Manifest the Love of God in the Universe

That's what it's all about. Even though we here in this fine house are in major transition regarding jobs, money, livelihood, I'm holding fast to the confidence that things are coming together as we accept what is, summon and then allow the right actions to flow through us. Live and accept what is in the now without anger and then clearly see what is the next point.

How fantastic it is to wash the dishes while Anna sleeps and Henry plays with Noah on a sunny springtime day. There is a flow and we are a part of it. God's great intelligence. Any of these podcasts are wonderful. I'm enjoying part II of Tom Fox's interview with David Steindl-Rast, founder of Gratefulness.org.

I am grateful.

Peace. Peace. Peace. So be it.

Anna Kate is one!

Someone we love turned one on February 28.
To help celebrate, Aunt Libby made a keepsake birthday crown.

Grandma Baumgartner made chocolate cake with seven-minute frosting.

Grandma Ewy composed a special birthday song
(but I'm not showing you Grandma Ewy because she's making a funny face and would be cross with me if I showed it even though it's sweet).

Big brother Henry helped blow out the candle.

Anna ate the cake with unprecedented daintiness.
And Daddy stood behind the camera to take pictures.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANNA KATE!
You are one year old!

At one year, Anna is standing by herself; refraining from eating pennies and dimes that she shakes out of Henry's bank and puts back in the correct slot; saying all sorts of words like, "ball," "uh-oh," "dog," "Boy Blue" (says Grandpa Baumgartner), clock, and other new words every day. She is sociable, persistent and adoring. She has begun calling Henry "Heh," and celebrates her new accomplishments with smiles of satisfaction. She seemed bewildered as she opened all those presents. What was all that paper stuff on the floor in front of her? The next day, though, she woke up acting older, as if she knew something special and transformative had happened.

This year has flown by. We are so very glad she is here with us.

Lots to post, birthday, etc., but time for a breather

Caring is the greatest thing, caring matters most.
--Friedrich von Hugel, last words, 1925

from The Quiet Eye: A Way of Looking at Pictures

February 14

homemade geoboard

After reading about this in the lab sheet annotations for Henry's Miquon workbook, I decided I could whip up a geoboard myself. And so I did. Made it in the wrong dimensions, but it's still fun.

eleven months

At eleven months (on 1/28), Anna Kate is competent with her fingers, opinionated in her likes and dislikes, fond of calling everything and everyone "di," a great admirer of her brother, sweet as ever, almost one year old!

purification

I celebrated Candlemas with women friends last Sunday. One of the words we contemplated was purification, a concept I haven't historically been overly fond of. The whole pure/impure dichotomy has tended to leave me feeling flat. Who is pure? Who is impure? Aren't we always a little of both?

Jesus talked a lot about that sort of thing. Wheat and chaff. His mother and father went to the temple 40 days after he was born, when Mary was once again, "pure," so they could receive a blessing for their son.

Candlemas is an observance of the purification of Mary, among other things. How are we like her? How am I like her? She has been important to me for a long time now, even though I can't articulate exactly why. Doesn't matter. It's deep, limbic stuff that I'm happy to feel and not explain.

So, when I sang this verse from Fred Pratt Green's "Whom shall I send?" in church this morning, I took it as a divine sign that everything's gonna be all right...one way or another.

Those who are called God purifies,
and daily gives us strength to bend
our thoughts, our skills, our energies
and life itself to this one end.

I'm losing my job, my lovely 1/4 time job, in three weeks. In painfully diplomatic language, I was told I could apply for the position full-time or say good-bye. My dear co-worker and I are electing to say good-bye. Neither one of us could take it on full time. Nor could the third dear chaplain who joined us after my Anna was born.

I pray for God to give me daily strength to bend my thoughts, my skills, my energies, my life itself, to the end of work/life balance.

Full-time chaplaincy while mothering small children has not provided that kind of balance for our family.

Here's my trusting surrender to what is to come. Light a candle. Say a prayer for our family. We have options and ideas, but the future is unlit. Thank you!