Abundance

 I never shared the pictures of my late garden, taken at the end of September.  Here are the collards, carrots, beets and nasturtiums.  The cabbages were already gone.  The trellis in back was covered with cucumbers and winter squash earlier in the season.

Here are some of the red peppers ripening.  I've got to say, I don't think I've ever tasted a pepper before.  Fresh from the garden, these were as juicy and as sweet as apples.

This is one of the thousands of morning glory blooms that sprang from one seed, planted on the edge of the tomatoes.  I figured the morning glory would climb the tomato vines and they did!  It took until late fall for them to begin to bloom, and then they were amazingly vigorous. 

This picture does not do justice to the amount of amazing tomatoes we got - both round and plum.  The green ones I picked at the end of the season are still ripening into juicy, delicious fruit on the kitchen windowsill today.

Here are just a couple of the Asian yard long beans.  They really were a yard long, and they had a firm texture and a nutty taste.  Only two or three beans were enough for a meal!  In the background is the already cleared bed that held 48 corn plants that actually yielded great silver queen corn, but we had to fight the worms for it.

The garden was more abundant than I had dreamed it would be, but not in the ways I'd imagined.  I had more cucumbers than I knew what to do with from only two plants until they mysteriously all turned soft and yellow and died.  But they were great while they lasted.  My winter squash vines took off like a shot and grew hundreds of blossoms.  In the end only two of the blossoms developed into a squash - the rest just fell off.  I had more tomatoes than I expected and frankly, I didn't expect any corn at all - but I actually had some!  It felt like a real accomplishment.  The carrots were thick and straight and beautiful, and the beets were big and round, but the cilantro died and the melon never sprouted.  I didn't get the greens I'd hoped for.  The collards, grown from young plants produced well all summer, but the kale, spinach, chard and lettuce I planted from seed really didn't grow much at all.  That was disappointing, since my main reason for wanting a garden was for greens.  But the peppers and the fresh parsely and basil made up for it.  They were much better than I could ever have imagined.

Sometimes you can fall into thinking that abundance means having it all.  But my garden this year reminded me that true abundance - the God give kind - is not the same as getting everything you want.  True abundance is in the awareness that you've been given a blessing, and it often comes in unexpected ways, and what you don't get only makes you love what you do get all the more.  



Overconsumption

My neighbor and I went out to breakfast together recently, and she ordered a pancake special called "One is Enough," and this is what she got.  Wow!  That was the biggest pancake I had ever seen (the picture really doesn't do it justice - it is very thick as well as wide!)  She said it was delicious, but of course she couldn't finish it even half of it.  My first thought was that I had to bring the boys to this place because Carl, in particular, is a pancake fanatic.  But you know, who really needs that big a pancake?    

Christmas is coming and this weekend is the biggest shopping weekend of the year, and American consumerism is at its ugliest.  We are all like kids in a candy store (or Carl in a pancake shop) and we just want more and more cool stuff.  Why have a stack of two pancakes when you can have a gorgeous stack of 5 or 6?   Why have a regular cell phone when you can get a smart phone?  Why have a regular TV, when you can get an HD flat screen?  I heard that in certain places, people were camping out in front of stores on Tuesday in preparation for Black Friday.   They were camping out in front of some big box store right through Thanksgiving Day.  

My family has moved 5 times in the last 5 years.  We haven't been any place long enough to accumulate much, and each time we move, we get rid of LOTS of extraneous stuff.  Yet each time, I am still amazed and appalled by how much stuff we still drag around with us.  My parents didn't have this much stuff.  Their parents, who immigrated from Sweden, didn't lug along anywhere near that much stuff.  Old houses have tiny closets because that was all they needed.  And they didn't rent storage units, either. 

I was just listening to an economist on NPR, talking about our national debt and deficit.  She said that the problem is that Americans have increasingly become "overconsumers."  We have lived beyond our means for a very long time.  She said that unless we learn to consume less we will not be able to maintain a sustainable economy.  Overconsumers.  Hmmm.  I thought immediately of the size of that pancake.  (not to mention the amount of food I ate on Thursday!)

I have been considering the issue of our society's unsustainability in many areas lately.  The U.S. uses most of the world's resources.  We eat ourselves silly.  We build acres of 5000 square foot houses with 3 and 4 car garages.  We heat and air condition all those houses and fill all those cars with gas.  And, I am sorry to say, we also have a church on just about every street corner, each one with its own furnace to fill, roof to repair and staff to pay.  All you have to do is look at global warming, increasing obesity, the mortgage default and bankruptcy rates and the rate of decline and closure of churches to know that we are behaving in unsustainable ways and things have got to change.

We are in a transitional place in history in our country.  We know we need to change things but we don't yet know how.  We know the future needs to be different, but we're still clinging to familiar habits.  We know many of the things we do aren't good for us, but we keep doing them anyway, unsure of what a future without them would be like.  This reminds me a lot of the kinds of stories I hear in 12 step meetings. 

