December Brunch

Another Santa Monica special, this time on Tuesday of Advent 1. The fabulous food in these pictures plus a surprise a cappella concert of holiday music by The Oceanaires.

Five Minute Friday :: Turkey

Your wonders awe those who live
at earth's farthest bounds; you
make the gateways of the morning
and the evening shout for joy!
Psalm 65:8
• Five Minute Friday :: Turkey Linkup at Andrew's Place

Writing on Friday

Andrew's hosting FMF auspiciously has led to an epicurean – or is that an edible? – trio of coffee, chocolate, and now turkey. Turkey because the prompt went live on Thanksgiving evening, or for another reason? I'll take the reason that I love to write about food; I love gifts of food; I love to enjoy food. Food is my love language.

Like my late uncle, I'm [almost] everyone's BFF. I don't think it's genetic, but I believe some people are wired that way. That introduces my saying yesterday I again ventured out to the Santa Monica Church where I had Thanksgiving dinner last year and in 2021. For 2025 I went with a couple of housemates from the hostel where I'm staying and managing; a third joined us at the venue. Although it's an annual community dinner, it's on the small side. Best guess is we had 50 guests, which borders on intimacy for this kind of gathering.

Isn't sharing a meal or a snack a leveling experience? I leveled with the people I've been living with, those Santa Monica church peeps I already was acquainted with, neighborhood people who were first timers at that church and first timers with me. We had food for the table. We made room at the table. When there's room at the table we can call each other friends. All those people I leveled with now are [at least my] BFF.

When food and friends come together, that's a love feast. Food is my love language. And yesterday included turkey.

Do you have a turkey commentary or any comments about turkey?

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Five Minute Friday :: Long

Being lost is worth the coming home.

Other times I've blogged about home include:

• Almost three years ago I said a lot of what I still need to say today

• Nine years ago an October Freewrite about home with quotes from songs about home


• Five Minute Friday :: Long Linkup

• God brought me out into a spacious place; God delivered me because God delighted in me. Psalm 18:19

It's been a long time and a long distance. Because I can't stop longing for home. Glancing back, I knew I'd come out in a broad place before long. Did I estimate the length of long? Not out loud, but if you'd asked me, I'd have suggested three or four years.

Three or four years earlier, at the invitation of a long time close friend, I'd made my way from the intermountain west to the east coast. After our phone conversations, I believed I'd be starting life over near her. Well, that didn't work out for even a few minutes, but I wistfully remember the feeling of heading for home I had as I drove across prairies and cities and hilly places.

The home we long for can mean returning to a previous town, city, or dwelling, or journeying toward somewhere for the first time ever. Will I know if I'm there? It feels to me that home must include a physical house or apartment, a roof overhead. But isn't homecoming what we really and truly long for? I mean, people who quote Phillip Phillips' song Home, "Just know you're not alone; I'm gonna make this place your home."

Deep in our hearts, we long for the hugs and the smiles. The shared meals. Affirmations of our dreams, our calling, our gifts and preparation. Encouragement for our longing to use our talents and abilities. We long for and we need somewhere and someone to come home to at the end of the day, whether the day has been disappointingly short or agonizingly long.

Home is a spacious place. Space to breathe, to reach out, to grow, and to dream. A location and a people who take away my lostness, who help deliver me, because they delight in me. # # #

Five Minute Friday :: Specific

• Five Minute Friday :: Specific Linkup

I love the word specificity! Kate had wise observations about how specific a parent feels about each of their offspring, how specific God feels about us, and how in both situations we receive care, concern, and even a kind of love specific to our needs. Despite overwhelming human parental and divine love for each one, that specificity is very individual.

I'm thinking of how generic I tend to get if – for example – someone asks what I want for lunch. Fact is, despite strong food preferences, I'll happily eat almost anything I'm not allergic to. I don't like people to go to excessive trouble or expense for me at home; when we're in a restaurant and someone else is buying, it becomes both wanting to stay in their price range and not wanting to see someone else's order and wish I'd gotten theirs instead of mine (even when we're each springing for our own).

Yet from my experience hosting, cooking, preparing meals for others when we haven't already predetermined the bill of fare, I totally get the crazy frustration of generic rather than specific responses when I ask what do you want? How do you want it prepared? How much would you like? Please, be specific!

If you ask me what I want, fixed how, and how much of it, here are some pictures of specifics that would please me very much. Thank you! Next time when it's my treat, I'd really appreciate specific requests.
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Chronicling September 2017

• Blueberries!

In the several months long low price of blueberries in the market {I'm still in a very tough living and overall situation {not to worry, cuz no way am I pushing my life off a cliff}}, among many gifts of creation, enjoying a bowl of cereal packed full of locally grown blueberries every morning has been a constant reminder of sustaining grace.




• 911 Anniversary

We observed the 16-years later anniversary of 911-2001. This is my intentionally grungy graphic from 2010.








• New to me Renovated Subway

I've long enjoyed Subway sandwiches, but over the past year I've become addicted to them after learning how to customize my order to perfection. Here's my visit to a recently renovated restaurant; for once, my sandwich and the surroundings both were photogenic; the store even had charging stations and it wasn't *even* in an area close to a school.




• Getty images




• Getty Water Features




• Getty Museum Vistas





• Saturday September 16 Concert at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

Live music is the very best! It's been too long... Pittance Chamber Music performed music by Mozart, Berg, Bernstein, and Brahms. Wonderful!








• Dream Big • Stay Hopeful

LA Metro Conference Fall Assembly at bilingual, bicultural, highly hospitable First Lutheran Inglewood. As you can see, this was another Subway Special September, this time with homemade desserts.






• LA River Nature Walk / World Rivers Day

The Nature Walk I enjoyed at the LA River for World Rivers Day got its own shoutout.





• Green Team Meeting
For September the Green Faith Team again met back in our regular location at the judicatory offices. No window paintings at all on school windows by schoolkids, but I got a colorful view of their backpacks.

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