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transition colorado - our grange neighbors!

Monday, February 1st, 2010

we are thankful to have new neighbors at the grange: transition westminster/arvada/broomfield. we have mentioned the work that they are doing at different times over the past few months, but we thought it would be good for you to hear from them directly and know more about the work that they are doing in our community. the refuge is thankful for their spirit and dedication to community and look forward to sharing space and ideas in the months and years to come. you can learn more about upcoming events at www.transitioncolorado.ning.com

this article was written by don studinski (thanks don!) & hopefully will give all of us a greater sense of their vision and passion.

Transition Westminster / Arvada / Broomfield (TWAB for short) is  a social network group with its roots in Transition Colorado which, in turn, is a part of the international Transition movement started in England by Rob Hopkins.  Transition is about moving from our current unsustainable way of life (key issues include Peak Oil, which means we will have less energy in our future, environmental depletion, which means we are exceeding sustainable use of natural resources, and economic collapse, which means we are living beyond our means) toward a more sustainable and pleasant way of life which can include an endless list of possibilities limited only by our imaginations.  Wow, that’s a mouth full!

Hopefully, I haven’t lost you already.  Those of us in TWAB want very much to be a positive force within our community, not a doom and gloom group.  Specifically, we describe ourselves with this statement:  “A community of citizens that believes we have the power to build community resilience and self-reliance such that all species, now and in the future, will be able to meet their basic needs while maintaining a healthy planet.”  Anyone is welcome to join.  It’s free.  As of this writing, 1/11/2010, we have 49 members in our online group and about 10 to 20 actively involved with our events.  Our members are as close as walking-distance to the grange and as far away as Thailand.

Transition initiatives, like TWAB, exist to “unleash the collective genius of their own people to find the answers to this big question: for all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how are we going to:
significantly rebuild resilience (in response to peak oil)?
drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response to climate change)?
Typically, self-determined solutions will involve some flavor of relocalisation.”
Everything TWAB does relates back to rebuilding community resilience and self-reliance, but beyond that there are no limits.  Examples of our 2009 events include:
Building the Broomfield Community Permaculture Garden at the Presbyterian Church of Broomfield,
Hosting a community seed exchange,
Hosting several pot-luck dinners,
Showing several documentary films (we call this awareness raising),
Attending a “listening session” with some state senators,
Hosting a Northwest Earth Institute class called Voluntary Simplicity,
Hosting a canning class,
Hosting a composting class.
Hosting a Pachamama Alliance class called Awakening The Dreamer

We started in January, 2009, with 7 people in a coffee shop.  It didn’t take long for TWAB members to realize that we needed a place, beyond our member homes, to hold our events.  Therefore, a few TWAB members joined the Crescent Grange.  As members of the grange community, we have the good fortune to be able to use the building for significant events, and, beyond that, to create a community garden at the grange.  We call it Crescent Grange Community Permaculture Garden which we will be building in 2010.  This gives our group a sense of “place” much like the Broomfield Community Permaculture Garden did in 2009 (this will continue in 2010 as well).  We now have a bulletin board in the Southwest corner of the building where we will post flyers about community events.  This will include all the community events we learn about, not just TWAB sponsored events.  For example, there are Broomfield Auditorium Cultural events posted over there right now.

We have visions of all sorts of community-building events and activities we hope to do in 2010 and beyond.  Examples include growing an abundance of food, building a hoop house on the grange property, holding a clothing exchange, holding periodic book exchanges, creating a community “resilience” library, helping with grange maintenance and improvement, planting an orchard of fruit and nut trees, teaching classes in composting, permaculture gardening, canning and drying herbs and vegetables, sewing, beekeeping and others, holding monthly community dances, game nights and drum circles.  We are limited only by the time, energy and ideas our members bring.  We whole-heartedly invite everyone to participate.  If you like one of these ideas, or have your own, please, feel free to make it happen!  Clearly, no one of us can do all this alone.

Our community resilience is completely dependent upon the web of relationships we build among ourselves.  Everyone has value to bring and we all benefit from our combined cooperation and effort.  We look forward to an exciting 2010 in community at the Crescent Grange.  If you have any questions or comments for TWAB please feel free to contact us on-line or call Don Studinski at 303-248-6677.

