Just for Fun

The Recipe For Carolyn

3 parts Originality 2 parts Intensity 1 part Attractiveness Splash of Laughter Finish off with a little umbrella and straw

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

Epiphany - Los Reyes Magos

Enjoy this traditional music for Los Reyes Magos, Epiphany

¡Ya Vienen Los Reyes Magos!
On January 6, most of the Hispanic world celebrates El Dia De Reyes, the Epiphany, remembering the day when the Three Wise Men following the star to Bethlehem, arrived bearing their treasured gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for the Baby Jesus. In Mexico, on the night, of January 5, the figurines of the Three Wise Men are added to the nativity scene. Before going to bed the children place their old shoes under their bed or in the living room, where the Wise Men will leave them their presents. Some also place outside the house, some hay and a bucket with water for the animals, and even some cookies and milk for Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar.
You can feel the excitement building up! With twinkling eyes, the children eagerly, and constantly ask what time it is, wishing for time to fly so they could open their presents.

Reluctantly they go off to bed.

As soon as they wake up, which is earlier than any other day, they run to see the gifts that the Three Magi left for them. Happiness overflows every Mexican home.

The children spend the day playing and admiring each other’s presents, sharing them with friends, talking about how they were able to hear or see the Reyes Magos when they arrived at their home, how one of them heard the camel’s footsteps, how the other saw a shining crown in the dark night!

Meanwhile, adults prepare for the Merienda de Reyes, an early evening dinner that friends and families share to celebrate the Epiphany. Here in my corner of the world, a new Hispanic restaurant down the street from the Rescue Mission, Madre, opened their doors to host a Three Kings buffet for the women and children of the Mission, free of charge,in the spirit of giving as the Three Kings gave and to open the door to a cultural tradition. Those I saw as they came in last night, really enjoyed the experience.

Voices of the Street

At Christmas, my church choir sang an anthem about Mary and Joseph looking for room- paraphrasing:

They walk the city streets at night, in pockets of the poor

Will there be room for them tonite?
Will we find space to spare?
Will there be room for them tonite?
Will we find space to share?

This week I began my work with the Water Street Rescue Mission in Lancaster, Pennsylvania as a part of my fulfilling of a multicultural experience requirement for seminary. You can learn more about the extensive programming they offer at WSRM. Over the month I will volunteer about 18-20 hours broken up into three hour shifts. I am a spare pair of hands for the counselor on duty in the Womens Ministry Shelter, and most of my shifts are from 7-10 pm.

On Thursday night I began my first shift. It was getting down into the teens and breezy outside as I came in. I thought about how I take for granted that I can come in to a warm shelter every day. And that if I could not come to my home, that I am blessed with family and friends in many places.

There are about 30 women and children on our floor. The women are a diverse lot in terms of ages and racial and ethnic backgrounds. The children are both pre-school and school aged. I wonder what it is like to go to school from the shelter. I wonder what it is like to be in multiple schools in a year as the adults are trying to hold it all together.

At 8:30, everyone must be in the shelter and check in, unless they are working. The women line up, and one by one take a breathalyzer, receive any medications they are taking, a pass for the following day, any mail for them, vitamins for the children. Most of the women are on many medications for a variety of ailments.

As they come in, we also hear their concerns about job searches, relationship issues, health concerns, and the stresses of life. This is a lot of people in a relatively small space, so tension can erupt.

One woman is saddened because she did not pass a certification test for employment, and she is starting from scratch again. She has been here three months and she wants to be able to move on. One woman has learned that he significant other is not taking her calls, and has sent her no money- it has settled in that it is over. One woman has severe chronic health issues that affect her thinking but has been unable to qualify for the Social Security disability that would give her a chance to be elsewhere. A phone call comes from a woman who has just been discharged from the prison. She needed an address for parole and they sent her here. But she really needs to get to where her family is. We have no room, but we check the bus schedule, and confirm there is one yet tonite. We calculate the busfare, and give it to her, with directions to the stop, and a hat and gloves. She has walked three miles to get here, now she must walk half a mile to catch the bus.

