Building a Relationship: UMC-ELCA

Since 2009 the ELCA and UMC have been full communion partners; read about it here!

Our local Faith, Order & Witness Committee has started to study Best Practices - A booklet for starting grass-roots conversation, helping "pave the way for the relationship of interim Eucharistic sharing and even full communion between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the United Methodist Church (UMC)." I offered to facilitate our first discussion, and of course I need to blog about it, too.

This very slim discussion guide is designed for people in the pew, many of whom I've discovered don't even recognize the word "ecumenism." With 15 pages of actual content, topics and Study Questions include Living a World of Differences; Living as Christian Disciples; Living into an Ecumenical Future; Living our Christian Mission and Witness; Living in Relationship; Conclusion.

The intro explains, "Diplomatic ecumenism ... answers the 'why' of our many interpretations of Christianity," and comments how typically a visitor to a new to them congregation or denomination first observes 1) how and what everyone is doing and then asks 2) why. They tend to be seeking relative comfort and familiarity, a style that works for them. I also know they want somewhere the air isn't so thick with toxic irresolution and dispute you can feel it, breathe it and cut it.

The intro contrasts moving forward at the denominational level when pastors, lay leaders, and judicatory officials are formally involved and at the level of the local church (parish, congregation), that expression of the church everyone knows and that for most, is their most familiar expression of the church. If a person visits a congregation of another denom, esp for worship, initially they'll observe differences that may be generic for that denomination or specific to that particular First Church Any City; they'll notice if people dress in Sunday best or "[almost] anything goes" casual; they'll notice the style of music and hymnody before they identify the style or content of the preaching. I like the text noting that both UMC and ELCA affirm the "same fundamentals" with "different emphases."

Discussion Questions, "Best Practice #1: Challenge your own perceptions" at the end of section 1, "Living in a World of Differences" are excellent: 1) what you like most about your own church or denomination and what difference you particularly liked when you visited another church; 2) how do your own family's Christmas and Easter celebrations reflect religion, ethnicity/culture, or a unique family tradition; 3) given that we seek unity, how can respecting diversity be difficult?

Ethnically and culturally, the United Methodist Church is an extremely diverse denomination scattered throughout planet earth. Worldwide there are many many church bodies or denominations that style themselves "Lutheran," with theology ranging from very conservative to the liberal mainline ELCA itself, a quarter-century young denomination physically located in the United States of America. Episcopal polity is a well-known feature of Methodism, whereas Lutheran polity worldwide ranges from local, a.k.a. "congregational" through episcopal. In addition, Lutheranism represents one of the great confessional, or formally theologically-based ways of being Christian; at ordination Lutherans agree to preach and teach according to the Lutheran Confessions contained in the Book of Concord, or Concordia, while the Book of Discipline orders UMC polity. Unlike Lutheranism, Anglicanism is not a sola scriptura theological tradition, so I'm assuming Methodism isn't, either.

Not all Lutherans in the USA are ELCA Lutherans and not all USA Methodists belong to the UMC. Many if not most Lutheran churches as well as the denominations that formally united to form the Lutheran Church in America and American Lutheran Church (antecedent denominations of today's ELCA) were self-consciously ethnic, attempting to carry and maintain traditions and languages of Finnish, Swedish, Latvian, Norwegian or other old world immigrants into the new world. Even today, there are people in the ELCA who strongly identify with those ethnic origins. My own experiences in the UMC have included a couple of basic middle-class, American issue local churches and a very ethnic Tongan UMC that worshiped and fellowshipped in the Tongan language; they had an Tongan branch of the judicatory, and this was in the Intermountain West of the USA.

Lutheran church bodies are of continental European origin; Methodists, British Isles. Lutherans and Methodists both convey a popular image of being working-class denominations, though both are socially and politically extremely diverse, with members from inner-city and rural underclasses to University (and seminary!) professors and high-ranking government officials. Methodist beginnings as John Wesley sought to establish a movement with the established Anglican Church rather than a separatist one are well known; Martin Luther never intended a new denomination, either, but wanted to reform the Roman Catholic Church of his day. John Wesley never renounced his Anglican orders and eventually Rome excommunicated Luther, rather than Luther or those in his reform movement breaking off from Rome on their own. In the contemporary USA, UMC and ELCA are among the church bodies considered socially, politically, and ecclesiastically part of the Protestant mainline, churches that in general tend toward the more liberal or open end of the political, social, and theological spectrum.

