What is this place?

This email has been making the rounds.  It poses some interesting questions.  Is heaven a place with gold streets and pearly gates?  What would heaven look like to you?

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.
  He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them. 


After a while, they came to a high, stunning stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble.  At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.
  Standing before the arch, he saw a magnificent gate that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold.  

He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.  When he was close enough, he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?'


Best buddies

Friendship and perseverance

Can the upper, upper class trust the "nobodys"?  Can a man with no credentials help a king?  Can perseverance and friendship triumph over an abusive childhood?

Perhaps.  And perhaps.

If you're at all interested in a quality movie, true story, wry and quick wit, don't miss this one.  (Be forewarned, there are some four-letter words.)

I loved this movie for the qualities mentioned above -- friendship, perseverance, trust in good, fidelity to purpose.  Perhaps the trailer will help you decide.

Love isn't what we're in, it's something that we do

 Truly spoken.  This simple song takes love -- in marriage and every other relationship -- to a higher level.  Beyond, "What's in it for me?" to "What can I give to this relationship to keep it healthy and beautiful?"

One of the cool things about the Internet is that you can develop a network of like-minded friends, and you share ideas pretty freely.  Kate Robertson found Clint Black first.  If you would like to read her thoughts about these lyrics, click here. 

Downs and ups of friendship

This little story came in a recent email. It has a worthwhile moral.

Oasis in Giza, 1917

Two friends were crossing a desert. It was hot, they were thirsty, and an argument ensued. One friend slapped the other in the face.

The one who was slapped was deeply hurt. He wrote in the sand, “Today my best friend slapped me in the face.

They kept walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in some mire, and panicked. His friend saved him. After he recovered from the ordeal, he wrote on a stone:

“Today my best friend saved my life.

The man who had both slapped and saved his best friend said, “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now you write on a stone. Why?”

The friend replied, “When someone hurts us we should write it in the sand where winds of forgiveness cover and erase the hurt. But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where wind cannot wipe away the memory of goodness done.

Some studies indicate that people live longer and happier lives when they learn to forgive.

What's important, the substance of friendships, is the good achieved. That's worth writing in your heart.

Best friend

From the movie, "Castaway"

I recently watched “Castaway,” with Tom Hanks, a movie released nine years ago. He plays a Fed-Ex systems engineer who abruptly finds himself alone on a small island after a traumatic plane crash.

He adapts and survives for four years, before building a raft, leaving the island, and eventually being rescued at sea.

Soon after landing on the island, he opens some Fed-Ex packages that have washed ashore, including one containing a Wilson volley ball. He paints a face on the ball and names it . . . Wilson.

Wilson is the only company he has for the entire four years, so it isn’t too surprising that he begins talking to the volley ball, converses, even argues with it. Wilson becomes his best, and only, friend. When he leaves the island, he carefully ties the ball to the raft.

After some days when the ball’s tether weakens, and it falls off the raft and drifts away, Hank’s character is in anguish. When he isn’t able to retrieve Wilson, he lets his improvised oars drift away and just gives up.

Here is a metaphor: we all need friends – other people, pets – someone to love and be loved by. The song, “No man is an island,” recognizes that need.

While most of us won’t face isolation on a deserted island, we all have, or may yet, find ourselves feeling bereft, friendless. Can we do better than talking to a volley ball?

Religious author Mary Baker Eddy had been through it all. Trusted friends turned against her, slanderers launched vicious verbal attacks. She could look back on such difficult times and refer to them as hours “of development.” Right where she was tempted to feel totally alone, she found divine Love comforting and guiding her.

Here’s what she wrote next to the marginal heading “Uses of adversity.”

“Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is already filled with divine Love. When this hour of development comes, even if you cling to a sense of personal joys, spiritual Love will force you to accept what best promotes your growth.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures)

That’s a promise worth keeping in mind. We always have a best friend in our creator – who cares about each of His/Her children, and communicates by giving us good ideas.

