Nice weather

Due to constraints on time (but not on discussion topics), we turn today to idle chit-chat: the weather.  Here’s the forecast for today and the rest of this week.  Nice.

(Forecast from wunderground.com.)

Carpet square

I first noticed this thing lying on the northbound Stevenson about a month ago.  During my morning commute, the car in front of me drifted slightly right to avoid it, and I did the same.  As I zoomed passed, I saw something large and flat that looked a bit like a piece of carpet.  But I wasn’t quite positive.

The next day, it was still there.  After a second avoidance maneuver, I was more certain of its identity: a beige carpet square, roughly two feet on a side, lying face up on the road.  And a week later, it had hardly moved.  It was hanging out on the left side of the right lane, just beyond where the North-South Tollway exits.  At first, everyone swerved to miss it.  But as July turned to August and the carpet got a bit frayed around the edges, people just started ignoring it.

Welcome to DuPage County.  Please wipe your feet.

After about two weeks, I actually started looking for it.  How long could it last?  I thought I should blog about it, but what do you write about a piece of carpet?  I could make it into some sort of pseudo-children’s story from Sunday School, complete with moral lesson.  But please – we’re talking about some littered floor covering here.  Don’t make it into something it’s not.

I thought Ira Glass would know what to do.  He could do a full hour-long radio show on carpeting the nation’s interstate system.  My wife suggested he could set up a desk along the roadside to observe things and interview passing motorists for their opinions.  Perhaps get David Sedaris to write a short story.  I’m not that creative.

So it’s been a month now.  It’s still there, and it hasn’t moved.  At this point, it only looks like a dusting rag.  But it’s like a scab that I keep picking off – I can’t stop looking for it.

Dumb carpet.

Bits of color

“Rainbow House” by Middle Daughter, 5″ x 7″, acrylic on canvas, 2009.

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“A Prism” by Oldest Daughter, 5″ x 7″, acrylic on canvas, 2009.

A God so near

A few thoughts that are loosely tied together…

I have led a Bible study at my church in the past, and will be doing so again this fall.  I am planning to try a new approach to study – Lectio Divina.  I say ‘new’ in the sense that it is a new approach for me.  On the other hand, ‘Lectio Divina’ is really a very old way of hearing what God is saying through scripture and prayer.  Since I am a novice, I won’t presume to explain Lectio Divina here.  However, if you’d like to learn more, you might visit the United Church of Christ website or you can do a Google search.

I’ve started using Lectio Divina in my own prayer time this week.  Today, I read part of the lectionary for this Sunday:

So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you. You have seen for yourselves what the Lord did with regard to the Baal of Peor—how the Lordyour God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, while those of you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today.

 See, just as the Lord my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’ For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

 But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.

Deuteronomy 4.1-9

It seems that every scripture has potential for causing me consternation these days.  I don’t plan on discussing my issues with this particular passage.  I just want to acknowledge that issues exist, so that in thirty years when my daughters are doing their own reading and struggling with scripture, they won’t feel like they’re going through something new.

On the other hand, I appreciate the ability of Lectio Divina to draw me out of my academic approach to Bible study.  In this case, I was drawn to the phrase, “a god so near”.  I was reminded again how this theme runs throughout the Bible: the nearness of God in the Old Testament, for example, in this passage; the coming of God among us in Christ in the New Testament; the presence of the Holy Spirit, sent by Christ to the early Church and to us.  God is a God who works in relationship and community.  Today, my call is to be aware of my relationships.

Stories from the first day of school

It’s the first day of school!  Oldest Daughter is starting second grade.  Middle Daughter will be in kindergarten.  We all woke up early today (with butterflies in our stomachs), and I have some cute stories, and it’s not even 7 a.m. yet.  (Well, I think they’re cute…)

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Recently, we’ve had an increased number of ripped up Styrofoam meat trays in our house.  This morning, Middle Daughter was playing with one.  Evidently, the tray was an iceberg, and there was a horse floating on the top.  As the pieces of  the tray were breaking apart, I heard…

Oh, no! My iceberg is melting!

Great.  Now I’ve got global warming occurring in my living room.  (The irony of using a Styrofoam meat tray as a melting iceberg is not lost on me.)

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Youngest Daughter was hanging from the curtains in our eating area. She is heavy enough that she was threatening to pull the curtain rod off the wall, so I asked her to stop. She replied,

Why? I’m swinging like Dora!

Colors

Youngest daughter was taking a bath tonight.  We have a rainbow assortment of dolphins (that play different notes!), and the girls like to have the dolphins with them in the tub.  Anyway, YD asked me for a dolphin, and I asked her which color she wanted…

Raspberry sorbet!

I guarantee you that she didn’t learn her colors from me.

Fasting and learning, part 2

I’m now into the third day of my fast to coincide with Ramadan.  As I mentioned before, my hope is to learn more about Islamic faith, to work at building bridges of peace (starting with me), and to draw nearer to God.  As a Christian, I will strive to remain faithful to my beliefs, while learning to respect those of our Muslim brothers and sisters.

