Christmas 2011

My family hasn't all been together since June of 2010. I have been so excited to have both my boys home for Christmas this year. I knew that I couldn't totally relax and enjoy them until noon on Sunday when the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services were over. We had a great vegan Christmas dinner cooked by Brett. We had Christmas crackers on the table thanks to our son who spent a year in England. So we all had to wear Christmas hats while we ate our lovely plant-based feast.

Then I got sick on Christmas night. I have been dragging around ever since. Brett has done much of the cooking. Thank goodness. I am not great at vegan fare.

I have rallied every now and then for a family excursion. We went to Fela! at the Ahmanson Tuesday night. Today I said I thought I could handle sitting on the beach in Laguna for a couple hours. We watched a seal body surf. That was an amazing sight.

Matt and I did one of my absolute favorite things in the whole world....we explored the tide pools.

But mostly I have been a slug....at least my family is all together.

Bucket List Fulfillment

I haven't written on my blog for too long. There have been so many deaths. I haven't felt much like writing. But Bryan whisked me away yesterday to fulfill a wish on my bucket list and I just have to write about it.

Since I was pregnant with Matthew I have wanted to attend an NFL game, preferably the Bears but any game would do. I didn't grow up in a family that watched football. I had zero interest in football and didn't understand the game. Then I got pregnant with Matt when Bryan and I were serving a yoked parish in Northern Indiana. I never experienced the healthy glow of pregnancy. I could barely keep any food down. I lost so much weight and became almost bedridden.

Bryan took over the duties of both churches and a sick wife. On Sundays he would preach at two churches and attend to church meetings and visit the sick. Then he would come home to an ill wife who had no interest in anything. To fight complete boredom I watched television. Without cable television I only had a few channels from which to choose. On Sundays that meant football. One Sunday Bryan came home and I greeted him with, "You will never believe how many yards Walter Payton rushed today." He said, "Who are you and what have you done with my wife?" A football fan was born.

Ever since that pregnancy I have wanted to attend a NFL game. So Bryan and I attended a night game between the Chargers and the Ravens. If the Ravens won the game they would be the top ranked team in the AFC. The Chargers beat them 34-14. It was a fun game to be cheering for the Chargers.

So in a stadium with 80,999 other people, I learned what real fan loyalty looks like. "Wow!" is all I can say. The young man in the seat beside me started out by saying, "I am just going to apologize up front. I am going to get very intense. Cuss words are going to fly out of my mouth and I have been drinking all day." It was a good warning. I told Bryan that I now know what testosterone smells like: Axe body spray and beer.

A football stadium is filled with evangelical Christians, raving fans, people willing to paint their chests team colors, corporations, the worst food ever made....

...and flags...

We stayed down here in San Diego for the night. Here is the view from our hotel room. I love San Diego!

We are on our way to pick up Matt from the airport after not seeing him for over 14 months. Seeing Matt again is also on my bucket list.

Church Proud #2

It was a good day at the Progressive Brethren Gathering. Dr. Sharon Welch presented on non-violent direct action and how it relates to the Occupy Movement and what has happened within the progressive movement of the Church of the Brethren. It was good and was helpful.

Then we moved into people sharing ideas for action. Chris presented the paper that was adopted at the October 16 Church Council at the La Verne CoB. Josih, along with four others, shared about Feast of Love's progress. I shared from the BMC Board about our hope to see Supportive Communities Network expand. I was church proud again.

Our meetings are at the Highland Ave. CoB. I took a picture of their welcoming bench by their front entrance. It made me want to make more of a witness on our building.

Saturday night we took a tour of the Elgin Offices. Here is Mary Kay in the BVS office.

Then we ate dinner at the offices, did some strategizing and ended the day with a worship. Here are our rocks of grief and lament. (My rock is actually my dream for the church.) Then we anointed our hands for the work of justice. It was a long day.....

Church Proud

I am at the Progressive Brethren Gathering in Elgin, Illinois. There are four of us here from the La Verne Church of the Brethren. Mary Kay, Chris and I flew in together and landed at Midway Airport. We knew we were in Chicago when we saw all the Blues Brothers memorabilia.

