Beloved Mess

Have you ever noticed how auto-correct can sometimes feel prophetic? Often auto-correct suggestions are humorous, like the suggestion that you pick up some bears (rather than bread!) for dinner on the way home! However, sometimes auto-correct opens my eyes to a much needed moment of sacred clarity…

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Sharon GarnerComment
Still Easter

I took this picture of Lake Erie about a month ago just after the Easter sunrise service as I headed home to prepare for gathering of family and friends. What a beautiful day it was!

Something that I think many people don't realize, however, is that celebration of Easter isn't just a single day. The Christian season of Eastertide is actually 50 days long as we journey from Easter to Pentecost (which is June 5 this year). So it is STILL EASTER!

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Sharon GarnerComment
Stretch

Each January for the past 5 years, I have looked forward to what has become one of my favorite spiritual practices - listening for a word that will become my sacred companion in the year to come. In the past, my words have included: "trust in the slow work of God," fallow, dance, still and play. This year, after much prayerful consideration, I have landed on the word "stretch" as my sacred companion…

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Sharon GarnerComment
Breath

The unexpected call from my brother-in-law began with the words, “She’s going to be okay, but she’s been in an accident…” and my breath stopped.

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Sharon GarnerComment
God in the Memory Support Unit

Last Tuesday on the memory support unit, God reminded me that whether our fumbling attempts to show love are met with confusion, criticism or affirmation, we persevere. We honor our differences. We love our neighbor. We love our enemies. Even when it is really, really hard.

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Sharon GarnerComment
Taking the Long View

I grew up on Longview Avenue in Portland, Oregon, right down the street from Overlook Park. Oh, how I loved that park - rolling down the grassy hillside, making delicate chains out of clover flowers, spending hours on the merry go round (somewhat unwisely surrounded by gravel, as the scar on my knee still vividly attests), splashing in the concrete wading pool, and picking blackberries that grew at the edge of the park. It was familiar and comfortable. It was home.

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My Lenten "Play" List

By the grace of God, may we receive the gift of play – even amidst the weight of daily living, loving, losses and longings. In so doing, may we grow in thanksgiving for this precious gift of life.

Amen.

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Sharon GarnerComment