The stories go on. Many of these women do not want to be here, like the one who has just gotten a job at a nearby college in maintenance. But how far can $6.50 an hour go when you need to live and eat, and get to work, and you are a single woman in your late 50's? What about the woman with four kids who, until the new family shelter opened where they would not be split up, they were sleeping in her car the week before Christmas? Or the veteran with PTSD whose wife told him to leave, and then quit paying the VA mortgage on their home where she was living, causing him to lose not only the house when she left it, but all of his VA benefits? Default on a VA mortgage rescinds all other benefits including health. The default notices came to her and she threw them away because it was not important to her.

I am thankful for this opportunity, not because it shows me a multicultural environment ( I already have worked with Legal Services and have seen people from all walks of life for years). I am thankful for the chance to see more clearly the real nature of homelessness, and also the role faith plays in the lives of these women. As with most of my experiences, I think others give much more to me than I give to them. There are plenty who have made mistakes, the difference is that when some of us mess up, we have a safety net. Others do not. "As you do to the least of these, you do to me."


To learn more about homelessness, visit National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Lord, you bless so many of us with an abundance. May we always be aware that we are blessed to be a blessing to others, that all that you provide is for this purpose. Open our eyes and our hearts to those in need that we may be your hands that share and care. Amen

Friday Five- Resolutions edition ( for the non-resolution-maker)

Well it had to be didn't it, love them or hate them I bet you've been asked about New Year resolutions. So with no more fuss here is this weeks Friday Five from Rev Gals ;

1. Do you make New Year resolutions?
No, but I think if I am honest, I do internally take stock of life periodically. My perpetual resolution each day is to seek God's will and to strive to be an instrument of God's will in all I think, say and do.
2. Is this something you take seriously, or is it a bit of fun?
Although the goal is serious, I don't take myself too seriously.
3. Share one goal for 2008.
Hard to choose- I could say survive CPE and endorsement interviews, try not to cry that my oldest will celebrate her Sweet 16, and youngest will get confirmed. But I think, the best answer is that I continue to try and do #1.
4. Money is no barrier, share one wild/impossible dream for 2008
Achieve world peace and end world hunger- any amount of money would be worth it. But a backup plan would be to do all of the things in the song, "Live Like You Were Dying" ( I am not a country music fan, and I am not in poor health, but it just speaks to me, with the adjustment that I am female and not male). Although most of the things in this song do not require money.


5. Someone wants to publish a story of your year in 2008, what will the title of that book be?
Walking by Faith

Quincy's Meme

Dave over at Here I Stand posted on a sad note, that they had to put Quincy, the family dog, to sleep. Certainly, we pray for Dave and the family because we all know that pets are people too. Their stories are our stories. One thing that can guarantee good conversation is a sharing of the antics of our animals. So, in honor of Quincy and all of our animal companions past and present, I thought I would post a couple pet antics form our house and create a new meme.
1. What is an amusing anecdote about a pet friend in your life (past or present)?
My Beloved and I have had two great dogs, Stirling, who was a wonderful shorthaired pointer, and Buddy the beagle, the current Resident. When we owned Stirling, we were newlyweds, before children, in a new house- in other words we were pretty clueless. Our house was a bi-level with a deck off of the back of the upper level that had stairs down to the back yard. I usually was the one to let the dog out the back to the yard when we got home from work for the "do your business, eat, play" evening routine, which required keeping her on a lead because she wanted to hunt everything. However, when it was time to come in, which usually meant dinner or a treat or toy, no lead was required. She would bound up that set of stairs, a couple at a time,ahead of the human, setting new world speed records. My Beloved is a very structured person, and all things happen in a routinized way. When putting out the dog, you open the sliding door, step out onto the deck, close the door firmly, walk the dog down, come back up, open the door, step in, close the door, put the leash on the counter, wait for the dog to bark that she wants in and repeat. I, on the other hand, open the door, take the dog out, come back up through the open door, andn repeat at the end.
This meant the dog would bound up the stairs, through the open door and to the food bowl with glee.
So one day, my Beloved does the evening routine, and at the end, the dog comes bounding up the stairs in the sprint to the food bowl, and..BAM, right into the CLOSED glass door. Who changed the routine? She sat there for a moment, a little dazed, shook it off and came in. After that for some time she would look at the door as if to try and figure out what had happened.
This year, our beagle, Buddy is becoming a senior citizen for sure. He cannot hear well, he cannot see well, he sometimes gets confused. This year, when we put up the Christmas tree, I came downstairs the next day, and the tree skirt was wet. I assumed it had gotten caught in the water, and it would dry. But for several days we were noticing a similar problem. Which turned out to be that Buddy thought the tree was a tree that needed to be marked. If there was a new Dr Seuss book, it would be Pee on Tree. See tree. See tree pee. No, no you must not pee on tree.
2. What is a gift a pet gave to you when you really needed it?
At the end of a really hard day, Buddy will always come over, tail wagging, and climbs up into my lap, nuzzles in and snuggles. He is so loving and content that whatever has gone awry, you just feel embraced.
3. Share a picture of one or more of your pets- extra points for amusing photos.
I am working on a photo to post.
Gracious God, we thank you for all of your creation. We especially thank you for the animals that grace our lives. May we learn the unquestioning love they share with us. Bless all of our pets, and those who care for them. Amen
So, now for the three questions, I tag Diane at Faith in Community , Dave, of course at Here I Stand and Dogblogger .

