a prophetic voice-

In only 4 more days, I head to East Africa, so I'll be taking a hiatus from this blog in order to keep up with my other blog, lindasreturntoafrica.blogspot.com   I hope you'll consider following my travels, work, learning, and service there. If you have been following these musing of mine, you have some idea of the kind of postings you'll find there, as I travel with and for The Nyanya Project, a non-profit based in Winston-Salem, NC, which works with African grandmothers who are caring for their AIDS-orphaned grandchildren. As a grandmother myself, I find it difficult to picture my being the sole support of my grands, as much as I adore them. Being with them is wonderful but takes its toll physically in a way being with my children never did...because I was 40 years younger!!! But these incredible women are supporting and caring for 2, 3, 4 or more of their grandchildren as a result of losing their own children to AIDS. They are courageous, strong, determined, and fai...

Suddenly I find myself surrounded by a crowd of amazingly courageous women… women dealing with life situations which confront and challenge them at the deepest level, at their very core, and doing so with both grit and grace. There are the forty-somethings, Karen and Kirstin. Karen, diagnosed last year with ALS, is facing the physical deterioration which accompanies her condition in a way that leaves me awe-struck. Her spirit is unflagging, even through the tough times, even as she knows more tough times lie ahead, even as she knows that her precious daughter will grow up without a mom. Today counts for Karen. And Kirstin- known to me only via email and our shared participation in “World in Prayer”, has been dealing with cancer- tenacious, ever-spreading cancer- for the past three years, following every path recommended to her by the considerably skilled medical community in southern California but now has made the decision- with the support of her partner, Andee- to refrain from any...

If I did not dislike heat so intensely, summer would surely be my favorite season for the abundance of fresh fruits and veggies available. Take my breakfast this morning. Actually, you can't take it since it is now happily residing within me , but have you ever seen a lovelier plate? Gluten-free French toast, fresh blueberries and strawberries, and a little organic maple syrup to top things off. Yum! And to make it even more perfect, I ate it while sitting on my lovely screened front porch, listening to the birds and watching my neighborhood awaken. The past several days have been glorious here in Carolina...temps in the low 80s, low humidity, sunshine, and Carolina blue skies. My kind of weather. We're due to heat up today and over the weekend, back into the 90s, but the gift of the last few days will linger for a time, especially since all of my windows and doors were opened wide to welcome the fresh air. Don't know what it is about having the breeze blowing through th...

Why do we spend so much time worrying about the future, I wonder. I remember, as a college freshman, spending much of one weekend night discussing- with the wisdom and sagacity available only to college freshmen and women- the question of whether or not we would want to know the future...for example, whether or not we would have children (we were all fresh women that night), or  whether we would have marriage AND a career (this was 1959 and marriage was a foregone conclusion)...or, more seriously, when we would die. Looking back on the lives of those young women with whom I have remained in contact, the shape of our lives has had little resemblance to what we had imagined that night- and I suspect few of us would really have wanted to know what the future would actually hold. But the fascination with the future remains strong for we humans, doesn't it? Though we cannot know it, it captivates us...drives our curiosity...and, too often, both immobilizes us with fear and...

Well, for you North Carolina Lutherans who were looking for me at Synod Assembly yesterday- I FORGOT!!!! It was about 2p.m. when I suddenly thought, "OMG! is Assembly this week?" and realized that indeed it was, it IS, and I wasn't! So...sorry I missed you. The opening worship is always awesome...my favorite thing in the one-day trip which has become de riguer for me since my retirement. I'll probably go online today to check out the Synod site to see if anything exciting is happening. For the rest of you non-Lutherans or non-North Carolinians, ignore the above...it will have absolutely no meaning for you, unless you, too, have had such memory lapses, in which case you will- I hope- empathize with this faux pas extrordinaire.   We're actually cooling off a bit here in Carolina- high is to be 85 today (I'll believe it when I see it)...though this morning is quite pleasant. Ate breakfast on the screened porch- a lovely bowl of rice cereal, replete with sliced ba...

Something i've learned over the years: you can't hurry resurrection. When something or someone dies there must be time for grieving, for simply being in whatever emotional morass occurs, before the hope of rebirth, new life, can begin to emerge... tentatively, uncertainly at first, before its hope & promise can come into full bloom. It is a time to, in the words of T.S. Eliot, "Wait without hope/For hope would be hope for the wrong thing." For in the space, in the silence, in the often-unwelcome peace is the time for preparation, for entry into newness. Life has changed... nothing will ever be the same...loss begins, begins to heal...takes the first tentative baby steps toward what awaits- that waiting-to-be-birthed unknown. Space, silence, solitude, as the whole world slowly rearranges itself around you...letting yourself be exactly where you are, as you are...making room for what is to come. The reality is that death stands just outside the boundaries of ever...

memorial day We remember- those who fought and died to give this nation birth, in the face of unremitting odds...     those who fought and died     to keep this nation unified,     in spite of our differences... those who fought and died                                                  on foreign soil to restore peace            and freedom to the places of     our long-ago roots, to the world ...      those who fought and died     in a police action which     never really ended... those who fought and died     in a tiny southeast Asian country while a war of words ...