This booklet is about ecumenism on the local level; for the most part pastors, lay staff and lay leaders aren't involved in more formal ecumenical discussions and interactions, so this would be an excellent resource for them. As the text more than suggests, tell your stories and listen to theirs!

Deuteronomy / Jeremiah

Proclamation Commentaries: The Old Testament Witnesses for Preaching—Deuteronomy, Jeremiah on Amazon

As part of the Fortress Press (now Augsburg/Fortress) Proclamation commentary series specially designed for preaching and teaching in the local church, Hebrew bible scholar Elizabeth Achtemeier presents some historical background along with textual, contextual, and thematic similarities between Deuteronomy and Jeremiah; both books essentially emerged from the same time period and from related political, cultural, and religious concerns. The short commentary is less than 100 pages, so you can read Deuteronomy, Jeremiah in one sitting and gain a sense of Yahweh's loving, covenantal purposes with Israel and also an appreciation of the many ways realities during the time both books were recorded and redacted apply to us in the Church as covenant people under the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. Clearly you'd need additional resources to prepare an adequate sermon or study on these passages, but what an illuminating overview for those of us with some knowledge of the texts who want to begin pulling it all together! Although the book is copyright 1978, much of the Selected Bibliography at the end still is current and could serve as part of those additional resources.

Edited on Friday 12 June 2014:

Regarding parallels and similarities between the texts of Jeremiah and Deuteronomy, Walter Brueggemann recently explained, "The older view was that Jeremiah was a 'scissors and paste' editorial job to intrude Deuteronomy belatedly into Jeremiah. More recent work suggest that the relationship is an integral one, and Jeremiah is schooled in and reflective of the older covenantal tradition.'" Out of Babylon, page 75

my amazon review: consonance between Deuteronomy and Jeremiah

Illustration features a detail from Jeremiah by Michelangelo, 1511. Fresco currently in Sistine Chapel.

friday 5: dreams

For today's Friday 5 about dreams, Jan hosts and tells us: "I have just started studying Jung and dreams with a group of friends. I am hearing about lucid dreaming and imagining, which have opened me up to wondering about dreams in general. So how about wondering with me?"

1. Everyone dreams: Do you remember your dreams? How often?

Whenever I wake up out of a dream full of symbolism I usually try to be quiet for a few minutes and assess what it might have been about, though it's been several years since I tried writing down and pondering the meaning of whatever I'd recently dreamt.

2. Did you or do you have a recurring dream? Share it, if you'd like.

As an adult I haven't, but as a little kid I had a visually interesting dream that featured what looked like a board game full of textured black squares I had to move through from start to finish. It always was easy, with almost no roadblocks, but it always took a while to get to the end.

3. Have you ever had recurring themes or images in dreams? Examples?

One basic type of recurring dream features players currently on the periphery or who have been on the outskirts of my life for a short time in roles and situations where now former friends and acquaintances used to be; I'd call those thematic images and they're always people rather than objects.

4. Do you day dream? About what?

As part of living as if and practicing resurrection, I try to daydream often, imagining a here and now, a place, space, and a people that welcome me, do not consider me a threat or a curiosity and are willing to help resurrect me from this death. I envision a scenario where I've found a geographically local, a "parish" church where I can design some posters and bulletin covers, teach on a regular basis, preach now and then, help plan worship, be the regular supply musician or possibly the musician for one of the worship events.