The garden at the grange is coming soon, so if you are interested contact Don!

http://transitioncolorado.ning.com/group/transitionwestminster
http://transitioncolorado.ning.com
http://transitionculture.org/
http://www.postcarbon.org/
http://transitiontowns.org/TransitionNetwork/TransitionNetwork
http://www.nwei.org/
http://pachamama.org/
http://awakeningthedreamer.org/

Posted in community, the grange | No Comments »

MIKE - successful vs. fruitful

Monday, January 25th, 2010


in our western culture we seem to confuse material wealth and success with the abundant life, promised us in john 10:10. when good things happen in our lives, we proclaim how God has blessed us. as long as it is good it has to be of God. but if it’s something hurtful, harmful or opposite of what we want it must come from some where else. after all, james 1:17 says: “whatever is good and perfect come to us from God above….” but what about those things that we don’t perceive as good? could they come from God as well? and could these things actually be the abundant life that we are promised???

henri nouwen writes in a devotional titled “fruits that grow in vulnerability”:

“there is a great difference between successfulness and fruitfulness. success comes from strength, control and respectability. a successful person has the energy to create something, to keep control over it’s development and make it available in large quantities. success brings many rewards and often fame. fruits, however, come from weakness  and vulnerability. and fruits are unique. a child is conceived in vulnerability. community is the fruit born through shared brokenness. and intimacy is the fruit that grows through touching one an others wounds. let’s remind one another that what brings us joy is not success, but fruitfulness.”

success and riches can, in many ways, make life easier and better, to be sure, but they never guarantee a joyful life. in fact they can become a barrier in our quest to have the life God has for us. j paul getty, who was, before bill gates, the richest man in the world, said two interesting things. when asked how much money was enough he said: “just one dollar more”. he also said: “i would have given all my fortune to have had one of my marriages work”. in contrast, everyone, rich or poor, can experience the joy of fruitfulness. the shared brokenness of community and the intimacy that develops by touching someone’s wounds and having them touch ours is transforming. i know of no greater joy than that of walking through the sorrows of life in the redemptive community of broken people.

if we reads the 10th verse of john we will see that the whole chapter is a comparison between Jesus, the Good Shepherd and us, His sheep, and a  shepherd and his flock. just as the sheep were safe from the wolves if they stayed close to the shepherd and listened to his voice, we, too, will be safe from the powers of darkness, if we stay close and listen to the voice of our Master. i see nowhere in the scripture where we are promised a life of abundance, although some Christ followers may experience this (along with many who do not follow Him). we are, however, promised an abundant life, an eternal life, as we follow Him.
i want my life to be fruitful, not successful.

and just as the jews missed the coming of their Savior, because He didn’t come to earth the way they had expected Him too, i hope will not miss the abundant life we have been promised because it doesn’t look or feel the way we thought it would.

Posted in community, mike | 2 Comments »

MICHELLE - Conflict, Intimacy and Community

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Conflict. The word itself seems to activate some invisible force field around my heart. Insulating me, protecting me from harm–but ultimately separating me from stepping across to the shared intimacy of true community. My invisible “conflict” shield was most recently exposed when faced with the unexpected dissolution of my 24 year marriage to the man of my dreams.  A great avoider and accommodate-r in conflict, I saw too late how my inability to face conflict in a healthy manner handicapped marital intimacy.  But as such unwelcome lessons go, I am realizing my conflict/intimacy problem goes way beyond my marriage relationship.  It impacts every relationship I have with friends and family, and even limits my ability to truly enjoy being ‘in community’.  (Intimacy here is referring to that sense of closeness and belonging in a relationship.)

These days, learning to be a part of an intentional community is where the break-up of my marriage has led me. (This is definitely one of the good things to come from this personal tsunami!)  I am so grateful to this beautiful group of people at the Refuge for being here with me and my kids.  Our recent Saturday evening conversation on conflict was perfect timing for me. I realize now that I had used conflict as a wall, blocking me from intimacy of the heart in all my relationships. I need a bridge, not a wall.  Is it possible that conflict can be that bridge, instead of the wall I had made it to be? Learning to see conflict as a bridge to intimacy is a whole new concept for me.  I know the song “Love can build a bridge”; but who’s heard of anyone singing that “Conflict can build a bridge”?  Doesn’t exactly stir up warm fuzzy feelings!

If conflict can lead to a true sense of closeness and belonging (conflict intimacy*), I knew I wanted to learn how to build that bridge. But I was missing a step… the step of self-intimacy. Learning to be comfortable ‘in my own skin’ is not easy for me. Even harder has been the lesson to become aware of my own feelings and to accept responsibility for taking care of myself in times of emotional distress. Focusing on the other person’s issues and avoiding conflict, or always accommodating other’s needs around me, was the only way I knew of ‘caring’ for my own feelings.  But doing that kept me from a true sense of closeness and belonging…not a very effective way to have authentic relationships!

