August & Summer 2020

• June 2020 :: Retrospect Prospect – Into the Future

• July 2020 • Into a Future

• As I've been doing at the conclusion of each meteorological season, I've linked to Emily P Freeman's What I Learned…

• My lectionary blog continues with virtual Sunday School notes; here are Reflections on Scripture during a Global Pandemic for August.



• Most years my real new year begins when schools start up again in the fall (or August if that's the case). With COVID-19 filling the planet, 2020 has been different, but I'll still claim a new beginning from now into September. I took this yellow school bus picture four years ago; the "cooling at school" sentiment still holds. Like many grownups, I go crazy in any school-office-art supply department in any store. Happily, stores were well-stocked as usual, so as usual I updated my stash with a few necessities. I already had plenty of notebooks, composition books, and some looseleaf paper, so concentrated on replenishing other stuff.



• This announcement belonged in winter 2020—how could I have left it out?! I got into Los Angeles Metro transit system's artist pool! Happily I noticed the call for entries about a week before they extended the deadline, giving me time to choose the max ten pieces they allowed. My graphically designed résumé was ready to go, and a friend helped me refine the artist's statement they required. Good timing, since I then updated my LinkedIn with a modified version!

• Inclusion doesn't guarantee you'll get a commission; it does guarantee they'll consider you and, of course, it's an awesome CV line item. For 'hoods I especially resonate with I listed Downtown, Glendale, Hyde Park, Koreatown, Mid-Wilshire, Redondo Beach, Torrance, Van Nuys, West LA, and Westwood. They probably consider those preferences when they look for people to contribute to certain communities.



• No matter what, when, or where, berry season can't stop turning every day and place into a sun country space. They're slowing down some, yet still local, affordable, and fairly abundant at Farmers' Markets and conventional retailers.



• With rare exceptions, it's become always #VoteBlueNoMatterWho. Although this year's Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates would be a stellar pair any year, they bring exceptional integrity and deep experience that's needed more than ever. At. This. Time.

• Thanks for visiting! As you may have noticed, no interesting outings or excursions happened during August, but with life gradually opening up, September may feature a few.





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The Feast of St Francis

The Feast of St Francis
04 October 2020
Francis of Assisi: Creation Spirituality

Praise the Lord, you sea monsters and all deeps.
Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
Wild animals and all cattle,
creeping things and flying birds!
Psalm 148:7, 9, 10

Season of Creation 4

Season of Creation 4
27 September 2020
The Gift of Water

"…I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb.
Strike the rock, and water will come out of it,
so that the people may drink."
Exodus 17:6

Season of Creation 3

Season of Creation 3
20 September 2020
There is enough for our need, not our greed

So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites,
"In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt…"
Exodus 16:6

Season of Creation 2

Season of Creation 2
13 September 2020
Protecting the Commons

Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians;
and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
Exodus 14:30

Season of Creation 1

Season of Creation 1
06 September 2020
The Greatest Commandment: Love your neighbor

Owe no one anything, except to love one another,
for any one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
Romans 13:8

The Green Good News | Dickinson

The Green Good News: Christ's Path to Sustainable and joyful Life on Amazon

The Green Good News is about "green" as in new, about "green" as in sustainable ecological blessings to share. It's about "good news" as in gospel. Author T. Wilson Dickinson lives in Central Kentucky, where (among other activities) he serves as director of The Green Good News, an organization rooted in educating and cultivating communities into joyful ways of creation justice and simplicity.

To heal individuals, communities, and the land, we need to lessen behaviors that violate creation, rupture community, and cause death. At the start of this calendar year, I announced 2020 would be my year of Living Local. Although COVID-19 had started to spread, the virus still was unknown to the USA. But now for everyone worldwide, one of the paradoxical gifts of needing to stay locked down close to home for however long means living local is more necessary and it's easier to do. Having the opportunity to consider the content of The Green Good News The Book has been a timely fit as it reminds us to read food and environmental realities in the bible as they present themselves, and not solely as spiritual metaphors—though most texts easily stretch to include that essential dimension .

"…Mary Magdalene turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. Jesus asked her, 'Woman, why are you weeping? Who is it you are looking for?' Supposing he was the gardener…" John 20:14-15

The Risen Christ is a gardener! Not exactly a local guy stopping by for his weekly cemetery-tending gig, but Jesus of Nazareth crucified and risen is the ultimate gardener through whom everything was created. He was there at the beginning and has been there all along! Though the entire bible reveals good news about God's reign of grace, we particularly associate God's living Word Jesus of Nazareth with the gospel that incorporates all creation from its start in the garden with a river of life and tree of life to its end where the garden has grown into a verdant city with a river of life and trees of life.

With aspects of autobiography, scripture study, and experience-grounded practical ideas for greener living as family and community, The Green Good News feels like a journal as it interweaves religion, economics, politics, ecology, and anthropology, as it helps us discern the unavoidable link between the environment and justice for all.

Dickinson describes what his own families and communities have done to move away from reliance on empire into covenantal lifestyles that help transform food systems while restoring land and waters in order to heal both individual bodies and the social bodies individuals create. And, of course, those social bodies include the church, the body of the Risen Christ. Your own church or biological family might enjoy chronicling its own journey of greening and resurrecting!

• The Green Good News website

• Facebook Page

Notice of Material Connection: I received a copy of this book from The Speakeasy with no expectation I'd write a positive review. As always, opinions are my own.