Lightning McQueen in Africa?

My grandson came for an overnight recently.  He loves movies and brought two DVDs for us to watch.  Kung Fu Panda, and Cars. 

Despite my misgivings, these animations turned out to be well-told stories with good morals.  When others see him initially only as a noodle cook, the humble panda clings to hope, works hard, and finally achieves self-worth.  

Lightning McQueen (race car) learns the importance of being part of a team and of practical caring for others.  Not bad life lessons.

Jump to the world scene.  In Africa right now, millions are on the brink of starvation due to drought and political turmoil.  Self-worth takes second place to survival.  Practical caring is what the rest of the world can offer.  Distribution of basic necessities can be a nightmare.

The Spirit of Christ, Allah, whoever you think of as the higher power, animates each of us to care for and help one another. 

Here’s a tmcyouth link to some prayers being offered for those in great need.  Feel free to add yours.

Story of hope in an unlikely place

People who care.  That's what it takes to make a difference.

In Zambia, at risk youth are being given an opportunity to move their lives forward.  About 200 young people were asked to think about their future.  They decided they'd like to go into business.  So the youths were taught how to do a market assessment and how to select a business that would manageable and profitable.

They chose a banana plantation.  This video shows their steps of hope.

Here's the link to the article in The Christian Science Monitor.

Shipwrecked

This little story has been making recent email rounds.  The moral is useful, especially for anyone going through hard times.

The only survivor of a shipwreck washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but nothing changed. 

Shipwreck

Over time he he built a little hut out of driftwood and palm fronds to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions. 

One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke curling up to the sky.  Stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger, he cried out, "God!  How could you let this happen?"

Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship's horn!  It had come to rescue him! "How did you know I was here?" the survivor asked his rescuers. 

"We saw your smoke signal," they replied. 


The Moral of This Story: It's easy to get discouraged when things are going badly, but we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even at our darkest moments.
  

Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground. It just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God. 



Cheers for those angel messages!

Our first hike in the Sierras a couple of weeks ago had to be aborted.  The very name of our destination, Saucer Lake, just over the ridge, inspired my 11-year old grandson, my good friend, Margaret, and me with eagerness.  The hike started well enough, over granite boulders, through manzanita bushes, across noisy rivulets of snowmelt. 

It had been a late summer in the mountains, though.  As recently as two weeks before our adventure, Echo lake still boasted ice.  As we now ascended, bits of snowfields lurked over parts of the trail.  At first we worked around them, picking up the switchback a few yards further on.  The incline sharpened, the snowfields became broader and increasingly treacherous -- as in steep and slippery, with very hard boulders or worse, cliffs, at their bases.  

A small snowfield -- fun and safe to slide down

I’d begun praying quite earnestly about safety probably half an hour before, when continuing the climb began to feel not right.  It was a humble prayer, just asking God to place each step so that She would be praised by this activity.  Neither did it feel right for Grandma (me) to be the one to say we needed to turn back.  So each time I was tempted, I prayed the more earnestly.

Finally, about 2/3 of the way up, we reached the largest snowfield yet.  We could not see where to pick up the trail on either the right or the left of it. 

Boots too small?

King of the snow cave (carved by a rivulet, between his feet)

What I'd like to draw your attention to here is not the snow cave, although standing triumphantly on its thin arched roof was the purpose of the photo.  Rather the boots.

Wonderful, comfortable, hiking boots

It's the boots that will be outgrown by next summer.

I was thinking today how with kids it's easy to know what no longer fits.  Wrists hang out of sleeves, pant cuffs creep upward, the shoes are too tight, and it's obvious.

Somewhere into adulthood we we start accumulating clothes that used to be passed along to friends, relatives, or the local thrift store.  Closets gradually begin to bulge, not so subtly demanding a sorting.

It isn't all that different with our thinking.  As kids grow and learn, they discard outgrown thinking -- tooth fairies and monsters under the bed, and cute

Music to the eyes

I don't know how this works, but perhaps you will agree that it is beautiful.  As one person put it, "Music to the eyes."

