Tonight I was driving along in my car and I saw many things that made it a fabulous evening for a drive:
driving west while the sun is setting causes for more than an hour of beautiful colors swirling together in the sky, a straight row of five weeping willows whose leaves have turned a rich shade of yellow, fires burning and smoke billowing creating a much missed smell of fall, crossing bridges over the Illinois River and seeing barges putt through the dark waters, the brown corn stalks standing straight and tall while lining the roads, the majestic and somewhat surreal windmills as the giant blades turned in the evening air
Saturday, October 31, 2009
This is My Home
At Highland Avenue we have had two coffee houses this fall featuring several folk artists in the area. Both evenings this song was sung and it's just beautiful. It was written by Dave Carter and he refers to it as an eco-spirituality number. I was sitting in my office yesterday at work and this song just popped into my head and now I can't stop listening to it!! So I thought I'd share. Enjoy!
ARTIST: Dave Carter
TITLE: Gentle Arms of Eden
On a sleepy endless ocean
When the world lay in a dream
There was rhythm in the splash and roll
But not a voice to sing
But the moon fell on the breakers
And the morning warmed the waves
'Til a single cell did jump and hum
For joy as though to say
{Refrain}
This is my home
This is my only home
This is the only sacred ground that I have ever known
And should I stray
In the dark night alone
Rock me Goddess in the gentle arms of Eden
Then the one shone bright and rounder
'Til the one turned into two
And the two into ten thousand things
And old things into new
And on some virgin beach head
One lonesome critter crawled
And he looked about and shouted out
In his most astonished drawl
{Refrain}
Then all the sky was hummin'
And the ground was carpet green
And the wary children of the woods
Went dancin' in between
And the people sang rejoicing
When the fields were glad with grain
This song of celebration
From their cities on the plain
{Refrain}
Now there's smoke across the harbor
And there's factories on the shore
And the world is ill with greed and will
And enterprise of war
But I will lay my burdens
In the cradle of your grace
And the shining beaches of your love
And the sea of your embrace
This is my home
This in my only home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAGMATHlSK4&feature=related
Can Someone Say Sardines?!
So tonight I hosted our youth group from Highland Avenue at the house for a Halloween Party. It was to be a pretty simple evening of sugar cookie decorating and devouring and Halloween-esque movie watching. Well, we did consume LOTS of sugar cookies. And candy corn. And candy pumpkins. And brownies. And popcorn (I mean we had to have a little bit of salt to offset the massive amounts of sugar). And we did end up watching a movie, but it was one that was showing on TV. And that was fine with everyone. The unexpected thing was that mixed in with the food eating and movie watching was, oh, about two hours of sardines.
Now for those of you who aren't familiar with sardines it's a form of hide and go seek where one person hides and everyone else goes and finds them but when they do find them, they hide with them. It's a great game to play in a space where there are lots of dark corners and hiding places. Did I mention that it is best played in the dark? So you turn off all the lights in the building.
And just for the record, the BVS House is a fabulous place for this game. For many reasons actually. One being that we have a basement AND an attic. Both equally creepy! It's possible to circle through the whole house without being seen. Being heard is an entirely different thing because this house is OLD so it creaks and groans a lot! But it's an awesome place to play this game and the youth had a great time with it. And I'm not gonna lie, I did too! It was funny to hear the shrieks of terror as someone accidentally (or intentionally) ran into someone in the dark or a cobweb, and to hear the giggling commence as people ran into walls or people's arms or legs. I'll be the first to admit that I was right there with them, I had my share of yelling and giggling!
It was a fabulous night all around! And now I'm not quite as scared of the basement as I was before!
Now for those of you who aren't familiar with sardines it's a form of hide and go seek where one person hides and everyone else goes and finds them but when they do find them, they hide with them. It's a great game to play in a space where there are lots of dark corners and hiding places. Did I mention that it is best played in the dark? So you turn off all the lights in the building.
And just for the record, the BVS House is a fabulous place for this game. For many reasons actually. One being that we have a basement AND an attic. Both equally creepy! It's possible to circle through the whole house without being seen. Being heard is an entirely different thing because this house is OLD so it creaks and groans a lot! But it's an awesome place to play this game and the youth had a great time with it. And I'm not gonna lie, I did too! It was funny to hear the shrieks of terror as someone accidentally (or intentionally) ran into someone in the dark or a cobweb, and to hear the giggling commence as people ran into walls or people's arms or legs. I'll be the first to admit that I was right there with them, I had my share of yelling and giggling!
It was a fabulous night all around! And now I'm not quite as scared of the basement as I was before!
Monday, October 26, 2009
Apple-licious Memories
I love the fall season for many reasons, but in this particular case it's because there are tons of apples available. You can go apple picking and then make all sorts of apple-licious things! Now, I can't say that I myself have gone apple picking this fall, but I have at least thought about it! And I ended up receiving a bag full of apples that someone else had the joy of picking.
So I had these apples and wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with them. But then I realized that I had a hankering for some baked apples. This is probably because a good friend of mine had made me baked apples a few weeks before and I wanted to try my hand at it! And that's what I did.