5. What are your dreams/hopes/goals for the future?

Please refer to (4), and to emphasize, I dream of a place where I have a future, where my many years of education, my gifts, skills, and abilities will be exploited and celebrated. Internet options can enhance and enrich life tremendously, but like sacraments, real life is local. Like sacraments, real life is sensory: you can touch and feel, taste and smell, see, hear and celebrate it. The sad reality of someone with my level of education, skills, and experience running around town and around the internet, sending emails, making phone calls and cold calls trying to explain my background and begging folks to let me do something, (sometimes to go to lunch with me!) is plain pathetic. Walter Brueggemann says "bright, skilled, educated people are valued and sought-after"; he also speaks of people being nullified.

What is life? Community, friends, family if you have one, participation and parties, good food, good drink, opportunities for "meaningful" service; for me it needs to include a setting safe enough that I can recover the reasonably full emotional responses that are essential to being human. Real life evolves organically, and isn't something you can manufacture as I've been trying to do. That's my hope for me as an individual, but more broadly, I dream of that kind of setting for everyone. In short, a total environment that helps transform the world and especially the neighborhood (remember, life is local!) into something closer to the Reign of Heaven on Earth. Community, friends, hopes, dreams and participation in the thick of things make us human; they make life and they make life worth living.

PS I loved reading Jung when I was in school and maybe need to check him out again!

poetry party 58, Shine!

This is an offering in Abbey of the Arts'
poetry party 58, "Shine!"



shiny hopes

under my feet
a quilt of jasmine stars
over my head
a spangle of sky stars
summer breezes
surround me and
send hope shimmering
send despair scurrying away

june synchroblog: backpack cargo

For June we're synchroblogging what's in your backpack/knapsack? Unearned gender privilege? Unbought ethnic advantage? Briefly from synchroblog central:

"Invisible Knapsack" is a term coined by Peggy McIntosh in her 1988 essay, "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack." Her short essay reflected on the unearned privileges that whites could count on each day, but about which they remained oblivious. ... Whether it is white privilege, heterosexual privilege, male privilege, Christian privilege, able-bodied privilege or any other privilege that we enjoy through no effort of our own, we all have a tendency to be blind to our own position of privilege. ... This month's synchroblog asks us to peek inside our own invisible knapsacks and discover what's inside.

My backpack easily stays hoisted on my left shoulder. I knew there would be exceptions to the welcome, inclusion, and opportunities I expectantly prepared for, but I've been surprised more than once. Coming up I basically looked like the majority population cohort, though half my heritage was a little further to the European east than most. Even in this year 2012, New England sees a lot more in- than out-migration [later note: I'm not sure this is so but I'll leave it because of the way it connects with the rest of the sentence], and despite outward appearances, not being from a family who'd lived in that area for several generations turned out to be a major obstacle; being the only kid in my first grade class not born in that city or even in that state caused suspicions. I didn't talk like other kids, either, since my fam hailed from the south and the midwest and had sojourned on the prairie and in the intermountain west. Vocabulary differences? A few. You'd probably think any bright, white, disciplined boy or girl, woman or guy would be noticed, welcomed, and included. But that was then and as an adult, too many of my experiences of exclusion and being pushed away and set aside from the mainstream have had more to do with the nature of the institutional church rather than gender, race, geography, or ethnicity.

Wherever I go, in my sometimes somewhat visible (really, you can see it if you look for it!) backpack I carry a passion for the city along with my own transformative experiences in the urban church. Nature of the institutional church? I have not been popular with pastors and pew sitters who desire only the conventional, the predictable, the same old same old, who themselves have become as institutionalized as the bricks, mortar, velvet, dust, and candlewax they adore.

We're blogging about unearned advantages we tote around with us. By grace I've experienced death by drowning in the Fountain of Life; I am baptized into the unearned privilege of servanthood. By grace alone I've feasted at the Welcome Table, the banquet of "go and do likewise." Wherever you find me I seek justice and healing, preach liberation and hope for all creation. Because of the life of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ that indwells me, would I dare demand or even request anyone else earn any streams in their deserts, any welcome home, any forgiveness, or any justice I could offer?

As testimony to God's everlasting faithfulness, by grace the contents of my backpack are a forever feature: I have been "sealed with the sign of the cross forever."