Unusual friendship

Friendships. Ingredients include caring and respect and often affection. Here’s an unusual one.

As the closing comment says, “Listen up, world!”

Here comes Lorenzo!

A friend just sent this video of Lorenzo and his horses. Apparently herds of these camargue horses are allowed to run half-free in the marshes of southern France, their natural habitat.

Lorenzo clearly has the respect and trust of his animals. No domination here. He communicates by touching their necks with a small stick. Who ever heard of such a thing?

What a special comment on the oneness of Life, the oneness of Mind.

The gift of giving

Helene's son Kenny on his horse Cowboy

- about 50 years ago

A favorite song by Peter Link says God’s gifts are given generously to each of us. That each of us has at least one specialty: perhaps patience, kindness, generosity, mothering, fathering, teaching, healing. That these gifts are God’s love in action.

He goes on to say that sharing these gifts goes on endlessly, because the giving of our goodness to one another is never done!

Don’t you love this sense of purpose unconfined!

My friend Helene celebrated her 93rd birthday earlier this week. She thought nothing would give her more joy than to have her favorite birthday pie, lemon meringue, surrounded by her best friends. So she prepared two tables with crocheted placemats and her fine china for this select group of women. I was honored to be included as one of four not from her generation.

As we ate, blue jays, cardinals, goldfinches, and hummingbirds provided constant entertainment for those facing the windows.

The conversation was lively and stimulating. At one point I wished I had one of those new Flip camcorders to record some of the local history being recounted.

These vibrant women were gifts to me that day. They included a retired school teacher, a retired business owner, a woman still active in her family business in her ninth decade, a retired mayor, as well as those who had been simply devoted to their families, now grown and flown.

They stay active, interested in their communities and their neighbors. Their lives say they understand that the giving goes on endlessly, because the gifts God has given us are always fresh and new. They never wear out, never deplete, never deprive or compete.

Each of us has our special gifts that need to be shared.

Love, the great communicator

OK for all you animal lovers, here’s the best footage I’ve found so far of Christian the Lion.

The story is in the captions.

Even people to people, love and respect remains the best communicator.

Hope for world peace

Mother love is where you find it

This YouTube clip shows an unusual bonding between a crow and a homeless kitten.

The crow feeds and cares for the kitten, and they remain friends long after the kitten is eating on its own.



In Christian and Jewish writings, Isaiah the prophet brings predator and prey together in safety. Some 2,500 years ago, he foresaw a lion lying down peacefully with a lamb.

Many people have dogs and cats that live and play happily together.

If peace, caring and friendship can evolve so unexpectedly, this gives me greater hope for world peace.

Going forward

Hiking down from "lunch in the clouds"

A willingness to go forward, and not to quit, is important in so many facets of our life experience.

After lunch, we four (see previous blog post, below) came down from not-quite-the-summit of Mount Gardiner, to find the road that would lead us through fields and fern forests to Elaine’s cabin overlooking the Pacific.

Somebody mentioned that a bus frequents this road. The option of riding back to the village and catching the ferry a day early appealed splendidly to my toes and legs. At the point of decision, Joan asked if I wanted to go on to the cabin (opposite direction from the ferry).

It was really dear of these Canadians to be sharing their special hiking treasures, and I didn’t want to disappoint them. It’s important to know that I’d been praying a lot all day to be a blessing rather than a burden.

When asked about the remaining terrain, was there much up and down, Elaine assured me, “Oh no, just a little up.” Yet it was startling to hear myself agreeing to continue to the cabin.

My prayer at this point became urgent.

“Father,” I said, “If you are sending me to this cabin, you’ll have to get me there. I cannot walk another step.”

In retrospect, this was not a bad prayer. Jesus had explained to his disciples that he could do nothing by himself, but depended totally on his Father in heaven.

It is spiritually healthy to be at the point of realizing that we can do nothing without aid from “above.” Somehow that low mental point often flings thought open to really letting God help. To letting God be God.

