delicious

chicks dig watermelon baskets. our rand ave. chickens are growing so quickly! thanks, browns, for taking such good care of them.

downtown over the weekend

 

it was great to be active over the weekend in our city and see so many communality peeps out and about.  here are some pics from last weekend: lexington bike summit, gallery hop, jeremy joybomb explodes at 3rd st stuff, isaac takes inspiration from the joybomb and rocks out.

part of a beautiful life

currently i'm reading a book i picked up at greenbelt called "the beautiful life: ten new commandments: because life could be better." it is written by a long-time priest of the church of england who now works at a grocery. i think it might be one of my top three books. in it, he invites the reader to go on a journey of transformation leading to a freedom and a better understanding of self. i could quote the whole thing, but this is a small bit on self-observation that i read this week which brought real conviction:

"The workplace is not always a happy place. Long-running hostilities often exist. People arrive at work knowing who they like and who they do not like. A splitting of humanity has quietly taken place, a separation of good and bad. We will display charity towards those whom we regard as good, but give little room to those deemed bad.

Self-observation quickly exposes such personal vendettas, however, and questions the low-grade happiness we experience in their pursuit. How different the day at work wold be if we refused to split humanity, and started the day with a clean slate for all.

If the sea can twice daily wipe clean the beach, then once daily I can wipe clean the past."

(sherry)

sunday gathering

here are mr will samson and mr ryan koch harvesting/cultivating.
i've uploaded some more pics from our sunday gathering at the community garden (click on the pic to be transported to the flickr page). we had a bless-ed time celebrating Z's birthday and the fecundity of the earth. activities included frisbee, eating, throwing the football, eating, trampoline jumping, creek wading, croquet, eating, weeding the garden beds, and eating smores.

An interesting story..........

Well, many of us know that the whole idea of the "American Dream" is the "American Nightmare" for many, at best only a partial truth that does not apply to all or is not accessible to everyone. Nonetheless, I thought that this story was interesting. I guess it kind of has the "Pursuit of happyness" flavor to it. See what you think.............

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/StartInvesting/GettingRichOnA20000DollarSalary.aspx

golfview goodtimes

great cook-out/gathering at the Golfview place yesterday. thanks for hosting us lads of the manor. click on these photos to go to my flickr account and see some more images.

A Love Poem...If I May

This poem is a little bit of a turn from what I normally post here, but since it is still my expression of worship, I figured I'd post it. Oh, when I say that it's my expression of worship, it's not necessarily a "love poem for jesus." Just a love poem. For someone. I wrote it reflecting on the idea that love, relationships, etc. work in a seasonal way. Sometimes the love is raining down in sheets and sometimes it seems to be evaporating as the last dew drop chases the the wind into the air. Enjoy.
________________________________________________________________

Lay me down beside you,
that I might arise in the morning light.
Morning after morning after morning after morning
until the twilight fades into sleep's long night.

Raise me up beside you
from wrinkled sheets and threads worn bare
in the moment the last dew drop
chases the wind into the air.

Lay be down beside you,
for I fear to not see your face,
so I'll take this moment of eternity
and wrap you up for days upon days upon days.

the blessing of daniel

last night we gathered for our weekly fellowship meeting. for geoff and me, it was a pleasure just to be there, to be reunited with our family of faith. it was a special night however because as a group we joined the leffel family in praying for and sending out their son daniel. today he leaves for the peace corp. he'll be serving two years in senegal, africa. he completed his studies at uni of kentucky and he will use his studies in language (french), economics and political science to assist in micro-enterprise where it is much-needed.

as we joined together to pray for him, two things were profoundly obvious. the first was the power of the sacrifice of one life. we've watched daniel grow into an adult over the last ten years. he is bright and gifted and he is giving his future and his occupation over to the purposes of god. i could not help but be deeply inspired. the second was the unity. for those moments, the room was filled with love and commitment as we stood before god in faith and entrusted daniel to god. there were hands on my back and my hands touched and held those of others. i didn't know who was around me and it didn't matter. the space was shared and it was sacred. i could not help but be deeply encouraged.

we will continue together to pray for daniel, his work and his family here. and by god's grace and the faithfulness of the spirit we will be unified. blessings daniel.

(sherry)

The Practice of Entertaining Angels

Thanks to Jeremy, we had great conversation tonight at fellowship. This week's scripture readings dealt with issues of fear and faithfulness, entertaining angels and the sacredness of the ordinary.

I have been stuck thinking about the Hebrews verse... Don't forget to show hospitality to the stranger because some have entertained angels without knowing it.

I shared tonight how CG and I found out this afternoon that the Honduran family we welcomed is moving to California tomorrow. As I first thought about the verse, I found myself wanting to find comfort by thinking that our neighbors could have been the angels spoken of here. But then I think of those in scripture, such as Abraham, that did entertain these angels. They did not do it just on special occasion. They were able to welcome the angels because they were in the practice of welcoming foreigners. Not because they were expecting angels or looking out for something extraordinary. Hospitality was simply a core practice of their lives. Maybe they welcomed many strangers who were ordinary (and possibly even rude, unappreciative, and manipulative) but because this was what they practiced, there was an occasional angel thrown in the mix as well.

I pray I learn not to expect much before I'm in the habit of being faithful with little.