Spilling out of garages

Each day I leave my development traveling past hundreds of homes with cars parked in driveways and not in garages. 

Sometimes, when the garage doors are open, you can see tiny little pathways wandering through the "stuff" piled floor to ceiling.  And, this is happening in houses with full basements and 3-4 bedrooms.

Yikes.

At this time of year, with commercialism running amok and the government asking us to bail out the economy again by going deeper into debt, I wonder where all this new junk is going to go.

Fifty years ago, the idea that a family would have a storage POD sitting next to their house filled with stuff they no longer use, would have been ridiculous.  The dump or collectors would have made off with most of it.  Toys and clothes and furniture were handed down.

I struggle with this side of America daily after living in Sudan, a country where what one owns is really minimal.  Consumerism may be there, but it is not for everyone.

I have signed up for two minute readings during Advent, something offered by CREDO.

Saturday's reading follows below:

An ADVENT Walk

 
One of the advantages of age, at least as I am experiencing it, is that stuff doesn't matter nearly so much as I once thought, indeed, as I was reared to value it. Perhaps the great sin of
relative affluence is the urge to hoard, to hold on tight if not to acquire more, telling ourselves that prudence like ours could never be greed.  I haven't achieved Jesus' standard of material austerity yet, but I'm working on it.

A few years ago it was a real pleasure to dump my grandmother's twelve-place setting of elegant china on my elder daughter. She got more than she bargained for, but she hasn't realized it yet. I'd dragged it around for fifty years without realizing what a burden it was. It couldn't go in the dishwasher, and when would I ever have twelve people trying to sit down at a table, which comfortably seats four?

Harder still is letting go of the invisible, intangible impedimenta like envy, arrogance, neediness, and fear. Some of them are troubling, some of them feed my ego, some of are there just because that's where they have always been. If you drag them with you long enough, you forget how heavy they are. You forget how to run, how to skip, even to walk briskly. Eventually you even forget what it might be like to walk unimpeded.  I comfort myself with the imperfection of the twelve. Like the rest of us, they too remained works in progress to the very end. Maybe I have just one more walk. Everything has been practice up to now.  
--Margaret Guenther
Walking Home: From Eden to Emmaus

Disconnecting

I have left Facebook, a community that I never really embraced.

I was electronically attacked by someone in Minnesota who entered my Facebook space and sent damaging emails and videos.

Who needs these headaches.  Not me.

In fact, I realized that when so many of you informed me of what you were doing you were not telling me.  I have not heard the sound of some of your voices, nor you mine, in years.

So I suggest this.  Let's reconnect.  If there is something exciting going on in your life, pick up the phone and call me.  Let's laugh and cry together.  Whine and celebrate to the sound of our voices connecting.

I never thought that pulling this plug would be so much fun.

Yahoo.  I am rebel, hear me roar.

I guess it is never too early

I must tell you up front.

Seeing Christmas appear in stores before Halloween, or the end of October really riles me up.  In fact, I choose not to enter a shopping center that has already succumbed to decorating tables, walls, doors, walkways.

However, today an associate sent me a really feel good video set in Macy's in Philadelphia.  Here is the link.
http://www.philly.com/philly/video/106492678.html


Enjoy!

The Third Letter of the Alphabet

A good friend gave me a gift this weekend.  She probably did not intend on giving me this gift, when we parted last week, but nevertheless, she did.

Sometimes gifts come when least expected.  Not on birthdays, or Christmas, or one of the other myriad of Hallmark holidays.

They come quietly, in the morning, from out of town.

I took a trip back in time this past Saturday, and that was part of the gift.

Leaving Delaware and traveling north, I turned onto Route 452 and continued north for about 10 miles.

I had forgotten how "close" communities and roads could be outside of Delaware.  Delaware County Pennsylvania is so different from northern Delaware, though they share a border.

Here I was traveling past the apartment where I used to live, the church where my daughter was baptized, the first apartment next to the firehouse, past the road to Linville Orchards, up to Granite Run Mall, Weathers Motors, Riddle Hospital, Lima, Aston and Media. 

This past was the early part of my adult life.  When I was first married, going to college, having a child.  The time when my faith was growing, slowly, steadily.

Growing but still not preparing me for everything to come down the road.

That is where the second part of the gift comes in.  I was given the chance to re-learn the alphabet.

A, B,C.

C,C,C,

Three C's.

Cause, Control, Cure.

I did not cause it.

I cannot control it.

And, I cannot cure it.

The gift of my lifetime.

Of all the letters in the alphabet, I have determined that C is my favorite.

It has provided me with a lifeline. 

And, it was the gift that came quietly, and unexpectedly this Saturday.

