A Sunday Morning Service and a Wedding in June.

So different.  Hadn't been apart of anything like it, ever.  I was a bridesmaid at one of my husband's soldier's wedding.  Their wedding was tucked in between worship, readings, prayers, children's time, announcements.  It was really, really lovely.  Unexpectedly special.  I've only been to weddings where that's what you do=a wedding, but this one was really a part of the service.  A service that focuses on the fact that because we are loved by God and made to echo and hold traits he has, we, too, have this great and powerful capacity to love.  And not only love, but to love like he loves--in the most forgiving, hopeful, celebratory way! 
  Two funny notes--
1.)  I made the bouquets (hadn't done one in over 10 years!), but didn't have a really good way to transfer them on the 45 minute drive it took for us to get there, SO I picked a six-pack beer carton carrier (Yeingling) out of our recycle bin and placed orange juice glasses filled with a little water in the individual slots.  I then put the four bouquets in there and went on my merry way.  Well, the pastor didn't want me to bring that whole set up in the sanctuary with me, so she asked me to place them in her office, on the desk!  Her office door has windows.  I'm sure the congregants are still talking:-).
2.)  Ess Gee and I were standing at the back of the church after the service was over.  We were waiting for the pastor so he and I could sign the marriage paperwork as witnesses.  I had the bridal bouquet, along with my bouquet in my hands.  An elderly gentleman complete with bald head, cane and hearing aide came up to Ess Gee and I and said, "Congratulations!!  I'm sure it will be a long, happy marriage:-)!!!"  Ess Gee and I looked at each other and heartily agreed!


 

Frederick Buechner. Frederick Buechner. Frederick Buechner.

I fell in love with this writer many, many years ago, introduced to his work by a friend.  I still posture my body in a bow, with my hands in a praying position for this humbling introduction.  He simply makes life better, and, truly, isn't that the best we could do for anyone?

This is something Buechner has written in regards to Jesus's words--Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength.  [Such a beautiful way to love someone, yes?]

"The final secret, I think, is this:  that the words "You shall love the Lord your God" become, in the end, less a command than a promise.  And the promise is that, yes, on the weary feet of faith and the fragile wings of hope, we will come to love him at last, as from the first he has loved us--loved us even in the wilderness, especially in the wilderness, because he has been in the wilderness with us.  He has been in the wilderness for us.  He has been acquainted with our grief.  And, loving him, we will come at last to love each other, too, so that, in the end, the name taped on every door will be the name of the one we love.
  'And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you rise.'" 
   Excerpt from A Room Called Remember

  I have felt many days lately in the wilderness.  And for him to love me, despite my own acts of bewildering, and my own overgrowth of despondency, I am very, very grateful.
  And for Buechner's insight---Jesus's words transformed into a benediction over our lives and not as a TO DO LIST...aaaah, freedom and excitement.

Can't remember who said it...

and that sorta bums me out, but it was a qoute I read a little while ago and I can't seem to let go of it.  It goes a little something like this, [my very, very paraphrased version]

  "The sun comes up every morning for the sheer fact that God delights in seeing it rise."

LOVED even the thought of that.

I'm lazy and this man is incredible!

The gentleman I work for is 86.  I am an aide for his disabled wife.  He still works part-time as an optometrist two days a week.  Yesterday he said he fears in two months he may not have his job.  Not because of his age or any inabilities on his part, but because of some changes that will be implemented within the infrastructure of the company regarding patients insurance.  I'm not sure of the details of it, it all sounded confusing, but the funniest, most amazing, great part about any of this is: as he was driving off to go to work, he tells me out the window of his minivan he is thinking of STARTING A BUSINESS!!!!  What!?!?!  At 86?!?!
  He and I were at the breakfast table talking about his wife and all the things we both have learned in the process of caring for her.  We have found some great resources that have not been all that readily advertised to help those who are disabled.  For instance, he has a lift system in his house in two different rooms that enables us to lift his wife from the wheelchair to her living room chair, or her wheelchair to her bed.  Every nurse or any other medical personnel we have had in the house over the many years of owning this lift system will say, "I have never seen anything like this."  They have used gait belts or have themselves used a hoyer lift, but this they were not familiar with at all.  Well, it has been a lifesaver for him because it has given him the capabilities to transfer his wife on his own without the help of an aide, therefore not needing to shell out more money for help and giving the two of them more independence than they would typically have in their situation.  All that being said, he now wants to speak with the woman he purchased the lift from and see if she would like a partner (he'd make a great spokesperson), or he has thought of going into a partnership with one of his daughter's in selling these lifts and other good finds he made throughout the years.
  I have ordered and purchased (and returned!) LOTS of things to help with her hearing/speaking/seeing/eating/etc. for the total of 5 years I have worked for them--things that have been advertised to their particular age group and her particular problems, BUT the two of them, when the item has been tested and tried, are able to then say, quite reasonably, just why the item does not work and will not work in the future.  The gentleman I work for wants to be an advocate for things that do work, and let those companies that believe they are selling a product that will be useful know just why their product is not as great as they profess it to be.
  I just heard this yesterday--"Find something you are passionate about and then get involved!"  I am so thrilled to see his passion, at 86, and see the fire in his belly move him to do something about it.  How incredible!

While riding in the car...

I am listening to a book on cd.  The book is called Us by Lisa Oz, the wife of Dr.Oz.  I'm only on the second cd, but I liked an exercise she offered to the reader.  She writes about how our thoughts take on habits, and how these habits create familiar grooves into our thinking patterns, and how these thinking patterns can be, at most times, unhelpful.  She suggests, to break up some of our habits in action or in thought, that we perform something outside of our physical daily routine...even if it's a small gesture.  For instance, if you typically brush your teeth before you take a shower, try brushing afterwards.  Or if we always take the same way home from work, try a different route.  She also suggests to go out and do something we thought we would never do.  Not at the expense of ourselves in a harmful way, but in a good, courageous, fun way.  She is asking the reader to break out from the automatic pilot we lend our lives to so we can begin to learn a better way of living...like being in the present.  I borrowed this book on cd from the library.  It's kicking my butt.  Most likely, I'm going to have to give it another listen, but I like where it's taking me.