As for the conflict bridge to intimacy, I’m learning that stepping away from a relationship in conflict (at least momentarily), gives me a chance to check in with myself.  What am I feeling?  Why? What do I need to do for myself to be ok in this moment? With my self-care needs addressed, I can then approach the conflict with greater self-awareness and clarity.  And a bridge to shared intimacy and true community slowly starts to replace the wall around my heart. (Hmm, I hear a new song in the air ♪.)

(*The Potter-Efrons, of the Relationship Institute have a great section on this in their book on intimacy, 2008.)

Posted in community, conflict, intimacy | 3 Comments »

MIKE - where’s the doctor?

Monday, October 12th, 2009

this past saturday at the refuge we talked about how faith and doubt can exist in the same situation. it’s a little like the optical illusion images that most of us have seen, the one where you either see a vase or the profile of two people looking at each other. it just depends how we look at the picture/situation. we tend to vacillate back and forth, but we never seem to be able to focus on one or the other for a long period of time.

my brother worked in a hospital when he was in high school. as a janitor, he cleaned the bloody mess after the operations. my dad also told of his experience in world war II. because he signed a form saying he wanted to major in medicine when he went to college, this 18 year old, wet behind the ears, small town boy, was made a medic. he didn’t have a rifle to defend himself with. just a cross on his back which, according to the geneva convention, meant he was off limits to shoot. he thought it sometimes seemed like a target for the enemy to shot at. training was minimal. the best thing a medic had were the packs of morphine to stop the patients’ pain. dad often mused that he didn’t know how many men he helped or how many he killed with the morphine,  he did the best he could.

recently, a safe haven for me has felt like a battlefield. many good people are suffering such traumatic experiences that i had been feeling bad that i seemed to be the only one left standing. that all shifted in late september when i and hundreds of good people were informed that we would probably have no jobs in 2 months. not feeling sorry for myself was pretty easy. i’m in pretty good shape despite my lack of using sound financial processes most of my life. but it will impact my time and my ability to live as i’m accustomed.  the day after receiving this news, i awakened to a text from a friend that i hoped would never come, but i knew in my heart was fairly certain was unavoidable. it simply said: she did commit suicide. my friend and i, both bleeding now, sat crying at starbucks. the tears fell all day until there were no more. my heart breaks for precious friends.

oh, if i could help them. but i’m like my little brother. not a nurse. not a doctor. just a janitor, cleaning up the blood. like my dad giving morphine to stop the pain. waiting for a doctor to come.

that same week i went to a house of refuge hoping to get some love (tourniquets is what i call it for it stops the bleeding) and hope (that would be the morphine that stops the pain.)  the pharmacist there handed out tourniquets and morphine to each of us. i picked up a little more from my friends and left. driving home it  dawned on me that she didn’t get either. i knew i needed to share my hope/morphine with her the next time i saw her.

i took some before i went to bed and things seemed better. when i awoke, as is my habit i checked my e-mail. when i saw a certain name i knew something was wrong. as i opened it up, blood gushed from my computer. the pain poured out of massive wounds. i look around, and the morphine was gone. i’d used some last night, but not all of it. the enemy had taken it while i slept, and there was none to give her.

driving to work that day i knew i needed some God. i was fresh out. as i walked from my car, into the store where i worked,  i was amazed how,  in one day, a place could go from a grocery store to a mortuary. a place of death of dreams. more people bleeding.

i have to leave. i need healing. my friends need healing.  now, i sit in the emergency room. i’m feeling tired and overwhelmed.  but i keep putting dirty tourniquets on and try to tighten others while i look for more morphine. i hear a voice that sounds faintly like mine. it says. “if the Great Physician in in the hospital, would He please come to the emergency room.” i really hope He’s on His way, but sometimes i’m beginning to doubt it.

but then i get these little glimpses that maybe the Doctor really is on His way.  i remember seeing the notes posted on the bulletin board, thanking Him for the care He gave. and then i see a recovery room that is full of healing patients, ready to be discharged.  and i hear the charge nurse say; “He has come here every day since this hospital was built. He just doesn’t seem to be on the same schedule as the rest of us.”

i am betting the Doctor will show up.  He somehow always seems to in the end.  at least that is what i believe right now.