Home Alone

The time before Christmas and the holidays are such a blur, and much happened on the homefront that I meant to write about as it was happening but it all unfolded too quickly in some ways. I have posted before about our spare teen, D. She has continued to spend lots of time with us, and in church on Wednesdays and Sundays. She is preparing for her baptism on Easter Vigil, and will be confirmed with LC#2 on All Saints Sunday. Her family situation continues to be very troubling and discordant. What happened recently made me think of the story of the Little Match Girl which I think was by Hans Christian Andersen.
Two weeks before Christmas, we had an ice storm. The schools dismissed early, but the public library was open. I picked up my two kids from school, but they told me that they thought D took the bus home. She had instead, walked to the public library in town to read and get a treat at the coffeeshop in the library. Unfortunately, about 2:00 p.m., the power went out in our entire town, and the library had to close. D. now had nowhere to go but to head for home. So she walked about two miles to get home. She is not allowed to have a cell phone and she did not think to come to our house which is only a half mile from the library( she is after all a teenager).
Her Mom is at work about an hour and a half away. Mom’s boyfriend was somewhere, but no one left a key out for her to get into the house ( she is not allowed to have her own key). There seems to be a pattern of the boyfriend locking D out of the house.
So now she is at her house, and it is windy and there is a light freezing rain, and the door is locked and she thinks her Mom will be home in a couple of hours. There are no neighbors at home, and she is cold and wet and tired. She sits down on the front step to wait. The power is off in town until about 5:15 so there is nowhere open she can go. And when it does come on, she could walk a half mile to the convenience store, but she can't stay there forever. Unfortunately her Mom is not home when she thought she would be, and the boyfriend had not come home... No one comes home until 9:00 p.m at night.
Now she is really cold and hungry and tired, and nto surprisingly, she gets sick- she had pneumonia. She misses the rest of school before the break except the last day. And her Mom could only stay home with her for a day or two, so she is home sick alone. And she doesn’t want to bother anyone, and so no one knows.
But by Christmas Eve she is well enough that she can come and sing with the youth choir at church. Before all of this had happened, I suggested to D that she invite her parents to come to see her sing at the service. She seemed skeptical that either would come, and frankly, so did I.
But on Christmas Eve, when we picked her up to go to rehearse, she says she thinks they are coming. And she has a new red shirt and she is excited. And in fact, her Dad and his new wife come for the whole service. Her Mom did come later, but had missed most of the singing by the youth- but she came. And for the first time she is dressed up and with makeup and it looks like she feels like a real person, maybe because she is there without the boyfriend, who D says is a “mean drunk.”
As I communed all of them, I tried to get a sense of it all. Did Dad come because it would be rude to say “no” to his daughter? How hard was it for Mom to tell the boyfriend she was doing something for D regardless of whether he wanted to come? D tells me she hears them argue about her and she knows the boyfriend considers her an intrusion. She tells me she asked for a microwave and a cappuccino maker for her room in the basement so she won’t even have to come upstairs to eat when her Mom is gone and the boyfriend is home. I worry what that really means.
I pray for this blended family that they can rejoice in the gift of each of its members, and that abuse, and fighting can stop, that caring can happen, and that permanence can occur. And I pray that D's Mom finds the strength to be the Mom to her daughter she needs to be, even if that means giving up the relationship with the boyfriend. Even though he is the father of her toddler. People who have known D's mom say she has really changed- she is not who she once was. Does she not care or is it all too overwhelming? I pray for her, and I pray for the safety of D who at least knows she can come to us, and that there is a light. And I pray that she would come to us if things were really dangerous and not just kind of tense.
What must it feel like to be 14 and know that most days, a choice is made which picks everyone but you? I have made sure D knows that she can always call us, and have asked the librarian to let her use the phone to call us if she is there and needs a ride. We have told her she is welcome at our house anytime, even without calling.
And for my part, I think that the next time I am picking D up and the key is under the flower pot, I am going to give her a gift- we’ll make copies ( we'll keep her spare) and she can keep it in her bag. No one needs to know. As much as I can’t fathom why the adults are not responsible, and why she is left to find others to pick up the pieces, I just can’t live with the thought that another day could pass when she can’t get in and she becomes a headline.

