This 4 day annual event at our church is wrapping up. I don't really have the words to describe Kindlings Fest other than that it should be renamed, Kindlings Feast. We are filled to overflowing. We have had two guest presenters stay with us this week, Bruce Herman and Walter Hansen. It's been amazing, our breakfasts together and all the events of the week. We provide them a place to stay and they leave a permanent place in our hearts. Our lives are the richer for hosting participants each year. This event brings artists together with the common bond that they all love Jesus and want to make Him known in their worlds. Many of them work and live in very liberal worlds and they bring a feast to the table with their talents. One of our repeat presenters is Malcolm Guite. He is a poet, priest and academic living and working in Cambridge, England. I could listen to him speak all day.
One of my favorite poems that he presented this year goes like this:
Singing Bowl
"Begin the song exactly where you are,
Remain within the world of which you're made.
Call nothing common in the earth or air,
Accept it all and let it be for good.
Start with the very breath you breathe in now,
This moment's pulse, this rhythm in your blood
And listen to it, ringing soft and low.
Stay with the music, words will come in time.
Slow down your breathing. Keep it deep and slow.
Become an open singing-bowl, whose chime
Is richness rising out of emptiness,
And timelessness resounding into time.
And when the heart is full of quietness
Begin the song exactly where you are."
Friday, July 25, 2014
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Transitions continue
Along with our house and boat for sale, not to mention the loss of Hank, other transitions are taking place as well. After nine years of use, we parted company last week with a crib/toddler bed that we bought second hand when we first became grandparents.
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It has held all of our grandchildren in one state of assembly or another. Most recently, Nikolai used it last week. I sometimes wonder where have the years gone??!! Now I have a 9 year old grandson who can hike 4 miles with me in the park and never hint at being tired. A 6 year old granddaughter, whose artistic imagination is every day a new wonder of amazement and a 3 and 1/2 year old who tells his mother, "you look beautiful" before leaving for church. As I said, WHERE do the years go? Certainly a lot faster than when I was raising my own two. We were able to give the bed to the local second hand children's store in town as the owner said she knew of someone who can use it. Second hand, third hand, may it continue to create memories for all the future little sleepers. It has certainly served us well.
It has held all of our grandchildren in one state of assembly or another. Most recently, Nikolai used it last week. I sometimes wonder where have the years gone??!! Now I have a 9 year old grandson who can hike 4 miles with me in the park and never hint at being tired. A 6 year old granddaughter, whose artistic imagination is every day a new wonder of amazement and a 3 and 1/2 year old who tells his mother, "you look beautiful" before leaving for church. As I said, WHERE do the years go? Certainly a lot faster than when I was raising my own two. We were able to give the bed to the local second hand children's store in town as the owner said she knew of someone who can use it. Second hand, third hand, may it continue to create memories for all the future little sleepers. It has certainly served us well.
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