My sense of God is that He/She is infinite Mind, always active, always revealing creation, unfolding solutions to our human problems all the time. Mostly it’s a matter of our listening carefully and attentively enough to hear or see them.

Within just a couple of minutes of having agreed to go forward, the pain in my legs vanished. It was just gone. Gratefully I caught up with Joan, and we closed the gap somewhat with the gals who were leading.

In the cabin at last!

The uphill grades were indeed gentle. Cheeses and homemade bread for dinner tasted terrific. After the sun set, candles, substituting for electricity, lent a peaceful warmth to conversation .

And I learned once again the importance of being willing to go forward --whatever that means in one’s particular circumstances.

Lunch in Vancouver clouds!

Karin Heath at Camp Bow-Isle

shares her delicious homemade cookies!

My first clue that these women were serious hikers came when Joan offered some “hockey tape” for protecting friction areas on my (tender Midwestern American) feet. No, she didn’t need any tape for a short (8-hour) hike like this one.

So we walked a couple of blocks to the bus (I am learning to appreciate communities with good public transportation!), connected with Elaine and Shirley, caught the ferry and, following a ten-minute trip across the water, walked off the ferry into a quaint little village.

Some background: I knew Joan was a hiker, and when she invited me to visit her and Jim, I asked if we might do some hiking. She graciously arranged a very special trip with her hiking club (another clue) to Elaine’s A-frame on the Bowen Island.

So now from the village straight into the forest we trekked, first to a pre-season tour of summer Camp Bow-Isle which Joan had kindly arranged. Karin Heath graciously shared her delicious cookies with us, and we eagerly scarfed down more than was polite.

Her husband and camp director, Jon, and their black lab graciously guided us straight up through a magnificent pine forest for about an hour, to connect us with the path to our luncheon view.

After lunch. Notice the fog/coud to Elaine's left.

We lunched near the summit of Mount Gardiner on a cloud-drenched slanty rock – empty plastic bags serving as sit-upons and keeping our bottoms dry. Surrounded by a mist of gray tree trunks, we munched happily, nonetheless, on very good sandwiches on home-made bread.

This day I learned the grace of friends and total strangers. Seasoned hikers that they were, they could have reached the lunch rock an hour earlier had they not frequently and cheerfully, it must be added, stopped and waited for their Illinois "flatland" novice to catch up.

Being on the receiving end of compassion and patience – over and over – was something new for me. It’s amazing how humble and grateful at the same time, it makes you feel.

Finding the child heart

Kite flying - pure joy!
This little girl takes advantage
of a windy day at a nearby park.

"Life goes on.” That was the title of a great family TV show two or three decades ago. Life does go on, and times are too adventurous to be left behind.

Smart young people, in my book, are those who, while embracing new ideas, have also learned to value the generations on whose shoulders they are standing.

Smart senior citizens, in my book, are those who increase their circle of friends to keep including young people. Otherwise, how common that sad lament, “All my friends are dying.” Why would anyone limit their circle of friends only to those the world categorizes as “old”?

Because it’s comfortable? Because young people bring new ideas that require some mental wrestling? Because we don’t have to stretch mentally when we stick with friends of our own generation?

Youngest grandson came for two nights this past weekend. He had a whole list of activities for us. I harnessed some of that energy to clean old winter leaves and dirt from the garage floor. What a great worker!

He discovered my Xooter scooter, and nothing would do but for me to ride my bike while he propelled himself on that scooter until he was worn out. We decorated a gingerbread Christmas train – yes in May – until the kitchen was a mess of sticky frosting ambushes.

Amazing Gingerbread Train

Friends come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and ages. It’s OK to push outside our comfort zones and to value those younger, older, and from cultures different from our own. In fact, life requires it.

Everyone has some spark of the divine. As we seek that spark in our “new” friends, as well as our established friendships, life becomes the spiritual adventure it is intended to be. That doesn’t mean danger and excitement, so much as exploring new mental and spiritual horizons together.

