Flowing in the Living Water

I am The Living Water
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Holy Trinity Lansdale

It has been 17 years or so since I returned to church. I still have my doubts, but I cannot not doubt that the journey has transformed me.

Mosaic Woman has journeyed with me day by day and has unfolded along with me. We are blessed to have become people who still desire to share lives together.

This past year I reconnected with some friends I knew back in college. One came to town on business and I fed him pizza. One I actually picked up a phone and called. One I met halfway, by a river we both love from those days in college.

I pondered the chances of people disconnected for nearly three decades to have become new people who still would want to be friends with each other. In each case, I am glad to call them my friend. 

Watching the river that day with my friend, I was baffled; the river seemed to be flowing in opposite directions. Finally I asked if she saw what I saw. Rivers are turbulent. In fact trying to get any water to flow without any turbulence is quite difficult.

17 years ago I was afraid to leap into the living water. Where would it take me? I imagined places that I feared. Could I become shaped by God into a person I didn't want to be? A wise man told me that I did not have to believe anything, just be willing to take a journey.

The turbulence has transformed me, but so far not into what I feared. Who knew God wanted me to garden, to listen to jazz, to transform my doodles into glass sun catchers, to decide that creating joy is the ultimate goal of my teaching, to invite 50+ people a year to my house for pizza, to learn how to imagine the pain of others so I can open this stoic heart a bit more day by day, to become an Episcopalian, to find a place to finally release my pain and return year after year for eight days of silence with Jesuits ...

The journey has pushed me into so many places That I have to wonder who this new self is. Then I visit with three of my best friends from back in the day, and I can now see that I am flowing in the living water and I am pleased to have inched myself in a bit deeper each year.

Moments in my horticulture classroom, update 1.24.14

 

 

 

 

Something New: Celebrating our Boxwood by poem and photo

everything depends upon
sunlight

streaming through dead
leaves

with the blue
sky

behind the orange
glow

I love celebrating our garden, but the Boxwood that divides our front yard from our neighbor to the east never has been the highlight, however did something special today. And after it called out to me for the second time, I said, "OK" and got the camera.

a Trio of Tree Quilts: Gloria Loughman, Beth Miller, Noriko Matsutro

Tonight I blogged about a mosaic tree over here,
so I thought I would celebrate quilt trees here...

Gloria Loughman / The Baobab Trees of Madagascar / Australia 20" x 30"

Beth Miller / The Drought /
Kambah ACT, Australia / 35" x 59"
 

Noriko Matsutou / Cherry Blossoms in the Full Moon / Toyama-shi, Japan / 39" x 40"

Eating Out in Lansdale: A Seafood Shout Out to Shellfish Sue

Shellfish Sue
Lansdale PA

It seems most of our eating out these days can be done within walking distance. Thai, Vietnamese, Lebanese, ... see my top ten list.

So we often walk by a new place coming into being and ponder what it will be like. A new Greek place is opening soon. So for months we walked by a place that promised to bring seafood dining to within walking distance. And when it finally opened we stopped in and have been back a few times since then to be greeted warmly by the owner and treated to an excellent meal. 

So this is to say that I am glad it came to Lansdale even if I have a hard time saying their name. Would love if this place prospers. [Sadly they closed after a couple delicious years.]

Of Jazz and Mysteries: A jazz pickup at the Doylestown public library

As usual, I am checking some out again and taking chances on some new ones. They will hang out in our studio for about nine weeks. We dig libraries. Since I made my students write poems inspired by William Carlos Williams, this week; I will give it a try.

So much depends

Upon

A well funded

Library

Filled with splendid

Jazz

Beside the spiritual

mysteries

 

Mosaic Woman found the next in this series, in which

an Episcopalian priest helps solve crimes in her town.

The Jazz:

Jason Moran

Bill Frisell

Great Jazz Trio

Chick Corea & Bella Fleck

Ahmad Jamal

BillyTaylor & Gerry Mulligan

Vijay Iyer Trio

Edith Piaf

Donald Harrrison

Bob Mintzer Big Band

 

 

A Starting Place For Jazz in My Church

 

I had posted a link to my acceptance that jazz in my church would be a journey that could not be predicted. One friend thought that action was needed, not just examens, and another friend offered up a suggestion on Facebook. The suggestion: Jazz playing in the background at an adult discussion that I am leading. I don't want to to that, but the suggestion led to imagining a series of adult discussions that centered about a jazz standard and reflections on spiritual writings that are connected to the standard. This could happen quicker and easier without the scheduling and planning that a bigger event would require. I'm not big on those two things. Eventually my desire for jazz in my church could grow and expand.

We will see. Maybe it will start with Willow Weep For Me, a tune that touched me this summer in the midst of silence.