A New Year, A New Day

I don't happen to be the resolution-making type. But many people, maybe some of you, do engage in the tradition of pronouncements of intent for the coming year. Many people focus upon things which will make them more organized, more healthy, more attractive, more successful, and the like. The concept of resolutions for those who make them, is both a looking back and looking forward at the same time. It is easy to yearn to be more or less of something than in the prior year. It is natural to look forward to the notion that maybe, just maybe, the future holds a brighter day, a new and improved look or outlook- a fresh start.
Whether we make resolutions or not, many of us, myself included can be attracted to the inherent idea that what one has been is not the ideal of who one longs to be. Of course, magazines and newspapers offer catchy self-help lists and ways to make it oh so simple to perfect what seems to be lacking in our lives and fill in the blanks. Whether it is those pesky 10 ( or in my case 25) pounds, or some other woe in need of reformation, ads for handy products tout the ways in which magic things can transform us and our environs- at least the models look satisfied and self-assured.
And maybe, someone will actually keep their resolution for the year, or the first month, or..maybe next year, like Bridget Jones, she will still be nail-biting, smoking, crash-dieting, losing track of papers, in a dead-end job, alone on New Year's Eve. And all of the panaceas which held such promise will have been cast off.
I think taking stock of where we've been and where we are can be wise- the thought that there is a quick fix to transform us is however, pretty unrealistic. It sounds like a hopeless business.
But luckily, you and I do get a chance for a better today and tomorrow and eternity. Not because of the great product which awaits us ( but wait! Act now and we'll also send...), but because of the greatest story ever told. God's saving grace incarnate in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is what allows me and you to begin not just each year anew, but each day anew. In our baptism, as Martin Luther states in the Fourth Article of the Small Catechism, the old in us has been put to death, and a new person comes forth daily to rise up, cleansed and righteous, to live forever in God's presence. This forgiveness of sins, and rebirth are for me and "for you."
Today, as we celebrate the naming of our Lord, we know that the story of Jesus is not just about coming down to earth to check things out, but allowing Himself to be born, cared for, named, cirumcised, and dwelling with us, as one of us, for us.
So while I do not make annual resolutions, I can resolve each and every day to seek God's will and try to be an instrument of this will in all I think, say and do. Luckily, even when I fail to keep this resolution as I should, instead of having to come back to be simply confronted by yet another failure as the final indictment, our loving God assures us that even though we cannot come to know Him as we ought, we have the blessed assurance of life eternal. This is true not for anything I have done, but the fact that God is trustworthy- that is a resolution we can count on!