After fighting the heavy Friday night traffic we arrived at Highland Ave. Church of the Brethren in time to grab a very quick bite before evening worship. The service was built around the scripture of the woman who anointed Jesus. Three people gave testimony to radical acts of faith. Two of them were from the La Verne Church of the Brethren. Josih spoke of Romaine Patterson and the Laramie Project. Mary Kay spoke of the radical act of showing up, standing up and speaking out. They were both excellent. Can a Brethren be church proud? You bet!

Tomorrow is strategy day.

Traditions

I turned 51 yesterday. Last year for my 50th birthday Bryan and I spent two nights in Laguna. It was heavenly and so we decided to try it again. Work commitments kept us from two nights but one night was easier on the pocketbook. We stayed at an oceanfront hotel so close to the beach that one review said, "The only way you could get closer to the water is if you were on a boat. The waves crash so loudly that Bryan and I have to keep asking each other to repeat everything. So we just quit talking and let the sound take us to a zen place. This is the view from our porch.

On the way down Bryan reminded me that last year a huge dragon fly came into our room, attracted by the light. It was quite the adventure getting it back out of our room. I caught most of it on video. When we checked in this year they gave us the exact same room. Late in the evening, lulled by the sounds and smells of the ocean, Bryan had fallen asleep and I was reading my Facebook birthday wishes. Again we were visited by the biggest dragonfly. This year's adventure was even more exciting. Bryan finally captured her and as he released her outside he said, "See you again same time next year!" I hope so.

Bass Lake

We are staying in a cabin by Bass Lake. I found this lake back in May when I was up here at the District Pastor's Retreat. I was looking for a place with phone reception so that I could check in with Bryan. This is what I witnessed when I arrived.

So when Bryan said that what he really wanted to do with some vacation time was find a cabin and rest, I thought of Bass Lake. We are staying on the south side, which is definitely the quiet side. After breakfast on our porch we drove to the north side of the lake.

We rented a pontoon boat for the afternoon. The basic boat we rented wasn't working properly so we got the party boat. I loved every minute of my afternoon. I got to drive.

I got to float in the cool, beautiful water.

I got to see some of the coolest clouds.

We came in from our afternoon of boating and studied the clouds some more.

Then we had what the locals lovingly call a "Fork's Burger." All I can say is "Wow!"

Yosemite Now and Then

In the summer of 1966 my family camped in Yosemite. We watched the Firefall from our campground. This picture is from a slide my father took that year.Bryan and I went to Yosemite over 45 years later. We did not camp. We stayed in a room with a king-sized bed in the Lodge. The mattress was so bad we nicknamed it "Yosemite Valley." The National Park Service ended the "Firefall" in 1968. So instead of viewing it we went up to Glacier Point, the place from which the embers were dumped down 3,000 feet. This was our view.

In the summer of 1966 my dad drove the family car through the Wawona Tree in Yosemite. It fell down in the winter of 1969.

Bryan and I didn't drive through any trees but we sure enjoyed each one...even their reflections.

In May of this year I attended a District Pastor's Retreat in Yosemite. There was record precipitation this year. This is how the Bridal Veil Falls looked in May 2011.

This is how they looked in September 2011. What a difference four months can make.

Our schedule got thrown off just a bit today when a tow truck had to tow a car at Glacier Point and blocked our escape for quite some time. So we found ourselves very hungry when we finally ate lunch at the Wawona Hotel. What a blast from the past! When I turned to Bryan and said, "This restaurant reminds me of a resort in a movie." Bryan said, "I was thinking of the exact same thing." It was like Kellerman's from the movie "Dirty Dancing." When we had finished our meal Bryan stood up and said, "No one puts Baby in a corner." We danced right out of there.

Be Still and Know.....

I leapt out of bed at 5 a.m. this morning, eager to get to the Ancient Bristlecone Pines. We left Lone Pine with our bellies full by 6 a.m. The mountains were so beautiful they looked like a painting.

Bryan wondered how I know about the Bristlecone pines. You see, I grew up with a family story about them. Every summer my parents took their family on a fabulous and educational vacation. My mother loved to plan our trips and she would spend the school year doing research on what to see. She would type on 3x5 cards interesting things about the sites we would see on the way and those would be read aloud as we traveled.