“Love never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon its object. One marvels that a friend can never seem less than beautiful.”

New Year's snow frosting

Snow frosting

New Year’s eve brought a light and steady snow all night. Morning light revealed a kind of vanilla frosting on stalks, bushes, branches, evergreen boughs. Deciduous trees and other plants that will be magnificently adorned in summer have needed a touch of beauty to carry them through the embarrassment of having no leaves.

All things stark and skeletal suddenly have a two-inch layer of joyous white fluff.

Translating this lesson of nature for this New Year, why not take one thing that has been bare and unadorned in your life and give it a generous coating of love? Find what you can love about this dormant idea, and love it till it blossoms in the natural warmth of progress.

For me, at this moment, it’s people. People who, at first glance might appear unadorned, have been coming into my life with wonderful gifts of generosity, skill, kindness. I feel that through the message of the frosting, God has been showing me the beauty He/She knows and sees, and is saying, "Look at these pure and good hearts." And afterwards that’s how I see my new friends too.

In the Old Testament, the prophet Samuel had been told to go anoint a new king for Israel. He had been specifically directed to dine with Jesse, a prosperous man with many sons. At dinner Samuel looked at all the assembled handsome young men and made his own assessment about which one would be God’s chosen.

Each time he guessed and asked, "Is it this one?" God said, “No not this one.” Frustration set in. After all, Samuel was supposed to be a prophet; he wasn’t supposed to get it wrong.

The right candidate turned out to be the youngest son, David, who wasn’t even present at the meal. No wonder Samuel had a hard time.

I better understand now what God explained to Samuel, “The Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

The cheerful and temporary coating of snow is a reminder that central to each living thing is abundant beauty.

Love never loses sight of loveliness.
Its halo rests upon its object.
One marvels that a friend
can ever seem less than beautiful.

Mary Baker Eddy

Finding the beauty underneath

Mars' Hill, as it looks today,
where Paul spoke to the Athenians

While waiting for Timothy and Silas to join him in Athens, Paul explored the city. He was impressed by statues everywhere to Greek gods and goddesses.

When he decided to speak to the Athenians, he addressed them from a high spot called Mars' Hill. There he commented on how scrupulously religious they were. They were so careful to include every god that they even created an idol to the unknown god - just so none would be left out. The King James version of Paul's words, "ye are in all things too superstitious," sounds like a put-down. But actually Paul was complimenting them. A more accurate translation would be, "You are in every way very religious."

When in Athens a few weeks ago, we walked up Mars Hill. It's a huge old rock, big enough for many people to congregate. It's bumpy though, with weathered outcroppings everywhere. Marble perhaps.

Greece has LOTS of marble. The ancients paved their streets with marble, built columns of marble, and created beautiful statues. Marble magnificently adorns modern Greece as well.

On Mars' Hill old gray boulders muscle up just far enough to have become part of the path and people naturally walk on them. Over decades, maybe centuries, the rough exteriors have in some places been worn away. Beneath that surface roughness glows a warm and beautiful marbly orange interior that becomes shinier the more it is polished by countless soles of tourist shoes.

As I bent closer to confirm what I thought I was seeing, that rock became a metaphor for people. I've met a lot of folks who were crusty and bristly on the outside. As we walked into each others lives, and maybe even stepped on each other a bit, lovely color, vibrancy, beauty, and caring surfaced.

It is good to not be fooled by appearances, to cultivate the ability to look past unpromising exteriors to the person within struggling to be valued and appreciated as worthwhile. It sometimes takes a lot of love to be willing to move past surface impressions, but the resulting friendships can be precious.

God saw beneath Paul's tough and determined exterior, to the willing and honest heart, which He shaped and warmed so that a transformed Paul traveled to Asia and Europe to preach a God of Love.

