What Matters Most

What Matters Most

“The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand. They are moments when we touch one another, when we are there in the most attentive or caring way.” Jack Kornfield, A Path With Heart, inwardoutward.org, August 4, 2016.

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We returned from an almost sixty-year high school reunion. There were thirty-three in my graduating class. We thought we could make the trip this year but weren’t sure about the next, so decided to go now. We had lunch with friends I knew growing up in a small town in tidewater Virginia. Some might have called it a one-horse town since we only had one stop light. We would talk about driving up to “the light.” I am so glad we went. I talked with one of my friends who now lives in a county in Virginia that boasts it has no stop lights!

It was as if it had only been a few days since we saw each other instead of fifty-eight years. Why is it so easy to re-connect to those we grew up with? They knew us before we had no or very few masks. There is no need to wear a mask with them. They know who we are and where we came from. We are all back on a equal playing field. Most of the women in my class went off to college. Many of the boys stayed in our small town, worked at the mill, and took early retirement. All seemed to enjoy life. Most seemed genuinely interested in what others were doing instead of talking about themselves. All had had some tragedy and all had had some magical moments.

When we returned my oldest granddaughter sent us pictures of her senior prom. I see pictures of her friends and can in some small way remember how important these relationships are to her. I wonder what her fifty-eighth high school reunion will be like.

I will keep this day and this visit in the memory book of my mind and hope to revisit it again, giving thanks for where I grew up and the many friends who influenced me and taught me about caring for each other.

Joanna joannaseibert.

Charleston: heart strings

Steven Charleston: Heart String

“Here is something to do for the little kids in your life. When you are saying goodbye, make a special moment of showing them that you are tying something to their wrist. Tell them it is a heart string. You can't see it, but if you close your eyes you will know it is there. It will stay on their wrist wherever they go so your love will always be with them. And not to worry, it is magic string, so it will never get tangled, never knock anything over, and never break. It will just keep you connected in your hearts so your love for one another will always be there.” Bishop Steven Charleston, Facebook September 14, 2018

gabriele riberiro

gabriele riberiro

Two of our recent Sunday scripture readings have been about little children and entering the kingdom of God. This Sunday Jesus tells us in Mark (10:2-26) that we must enter the kingdom by receiving it like little children.

Bishop Charleston’s heart string message to children not only reminds us how we stay connected to those we love but how God stays connected to us. The God string is always there even if we cannot feel it. Sometimes it feels like a thick rope and sometimes like the thinnest of sewing threads. Sometimes we feel so close we might reach out and touch the Holy One, and sometimes our God seems nowhere to be found.

Almost always we can feel that God connection when we go outside and realize there is something, some powers much greater than we can imagine. We may still not believe that this power believes in or cares about us until a call, a visit, a note comes from someone else who brings God’s love to us. Sometimes that person tells us he or she is praying for us, and we indeed feel those prayers.

Then we in time again feel God’s love and can only respond by returning that love to another as it was given to us.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Charleston: Where is God?

Where is God?

“God is in the kitchen, sitting quietly over a cup of coffee. God is on the street corner, waiting for the light to change. God is at the bar, watching the game on TV. God is in the beauty shop, listening to the latest stories. There is no place where we are that God is not.” Steven Charleston, Daily Facebook Email

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I sometimes share this short writing by Bishop Seven Charleston from his daily Facebook page with spiritual friends who cannot seem to find any answers to the question, “So, where do you see God working in your life?” I suggest an exercise of writing down places they have been that day, people they have meet and would like to remember and seeing if any feelings or thoughts of the presence of God there come to them at the end of the day. It is important to write it down if possible. Writing takes things out of our body and mind and into our tangible world. Some think it is silly and never do it. Others find it helpful to begin to see and feel a connection they think they have lost that is always there right beside them all day… and night.

The church at which I serve is on a corner with a stoplight. Recently our family minister, Luke, started putting a short “stop light prayer” on our church’s electronic sign by the stop light. We weekly hear of people whose day changes when they stop just for a second to connect to our God who is always there. Briefly stopping what we are doing, becoming aware of creation around us is our first step out of ourselves and into the life of knowing and feeling the ever presence of God.

Joanna joannaseibert@me.com