Scripps Sundays

  Don’t Hesitate by Mary Oliver ​ If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQu1CzAwDmQ The music director at Union created a Lenten playlist, and this was one he put on the list. Here is what he said about it:  "We all tend to internalize the lies that are told to us (or by us) about ourselves; for any number of reasons, we listen to the most critical voices and block out the ones that remind us of our inherent worth. I love that this song reminds us not only to reject those lies, but to return the goodness we receive tenfold into the world." The Returner- Allison Russell  Now I let go Everything that I've known Let it go on, let it roll out With the tide I can't think of a thing That hasn't been shot through with pain Like a nightingale's Song in the dead of the night Goodbye, so long, farewell, all I've been Ooh, oblivion Throw me in the ocean Ooh, see if I can swim I'm wild again, I'm a starchild again I've come ten million miles, ooh, I'm burning I'm a summer dream, I...

  You live this out so beautifully, Anna...  💜 a prayer for love, love, love from beloved Kate Bowler  Lord, the shadowed world  is full of troubles. So give me the good,  inconvenient work of love. Link my life to others  so that their worries  become my own. Give me errands I don’t want  which ease the burdens of others. Divert me from the plans I’ve made  to zip from A to B when you have better ideas.  Put my hands to work  with a less-grumbling heart  and let their dreams drift into my own.   You’ve given me tools to use  and ideas to fashion  that will bring me neither recognition,  nor money, nor praise. You’ve made love such a sneaky thing.  The more we love as you do,  the less we are keeping track of it at all.

  I got to go to a Taizé  retreat on Saturday, and this is something that I wrote as a reflection from the morning prayer time. There are pieces that I wrote with you in mind from this weekend with some of the disappointment you've held, and I hope it brings you some encouragement this week as you bring together so much work you've done on your thesis.   💙 This life is a classroom. We are here to learn to love. That’s it. All the lessons, all the failures, all the disappointments, all the celebrations, all the joys, all the encounters, all the possibilities, are part of our curriculum. We are learning and unlearning. We are growing. We are always on the way. We are here to learn to love. Lord, keep us soft and continue to help us to hold tenderly this day this earth this family these friends these enemies. We are here to learn to love. Beloved is where we begin and we are learning again and again to return to...

If you have time today while you are walking to the library or going to grab food, listen to this in chunks. I imagine it will be the best 17-minutes you spend today reminding you of the most basic truth that I am praying will continue to sink deep into your bones....  https://youtu.be/trG7Oh_PopM? si=PE-FzrxLi1O6GXVz