett O'Hara tells Rhett Butler when he asks her, "Scarlett would you ever marry for fun?" Her response.. "Fun for whom?" However, I began to think I could and should be residing there. It always appealed to me. The 80's brought on Steel Magnolias and JFK. Although, Burn Notice... sealed the deal for me! I wondered about attending worship services in the South, pretty dresses, and just enough gossip to intrigue even the most humble Christian! I wasn't wrong... except I thought I would love grits!
When I think of Southern living many interesting details immediately come to mind. Obviously the weather is glorious most of the year. It is like living in Spring, (my favorite season), ALL year... (although, the Tulips still only come out when they're supposed too.) With the exception of that blast of wilting humidity that arrives around late May/June, I have grown very fond of my southern hood. I quickly figured out that "their Summer is our Winter." My childhood friend Wayne lives in the Orlando area. When I asked him about the move to the South, he said, "Dawn, we just stay inside all Summer. October is perfect until May. No shoveling or outrageous heating bills.... c'mon down!" I thought... hmm... that's seems appealing enough. Go home for Christmas snow and be done! I spent much of last Summer there.. and honestly, he was right. Weather at this point in life does make a difference. I love the fact that my god Ra, begins sunning me around this very time, and ends before Thanksgiving. It's a wonderful thing, that Vitamin D !
Besides the temperature.. most importantly is the temperament! Good ol' southern hospitality! It took me a spell to g'it this one...Boy-Howdy... Sometimes I say.. yes.. indeed this is surely the place and other times...."um... speed it up, I could be dying tomorrow!" It is truth when folks tell ya that life is slower and nicer past the Mason-Dixon line. Being kind takes time!!!!
For example, I found a good hair salon finally , (let me define salon... one that is not in someones garage and sells products that have not been distilled in someones backyard!) Anyhow. I have pretty low-maintenance hair.(I am not a full on platinum blonde!) I go in for treatment about 3x a year. My usual appt here is not nearly 4 hours... okay.. let's be fair, perhaps, it was a slow rainy day or that the girl sensed my anxiety as I would much rather have a molar filled than be there.. but none the less.. in the North a filling and my hair usually take about the same amount of time... in the South, it is a personal day from work! I told myself that was okay as perhaps that is the "true mission" of a salon, a day of pampering!
The Publix.. a rather hip chain of grocery markets. (I much prefer to the Winn Dixie or the Piggly-whatever!) There motto, "Where shopping is a pleasure!" I have decided, is really a fact. The 2nd least favorite thing I hate besides the hair salon, is grocery shopping! Just can't stand the crowds and searching for what I need. Mostly though, it's the lugging of my purchases. Upon a rather large shopping excursion... without male company... I happened in the check-out line and I began to bag my own groceries. (comes naturally). Some poor clerk comes running over and quietly sates, "Ma'am what ever on earth are you doin'?" I am dumbfounded and explain that I am baggin' my supplies and I assure them that I intend to pay for them.. (haha) She looks up at me and says, "You're from the North aren't you?" Perhaps, my accent? Perhaps my buttoned up attire? Or simply my work ethic??(Over zealous and over worked way of living).
I sheepishly nodded and smiled... She said, "That's my job." I agreed to let go of this task, be a Belle, or a customer, and move ahead with my adventure. I was telling myself though, "Relax, and enjoy this, this is what woman do here in the South." No sooner had my bags been in the carriage, I place my hands upon the handle of the cart, and the clerk again states, "M'aam.. where can I take you?" "TAKE ME????" I respond and say " Um... no where my shopping is complete, thank you." She said, "Well then fine ma'am, allow me to walk you to your vehicle." She rips the cart from my hands and proceeds out into a 60 degree evening... I am thinking to myself... "Oh shit, do I have cash on me???? We get to the car and I slip her a few bucks and she looks at me as though I have now committed mortal sin..."No thank you ma'am we are not allowed to accept tips. Is this your vehicle? Please pop the hatch for me." I am stopped dead in my tracks staring at her. "Keys ma'am?" I reach for the keys fumbling around in my handbag.. get the car open and I watch her LOAD the groceries into the car!!!!!! I am grateful, but thinking a million thoughts right now.. "Why can't it be snowing? Why can't it be 10 degree wind chill? Whatever happened to Almacs on Bellevue Avenue???"
