Odds and Ends-Again

Jubilee:  Each week I download the Sunday service from Jubilee then listen to it at my leisure, usually when I want to lift my spirits.  I'm not sure why this picture of mushrooms reminds me of Jubilee!  Maybe it's the simplicity, colors, textures - or some combination.  From the website: "At the beginning of each Via, Jubilee! distributes Seeds of Celebration.  This quarterly publication introduces the theme for the new season.  It contains brief summaries of upcoming celebrations as well as references to scriptures to be read each week."  I know this is one reason why I find Jubilee! so relevant: the messages coincide with the seasons and the natural order of nature.   Since the Creator made all this, and us, no wonder it fits me so well!

Washington Post Winner:  Lymph-to walk with a lisp   (from a word contest)

Henrietta Case

Sad news:  I recently learned that one of my favorite relatives and former neighbor in Reeves Cove where I grew up, Henrietta Case, had a heart attack and other serious health problems.  In many ways, she's the family historian and knows so much about our history.  Some folks might call her a gossip, and that's okay, too, as that isn't necessarily a bad thing all the time.  At any rate, she's very much on my mind today and I hope she's doing well. 

Peaceful thought:  "Except for the point, the still point,
                             There would be no dance,
                             And there is only the dance."
                                       T.S.Eliot

This brief and powerful verse was part of a walking meditation that helped me through a very difficult time in my life over 25 years ago.  Perhaps it can help one of you in the days to come.  The theme from last Sunday's Jubilee! celebration was Improbable Gifts and how they come to us and through us.  So, I offer this peaceful thought as a gift.  Use it if you wish; leave it if you don't. 

Mt. Mitchell:  From the top, elevation 6,684 feet, highest point east of the Mississippi, on a warm, summer day.  When I imagine what it's probably like there today, I feel true warmth, not the cold as it is there.  Because I'm in a snug, warm home, even though it's mobile, and am grateful for it.  I hope you're in a warm place, too, and feeling grateful for it.