Other June synchroblog participants:

• Rebecca Trotter at The Upside Down World – The Real Reason the Term “White Privilege” Needs to Die
• Carol Kuniholm at Words Half Heard – What Do You Have That You Didn’t Receive
• Glenn Hager at Glenn Hager – Unjust Justice
• K.W. Leslie at More Christ – Sharing From The Invisible Knapsack
• Jeremy Myers at Till He Comes – My Black Privilege
• Alan Knox at The Assembling Of the Church – Knowing Who You Are and How Others Identify You
• Liz Dyer at Grace Rules – Christian Privilege
• Kathy Escobar at Kathy Escobar – privilege.

world oceans day 2012

Today is world oceans day 2012; WOD happens every year on 08 June. A few facts: water covers almost 75% of earth's surface—70% is in oceans. Only 3% of the planet's water is freshwater, groundwater is about 2% with most of the rest in frozen glaciers and ice sheets. Our human bodies are 60% water; 70% of our brain is water.

WOD Theme for 2012: "UNCLOS @ 30"

UNCLOS is United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
Again this year CrazyCris is holding an Oceanic Blog-A-Thon. Youth is the official Blog-A-Thon topic, but anything ocean-related is welcome. Given that Facebook friends Tara, Brent, and Lance all have written about the physical geography that has helped shape their lives, what better prompt than World Oceans Day to nudge me to do something similar? Just as their experiences on the land continue to influence Lance, Brent, and Tara, my early environments and the geography where I now live continue to shape me. My post for World Oceans Day 2011 tells part of my love story with the ocean; last year I mentioned some places and spaces and this year I'll say a little more about...

...sensory memories, sensuous currents

Concrete, cement, urban decay and decline were a huge part of my early years. Often in sorrow, sometimes tears, I'd walk past yet another fire-gutted building, one more boarded-up house. Yet still I could walk outside, notice it'd been raining, the ground was muddy, and the air smelled like hope. "Like hope" because carrying scents of brine and beach, a ocean breeze drifted my way. Oceans began Planet Earth's history, they've lived its history, the oceans have been there through good times, bad times, changing times, times of death, and times of resurrection: oceans "know!" In another early memory I'd stand on the pier as they offloaded fresh catches of fish. Those fish smelled strongly like stereotypical "ocean" and brought along with them hints of future feasts that would carry a sea savor in a mouthful of pan-fried fish. Even if today's not exactly wonderful, there's something new and different on the way and, in fact, a pleasure that's repeatable as long as we carefully care for the waters and oceans.

Forever whenever I've lived on the coast, walking along the beach - my feet sinking deep into wet sand, seaspray splashing onto my face, a salty tang on my tongue - brings me to where the ocean has been, and every drop of water has been everywhere. On Malibu West or Malibu East, La Jolla Shores or Anywhere Shores, I feel, experience, and learn for myself stories the ocean has lived. In any season, driving up the coast alongside the Pacific on my left or the Atlantic on my right as sunshine dances off shimmering tealish, greenish, blueish surf also helps me identify with the history of the ocean, the history of this planet. As abandoned as I feel, and as much as abandonment by humans has been too much the story of my life (sadly not unique to me), the ocean assures me I belong to history and I am not alone.

Whether driving or walking, biking or riding the AmTrak (a new and recent experience!) up the shore, a classic roar of waves breaking at high tide or during a storm, a noisy raucous seagull symphony fills my entire being and assures me there is something greater than and more than myself. Water is the womb of earth's creation; water is the womb of our first creation and of our recreation in baptism. In baptism we identify with this planet's history and with salvation history. The story of the people of God ranges from deeps of the first creation, to Noah's flood, to water splashing from the exodus rock, to the river that bounded the promised land, the river where John baptized Jesus, to rivers of the new creation with countless instances of healing, reviving, salvific streams in between. After all these years I still feel home in the cement, concrete, even in the decay and sometimes decline of the inner city, but those ocean waters own me in ways no human-constructed environment can, and I belong—you belong. We belong!

