Sunday, March 31, 2024

March Twenty-Twenty-Four

Happy Easter!

"We rise with God’s Love that brings us together to love one another,

we rise to bring God’s promise of justice and freedom to earth as in heaven.

We rise to remember that each one of us…. is a part of God’s heart, made in God’s image, worth of dignity and respect.

Jesus’ great invitation to rise in love continues today—for you and for all of us to join together in the Beloved Community of God here on earth."

— Paul Raushenbush, Together We Rise - An Easter Story For All of Us

Chuckanut Birthday 50K

For What You Find on the Mountaintop

We thank you for allowing us to journey up. That we would be able to see a place not just from within it but from a distance is a gift we do not readily comprehend. Here, as we look out at what seems as if it can fit in the palm of our hand, remind us of beauty’s vastness. In this moment may we be both large and small. Remind us that beauty isn’t merely for our consumption, but that it is something to be protected. Grow in us a wonder that is willing to bow to the beauty of the natural world, that it would be a path to humility and not ego. That we would understand it does not exist for us, but it is our divine fortune that we would be moved by it. And we are moved, God. May this view form us and keep us, as we allow our souls to remain stirred when we return to the ground we’ve known. May it be so.

- -Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies

For Beauty in the Mundane

God of every beautiful thing, make us people of wonder. Show us how to hold on to nuance and vision when our souls become addicted to pain, to the unlovely. It is far easier to see the gloom and decay; so often it sings a louder song. Attune our hearts to the good still stirring in our midst, not that we would give ourselves to toxic positivity or neglect the pain of the world, but that we would be people capable of existing in the tension. Grant us habits of sacred pause. Let us marvel not just at the grand or majestic, but beauty’s name etched into every ordinary moment. Let the mundane swell with a mystery that makes us breathe deeper still. And by this, may we be sustained and kept from despair.

-Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies

Living vicariously through our kids below....

Anna in her study abroad program in Ushuaia, Argentina

with a 10 day excursion to Antarctica that she just returned from this past week

and Taylor on an epic rock climbing trip with friends to Red Rocks, Nevada for his spring break

Saturday, March 30, 2024

Easter Eve

Such a sweet Easter Eve to keep the traditions going.... Trader Joe's donated flowers again so Corinne Hill came over to help me decorate the Easter cross for tomorrow, and Elijah, Ezra, & Zeke Epperson and Clare Dettori came over to help me draw the hearts down the sidewalk between 52nd and 55th again. 💗💗💗💗💗

Elijah (definitely the MVP of the sidewalk chalk helpers today!)

best little helpers!!

Clare

Zeke

Zeke and Ezra

Zeke also made a couple of fairy houses in our yard :)

Friday, March 29, 2024

Be present at our table...

I've heard some table blessings that begin with "Be present at our table, Lord...", and I love it as a reminder that God is in our midst as we gather around the table (and also a reminder for us to be present to one another).

Grateful for some very special evenings we've had this week around our table this week....

Monday night dinner with Zion Lily and Sikose

Tuesday night dinner for the Hands for a Bridge teachers who came to Roosevelt High School for two weeks from South Africa. How amazing for Sikose to get to speak Xhosa around the table!!

(Taylor went with this program to Northern Ireland last year, and I've stayed involved with the project this year. When I found out South African teachers were coming, I was so excited to volunteer our house for an evening dinner. And it just so happened that it was one of the teachers' birthdays, so we pulled out all the stops!)