Posted in community, healing, hope, mike | 1 Comment »

creativity is healing

Monday, September 14th, 2009

“The act of creation is always a solitary one. Others can encourage us to create. They cannot create for us. The man of ten talents needs the same courage as the man of one…. Surely, I reasoned, it must be the magnitude of their gifts that enables artists and scientists and inventors to go on producing when they are rejected and scorned by their own contemporaries. Now I am not so sure that the greatness of the talent has any direct relation to the degree of persistence with which it is developed.
When I become aware of my own gifts and give my attention to communicating what is in me—my own truth, as it were—I have the experience of growing toward wholeness. I am working out God’s “chosen purpose,” and I am no longer dependent on what others think and how they respond. The experience itself is confirming. The response of others can give me pleasure or pain, but it cannot keep me from the act of creating.”

Elizabeth O’Connor, from Inward/Outward

on saturday night at the refuge we had an open share evening, creative works of art, photography, spoken word, video, poetry, songs, and everything in between. it was beautiful. powerful. rich. keith shared something that todd fadel from the bridge in portland said when they were with us this summer: “creativity is healing.” saturday night was healing, not just for those who shared but for those who listened & soaked in our friend’s hearts & passion.
below are some pictures from the evening. more pictures are here.
we didn’t have time to share some responses to the beauty together because of time, so we’d love for you to comment here.

what got stirred up in you?
how did you see God’s beauty reflected?
how was creativity healing?




Posted in arts, community, creativity, healing, the refuge | 3 Comments »

CHRISTA - That “Natural Food” smell

Monday, July 20th, 2009

There are a few chains of “natural” or “organic” food stores. The ones I’m most familiar with are Whole Foods (some of which go by the name Wild Oats here in Colorado) and a local chain called Vitamin Cottage.

Growing up in a small town in Kansas I didn’t have access to such stores and so when I ventured out to Colorado for college I discovered these stores, their exciting stock, their prices (it was hard for a college kid and now a poor mom to afford!) and their smells.

It’s a smell unlike any other.

Earthy may be a good word.

I think of Vitamins, Minerals, Soil, Clean Dirt and other unnamed but interesting smells.

It isn’t a bad smell.

Just different.

One my nostrils find pleasant, but noticeable.

In college it always meant a treat. That I could go and choose a few items that were healthy and happily made and were good for me and Earth.

It stills means this for me and my family. We currently don’t have any special food needs that require us to go but conscience about animals and earth will take us there as well as the desire to eat well and do our best to be good to our bodies.

These stores still offer food, treats, make-up, all that I could find at any grocery store or market but these stores smell different. These smells have marked my experience of food shopping.

Community (for me specifically within the Refuge) has been a different smell, not always pleasant, always noticeable, to the church smelling part of my nose. And it has marked my experience of church/Jesus/people/relationships/life.

I came to community with a bad smell in my nose. And it was one I couldn’t get rid of. No matter how hard I tried to smell for roses or even got to smell actual ones I couldn’t shake the smell out of my 2 nostrils. My forehead wrinkled at the pungent odors of bad/poor leadership, people/women/children being put down, hypocrisy, judgement, hunger for power, etc. I had smelled these smells for years! Almost 3 decades. And they were sadly more powerful than the good smells that I almost chanced to encounter. I had sniffed togetherness, love, truth, and healing wafting towards me but it seemed they were always smothered.

So, I came hoping (always stupidly hoping [or not so stupid I guess]) that I would smell something different. But, I never did.

Or I never could.

When I began my adventure with community almost 3.5 years ago I could not smell the difference. I looked around and hoped but really felt I was trapped in the same small kitchen where the toast was burning. Again.

I had to leave the kitchen.

For about 3 or 4 months.

And I tell you the air was fresh in my lungs and my nose enjoyed it. I really liked this smell. And then something shifted. I’m not sure what. I’ve been trying to pinpoint it and I can’t. Maybe it really did come in with the wind. But I was ready to try once more community. So I came back.

It smelled the same, but wait…also different…I smelled chaos, honesty, confusion, healing, prettiness and ugliness. All at the same time. All of the smells doing their best to co-exist. And, for the most part, they do.

I stepped out into a kitchen that was structurally the same. Same foundation, same walls and 2×4’s, but the burnt toast smell had been aired out. Someone had opened the window and painted the walls and put out fresh hand towels.

I was still me.
Smelling with my nose.
The community was largely made up of the same people.
I began to make friends.
Share myself.
Share my story.
Listen.
Listen.
Smell.
Smell.