Saturday, 09 June: CrazyCris is back! And here's her official Oceanic Blog-A-Thon post. This post already has had a lot of visitors but I'll repost on Facebook and retweet, too; most likely there will be more blogs in the thon over the next few days, so please visit Cris!

more randomness friday 5

another randomness 5 on RGBP... I love these questions from revkjarla:

1. What religion/faith besides yours captures your curiosity and why? Heathen, Pagan, Celtic spiritualities—because of ways they emphasize the Divine Feminine, celebrating, integrating earth and the astronomical seasons into everyday life, just as I try to do by following the rhythms of the liturgical year as closely as possible.

2. What is the first or most memorable pop song you ever learned as a kid? There are so many!!! For now, James Taylor's version of "Up On the Roof," because during my undergrad years I used to study, listen to music, and chill with friends up on the roof of my 5-story apt building and the song brings back great memories. I realize there are at least 2 more well-known versions, but what's not to love about JT?

3. If God were a color.....(finish this sentence creatively) God would be both my current faves and God also would self-reveal in colors I thought I really didn't care for and probably wouldn't choose. Of course I'd change my mind on that one!

4. If you were going to make a sandwich right now for lunch, and you magically had all the items you need for it, what would that sandwich be? The sandwich (rather than the wrap )in this pic is more or less what I'd make: multigrain bread; monterey jack or pepper jack cheese; bean or alfalfa sprouts; cilantro; tomato; avocado; onion; mayonnaise or aioli... along with a big glass of fresh strawberry lemonade and ideally a chunk of multiberry cobbler under a heavy blanket of vanilla ice cream. yum!!!

5. How are you doing? Really, how are you? Broken, grieving, seeking community, longing for a place where I can find a future... and I cannot count the numbers of times I've gotten myself out there since no one is going to come to me, yet life only can be given, only received as gift.

Bonus: What are you enjoying/loving right now? I am loving' that today is the annual June 8^th World Oceans Day and I'm blogging about it. I'm also loving that my Facebook page, suntreeriver design recently hit 1,000 individual fans or "likers" and I haven't even counted the pages that have added it to their favorites. This morning I featured a new guest artist and plan to post pictures and an explanation of one of my more typical processes in developing a digital painting.

faith, order & witness opening prayer

God of all creation, you have journeyed with the church through seasons of Lent and Easter; we have experienced the glory of the cross, the surprise of resurrection morning, and celebrated the Lordship of the Ascended Christ.

Today as we again gather gather from with own diverse individual histories and varied ecclesiastical traditions, we long to understand each others perspectives and we yearn for essential unity in Christ.

During this green and growing season of ordinary time, may our conversations continue to bear fruit in ways that extend far beyond this place and this time.

In the name of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen for the life of all creation—Amen!

the five books of moses

The Five Books of Moses, The Schocken Bible, Volume 1, aka "Schocken Pentateuch."

the sound and the sense…

…of the original. Newly translated by Everett Fox with (lots of) commentary and notes, this version of Torah brings with it a lifetime of devotion and scholarship; it is an outstanding study resource and an exceptional choice for public reading. Fox brings the sensibilities, rhythms, literary devices, and general styles of the original Hebrew into English in ways that make reader and especially anyone listening during worship wonder if they've really heard that passage before! As the translator explains, principles in the work of Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig influenced him—in many ways he's gone beyond those giants. And why not? After all, The Five Books of Moses is copyright 2000 though parts were published earlier, starting in 1983. The commentary is especially valuable to me as someone far more familiar and experienced with interpreting the New Covenant scriptures than the Old. One reviewer suggested it would be even better as an interlinear or side-by-side English/Hebrew bible and I agree, though keeping the same highly readable text size and style might make the book too awkward and heavy.

Printed in large serif type on quality paper, this paperback is solidly sewn and glued in signatures; the 1.75" thick book is a pleasure to heft and it easily stays open! If you're passionate about scripture, please consider adding this Torah version to your library.

my amazon review: the sound and the sense

friday of easter 7

…from the margins…

What's the essential condition for resurrection from the dead? You gotta be dead (of course).