I sat in the car. I stopped and I watched her retrieve other carriages in the lot scattered here and there and I said.. " THAT's WHY they don't have a carriage depot!!!!!" Okay.. I am officially loving the South! I only wish they had her drive home with you so you could walk those bags up 2 flights of stairs! Oh well...small southern baby steps!
The Suite of lovely Spanish-style, stucco apartments I stay in has a paperboy... if you will. It reminds me of the old show Melrose Place. This place is located on a main strip similar to Thames Street. Paper-people are almost non-existent in cities, and they certainly don't ride bicycles and hum a paper at your door to deliver the morning news... no it is far better than that. There is a paper boy who comes to call at 6am faithfully and the reason I know this is because his beat up pick up truck comes barreling into the complex exactly at dawn and is playing music I would normally find exciting exactly 12 hours later! After the first few mornings of thinking a neighbor had a really loud TV or little kids, I realized that this is how he woke his clients to the delivery of the days' news! Then it became exciting! What would today be???? Def Leopard?,Skynryd?, Styx?, ACDC?, ZZ Top?.. a southern rockers dream reveille! Then Sunday came. The southern hospitality was even present in our paperboy... I lay there, it's quiet as you would imagine on Sunday, 6am.. and I detect a familiar melody...." We've only just begun.. white lace and promises.. " I lay head faced down in my pillow smiling! And softly sing, "A kiss for luck and we're on our way!" I giggled so hard that I was even now loving our paperboy even though my head was still rocking from the Disco 70's band the evening before."
Life in the South is really forgiving.
Many other instances remind me that I like this way of living as, "You are the customer, the little lady, the girl in need of a 4 hour salon treatment and lovingly referred to as "Sugar"...except for the times when I hear, "Bless her heart!" Well. let me say.. when YOU are the one who is the recipient of heart blessing! Well... thankfully years ago, my friend John educated me on this one! John, a friend and colleague, would often use the expression, "Bless her heart!" during times when we were speaking of someone who... well.. needed to be "blessed".
I guess!! Forever, I never knew what this meant, except, that" I" thought it meant his Christianity shining through! I always took to heart his kind blessings and wondered how on earth he could be, "blessing her??" Well. I did not need to spend years in Mobile, as he did, to understand what this truly meant! I had a good southern mentor! Again, just the South's way of being hospitable! (Even, if the grocery clerk said that to me on her way back from my car!)
I can see why people move there. I completely understand why folks HATE living here after being there. (The frigidity on all levels!) I can even see why the men are attracted to "Belledom"... although I TRULY struggle with that one! But, I can say that I have never been welcomed so graciously, treated so decently, and made-over...sometimes so fakishly, (WHO CARES!) then in the South! It is a nice place to visit and live. Where else can you get 10 months of Spring, $1.75 Sam Adams drafts, $63 Dirty Martini's, Valentine's Dinner at a posh country club with the loveliest octogenarians, alcohol and popcorn at the local movie theatre, Indian grocery stores, and a Nascar watching boyfriend! The only thing missing is my platinum doo! (And that's only because I can't sit in the chair for 8 hours!!!)
Damsels in distress???.. maybe... however I have learned that this isn't the worse thing. The South is a flashback at times. It is a reminder that men are men and women are ladies.
We Yankee-chicks sometimes need reminding!
A girl gets used to her life in the South. My airport scenes now end something like this...
Scarlett: "Rhett, Rhett, - Rhett, where shall I ever go? What shall I do?"
Rhett Butler: "Frankly Scarlett, I don't give damn."
Scarlett: "Rhett, don't. I shall faint."
Rhett Butler: "I want you to faint. This is what you were meant for. None of the fools you've ever known have kissed you like this, have they? Your Charles, or your Frank, or your stupid Ashley!"
Scarlett: "Tara! Home. I'll go home. And I'll think of some way to get him back. After all... tomorrow is another day."
Bye y'all,
S. O'H
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