Sometimes the smell of the chaos does sting my nose and makes my eyes water. Sometimes my eyes water because of the stink, but sometimes my eyes water because of the beauty.

For me, the truest community that I have experienced has been the strange natural foods store.

Shelves lines with food.
Silver, metal carts to wheel around.
Beeps as the checkers run the items over the scanner.

Community is still Jesus.
Still spreading his love, his hope, his story, his gospel, his good news.
Chairs full of people.
A table with bread and juice.

Still a church.

Maybe though, real community also has some items on the shelves…
Hope
Honesty
Open Brokenness
Open Healing
Shared Power
Equality is pursued
All natural people…no extra additives…or we’re striving to get them out of our system.

Community smells different.
Not bad, just different and it has marked my life.

Posted in christa, community | 4 Comments »

a few thoughts on community

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

here are a few thoughts to ponder as we focus on “community” over the next few weeks at our saturday gatherings.

“ We shouldn’t seek the ideal community. It is a question of loving those whom God has set beside us today. They are signs of God. We might have chosen different people, people who were more cheerful and intelligent. But these are the ones God has given us, the ones he has chosen for us. It is with them that we are called to create unity and live a covenant. We choose our own friends; but in our families, we do not choose our brothers and sisters; they are given to us. So it is in community life.”  Jean Vanier

“When Jesus sent his disciples out on mission, he told them to be poor, to take nothing with them. And he told them to do things that were impossible for them to do all by themselves. So it is for all missions. Communities and their members are called to be poor and to do impossible things, such as to build community and to bring healing, reconciliation, forgiveness and wholeness to people. Mission is to bring the life of God to others, and this can only be done if communities and people are poor and humble, letting the life of God flow through them.” – Jean Vanier

What are some of your responses to these thoughts on community?

Posted in community, mission | No Comments »

KATHY - my love-hate thing with community

Monday, July 6th, 2009

heart drawn on wallover the upcoming saturdays this summer at the refuge we will be focused on the word “community.”  i wrote this post way back when in august 2006—at the very beginning of the refuge.  sometimes it’s fun to revisit past thoughts and see how they apply today.   one of the most important things about the refuge, in my opinion, is how we are learning about God & ourselves through being in community with each other.  i think that was always the idea of “the church”.  and yes, we can probably all agree—true community, real redemptive relationships with each other, learning the ways of both giving & receiving love, will always be hard  to do!  let’s keep learning together.

Everyone who knows me knows I love community. I love relationships. I love people connecting with God and each other. I love to see someone who thinks they are unlovable start to feel loved because I remember how much that meant to me a long time ago. But it’s not just a love thing. Please do not think I have some crazy idealistic view of community, thinking it’s a piece of cake to pull off. Real community is brutally hard, maybe one of the hardest things we can do as human beings.

Every church values community, this is nothing new. Look on every church website and you will see a list of small groups and ways for community to “happen” at a church. Why are so many strategies necessary to pull off “community”? Why is it not just our natural bent to want to be together, love each other, share our lives with each other, and reach out to others and love them, too?

Because we are all messed up. Most of us have a love-hate thing with community. I know I do. I want it. I want people in my life, to know how I’m really doing, to care about me, to pray for me, to carry my burdens when they are too heavy for me. And I also don’t want it. Why? Because it’s hard. It’s easier to go solo. Having people in my life exposes me. They see things I don’t really want them to see. They force me to think about things I don’t want to. It means I will have to sacrifice time, myself. It means I will have to trust, risk, and I’m a scaredy-cat at heart.

Like most of us, I’m sort of in this double bind. I love community. I want it. And at the same time, I hate community.

Here’s why I hate community:

1. It’s time consuming. I’ll have to be inconvenienced.

2. I am sure to get hurt.

3. It forces me to think about things differently. Everyone won’t agree with me (what’s wrong with them?) and that stinks.

4. It messes with my self-centeredness.

5. I’m asking to be annoyed, irritated, frustrated, angered, disappointed.

6. I’ll let others down, fail them, disappoint them; I’m a tried and true people-pleaser, so this is asking for trouble.

7. I’ll actually have to ask for help.

8. I won’t be able to fake it.

9. It won’t be neat and tidy (what I’m always longing for). In fact, it’ll be messy, crazy, hard and unpredictable.

Okay, so with all of these negatives, is it really worth it? I think so. For me, the loves are definitely starting to outweigh the hates.