Pastor Alan Roxburgh reminds us the poet and the prophet speak from the margins. I've been trying to explain I've spent too much time on the subverse, a location even more radical than the edges, but doesn't radical imply root and foundation as much as it evokes counterculture and unconventional? I've hung onto edges of mainline church and margins of mainstream society and I need to speak, I need to be heard. Abram was an Ivri, a Hebrew: one from the "other side"—not even from the edges or margins! In Christ Jesus we meet the God from the very other side...

In the past I've written lots about geographical and "other" centers, hearts, edges, margins but can't put many words together this evening. Earlier today I read something I wrote eight years ago and it truly wowed me. I've been trying to cull some books, especially those with content I easily can access online (no, not exclusively written by my professors) and I'm astonished at the heavy-duty theology I used to read for fun. Also surprised I'm not reading anything these days. Eight or nine years ago Marian C posted to me on a forum, "Leah, I think you're the kind of poet-theologian Pastor Roxburgh is talking about; the Church so needs your leadership at this time." I agree. The Church truly does need my voice and presence: call it leadership if you'd like! Interesting bit of my own history: long ago in city of history I was having a casual conversation with senior pastor who said to me, "You have some leadership ability but..." I finished the sentence: "I try to make sure everyone gets to participate," and he replied, "Exactly. And that's not always a good idea."

By definition edges and margins are parts of the whole and cannot exist with the usually larger main object that sometimes is called the center or at least presumably contains a center. Do you remember Gerry Rafferty's City to City? In "The Ark" we hear, "we'll meet out on the water, where all strangers are known." Water has no permanent edges, no enduring center. Still and forever I remain a daughter of the church. Paul Tillich spoke of the pain of our frequent human state if being separated and yet bound. These days in many ways I remain separate from the main stream yet eternally bound to the whole by Water and Word.

More recently than Gerry Rafferty, poet-musician Rascal Flatts sings "My wish for you is that this life becomes all that you want it to."

The habitat that's my street address reeks of death but you gotta be dead in order to be raised to new life!

What is my wish for myself? Life, community, a summer, opportunities, resurrection. You need to move out the old furniture to make room for the new. I'm considering neatly completing the Easter cycle with the Feast of Pentecost at Church up the Hill and then figuring out a "what next" place and location. How on earth did someone like me who thoroughly, intentionally, and passionately prepared for a lifetime of urban ministry (after all, "I appreciate the concentration of pathology in the inner city," a somewhat younger me explained) find herself at a location like Church up the Hill? No response to that one! For myself I wish, desire, long for life, community, a summer, opportunities, resurrection. Life only can be received, as a room receives light simply by being and not being an agent of anything. That's Will Willimon's analogy, though likely not at all original with him.

Sunday two days away we celebrate the Day of Pentecost, the Spirit of Life that raised Jesus from the dead.

My life cries out for resurrection.

inspirations 5

inspirations 5 on the RGBP site

Sally hosts and suggests, "Very quickly; this week,"

1. Realizing and remembering we live in the Pentecostal reign of the Spirit of Life that raised Jesus from the dead again has encouraged me; this coming Sunday we'll celebrate the Day of Pentecost!

2. More splashes of colour, pattern, line, typography have inspired me again... creativity! it chimes like a small, clear bell at the heart of the human spirit!

3. My ongoing attempts to do life on my own with zero response to my attempts to reach out and draw others into my world and vision along with futile attempts to find ways to participate with others in theirs continue to challenge me.

4. Working through more digital versions of a couple of my analog drawings made me smile; I've illustrated this post with one of them.

5. Watching another citizenship ceremony with a couple of hundred troops who've been serving in the USA military brought a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye in a good way.

friday 5: pests?!

5 about pests on the revgals blog; Jan hosts because...

After lots of rain and high temperatures, the flea population has mushroomed in Corpus Christi, TX, more specifically in our home! We have three dogs and one indoor cat, who have had their monthly flea treatments to no avail. Unfortunately, my female body is the one the fleas love to bite. So as you are reading this FF, our pets and ourselves will be gone from the house for 3-4 hours, after a pest company sprays all the floors.

