She Thinks She's Witty

Every since Jeremy introduced me to the great Sufi Master, Hafiz , I've been in love with his work. Some of it I can't follow at all and some of it gets right at how I'm feeling. Here's a good one I found today! Tired of Speaking Sweetly Love wants to reach out and manhandle us, Break all our teacup talk of God. If you had the courage and Could give the Beloved His choice, some nights, He would just drag you around the room By your hair, Ripping from your grip all those toys in the world That bring you no joy. Love sometimes gets tired of speaking sweetly And wants to rip to shreds All your erroneous notions of truth That make you fight within yourself, dear one, And with others, Causing the world to weep On too many fine days. God wants to manhandle us, Lock us inside of a tiny room with Himself And practice His dropkick. The Beloved sometimes wants To do us a great favor: Hold us upside down And shake all...

This morning I preached at York Center Church of the Brethren. Here's what I said! Scripture: Matthew 14:22-31 22-23  As soon as the meal was finished, he insisted that the disciples get in the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he dismissed the people. With the crowd dispersed, he climbed the mountain so he could be by himself and pray. He stayed there alone, late into the night. 24-26  Meanwhile, the boat was far out to sea when the wind came up against them and they were battered by the waves. At about four o’clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the water. They were scared out of their wits. “A ghost!” they said, crying out in terror. 27  But Jesus was quick to comfort them. “Courage, it’s me. Don’t be afraid.” 28  Peter, suddenly bold, said, “Master, if it’s really you, call me to come to you on the water.” 29-30  He said, “Come ahead.” Jumping out of the boat, Peter walked on the water to Jesus. But when he looke...

Dealing with Feelings, PART 2 by Rachel Witkovsky The hatred was sublime and palpable. Almost as if one could feel it from their third row, center seat. The tears poured forth in waves of sorrow. “The audience was afraid it would be flooded with feelings,” she laughs. It was a show that made them feel what the actors felt Because the actors felt what the playwright felt. All due to the feelings of the characters rubbing off on the playwright. “Everyone was feeling the feelings of someone else,” she smirks. The theatre does that. Makes a person delve into the anatomy of someone else’s heart. But who wants to examine their own? “Deal with others’ emotions before yours,” she advises. Life would be a lot harder to deal with. If everyone felt what was being conveyed on stage in their own life. No one can have such raw emotions in their hearts, express it, And go on living a 9 to 5 life. Hope blossoms as a tree in spring. Fear clutches as icy fi...

      Rutabagas come from Sweden, they say, but I know different. Something with that many A's in the name can't be from Sweden, anyway. There are no A's at all in the word Sweden. Enough said on that topic.      I have never eaten a rutabaga and didn't even know  how to  spell it until it appeared in a washer one day. There are three washers in the apartment basement and I picked the one with the rutabaga. I opened the lid to put my clothes in, like any normal person, and found this turnip-looking object staring back at me.      Most normal people would have either taken the plant out of the washer or moved to another one, but I couldn't look away. What was this odd creation I was looking at?  I figured that it was a space plant that got really lonely floating out there all by itself. One day, it was like, "I'm going to go meet that big blue, green, and white ball over there and make friends."   ...

Donna gave a very nice message in chapel last Wednesday about creativity. At the end, she gave us all pieces of paper. On them were writing "prompts" to get our creativity flowing. She challenged us to take them, do the activity, and use it as our benediction for the service. Or at least to take a creative break throughout the day. My prompt and response are here. Complete these sentences: The activity that gives me greatest joy is... I don't know if it would be truly considered an "activity" since you're not very active, but just sitting in a coffee shop, sipping a latte and either writing on my laptop or snuggled up in a corner on a comfy seat reading. The good qualities that best describe my life are... family-oriented, good friends, God's goodness, blessed, loved. The help that people most often solicit from me is... advice, I would like to think. Not that I'm good at the advice part, but I'm good at talking and sounding like I know wh...