Charleston: Love

Charleston: Love

“Love will not lose. Love is the subversion of power by mercy. It is the uncontrolled spirit of hope that erodes the authority of oppression. Love is the human soul made visible. Once we see it in one another’s eyes, no force on earth can compel us to deny its reality.” Bishop Steven Charleston, Daily Facebook Email

Love is indeed all around. We must appreciate it, love it, take it in, and then share it. Often, I take it for granted, especially from my husband of almost fifty years, but there are moments when I see that look of kindness in his eye that is more precious than gold.

Yesterday at church I received a homemade Valentine from a young boy with cerebral palsy. I remember when he was prematurely born. He knows love and knows how precious every moment is. I hold his sweet words of kindness next to my heart.

Recently we attended a concert of two fiddlers. Not violists but fiddlers. The young man was blind. He had been playing with the young women for several years and they had traveled aboard playing concerts together, especially in Spain. Just before the last piece, he got down on his knees, pulled a ring from his pocket and told her how he did not want to continue his life without her, and asked her to marry him. She cried and kissed him and the congregation gave them a long, standing ovation.

Only recently my husband found his mother’s wedding and engagement rings that had been lost for over fifteen years. He reenacted the fiddler’s show of love outside one of our favorite restaurants with two of our grandchildren present. He says he needed them there to help get him back up off his knees!

Anthony De Mello recommends keeping a book of good memories we can return to whenever the presence of love is more difficult to see. I treasure moments such as these and hold them in my book of memories of times of pure joy and love.

This has been so helpful to me, and I share these memories with you.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

beauty and meaning

Beauty and Meaning

“By its very nature life is full of meaning, for the God who said “let there be light” also proclaimed it good. And the God who said “let us make humankind” also blessed us and proclaimed us to be very good indeed.” Br. James Koester, Society of Saint John the Evangelist, ssje.org, Brother, Give Us a Word, November 10, 2018.

We are gathered this weekend with a group of friends who meet once a year on the top of Petit Jean Mountain to give thanks for Camp Mitchell, the camp and conference center for the Episcopal Church in Arkansas. Our bishop celebrates Eucharist with us, we learn about what has been happening at the camp over the past year and new volunteer opportunities, and we give money for a project for the new year. We have paved roads and paths for those who are handicapped, remodeled buildings, and contributed to a farm program, but mostly we hope to educate people about the camp so they can go back home to remind others of this natural jewel.

Our camp has changed lives, especially those of our children and youth. This is where so many have met God.

The camp is strategically built on the brow of a small mountain overlooking the Arkansas River Valley and the Arkansas River. In the early morning, clouds fill the valley and we cannot help but feel we are indeed in heaven. Each evening, the sunset paints a new pink and orange and red panoramic skyscape that no other artist has been able to duplicate. Indian caves with their faint markings live below while three hundred-million-year-old fossil rocks live beside us at every turn as reminders that life was here long before we were.

Every inch of nature on the mountain is spectacular, but living on the brow is not an easy life for human dwellings. The wind and rain and electrical storms take their toll. The upkeep is high. So that is why we come together.

We are actually paying it forward to care for a place that has changed our lives to preserve it for those who are coming after us, most we will never know. The beauty of Petit Jean Mountain has not only brought us closer to the God of our understanding but has been one of our best teachers about stewardship, caring for a precious pearl of great price that we have been privileged to view for a nanosecond of its existence.

I will keep permanently in my mind this image from our opening Eucharist just after the sun set last night. We light candles around the altar to remind us to give thanks for all those who were here before us who cared for this land. We also light candles to give thanks for our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren who will come to this holy ground long after us.

Joanna Joannaseibert.com

Mentors

Mentors and friends

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12:1

I have a friend and mentor, Isabel Anders, whom I first met many, many years ago in her Advent book, Awaiting the Child, An Advent Journal. She wrote the Advent of her first pregnancy about the meaning of Advent to a woman who also was preparing for a child. It is still one of my favorite books to read in Advent, and I often give the book to other women who are expecting a baby during the Advent season.

I wrote to Isabel when I first started writing. She encouraged me and directed me to places where I could send my writing. Isabel and I reconnected several years ago when I realized she was the editor of Synthesis CE, www.synthesispub.com, a lectionary study guide based on the revised common lectionary especially for sermon preparation and Christian Education. We have never met face to face, but still share writings and encourage each other now almost weekly. We may know each other better than many friends who daily visit face to face.

Phyllis Tickle likewise was a friend and mentor. I timidly walked up to her at a book signing at a conference and asked if she looked at other author’s writings. Without hesitating, she immediately gave me her email address and told me to send her what I had written. She encouraged me, took time to read my material, suggested places to send it to, and wrote endorsements. Another friend, Duke Cain introduced me to Keith Miller who also encouraged me even though he was still so busy with his own writings. I can never express to these four people what a difference they made in my life. I can only pay it forward and hopefully do the same for others who ask for input about a talent or career they hope to pursue.

This is about gratitude, gratitude for those who take the time to help us along the way, those who encourage us. We must never forget them, give thanks for them, and in some small way, repay them by doing the same for others. How easy it is to believe that we achieved goals on our own, when along the way there are so many people to thank for guiding us.

Our community connections may not simply be the people who live near us. Our small group, so to speak, may be many miles away. Duke Cain, Keith Miller, and Phyllis Tickle have died, but I still feel their presence and encouragement. Keith and Duke and Phyllis and Isabel have been a part of the communion of saints in my life, living and dead, and “God helping, I want to be one too.”1

We are called to remember that we are never alone as we are constantly “surrounded by a cloud of witnesses supporting and caring for us.”

Joanna joannaseibert.come

1”I Sing A Song of the Saints of God,” Lesbia Scott