With fleas on my mind and on my body, here is an insect-ious Friday Five.

1.In this broad geographical area of 4 microclimates (desert, mountain, beach, inland), termites are super-common.

2. My best guess is temperate, atmospheric pressure, and humidity (aka "weather") have some effect on insect and pest activity, but I can't say what or how.

3. This is my second longish sojourn in southern California, and both times termites have been the major concern; the termite experience was new to me the first time. Driving down the street you frequently will see houses or businesses tented for termites and it's especially fun when the biz is a restaurant!

4. Although in general I don't have major problems with insects and tend to get fewer bites than other people, way back in the day I had a kettlecloth dress I'd made in a kind of neon coral, and the mosquitos adored it, so I've a clue as to how other victims sometimes suffer. However, if I'm going to the mountains, desert (or beach) in season I usually wear insect repellant.

5. My anything else about insects and pests is that my late Dad, whom I never knew (I met him at least once, or I may have conflated several meetings as a pre-schooler into a single memory) was an entomologist for the forest service and my late grandmother on my maternal side insisted if she'd had a chance to continue her education she'd have become an entomologist, too. I've been involved some in the South African Sabi Sands Game Reserve leopard communities on Facebook, and learning a little about the ecological benefits of termites has been fascinating—leopards absolutely love to lounge on terminate mounds!

Thanks, Jan!

Charlotte and the White Horse

Charlotte and the White Horse on amazon

"Enchanting" is an overused word, but Maurice Sendak's illustrations and Ruth Krauss' narrative in Charlotte and the White Horse are enchanting without a quibble or a doubt. In this story about love, hope, newness, and possibilities, author Krauss sprinkles allusions to the biblical Song of Songs / Song of Solomon throughout the tale of Charlotte and her colt "— not a lion, not a fire engine —" Milky Way. The wind and the rains are gone, grasses sprouting, trees in bud. With radishes planted and winter over, spring and the time of singing have arrived in the land where Charlotte and Milky Way live. Sendak's full-color watercolor illustrations are simple yet wonderfully detailed. Charlotte and the White Horse would be a wonderful keepsake for yourself or a gift for someone of any age, from preschool to centenarian. Maurice Sendak died this morning, 08 May 2012, at the age of 83; I'd long intended to review and blog Charlotte and the White Horse, and finally, here's my review.

my amazon review: beauty and timeless hope

birthday 5

birthday Friday 5 on the RevGals hosted by KathrynZJ

I found this wonderful slice of cake by Gracey Stinson on morguefile.

1) The first birthday I clearly remember was my 7^th, maybe because I had 3 cakes!

2) With this quick play I can't immediately think of a a favorite gift, but I really enjoyed my birthday after my mother's passing. Heather gave me a yellow (my color!!!) sweatsuit (pants and top), almost enough earrings for all my ear piercings and my first ever and still the only professional manicure. Heather has an art degree and a cosmetology license, so it definitely qualified as pro.

3) That long ago surprise party was not fun, mainly because I thought someone had invited me to dinner with her family and it turned out to be a lot more people. It's strange that I was so ungracious and upset, because I crave an audience the way an addict craves cocaine and I adore being on stage. Life happens…

4) There are so many potential favorite birthday desserts… the cake illustrating this post looks yummy, though it needs a huge scoop of ice cream and maybe hot fudge or strawberry or butterscotch or caramel sauce. I love pies and cobblers; they need ice cream, too. However, I'm almost totally disinterested in sweets (which always need to be decadent and high-end)unless I've had a succulent, savory meal beforehand.

5) A perfect birthday would happen because someone had remembered it was going to be my birthday without a hint or reminder (Facebook birthdays rock, and what's more fun than a few hundred greetings from peeps who've happened to log in and notice but they are anything but sufficient). I'd like an opportunity to dress up. A nice restaurant, someone's home, the beach or any natural settings would be ideal. I don't need gifts, but I'd love the aforementioned succulent, savory meal and an amazing dessert. Tiramisu? Lava Cake? The cake in this blog post?

Thanks, Kathryn! Happy Birthday, everyone!!!!!