Can she really upload video??

If this works, that'll be so cool!!! Six seconds of nothing but the cat ;-)

ALT's Meesa Back Tag

Not sure if ALT was throwing out a tag for anyone, or responding to a tag...but hey, I'll play anyways.

1. What is your favorite flower?
Lilies.

2. What word in the English language do you wish you had invented?
Loving-kindness.

3. What do you miss about your childhood?
My Star Wars action figures, along with my Justice League dolls.

4. What is the main fault in your character?
Perfectionism.

5. Describe how you kiss in one word.
Present.

6. What in the world do you least desire?
Violence, discrimination, and monetary debt.

7. Finish this sentence. "Happiness is a thing called..."
now.

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Have a safe and merry New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Anniversary Celebration

So, my wife and I have been talking about going up to the altar rail for quite awhile, and due to a chain of events, such as, our Pastor saying all are welcome to have clebrations blessed - today was the day we went up for our 3.5 year celebration blessing.

My poor wife kept wanting to hold my hand and I kept needing to wiggle free, but luckily for me she didn't let go :-) So we were up at the rail with one birthday and another anniversary of 38 years. So our Pastor gave the celebration blessing, and normally our church claps right away after the blessings...well, there was about 2 seconds of utter silence, then bless him, our Pastor started clapping, then the people at the rail starting clapping, and then the congregation joined in.

Afterwards, a friend asked me if I felt the Holy Spirit during the blessing, to which I replied "No, I was way too nervious." I felt like I did the day my wife and I got married, extremely happy and a bit weak in the knees. My wife just beaming at me (which was awesome) and supportive quiet laughter at my 10 minutes of deep breathes afterwards.

It's telling and sad that not one of our LGBT parisheners uttered one word to us after church, but a number of straight parisheners did. And I don't know if it was coincidence or intentional but one lesbain couple got up and left once we got up to go to the rail, and didn't come back until after the blessings - I'm sure I'm just imagining things.

So that was my fourth Sunday of Advent.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

'Sup with Me

Well, I finished crocheting my wife's scarf last night - yea. It will go very nicely with her winter jacket. My next project is to use just the knit stitch to make another scarf so I can get some fluidity before moving onto knit 1 pearl 1.

The EFM group liked my homily :-) It was a wonderful evening of fellowship. And when I arrived at home there was one of my wife's best friends all the way down from CT. So that was a very nice end to a really nice evening.

I got cd's that are designed to teach you Spanish while driving in the car - very exciting. So let's see if the cobwebs get swept away cause deep in the recesses of my brain, there are years worth of vocabulary and sentence structure buried in there.

Totally random - I got a new cowboy hat, so I'll see if I can remember to take a picture of it. OOhh, and one of my Christmas presents is a digital video recorder - nothing fancy, on the way low end, but it was priced in bargan bin numbers. But I don't get to use it until after Christmas Eve (which is when we open our presents). But when I do, I'm going to play with posting "videos" to zeh blog - or at least thta's my thoughts for now. Wouldn't y'all love to see a videos of my dogs ;-)

First Homily

So, I wrote my first homily for my EFM group's Christmas Eucharist Celebration. We each picked what part we would have in the service and what foods for the shared meal afterwards. Our theme we were given, or maybe we chose, I can't remember now, is gifts. I don't know what any of the readings will be to include the gospel reading, and the only other requirement be that it was between 2-3 minutes in length.

Sermon in a sentence, not quite, more like snippet of scripture to work from, and it's pretty obvious what that snippet is. So, here it is:

…For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable…how true is this - for us in our lives, as we go out everyday into the world? How easy it is to get lost and overwhelmed by hopelessness and sadness…especially during the season of giving. Holding in tension the joy of giving to our loved ones and knowing there are so many who go without everyday.

News stories about Iraq, Afghanistan, CIA torture techniques, Darfur, killing sprees in Colorado, severe weather causing deaths in the mid-west, Guantanamo Bay, habeas corpus, who will be the next president, deficits, talk of recession, out sourcing, consumer confidence, Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring ting tingling too…

…For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable…cannot be undone, revoked, unalterable…how amazing is that? That God gives and does not take away. He is always there waiting for the ‘Here am I’, that entrance into our hearts. That entrance into the realm of it is possible to change the world. It is possible to live this life as though it is the kingdom of God right now, right in this moment, that every moment is a moment to bring God’s love for us to another…one word, one touch, one acknowledgement, one courageous act of love…

Imagine a world without borders, without fences…Imagine a world where ethnicity, sexuality, gender - didn’t matter…Imagine a world that saw instead Christ in each hello, good-bye, come again, how can I help you, thank you, peace be with you…Imagine a world where people had the courage to say no to violence even in the face of their own imprisonment or death…

…For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable…how often do we think, I’m just too tired, I’ve done enough, and felt guilty for not doing more? How often do we turn away only to hear and feel God gently nudging us, encouraging us, surprising us…

I look at the people in this room and feel humbled by all of you. Each of you in and of yourselves gifts; teachers, healers…treasured for your sharing, compassion, and companionship along my own journey. I look at each of you and find courage – strength – and most specially, laughter. You help me remember each week that it is possible to accomplish anything with God’s help.

…For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable…can it really be that each of us is gifted…as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor. What are our gifts? And when we embrace them, what will we do with them?

Christmas and other stuff

Celebrated Christmas with my wife's family early. It was a wonderful weekend that went too quickly. My favorite parts were (a) my mother-in-law's awesome cooking (b) the long walks down country roads (c) falling a asleep on the back screened in patio watching random birds come to feed.

It felt really good to leave the stress behind and forgotten for a couple of days. We took tomorrow off to shop together for the kids' Christmas presents, as well as run a few errands. I'm sooo excited about not going to work tomorrow.

Lastly, the resume is out there, so here's to finding a new job sometime soon.