Why I love community:

1. It’s worth the time. Jesus was about people, bottom line. Relationships are what matter. At the end of the day I won’t remember my job, my house, my stuff. I’ll remember the people I loved and that loved me.

2. It’s a place to practice becoming a better lover—of God, of people. I definitely need a place to practice. How can we live out the 2 greatest commandments Jesus gave us…“love Him, love others” without at least trying for close, intimate relationship with each other?

3. It inspires me to keep going. The courage you have—to keep fighting, living, trying—makes me want to, too.

4. The laughter. Without it, I don’t know where I’d be. It is sustaining. Life is too hard without it.

5. I can talk grace and forgiveness until I’m blue in the face, but unless I have to give it, receive it, it means nothing. I want it to mean something.

6. It keeps pointing me toward God. The more I hang around other people and listen, I am forced to think more, ask more questions, seek, wonder, question, wrestle.

7. It is glorious to be up close and personal with Jesus moving in a life, changing a person, healing, bringing hope. Nothing is more beautiful.

8. You seem to keep loving me no matter what, and for that I am very grateful.

So what do you hate about it? Love about it?

Posted in community, kathy | 1 Comment »

JENNY - Remind me

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

child whispersI am drawn to the contemplative writers. Contemplatives (since early Christian times) generally are given to periods of deep silent prayer, meditation, and may even live a life devoted to prayer in a monastery or convent. They carve out quiet spaces in order to experience the soul’s union with God. Many contemplatives also seek a balance between work and prayer. I recently set aside a lengthy time from my schedule for finding some balance and restoration for the health of my body, mind, and spirit. I was carving out my own quiet space. I thought of it as my “soul sabbatical.” I couldn’t wait for this time of meaningful solitude.

The first 2 weeks away (in GA) would be for helping my mom. The first week my husband would be there, too. After that I would stay at the lake house 45 minutes from her home and be available if she should need me. This was a time to assess her long term needs in a more realistic way than I could from my home in CO. Meanwhile, I could have a time of solitude and reflection and enter into the process of actively listening to the Holy Spirit.

I sort of divided my day into blocks for reading, praying, working (cleaning, gardening, etc.), creative expression and relaxing I took along a small library of books for my reading times. I got a new camera to give serious attention to re-developing my long-time love of photography. I packed my sun hat, sun shirt and sunblock for working outdoors. I took my ipod and speakers, my journals and pastels. I planned for everything I might need, including my favorite spices to cook with.

There were some specific requests I had for my time alone with God. There are some things I have considered irreconcilable, and I wanted to understand how to live my life with what can be reconciled and to recognize what can’t. Ultimately I wanted to remember who I am, so I asked God, “Remind me who I am.”

In all my planning I didn’t count on the series of mishaps, severe weather, and unexpected battles with creepy creatures that happened. But most of all I didn’t plan on people. I felt the silence and trickery of God (and I say this in the most loving way!) Except for a few small sightings, I didn’t think God was speaking. I didn’t have much chance to hear him because people kept showing up to interrupt my solitude.

People from my past came out of the woodwork. We spent time together and reconnected. They told me stories I had forgotten. There were God stories and funny stories of crazy stuff we did. One by one they described my impact on their life. And it was…gulp…positive! They updated me on people we both knew that I haven’t seen in 35 years! They shared their own stories with me and listened to mine. There is no way I could have orchestrated getting in contact with two of the people that God brought around. That’s right, I said, “God brought around”, because that’s how I see it now.

In my desire to reconnect with God and myself, I had no desire to connect with people. I did want to hear the Holy Spirit, but was surprised that he chose to use people to speak to me. People I knew, who knew me–not just writers whose profound words I could reflect upon. I am a big proponent of community, but ironically, I didn’t expect community to be a way God would answer my prayer.

I got very little time alone or time to rest on my “soul sabbatical.” I did get to see the entire spring season in GA with all of its glorious beauty which helped to restore my soul. And I was reminded of who I am, in a most unlikely way. I’ve found that it’s hard to really know who I am outside of the context of community and relationships–who I am with people. I believe we are put here to remind each other of who we really are. That began to happen for me on my trip.

Has it happened for you?
Have you reminded anyone else lately?

Posted in community, jenny, prayer | 3 Comments »

stand by me

Monday, May 11th, 2009

as we continue our conversations on justice this month, part of the challenge is to learn from each other, to value a diversity of voices, to recognize how desperately we all need each other.

check out this video:

Posted in community, equality | No Comments »

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