Christ Jesus “threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God
and lifted their lives higher than their

poor thought-models would allow
— thoughts which presented man as fallen, sick, sinning, and dying.”
Mary Baker Eddy

Never too late for Amazing Tenderness

Philippi -

where Paul met Lydia,

the seller of purple

St. Paul was a busy man. I’ve spent the last two weeks on a most amazing tour, with a group following his footsteps around Greece – Philippi, Berea, Thessaloniki, Corinth, Athens, even Ephesus in Turkey.

What surprised me most about Paul was discovering his tenderness. This man who had terrified and persecuted Christ’s followers in his career as Saul of Tarsus, now a convert himself, proved kind, caring and tender towards his new friends in these far-flung cities. These new friends became the foundation, the core, of new Christian communities.

In Philippi, he found Lydia the seller of purple – at the upper layer of the city’s economy; he freed the fortune-telling slave girl from what’s described as demonic possession – which so enraged her owners that they had Paul and Silas beaten and thrown into prison where these bruised and bleeding men sang hymns. Paul baptized the jailer and his whole family after an earthquake freed the prisoners and the jailer would have killed himself, supposing they had all escaped.

Here in Philippi were the elements of a fledging group of followers of Jesus, who identified with this God of Love Paul was showing them. They represented all economic classes – from merchant to jailer to slave. This God who is also Love knew no economic class, honored no categories – neither slave nor free, male nor female. And Paul built all his relationships on this universal Love he was himself learning to live.

So one moral Paul is already teaching me, is to open wider the possibilities of amazing relationships through absolutely refusing to categorize or classify those I meet. Rather to connect with the sparkling man of God’s creating in everyone, across cultures, without age. It's an exciting goal, because there is something special in everyone, something worth discovering.

For Paul’s adventures in Philippi, see Acts 16:9-40

Gone is the distinction between Jew and Greek, slave and free man, male and female – you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Living Bible)

By the way, for those who may be interested, this tour was hosted and led by http://www.biblicaltravels.com/

A time to dance, and a time to be quiet

Ellen is a trooper. She’s the mother of a guy I dated in Junior High, and we’ve stayed in touch these many years. We went to an indoor concert last week

The catch is that we weren’t quite sure what we were getting into, only that it would be different. A lively and delightful Cuban Salsa band invited the audience to dance in the space between the stage and where the seating began.

We totally enjoyed watching the dancing. I counted 32 couples just before intermission. These included what appeared to be grandmas and sons, dads and daughters; a family with children dancing enthusiastically; there were couples with polished moves, and people just having a good time.

Ellen and I struggled with the volume issue though. In case you’re wondering, it was REALLY loud. So in spite of the joyous dancing, we left at intermission.

So what did we learn from this experience? We learned to be adventurers. To push beyond our comfort zones. We succeeded in looking for the good. We found we could have a happy evening together in spite of the volume. We also discovered that it was good to know when it was time to leave.

While the instruments drowned out even the singer, which we found odd, we heard quieter messages that united our hearts in companionship for the evening.

That’s not so different from everyday life. Sometimes the volume or the momentum of the day would try to upstage or push aside the inner stillness that speaks to our hearts and restores our peace. It’s important to know when to step aside and find that quiet space that challenges the rush and noise.

It’s also important to know that we CAN step aside. It’s in that quietude that balance is restored, perspective broadens, alternatives appear. Claiming our special space is as old as civilization.

Christ Jesus called it prayer. And he advised that the best way to hear what God is telling us is by going into the closet and shutting the door – closing out all distractions.

Not a bad idea.

Tender marriage of kindred hearts

I was privileged to be a guest at a very special wedding last week. Karen had been in my Sunday School class – years ago, it seems. Her beau, Ken, has done two tours in Iraq as a Marine. They are both in Military Chaplain training now, for the Army. The Army, it seems, is more family-friendly when assigning spouses, than are the Marines.