And I guess I'm thinking about unsustainability in the month of December in my own home.  And I am praying for the courage to change.  Am I going to spend more money than I have to get stuff to go under the tree that gets enjoyed for a day or a week and then gets stored in a closet?  Do I have to buy stuff this Christmas or can we find a different way to show God's love to each other?  All I know is what we've always done.  What would a different kind of Christmas be like? 

Well, I'm not going to solve our country's issues of unsustainability myself this season.  But I can take some little steps toward change.  I've decided I don't need to fill the stockings with fun little items that last a short time, but then fill the landfill with more plastic.  In fact, I'm thinking twice about buying anything made of plastic lately.  I'm thinking about giving my kids an experience for Christmas (like a family trip) instead of giving stuff.  I'm thinking about walking to the grocery store when I need a few things instead of jumping in the car.  It's only 1/2 mile away!  And I'm turning off lights all over the place.

And I'm praying.  Praying that God takes my life and my will and turns me toward sanity.  I want to become entirely ready to be made new and to welcome healing for my - and my society's - unsustainable ways.

Invention

The boys pedal power a sky ride

Last weekend my family and I went to the NYC "Maker Faire," which I'm having a hard time describing to people.  The closest I've gotten is that it's a fair of people who enjoy tinkering with the latest technology and who care about solving problems with innovation.  There were some people who shared some very serious and innovative models for green agriculture and energy.  There were other people shared some pretty quirky inventions like human powered carnival rides made entirely of recycled bikes.  There was some guy that spent 13 years building a life sized Mousetrap game (remember the plastic board game with the marble?) with scrap metal and bowling balls.  At the end, instead of a cage falling down on the mouse, a 10 ton safe that was suspended on a crane fell on a taxi cab.  And I also have to mention the two guys in lab coats who put on a Diet Coke and Mentos demonstation with 108 liter bottles of coke spewing soda into the air all at once.  

Two of the fantastical chariots created for the chariot race.

 There were also a whole bunch of computer geeks there.  These were people deeply engaged in "Hackerspace," who talked so matter of factly about robotics that I felt I'd stepped out of the world I know and found myself in another dimension.  They were speaking another language I had never heard (including words unfamiliar to me, like "hackerspace" and "arduino").  The thing that most amazed me were the people there demonstrating their 3D printers.  These things actually take a CAD image from your computer and create a three dimensional object, either solid or hollow - right in front of your eyes.  You can already buy a simple 3D printer, called a "Makerbot," for under $700.  Honestly, it made me feel I had actually walked into the future already.  Imagine what life will be like soon: "Oh, darn, the handle broke off of the toaster.  Wait, I'll just print a new one on my makerbot..."    I can't remember ever being around so many people who knew so much about something I'd never even knew existed before.  I was completely out of my own element, which, as a person who can usually feel at home just about anywhere, was a unique sensation.  Kind of scary.  Kind of exciting.  Certainly intriguing. 

Steve pointed out that many of the people there were probably MIT grads who hold down serious tech jobs by day, but who enjoy serious tinkering in their spare time.  Obviously many of them were brilliant.  And some of them were also, well, a bit odd.  I mean, how many people do you know that rig up a recycled bike to look like a golden trojan horse and ride it around for fun - or, for that matter, spend 13 years constructing a life sized Moustrap game?  But what was so wonderful about this event was that everyone there was full of unusual ideas - some recycled from the past to be expressed anew for today - some new ideas based on new technologies and understandings.  They were curious people, engaged people - inventive people!  These were not people who sit around for hours just passively watching  other people's ideas on TV.  These people were fully alive with invention - fully engaged with creation!  They were not consumers, but co-creators of the future.



Bo powers a kinetic sculpture made of old toys and recycled objects



The Maker Faire would not be everyone's cup of tea, I suppose.  I imagine my mother's reaction would be to look slightly uncomfortable and say something like, "Well, those people are just way out."  But I enjoyed being among them, even when I couldn't understand them, because it felt exciting to be on the edge of the new - on the edge of change - in the presence of people who are actively engaged with major paradigms right as they are shifting.  Most of us spend our time well back from that edge, watching it (or judging it) from a distance.  But I thought it was wonderful to be able to spend the day with a group of mad inventors not only willing to look out over the edge, but willing to participate in God's ongoing process of creation.

So since last weekend, I've added something new to my prayers:  God, take me out of my own element today and open my eyes and my heart and my mind to something new and unfamiliar.  Show me the wonder of your creation, and make me inventive enough to engage it with enthusiasm as your co-creator.  Amen. 

