Scripps Sundays

so. very. grateful.  for you always being up for something ridiculous, for being in sync with you, for our bodies who gave us this gift today, for silliness for 13.1 miles, for hugging you in the kitchen listening to this song with tears streaming down my face.  Carry As we awake to face day Just thought I'd take the time to say I'm glad to be alive Breathing right in time With you You and I are nothing new Just two old souls that will fade into The everlasting grace But before we fade We got a lot to do 'Cause can't you see this world is chaos in color? It's wild and strange, but it's wonderful too If the weight of it ever tries to pull you under Know this much is true We were made to carry each other And I'm here to carry you You and I have storms we'll face But every cloud is ligned with grace The morning comes to break The dark and heavy chains Of the night that tried to hold you Oh, and I have dreams to chase We got lives to lead, no time to waste A...

  a gorgeous poem I mentioned that I am writing about for my reconciliation class...   Soliloquies - Joy, ©Makoto Fujimura 2009 Currently on exhibit at Alien Museum in Taiwan   God is the (only) Artist To say— God is the only Artist— is to name a reality too vast for us to behold, yet too intimate to ignore as it is right in front of us. He alone calls forth creation from the void. God’s first act of beauty— a Word. A Word that flares into galaxies, into oceans, into breath As a dance. We are born into God’s imagination. This refractive cosmos. Whatever we call our art is already participation in what has been given Through the Spirit's call. Our pigments are gifts of earth. Our clay is shaped by unseen histories. We never begin with nothing. Only God does. And yet— this Artist of eternity does not finish the canvas without us. God paints with patience. God paints with humility. The New is withheld until our trembling hands add their fragile strokes. Beholding Jesus's glo...

 Anna, Since I did not share all the lyrics from the song in your birthday package, I wanted to remind you of them here.  Your voice it came to me, the clearest I had heard Those many nights where I lay hanging from your every word And in my bloodstream, you did multiply, and then Walk down an avenue and take me to the end It's like you're in my chest, it's like you're in my lungs Took something ordinary, sent it for a run The way I need you now is more than to survive I want to give you an extraordinary life A wave refracted a divergence underneath Toward directions that took gravity away from me Blind and the blinder breathed you in until the dawn I'll tell you now, I won't be back before I'm gone It's like you're in my chest, it's like you're in my lungs Took something ordinary, sent it for a run The way I need you now is more than to survive I want to give you an extraordinary life And I will hold you closer than you...

  radical gratitude spell a spell to cast upon meeting a stranger, comrade or friend working for social and/or environmental justice and liberation: you are a miracle walking i greet you with wonder in a world which seeks to own your joy and your imagination you have chosen to be free, every day, as a practice. i can never know the struggles you went through to get here, but i know you have swum upstream and at times it has been lonely i want you to know i honor the choices you made in solitude and i honor the work you have done to belong i honor your commitment to that which is larger than yourself and your journey to love the particular container of life that is you you are enough your work is enough you are needed your work is sacred you are here and i am grateful -Adrienne Maree Brown, Pleasure Activism 

Anna, I am working on a paper for class and stumbled on this graduation speech by this incredible artist named Makoto Fujimura. This is such a beautiful charge for a graduation but also for a birthday! Cheers to you, beautiful girl, and to twenty-three amazing years.   Beholding for Generations - the Art of Becoming, 2025 Gordon College Commencement Address Bruce Herman, Osamu portrait for Ordinary Saints project Beholding for Generations - the Art of Becoming Full Video Here 2025 Commencement Address at Gordon College Thank you President Hammond, Board of Trustees, faculty and staff, and graduates and family.  Ephesians 2:8–10   For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork (poiema), created in Christ Jesus to do good works (ergon), which God prepared in advance for us to do. This is a painting by your Bruce Herman,  the founder of y...

  First you need only look: Notice and honor the radiance of Everything about you . . . Play in this universe. Tend all these shining things around you: The smallest plant, the creatures and objects in your care. Be gentle and nurture. Listen . . . As we experience and accept All that we really are . . . We grow in care. -Anne Hillman

  This was tacked on someone's desk in the spiritual care office at Harborview. Such a good reminder....  HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember Jim Gaffigan's monologue about the Bonus Fry ? Here's an extra post for you tonight....  Because you have had some amazing time with folks this weekend, I just had to send you this to make you laugh. 

a very important reminder today to say these words out loud and to embrace them wholeheartedly.... INHALE: I can listen to my body. EXHALE: I will stay whole. INHALE: My body is good. EXHALE: I will not abandon it. INHALE: This flesh is divine. EXHALE: The physical is the spiritual.   Confession: Embodied God, We confess that we have rent mind from matter, been deceived into viewing our bodies as tools for productivity as opposed to sacred beings worthy of love and honor. In our spiritualities, we have exalted the invisible over the physical. In our daily routines, we have not cared for our bodies well. And that neglect has rippled out toward the bodies of others in our midst. Forgive us, God, and restore in us a sacred attunement to our whole selves- minds, blood, breath, the hands that grip these pages. With divine help, may we never abandon ourselves again. Amen.   Forgiveness Let your soul receive this rest: The same God who knit together the physi...