Herding Cats?

Nope.  Not herding cats.  Training them.  Or rather, finding out what they like to do, and then rewarding them for it.

I grew up with dogs and cats together.  I can think of three different pairs.  They would snuggle together in a sunny spot on the floor on a winter's day.  Or cuddle together on the couch.  Yes, we did allow our adopted greyhound on the couch.

The most fun was watching these creatures wrestle -- the dog being careful not to overwhelm the cat; and the cat being careful to keep her claws sheathed.  Over and over, round and round they'd go.

Cats who perform is a whole different circus.  Yet here's a guy who has figured it out.  Hope you enjoy their entertainment.

Meet the Mayor of Mississauga

My neighbor was complaining the other day of her curtailed activities now that she "is up in years."  She didn't want to hear another perspective, at least not at that time. 

Seniors have lots of jokes about aging, and all of them accept the premise that aging includes limits, vulnerability, and diminishing faculties.  So the jokes are an effort to make the best of a bad situation.

There used to be an upbeat TV show called, "Life begins at 80."  Week after week the host interviewed lively, busy octogenarians.  These folks did not placidly accept restrictions on their abilities and capacities to do good.  Most of them led active and interesting lives.

Here, from Canada, is a contemporary role model.  It's so refreshing to meet someone whose life quietly challenges these negative assumptions. 

Principle as Love?

 Have you ever thought of Principle as Love?   Yes, and harmony too!


This has been a difficult concept for me to wrap my head around.  Principle is strong, tough, laws and rules, isn't it?  How can it also be Love?

 Well, here's what I've been thinking about.  The red light, when people pay attention, keeps crashes from happening.  It allows an orderly flow of traffic to go forward.  There's a sense of justice, or fairness, because everyone gets their turn.  A red light may be no-nonsense, but it is also an expression of Love keeping everyone safe.

Red keeps right ideas where they belong.  No colliding!

Yellow gives a heads-up on change coming

A yellow light warns drivers that their plans are

The heart of song - Bobby McFerrin

Krista Tippet does her homework before interviewing incredible people.  This morning her guest was Bobby McFerrin.

Bobby grew up in an Episcopal church in LA.  He loved singing in the children's choir.  His dad was an opera singer, and his mom sang all the time.  He grew up with singing in the home.

Here are three great YouTubes of his work.  There are times, he says, when he goes onstage feeling horrible, bad headache or tense because he's just had an argument with one of his children.  Within a minute of being with the audience, he's happy.  By the end of 90 minutes he's usually 80% healed.  To me this says something about his love for what he is doing, his love for music, his love for people, and the healing effect of acting on this love.

He tries to release in his audiences the improvisation and spontaneity they knew as children.  He taps into a deep spirituality innate, it seems, in all mankind.  (Scroll to the interview link at the bottom.)

He says of the Pentatonic Scale, "Regardless of where I am, anywhere (in the whole world), every audience gets that!"  You have to see it, to appreciate "getting it."





How do you draw thousands of strangers into singing "Ave Maria" together, beautifully, the first time?




For the 23rd Psalm, Bobby had been thinking about the heavy patriarchal element in the church and wanted to write something about the feminine side of God.  He dedicated this to his mother.



Note how in the final added verse which, in a traditional chant would be "Glory to the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost," he is consistent in maintaining the feminine.

The text:
The Lord is my shepherd, I have all I need.
She makes me lie down in green meadows;
Beside the still waters She will lead.

She restores my soul; She rights my wrongs.
She leads me in a path of good things
and fills my heart with songs.

Even though I walk through a dark and dreary land,
there is nothing that can shake me,
She has said She won't forsake me --
I'm in her hand.

She sets a table before me in the presence of my foes.
She anoints my head with oil
and my cup overflows.

Surely, surely goodness and kindness will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will live in Her house forever,
forever and ever.

Glory be to our Mother and Daughter
and to the Holy of Holies
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be
World without end.  Amen.

You can listen now to  Krista Tippet's interview with Bobby McFerrin,  “Catching song.”