Rev. Dr. Julie Ruth Harley gave the best talk on marriage I’ve heard. She began with a joke. She has a couple in her congregation, she said, who have been married over 60 years, so she asked them, “What is the secret to a happy marriage?”

The husband replied, “The secret to a happy marriage is in two words,” long pause. (Those two words are,) "Yes, Dear.” Followed by much laughter.

Her talk focused on the give and take in marriage, the caring that permits compromise. Equal respect for both husband and wife. The love and attentiveness for one’s spouse that is not distracted by career, family, even children.

That when we say “Yes,” to wedding vows, we are saying “No” to other things. For instance, saying Yes to promising to honor one another, is saying “No” to any other intimate relationship.

When they were invited to kiss, Ken took Karen’s face gently in his hands and tenderly gave her a kiss.

The whole ceremony was tender, even the reception. When the maid of honor spoke of her friendship with Karen, she wept with emotion. When the groom’s sister spoke, her voice trembled with deep fondness for her brother and his new wife. When the bride’s brother spoke of his sister as an “amazing woman,” his voice halted; he teared up again as he praised his new brother-in-law. Most people were wiping their own eyes.

In Marine tradition, the Captain/husband (in dress uniform) sliced the wedding cake with his saber. They waltzed to “Edelweiss.” They actually knew how to waltz!

Maybe two tours in Iraq helps a man value a precious good woman when he finds her. Karen has the maturity to value her husband as deeply. We all wish them happiness and safety in their new lives together.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Let the husband render unto the wife
due benevolence:
and likewise also the wife unto the husband.
Paul to the Corinthians (I Cor 7:3)

Matrimony should never be entered into
without a full recognition of its enduring obligations
on both sides.

Marriage should signify
a union of hearts

There should be the most tender solicitude
for each others happiness,
and mutual attention and approbation
should wait on all the years
of married life.
Mary Baker Eddy

When friendships are not warm and fuzzy

Unlikely friendship

I guess I’m way behind the rest of the country, but I finally saw the musical “Wicked.”

What a happy surprise! While there are other themes, this was a story about friendship.

Two women who initially despise each other are thrown together as roommates. Gradually they appreciate and value their differences, hostility dissolves, and they recognize how their lives have been transformed and enriched as a result.

As they are about to part, realizing they may never see each other again, the ladies sing about the substance of friendship:

I've heard it said

that people come into our lives for a reason,

Bringing something we must learn,

And we are led to those who help us most to grow

If we let them, and we help them in return.

Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today because I knew you

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

I do believe I have been changed for the better . . .

Because I knew you I have been changed for good.

The purpose of relationships is to bless. Someone wisely said, “When a relationship ceases to bless, it ceases to exist.”

The most important relationship any of us has, is to God, our creator. It’s like that of a ray of light to the sun. The ray has every quality of the sun, and is vital to the sun’s shining – but is not the sun. The rays never touch each other, and do not intrude on each other. Each is needed and important to enhance the effectiveness of the rays next to it. Yet they are related to each other only by their relationship to their origin, the sun. The sun is their authority to go light up the dark places of the earth.

God, infinite Love, is our authority to light up the angry, hurting, misunderstood places of the earth. I believe that everyone who comes into our life experience has something to teach us. It isn’t always fun; sometimes we bristle at the lessons. An African-American friend once told me that something I had said was racist. I was crushed. Typical white reaction, “Me? How can you say that about me?”

Over time, I’ve understood what she meant. And I have tried to be more sensitive to the words I use and how they might be heard. It’s called thinking before speaking, and has been a very good life-lesson – one that I am still learning!

While grateful for warm and unconditional friendships, and amazed to be on the receiving end of such kindness, I am also grateful for those who have had the courage and honesty to tell me when they think I’m out of line.

As long as we are willing to learn, and to forget about being offended, we’ll be blessed even by those relationships that may not be warm and fuzzy.

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Love never loses sight of loveliness.
Its halo rests upon its object.
One marvels that a friend

can ever seem less than beautiful.
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