April 2024

• Urban Wilderness / City Paradise for April

• Since mid-December I've been doing a Gap Half Year that may – or may not – keep on keepin' on a little longer; thus I'm blogging my April rundown during June, plan to assemble a May chronology soon, and eventually catch up on my lectionary blog. I didn't go on any real outings for April, so here's some creation beauty.

• Earth Day: Planet vs Plastics
Please stay tuned for this year's design!

• Google AI made a 15 picture April collage!

Easter 5 :: Celebrating Live!

celebrated live on Easter 5 at The Amen Jubilee • Urban Paradise • USA
Welcome Table • All The Time • Every Day • Come On In!
Jubilee Amen • Feasting Place

recorded live at The Amen Jubilee • Urban Paradise • USA
"The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine;
you are but aliens and sojourners with me.
You shall grant redemption of all the land of your possession."
Leviticus 25:23-24

Five Minute Friday :: Limit

Back in math class with limits? Or assessing the limits of my own situation?

Remember the Eagles?

"All alone at the end of the evening...
You know I've always been a dreamer
...so put me on a highway
Show me a sign.
Take it to the limit
One more time."

Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner, Don Henley

What are the limits of human willfulness? Obedience?

Does my patience
have limits?
(For whatever reason or reasons) my creativity has become tamer, more limited, less appealing.

When will it rebound? (Please notice i said when not if.) Will I express it in terms of motion, change, limits, and hope?

Or will its energy, excitement, and momentum be so unstoppable I won't notice the new highway or that sure enough sign?
The one I'd always known would be here
More than one more time.
Amen? Amen!

# # #

Five Minute Friday :: Already

Already Nightfall or is it Already Daybreak?

• Five Minute Friday :: Already Linkup

With Already I immediately remembered the Eagle's triumphant breakup song announcing, "I'm already gone – I'm feeling strong – I will sing this victory song"

That refrain is great when we need to break up with our pasts. Oh, I know, if you don't remember the past you're bound to repeat it; if you don't focus on the future you'll never reach it. (How often do how many of us stay balanced in this eternal now?) But we seriously need to breakup with some aspects of our pasts. Only some.

It's already evening? How can days be so short?

Three years ago on the second Sunday of Easter I observed, "On this side of Easter we often find ourselves in the "Yes, already!" of resurrection and the "No, not yet!" of Holy Saturday, that time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been rolled away. John 20:1

This is the day the Lord has made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it! Psalm 118:24

It's already time to break up with some of those pasts. The worst of yesterday's already gone—dead and buried with Jesus of Nazareth. The best of tomorrow is yet to come—risen, free, and full of hope with the Savior's victory.

Nectarine Flowers in Tucson :: Already Spring