winter • february • 2018 • ventures

This summary features the month of February and the meteorological season of Winter—here are my chronicles for December and January. It's time to link up again with Emily P. Freeman's What I Learned in...



Today is Wednesday, so it's Porch Stories. Kristin Hill Taylor's blogging about winter learnings, too.



Railroad tracks around the corner from where I've been staying form the background for my February graphic; my February story includes still learning patience, still learning to wait, still discerning future moves during this meantime. February has meant acknowledging my marginal level of everyday functioning that's nothing to worry about, but serves as a signal a lot's not okay with my current situation. Having explained that, one of the best February surprises has been newly emerged monarch butterflies in the milkweed planters at church. As caterpillars they got very greedy, munching all the milkweed down to bare stalks!



Sunday 04 February



Sunday 11 February – Transfiguration



Sunday 18 February –Lent 1



The Green Faith Team met again in Glendale during late February mostly to finish planning for the 22 March World Water Day event we're hosting down by the LA River riverside {watch this space!}. I created a scrapbook page to collage my photos; for some reason it's been a long while since kids in the on-campus school displayed their art in the windows, but their bulletin board displays were like scrapbook pages within my scrapbook page.



February is Black History Month. On the last Sunday of February I attended a fabulous Young. Gifted. Black. A Fundraiser Showcasing our Talent Allowing our Young Voice to be Heard to benefit urban kids who'll be traveling to Houston to participate in their denomination's This Changes Everything youth gathering. They insisted, "we are current black history." It was so wonderful words can't describe it; I captured quite a few excellent photos, but don't have permission to use them, so the event program's my only illustration.

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Star Word 2018 :: Freedom

2018 is the fourth year in a row I've had a star word to guide me through the months to come. Typically people choose a star word during the season of epiphany in order to reflect and maybe mimic the visitors from the east who reached the young Jesus by following a star. Only Matthew includes that story in his gospel account. Professionally, those magi were stargazers and astrologers who knew sky signs well, so they recognized the bright star that arose at Jesus' birth as a special signal. In 2015 and 2016 someone from Facebook bestowed my star words: grace for 2015; daring in 2016. A Facebook friend suggested faith for 2017 and I ran with that one.

Readers of this blog know I facilitate the mostly Revised Common Lectionary adult Sunday School at my church. When we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany on Sunday 07 January (festival moved to closest Sunday), I told my class about star words and several people chose one.... to live around and trust throughout 2018.

The Battle of Junk Mountain

• The Battle of Junk Mountain by Lauren Abbey Greenberg on Amazon

Most Americans know something about some of the battles of the Civil War or War Between the States. Hoarding material possessions has become quite a concern for quite a few people—dramatically showcased with a Hoarders TV show that profiles individuals caught up in compulsive excessive collecting that has overtaken their existence and become their lifestyle. Not all that far afield of concerns about collecting and hoarding, sites with counsel about de-cluttering and organizing have proliferated over the inter webs over the past couple of years.

Wonderfully crafted as a first-person narrative, middle school "summer beach read," The Battle of Junk Mountain conveys serious concern regarding central character 12-year old Shayne's Grandma Bea's addiction to acquiring and saving mostly useless junk, yet brings a redemptive resolution by book's end. Lauren Abbey Greenberg's prose evokes the down Maine fishing town in summer perfection, completely understands how relationships begin, evolve, sometimes end, on occasion happen again. In addition to Shayne and her grandma Bea, featured characters include Civil War buff Linc, Linc's grandpa Cranky, and Shayne's near-lifelong summer BFF Poppy.

William Faulkner insists the past never is past, but keeps overtaking us minute by minute; our historical experiences and memories never stop influencing our daily lives. Grandma Bea well may always have enjoyed picking up and saving cute items and castaway stuff that could become useful someday, but apparently the accidental death at sea of her lobsterman spouse propelled her into doing whatever she could to hang onto whatever remotely reminded her of him. In a reverse manner, son of a Civil War buff (who not surprisingly named his son Lincoln), Linc enjoyed engaging in the pastime of wearing Blue and Grey and reenacting battles, placing himself in past times.

Despite the friendship between Poppy and Shayne fracturing and essentially ending, by summer's end it rebounds but admittedly never will be the same. Nevertheless, Shayne acknowledges value in appreciating and treasuring (hoarding?) the best memories of the long decade the girls have known each other. As Grandma Bea fights her Battle of Junk Mountain, Bea, her daughter, and granddaughter all learn it's more than okay to keep some physical treasures and artifacts as "keepsakes" – hanging onto the good, letting go of what wasn't.

As someone who has spent a lot of time alongside the Atlantic coast, I particularly love the book's colorfully coastal, nautical setting! Characters, events, and geography could combine effectively into a movie for viewers of almost all ages; I'd round my five stars up to six if I could.

• My Amazon review: friendships, families, and battles