I have fasted before, but I’ve never made it a spiritual habit or regular practice.  One of the first things I realized as I sat down to my first early morning meal on Saturday^* was how thankless and ungrateful I am, and how little I regard food, given my life of relative wealth.  To be honest, the only time I’ve been consistently thankful for my meals is at supper when my family sits down together.  Frequently, I tend to be rushed or distracted (a reflection of my North American culture), and I don’t savor and enjoy what God has given as a blessing.  And so I was humbled to receive my food.

* Muslims call this meal “suhoor”, which literally means “of the dawn”.

I was humbled again later as I prepared breakfast for my daughters.  A typical action would be to snack on some of the toppings that I’d put on their oatmeal: maybe some berries or nuts or chocolate chips.  And this quick snack would be consumed without thankfulness.  This time as I conscientiously refrained from snacking, I was able to be a little thankful for the food that I didn’t eat, and my heart was softened a bit.

The other thing that I’ve noticed is how self-centered I am – how I spend more time focused on the details of this fast than I spend focused on God.  (When is sunrise?  When is sunset?  My stomach is aching.  I wish I could have a drink.  And so on.)  I’m grateful that there is time here to change my focus and to learn to look away from myself and toward God.

One of my goals this month is to learn more about Islam.  One of the things that I’ve read is that Ramadan is a time for reconciliation and mending broken relationships.  This reminds me of the instructions that Christians receive before communion.  It is also something for me to take to heart in light of my congregation’s struggles and my hurts.

So – lots of learning so far (and a little sleepiness)!  I’m looking forward to the coming days.  May God forgive my self-centeredness and lack of thankfulness and teach me humility and gratefulness.

This week in the garden… 24 August 2009

 

 

Morning Glory – these are volunteers.  Not sure where they came from.

Black-Eyed Susan

Anemone – finally in bloom!

Red Admiral

Queen Anne’s Lace

Buttercup – these seem to bloom all season.

Black-Eyed Susan – a reminder that there is life and death.  Reminded me of the chorus of a Carrie Newcomer song:

Leaves don’t drop; they just let go
And make a space for seeds to grow
And every season brings a change
A tree is what a seed contains
To die to live is life’s refrain…

Fasting and learning

Sunset tomorrow (August 21) marks the beginning of the observance of Ramadan, the month in which Muhammad received the Qur’an, according to Islamic faith.  For Muslims, Ramadan is a time of fasting, as well as praying and reading the Qur’an more than would usually be done.

When I was in grad school, one of my friends also fasted throughout the month.  As a Christian, his goal was not to become a Muslim, but rather to develop a level of respect for Muslims and an understanding of Islamic faith.  And recently, I’ve read that Brian McLaren is also planning on fasting through this month.

This seemed good to me, as well, and so I’ve decided to fast throughout this month, also.  This is my hope:

• I’m not going to call this a Ramadan fast, but rather a fast to coincide with the month of Ramadan.  The difference may just be semantics, but my aim is two-fold: be true to my Christian faith, while not dishonoring Islamic faith.^*
• Along those lines, I know that I won’t be able to observe this fast exactly as Muslims would.  I will try to begin my fast at dawn, as Muslims do.  However, I’ll break it earlier than Muslims would so that I can join my family for supper.  And I might break my fast for the sake of accepting another person’s hopitality (for example, being invited to someone else’s home).
• Muslims view this as a time for seeking God in prayer, practicing kindness, learning humility, and so on.  As a Christian, I also view these as worthy goals, and can do the same.
• Additionally, I believe that there is too little understanding of the Islamic faith by Christians.  I will try to learn more this month.

* Brian McLaren intends to be in conversation with a Muslim friend during this month.  As I understand it, this is partly to avoid doing things would be dishonoring.  I realized that I don’t actually know any Muslims, so I can’t be in conversation.  Maybe part  of my goal should be actually meeting someone with whom I can converse.

I’ll try to report on my experience here.

The dishwasher saga

We have a Maytag dishwasher.  You know – the kind where the commercials show the service person standing around doing nothing.  Well, ours has had the same electronic touch pad malfunction three times in three years.  But Ordinary Spouse keeps getting them to pay for parts (and sometimes labor), so we keep using it.

On this repair, however, we can’t get someone to our house to help us until next Friday.  So in the meantime, we’ve been teaching our girls to wash dishes.  And so we have this gem from Oldest Daughter (and faithfully recorded by OS).  I’m sorry that I’ve substituted her blog name for her real one.  It really works better the other way, but such is the price of maintaining a little anonymity.

Oldest Daughter:

I’m Dishwasher OD!
I work whenever dishwashers don’t!
Dishwasher OD is scrubbing stuff clean!
Wow-zee - it’s a trick I can do!
In speedy seconds of 16 your dishes are as clean as a whistle…