It was my night to make dinner and it was a meal that shouldn't have taken too terribly long, but because I decided to try this new dish, it added a bit of time. So to begin I needed to peel and core the apples. I didn't think too much of this task until I started coring the apples. I cheated a bit and cut them in half first, but when I was cutting the cores out of the halves I had several flashbacks from my childhood.
From all the times I was able to help my grandparents make applesauce and apple butter in their house on Green Street. They had several apple trees out back so we would pick them and then prepare the apples and then cook them down into applesauce. I loved eating the freshly made, lightly spiced applesauce while it was still warm.
I also remembered helping my great aunt and uncle make applesauce. And it was from them that I learned the proper way to cut into an apple to get out the core and not be wasteful of the rest of the apple. I can remember watching Uncle Floyd's giant hands using a small, and very sharp, knife to cut the apples and throw them into a huge pot to cook. We would be sitting around with Aunt Kitty and we would just talk and laugh and I would try my hardest to do a good job. I was much slower than either my aunt or uncle when it came to cutting the apples and they knew how to do it so incredibly well. After all, they had years of experience while I was still learning.
These two memories have been on my mind these past few days. And while I'm so thankful for the memories themselves, I'm more thankful and oh so very blessed to have these folks in my life to have shared these experiences with.
So I had these apples and wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with them. But then I realized that I had a hankering for some baked apples. This is probably because a good friend of mine had made me baked apples a few weeks before and I wanted to try my hand at it! And that's what I did.
It was my night to make dinner and it was a meal that shouldn't have taken too terribly long, but because I decided to try this new dish, it added a bit of time. So to begin I needed to peel and core the apples. I didn't think too much of this task until I started coring the apples. I cheated a bit and cut them in half first, but when I was cutting the cores out of the halves I had several flashbacks from my childhood.
From all the times I was able to help my grandparents make applesauce and apple butter in their house on Green Street. They had several apple trees out back so we would pick them and then prepare the apples and then cook them down into applesauce. I loved eating the freshly made, lightly spiced applesauce while it was still warm.
I also remembered helping my great aunt and uncle make applesauce. And it was from them that I learned the proper way to cut into an apple to get out the core and not be wasteful of the rest of the apple. I can remember watching Uncle Floyd's giant hands using a small, and very sharp, knife to cut the apples and throw them into a huge pot to cook. We would be sitting around with Aunt Kitty and we would just talk and laugh and I would try my hardest to do a good job. I was much slower than either my aunt or uncle when it came to cutting the apples and they knew how to do it so incredibly well. After all, they had years of experience while I was still learning.
These two memories have been on my mind these past few days. And while I'm so thankful for the memories themselves, I'm more thankful and oh so very blessed to have these folks in my life to have shared these experiences with.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
A Funny Story
This weekend I was visiting with a friend of mine who is a counselor at McPherson College in Kansas. McPherson is one of our denominational colleges for the Church of the Brethren. I met Matt several years ago at Annual Conference because we were both there representing our respected colleges. Bridgewater for me, McPherson for Matt. He's been an admissions counselor as long as I've known him. Well I saw him this weekend while I was in Kansas for The Gathering, which is a district wide conference minus the business that usually takes place at district conference. Which basically means it's pretty awesome. This is all very important information for the following exchange...
So Matt and I were walking back to where the youth were meeting through out the weekend. You know, talking and catching up on how life has been since we saw each other over the summer. He was excited because he told me that his role at the college had changed and now he is a counselor for the Brethren students on campus. I thought about this for a minute, not quite understanding on why Brethren students needed counseling...
This was because my mind immediately went to a scenario in which a student would come to Matt telling him that they had a phobia of other people washing their feet and are unable to participate in feet washing services at Love Feast. And that they were coming to Matt so that he could help talk them through this phobia of theirs.
I don't know why that is what I thought of, but it was. And so I told him that and we both had a good laugh over it. Of course that's not his job. His new job as the Brethren counselor is so that he can focus on bringing more Brethren students to campus through recruitment. Which makes total sense.
Of course, I am still totally amused at the idea of having a counselor available to help with these little Brethren quirks...such as a phobia of others touching your feet. Which is very possible. But what would happen if there was a Brethren student who didn't like...well, ice cream...oh dear.
So Matt and I were walking back to where the youth were meeting through out the weekend. You know, talking and catching up on how life has been since we saw each other over the summer. He was excited because he told me that his role at the college had changed and now he is a counselor for the Brethren students on campus. I thought about this for a minute, not quite understanding on why Brethren students needed counseling...
This was because my mind immediately went to a scenario in which a student would come to Matt telling him that they had a phobia of other people washing their feet and are unable to participate in feet washing services at Love Feast. And that they were coming to Matt so that he could help talk them through this phobia of theirs.
I don't know why that is what I thought of, but it was. And so I told him that and we both had a good laugh over it. Of course that's not his job. His new job as the Brethren counselor is so that he can focus on bringing more Brethren students to campus through recruitment. Which makes total sense.
Of course, I am still totally amused at the idea of having a counselor available to help with these little Brethren quirks...such as a phobia of others touching your feet. Which is very possible. But what would happen if there was a Brethren student who didn't like...well, ice cream...oh dear.
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