Bo co-pilots this inventor's RC plane made from recycled insulation

A Full Calendar

So last week, this week and for the next few weeks, both the church calendar and my personal calendar are so full, there's barely a space left.  Our Godly Play program begins next week and we are setting up the new room, which has to be ready for tours by this Friday.  We have our church wide yard sale on Saturday.  Consecration Sunday is October 3rd, and there is a different task to be managed in the office for that every week until then.  And we're planning a gala first anniversary celebration of our Recovery Eucharist on October 1.  Add to this, our boys are transitioning back into school and homework, we've had tickets for an all day family event in NYC this Saturday for months, my mother in law had a birthday up in Vermont last weekend to get to - well, you can see, this is a very full time in my life.  (If you read my post from June 30, you know I refuse to name myself "busy.")

I guess I'm stopping for a moment in the midst of all my activity to blog in order to remind myself that even though I am moving fast these days, I am NOT like that guy on the picture up there - running and running until I forget why I'm running.  Just because all these things happen to be coming at once doesn't mean that I have to get lost in it.  There are very good reasons we're doing everything we're doing this fall, and I believe God has called us to do it.  So as for me, God gets me up in the morning and leads me through each day, and despite my spinning brain, it seems that by the grace of God, there is always time and space for everything that most needs to be done to get done.   I have to let go of the rest and trust it'll get done another day if it's really important.

As my husband was busy building shelves for the Godly Play room with his cordless drill, he explained to me the difference between his new lithium battery and his older battery.  Well before it ran out of juice completely, the drill with the old battery would begin to slow down.  It would lose more and more power and be less and less useful until finally the battery died.  His new drill with the lithium battery makes it so that the drill works perfectly well at full power the entire time there is any charge left in the battery.  Then suddenly, when the battery reaches the end of its charge, the drill just suddenly stops.  The new lithium battery makes the work completely efficient until the battery is done.

So this is how I'm looking at things these days.  When my calendar is this full, I am on lithium battery mode.  I may not get the chance to slowly wind down at the end of each day.  I just go and go until I can go no more, and then I have to stop and fall into bed.  But yet, in the dark of the night, God still recharges me and makes me ready for the next day.  And you know, there are much worse things than fully using up - right to the last drop - all the energy God gives me each day.  I go to bed knowing my day has been full of life and, if I am lucky enough to wake up in the morning, tomorrow will be, too.  Soon enough, I'll have more open space for rest and relaxation and unscheduled time.  Right now, I need to fill my full days with creativity, trust and a different kind of relaxation - a relaxation into God's assistance - even as I move at a lithium charged pace.  With this attitude, I am able to appreciate the many gifts such 'full calendar times' bring.

Creating a Positive Space

The Church enjoying the Garden Party at the Rectory on Sunday

My kids (and I) have always enjoyed a video game called Sim City. In it, your job is to set up an area for people to live and work in - you zone it, put in water pipes and electricity and sanitation - and if you create positive space, all of a sudden the Sims just start moving in. It's a riot to watch these little virtual people set up businesses and build houses.  If you've created a good space for them, the city thrives and the Sims are happy.

Ron, Kim, Donna, Elsa and Alison

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John, Elsa and Nat

My parents were great entertainers.  They often had either a few couples over for dinner or a whole bunch of people over for a party.  I remember watching from the top of the stairs in my pajamas or peeking around the corner as they laughed and visited in the livingroom.  I also remember my mother fussing and preparing for her parties for days on end.  As a child, that seemed to me to be her job - to keep the house neat and clean, shop for needed supplies, cook vats of food, bake tons of sweets and prepare the house for guests.  Everything would be ready for a party well in advance - even the table would be be set the day before the party with pressed linens and the good china and crystal.  I got the impression from all this that entertaining was a really big deal - and a ton of work.  Something I would certainly never have the time for.

 

Parishioners who've been at Grace more than 50 years
and less than one year.

But I've discovered that I really like having people over.  And happily, I've learned just lately that entertaining doesn't have to be done the way my mother did it.  If I want to enjoy time with friends, it doesn't really take all that much effort to put something together.  If your main goal is to have a spotless house and really impressive food, well, it's going to take some time.  But if your main goal is to set up some positive space for people to enjoy each others' company, well, there's really not much to that.  Just give them some lemonade in a punchbowl, buy a bunch of cookies and put them out on plates, put a few chairs out on the lawn, and just watch people begin to have fun.

It strikes me that this is becoming my whole approach to being a church, too.  Create a positive space where people feel free to enter - not fussy - not perfect - just open and willing to receive.  Although quality liturgy is important, church is not just about clever sermons, impressive anthems or typo-free bulletins.  Although good programming is important, church is not about providing the perfect program for everyone. 

Elsa with John and Kim, who announced

that they'll be getting married at Grace next year.
Bob and Chris in the background.

I think it comes down to just putting out something for people to eat and drink and creating a comfortable, welcoming and positive space for people to come together, encounter each other and hopefully encounter God in the process. 

Oh, and when God provides a perfectly sunny day it certainly doesn't hurt!