Somewhere in the Middle

The movie Sleepless in Seattle Tom Hanks and his son were talking about states. Tom asked his son where Oklahoma was... "Somewhere in the middle is what the son replied."
We are...
However tonight as John and I traveled home we saw the orange moon of July rising. It was beautiful against a royal blue sky. We had rain this afternoon but the clouds were gone now and the moon there alone. It was beautiful.
We called our Daughter who lives on the East Coast and were talking and I mentioned the moon. OH yes she said it was orange here too and we had a heavy rain this afternoon but now the sky was clear.
We all stand on the same earth and hold up the same sky and watch the same moon bring light.
Whether we are on the right coast or the left coast or in the middle...
Or on the other side of God's great earth.

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2008

Jets and gliders

I was watching the birds on the way to work today. There are two kinds I see though not spoken in scientific-speak: Jets and gliders.
The jets are the wonderful swallows who dart and turn and swoop all with wings seemingly held in tight formation. They are the kind of birds that nest under roadway bridges..eves on your house..or a protected rock overhanging. It is really great to watch them. And that movement isn't just for fun they are hunting on the fly. Swoop zoom angle turn... I some times wonder when there are a lot of them do they ever just bump into one another?
The gliders are my favorite Herons. There were three kinds of herons in one pond Sunday. But when they fly there is a gentle full wing flexing flying and they glide as well. Their reason for flying is more to get from here to there than to swoop and zoom to catch food. The heron walks and fishes.

always longing to fly
humankind still moves
through life
jetting or gliding

get in get it done do it now do it my way
observe pray reason listen listen God's way

what way
will really finish
will really continue
the work given to us
to be the church


God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2008

Confession

On the way to work this morning I was listening to the Writers Almanac on NPR and heard Garrison Keillor read this...
"It's the birthday of philosopher Jacques Derrida, born in El Biar, Algeria (1930). He's one of the founders of the theory of "deconstructionism," which he presented in the book Of Grammatology (1967). It assumes that there is no common intellectual structure or source of meaning that unifies a culture. When applied to literary criticism, it holds that a single text can have multiple meanings, which underlie and subvert the surface meaning of the words."
Whoa.... there...
I pondered what I could remember of the theory of deconstructionism...and well only remembered ...a single text can have multiple meanings...
So I've been thinking about that as I read a book "Readings on the Meaning of the Cross today".
Thats NOT my confession...

My confession is when I first turned on my computer the yahoo page news had an article about twins born to celebrity parents and the 11 million offered for photos.
Perhaps Derrida was correct...there is no common structure or source of meaning that unifies a culture.
What unifies us? Sometimes is is what we are all against...usually derived from the Ten Commandments...
But perhaps as Christians what could unify us is ... Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, strength and love your neighbor as yourself?
How might that become a unifying source of meaning?
Let's work on that...
God Abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey

Say Zooms

Ok, I'll confess I've watched the PBS Masterpiece Cranford way-way too many times. But I have come to love the gentleness of the conversations and the listening they do in between their comments. Ok I know it's a movie, but I also believe it was a time when folks didn't talk over others. (The 1840's) We all too often rush in ...finishing sentences and adding comments of our friends. It is something I still work on.
When we live our lives listening I think we have an opportunity to know more. The last couple of weeks I've had some laryngitis and sounded so very croaky when I talked that I tried to rest my voice and not talk. Then too I'm reading again a book by Barbara Brown Taylor on the Silence of God. Both of these have worked together to open my ears.
One of my favorite movie scenes is in the Color Purple when Sug and the whole group process over to church singing ...Speak Lord, Speak to me.
What if that were what we said as we entered prayer...
let's give it a try.
God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2008

wheat and weeds

Jesus tells a story of the field that was planted with good seed and bad seed grew up among it. Basically it let God be the judge of what is good and bad and not us. There is a beautiful wheat field on the north side of Highway 7 in Oklahoma. In the middle of it is a spreading tree. A couple of weeks ago it was pure beautiful wheat. So perfect it seemed and the tree floating in among. The wheat has been harvested and now two weeks later, where the field has remained fallow there are numerous weeds of varied sizes coming up all over the field. These weeds apparently waited until the good seed was harvested, where there was a vacum, to grow up. No doubt they will be 'turned' in the next planting.

Humm? I think all too often we expect that we are the ones to do the sorting. But no. The strength of the good seed was evident. We also need to be strong. Seeking to be good seed in the midst of the worlds wanting to only grow weeds because together we will bring the fullest harvest.

God abides
Bobbie G. McGarey
@2008

Backside of the moon

Have you every wondered if the moon turned would anyone notice? What a huge change for those who pay attention to those kinds of things but would the ordinary person watching the moon rise notice that it is looking different?
What does it take for change to make a difference? I mean if change comes in little steps does it not come easier? But then there needs to be some change that is huge...swhoosh you see the backside of the moon...or an issue that is in the wind or in the world!

Can we come to know the backside of the moon and love it too. It's the same moon after all.
Just a different perspective.

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2008

In the living Years, mike and the mechanics enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqQM-HoFeEk&feature=related

Piece of Puzzle

Today on the floor in the fellowship hall I found a piece of a puzzle. One piece. And I thought about how somewhere there was a puzzle almost finished...minus this piece.
And the trick is...you wouldn't know until you got to the point where you needed it.

So, if you have a puzzle in your life that seems to be incomplete... See me. I may have the piece that fits to complete it. But if I don't surely God does. And that is Good news

God Abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2008