Thank you my friend.

Back but here to stay?

The last writing I did was on September 12.

I would like to say that I have been circling the globe without my laptop but that would be untrue.

The truth?   I hate writing.  Actually, I hate my laptop.


It seems that my fingers have a mind of their own on this laptop.  My writing is much better at work.  My fingers like that keyboard.  The workstation is set up for efficiency.

The solution would probably be to purchase another laptop.  One that understands where my fingers want to go.  One that  I might actually like.   Also, possibly a table where I could sit down and type.  However, my finances are not going along with these ideas.

In fact, my Finances and I are not on a first name basis anymore.

My Finances have moved out and established a life of her own and changed her name to Gone.

Finances R Gone would rather spend her time repairing cars, or replacing cell phones, or installing new walls and flooring after plumbing leaks rather than buy me a replacement laptop and workstation.

That said, since Sudan I have learned that life can be a struggle and you must persevere.  One never knows around what corner Hope is waiting for you.  Or, Redemption, or Forgiveness.

Keep on trucking, as we used to say.

I have picked up finishing this on Friday, November 12th.  The keyboard won.

Last night I watched the "new" Karate Kid featuring Jackie Chan and the newest actor from the Smith clan, Jaden. Movie Link This remake was filmed in China, the visuals are phenomenal, and as such gave a new perspective to the original film.   However, it is this from both films that I remember and have taken to heart:

"You have taught me very important lesson, Xiao Dre. Life will knock us down, but we can choose whether or not to stand back up."

So, what I do is to keep standing up, walking along, looking and listening for the changes that will allow me to stand a little taller.

Prayers of God's People

Lord God, you come and seek us out, you call us and empower us to live to your glory, you are our Shepherd and guide, you are our God.  We pray for all who have  strayed from the faith, all who have gotten lost in various ways, especially any who lives are in danger.

God our protector, we remember before you all who work or live in dangerous places or a hostile environment, all who are suffering at this time from storms and disasters, all who are caught up in stife and warfare.  We pray for all who are seeking peace and well being for the world:  we remember the United Nations and peace-keepings forces.

Lord we give thanks for all who have sought us out in times of troubles, who have been a strength and a joy to us.  We pray that you will guide all who teach and influence others.  Let us know your presence in our homes and with our loved ones.  Guide us in our friendships.

We ask you to be with all who walk in darkness; may your love and light protect the depressed and despairing; may your strength and hope be known to the discouraged.  We ask your blessing upon all who are ill at home or in the hospital.

We pray for all who are entering the shadow of death and for their loved ones in their time of anxiety.  Bless all who are in hospice and all who have the care of the terminally ill.  We pray for all who have passed through death and entered life eternal.

Good and faithful Shepherd,
guide us into the ways of life and peace.

An I-95 Perspective

For the first part of the summer I tended to travel to work in Wilmington along I-95. It is usually fast since the roads are not filled with school buses, teachers in cars, kids and parents in cars resulting in making the interstate as clogged as some people's arteries.  In Delaware, to hasten integration between the races within the schools, busing was instituted.  Being from New York, this was a situation that I did not understand. So for me it is a matter of perspective based not on busing. 

We are a long way from the 1970's and I tend to focus more on the environmental affects of these policies.

Of course, this was at a time when gasoline was around 50 cents a gallon and there were fewer Delaware residents.  Given the resulting cost of gas now, and the fact that "rush" hour isn't, might these be two good reasons to stop busing and focus on greater better schools?  Or, better yet, make school three months of the year and summer the remaining nine.  

However, this discussion can wait, since I am merely venting and this topic never reaches a conclusion in Delaware.

Each day, I pass two bill boards with messages from two local banking institutions, Wilmington Trust and Wilmington Savings Fund Society (WSFS), and their messages could not be more different.


Wilmington Trust:  It really is all about you..... OWN YOUR WORLD.


WSFS:  Fans of Small Business.

It was while reading Jim Wallis book Rediscovering Values that these two advertising signs appeared alongside the road.  Since Wallis's writings challenge us to remember that our decisions should take into account seven generations into the future, the slogan "It really is all about you" was offensive.

And, Own Your World?

Please aren't we temporarily renting space?

To counteract my negativity about the WilmingtonTrust Co. sign, I brought up this topic with the book group.

By the end of the night amid our discussions about personal responsibility, another perspective was offered about the sign's language.

It really is all about you ...and the choices you make. Your responsibility for your choices.

You do not need to make choices that are counter intuitive toward the greater good.

You can use your personal wealth to benefit you and others for generations to come.

Own Your World and make better choices. It is your own world that you are responsible for, only you can change what you do in it.

Perspective.

With others mine changes all the time.