Archives for October 2017

When I first discovered I was about to become a grandmother for the first time, I began to collect a diverse and wildly fun collection of dress-up gear and placed it in a basket in our family room.

That was over 26 years ago! Now our youngest two (and a third, who lives further away) are the last ones of our eight to avail themselves of these fine resources. We had our grandgirls last month for an long afternoon and evening and the first place they headed upon arrival was straight for that basket!

I had been adding to the collection over time, especially enriching it when a lovely parishioner passed away and some of her finery was donated to our church fund-raising rummage sale one year. The bright pink robe Grace is wearing came from her, as did the pearl-studded crop top directly beneath that robe. That woman was a fashion plate, choosing bright, bright colors and lots of glitz. Her stuff was perfect for a dress-up box!

The other dress was actually one of the bridesmaids’ dresses from our wedding, almost 52 years ago. We were married one week before Christmas and shared the sanctuary that day with another wedding, four hours later. We both chose to use red and thus cut our floral expense in half! These dandy things were empire-waisted, with a detachable bright red train, making the back view of the gowns much more interesting than the front one! Each girl word a round circle of red net in the form of what used to be called a pillbox hat on her head. It was a grand occasion, I tell you.

Still, I think I like that dress better on Lilly, in 2017!!

What story do these blooms tell? A wedding story, I believe. Hopefully, a happy one, presaging a long and fruitful life together. They showed up in our sanctuary one Sunday morning, after the big event the previous afternoon. Their beauty struck me, all the way in my back row seat, and I simply had to go forward and view them more closely.

Aren’t they lovely? Subtle shades and variations, differing textures and sizes, some round, some spiky — all of them testimony to the glorious diversity of floral beauty so easily available to us. I used to work with flowers. I began with my eldest daughter’s wedding in 1987 and closed up my small shop after my middle girl’s big day in 1994. Enough was enough. By then I had completed my seminary degree and was working through the hoops for ordination while pastoring in my home church. Within two years, I would move 100+ miles away and begin a new life, a new career, find a new home and build a new community. I was more than happy to let others work with flowers in this new place and to appreciate their beauty whenever they showed up in our altar arrangement. 

This one caught my eye and caused me to stop and ponder — again — the healing, comforting, encouraging power of beauty in this world.

If I’m honest, this is what it comes down to for me: the eucharist. In fact, it is the thing that keeps me honest. At least, I hope that’s true. Yes, I love the music. Yes, I (usually) enjoy and get something important from the sermon. But it is this monthly bread and cup that fills me must fully.

I sometimes wonder why that is true, but then I realize — again — that the simplicity of it, the tactile nature of it, the liturgical framework for it and the act of doing it in the midst of my community are the things that matter, the things that make this particular part of our communal worship experience particularly valuable for me.

The longer I live, the more I understand and appreciate that we do not — we cannot — walk this road alone. Everything in our scripture, in our psychology textbooks, in our life experience, points us to the truth that we need one another to live life well. And that means we need one another to worship well, too. 

And time is up . . . here’s what I love about 5 minute prompts, something I’d forgotten in the years since I stopped doing this each week: these prompts almost always get something going inside me that’s important and needs reflection, ‘chewing on.’ And this one is a biggy!

What about you??