One summer we took an extended camping trip from Kansas to California and back. We hit every major National Park and interesting site along the way. I was only six so I have only snippets of memories. But I guess that one thing we either did or learned was about the Bristlecone pines. When we returned my brother began 5th grade and one day his teacher told the class that the redwoods were the oldest living trees. My brother rarely spoke in class but he raised his hand and explained that actually the Bristlecone pines were the oldest living trees. She told him he was wrong. So he went home, gathered up the information proving her wrong and took it with him to school the next day. The story was that she did not appreciate being corrected.

Even the road up to the Bristlecones was amazing. We arrived before the visitor center was open and began a mile trek through Schulman Grove. Bristlecone pines are the oldest single living organism known. Some of them are nearly 5,000 years old...older than the Pyramids. The oldest know Bristlecone pine is over 4,800 years old. It is nicknamed Methuselah and it is not identified so as to keep people from vandalizing it.

At an altitude of around 10,000 feet we walked up the side of a mountain in order to admire these old, gnarled trees. Wikipedia says that it is because their wood is very dense and resinous and therefore resistant to insects, fungi and other pests that helps the Bristlecone live so long.

When Bryan and I got to the summit of the trail we sat down on the bench that was provided. There wasn't anyone else on the trail. There were no human beings, except us, to create noise and we sat as still as possible. A bird flew by and we could hear the sound of her wings beating as she flew. It was so quiet...so peaceful. I was filled with wonder and reverence for God's creation. I began to understand the psalmists words: "Be still and know that I am God."

As we started our descent we heard another group of hikers on the trail. They were yelling between themselves. Bryan said, "Some people come up for the experience. Others are conquerors." We headed for Yosemite National Park from the east along Tioga Pass. It was a very long trip and a very beautiful trip. The speed limit never exceeds 45 miles an hour...which isn't fast enough for the conquerors who rode my bumper!

We are all checked in to Yosemite Lodge and I am hoping to see stars tonight. I am also hoping that if there are others around me they will want to experience it and not conquer it.

Some Time Away

Bryan said to me recently that he wanted to go somewhere for a week where I couldn't get good phone reception. He said that he wanted to see my eyes. So we figured out what week we could sneak away together. I made arrangements to have our 17-year-old Cairn terrier, Baby, to be boarded at the vet. Then Thursday, when I came home I found baby so weak she could hardly go outside. Then she just disappeared. She got disoriented and couldn't find her way back inside. When Bryan came home she had a seizure in his arms. It was clear to us that we needed to do the kind thing. So Friday, the day before we left, I took Baby to the vet to be euthanized. I thanked her for all she meant to my family. We got her for Matt when he was nine years old. For the last six years she has definitely been Bryan's dog. We already miss her snoring under the bed.

Today Bryan and I got up early and left for Death Valley. We met an English woman at a dinner party one time who said that whenever any of her friends or family come to visit her in Southern California they want to go to Death Valley. We decided to go see what the attraction was. When we got to Dante's View Bryan said, "That was sure a hell of a long way to come for that view."

The amazing thing about Death Valley is that it has the lowest, hottest and driest points in North America. The highest point in the continental United States is just 100 miles from the lowest point in North America. It got up to 105 degrees while we were there. We saw some amazing rock formations but the heat kept us moving.

We are staying in Lone Pine, CA. I picked it because I had read about the Alabama Hills just outside of Lone Pine. What an incredible place. We drove through the Alabama Hills, had dinner and then drove back through. I took a bunch of pictures but none can capture the beauty. (I lamented that truth to Bryan and he said, "That is why people go places themselves rather than just looking at pictures.") Can you see pumpkin rock?

I am trying to decide if I want to drive through the Alabama Hills again tomorrow morning.

But I really want to see Bristlecone Pines in the early morning light.

The Joys of NOAC

I have been at National Older Adult Conference (NOAC) since Wednesday. NOAC is held in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. What a gorgeous place. It was overcast and rainy until today. Now as the Brethren are loading up their suitcases and heading for their homes, the sun comes out and the place is alive with beauty.

I roomed with Shirley Boyer here at NOAC. Besides enjoying each other it confuses the heck out of everyone. I can't tell you how many people had to tell me how much they loved my father, Chuck. One man said to me today, "I am one of the millions of people who was a fan of your father, Chuck." This is Shirley sitting in the rocking chair as we wait for our ride to the airport.

I came to NOAC to preach the closing sermon. There were a little over 800 of us over 50-year-olds. The theme was "Passion and Purpose in a Changing World." I was asked to preach on the changing world part. I used an illustration of my youngest son being chosen as a LA Opera Scholar during his emo phase of life. It was a fun story to tell.

NOAC is one of the few places left in the Church of the Brethren where I feel at home. This conference is a place where people with open hearts and open minds come. There are good reasons to be over 50!

Get to the Beach!

At least once a summer Bryan and I like to go to a concert in Memorial Park. We went last week. It was so pleasant to sit outside and listen to music. I even joined the conga line for a short time.

This week the church was loaned an organ for the East Room. It is an amazing instrument and a beautiful work of art. It took a few people to carry it into the church and reconstruct it.

Bryan and I got up early on Saturday to get to the beach before everyone else. If you live in Southern California you should get to the beach anytime you have a chance! At least, that is my motto. So we took our new beach chairs and had the most gorgeous view. We were home by noon.

Weekend

Bryan looks forward to his weekends to rest and play. My weekends have never been free time. So I try and scrunch in as much time as I can to be with Bryan. Usually the evenings are my time with Bryan. Friday night we went to dinner in downtown Claremont. Friday nights in the summer are called "Friday Nights Live." While we waited for a table we enjoyed the music of this band, consisting of seven women and one man.

Saturday night we did something we have been talking about for awhile. We went to Hollywood Forever Cemetery and watched the movie "The Jerk" on the mausoleum wall with about 2,500 of our closest friends. We brought down the average age there by a few years. It felt good to be outside and it was outrageous enough to be fun. Besides, I had forgotten how funny the movie "The Jerk" is.

Today I preached on Ehud and King Eglon in a sermon series I am doing called: "Is That Really in the Bible?" Four people joined the church. Then we had a special called Council Meeting to vote on a possible query concerning gender equality in Annual Conference elections. We passed the query on to District Conference without dissent. Then we had conversation about whether or not we are going to continue to send our benevolence money to the Mission and Ministry Board of the denomination or if we are going to hold it in a reserve account until we can have more conversation as a congregation. We eventually decided that we would follow the direction of the Church Board and have conversation and gather more information while we hold our denominational giving in a reserve account...for now. The meeting today pointed out the need for this intentional conversation. As someone said to me afterwards, all the arguments are coming from a commendable place. If we had voted today I think we would have had to choose between honoring people and programs at the denominational level we appreciate and honoring people in our denomination we love and who have been marginalized. I am praying that the chaos on the denominational level does not cause chaos for us as a congregation.

Friday and Saturday

The Program Staff took a few hours on Friday to get away and have a conversation about the future. I appreciate the chance to work with these people. They are thoughtful, authentic and genuine.

On Friday afternoon I was looking for the man in charge of our solar project. It seemed like the only way to find him was to climb onto the roof. I have never been on the Fellowship Hall roof before. As long as I was up there I decided to take a look around. I had a hard time getting down again. As the men on the roof explained, they don't usually allow anyone to climb the stairs to the roof who is wearing flip flops. Oops!

Today I went to the first birthday party of my brother's granddaughter. I had so much fun picking out her birthday presents: a polka dot dress and a pop-up book. She thoroughly enjoyed her cake. It was a pure pleasure to watch her.

She did quite a number on her cake.

Another Day in Kansas

Another day in Kansas and another gorgeous sunset....

...a horse...

...some elk...

...a good game of Scrabble with my favorite sister.

We went to Wichita and stopped at the bank on the way. Did you know that in Kansas you can carry a gun with you most any place? If a business doesn't want a gun on their premises they have to put up a sign in their window. We stopped at my sister's bank and I took a picture of their sign. They asked if I was making fun of them. I wouldn't say I was making fun of them but I am incredibly amazed at the state of Kansas.

Then we went to the Botanica Gardens. My sister's husband and son did some building for the Children's Garden. It was a most amazing place. You enter through the rainbow.

The larger than life bugs were works of art.

The concrete trees had personalities.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar took me back to my children's growing up years.

Dinner was with more of my sister's fabulous family.

I am grateful for family and for a relaxing day of respite.