Waiting for the Blooming

I come to Tucson fairly often- my brother and his lovely wife live here and are generous with their lives and home.  And I've always want to see the desert bloom.  In 2013 it snowed and while that was lovely in its own way, it wasn't the same as the fields of deserts flowers shown in the Arizona Highways magazine.  Everyone says, "You just can't know for sure, depends on water and temperature." The short season of desert bloom is like a southwest secret and you just have to be here at the right time and place.  So far I haven't.

I'm using a wonderful Lent prayer guide from Way Makers-  http://waymakers.org/pray/   One of this week's examples for praying for my "city" is based on Ezekiel 37 and the valley of dry bones in the Old Testament. Here's a pretty dramatic video of an interpretation of the text of Ezekiel.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dafYxu8cQQ

In the dry desert, I long for water.
Water is the sound of life to me. 

Written in my prayer guide—"We pray today for those who are physically alive but are spiritually dead. Breathe life into them, as You did at creation. Infuse them with Your Spirit. As Ezekiel did so long ago, we declare our prayer: "Come to life!"... Resuscitate... Renew... Surprise... Raise up great throngs of people throughout out the earth to stand before You, filled with life and eager to serve."

Resuscitate means re-awaken.  

 As I eagerly watch the desert for its re-awakening, its blooming;

 I also see Lent as a season of our re-awakening, 

through Christ's re-awakening, 

through His Resurrection.  

We watch for signs of spring, 

we wait for the Spirit to breathe His renewing life again and again.  

  

 And sometimes we are surprised. 

For as the earth bursts with spring wildflowers, and as a garden cascades with blossoms, 

So the Master, God, brings righteousness into full bloom

 and puts praise on display before the nations.   Isaiah 61:10-11 The Message







For now we wait, in the dark.  I may miss the full blooming of the desert- again.  Or I may be surprised.  But we can know with the assurance of those who believe—Lent leads to Easter, and Easter leads to the Resurrection, and Resurrection leads to life, again and again and again.

Resuscitate... Renew... Surprise... 

Raise up great throngs of people throughout out the earth to stand before You, filled with life.

The Touch of Community

She pokes into the black paste, then firmly traces a cross on my forehead with her finger- it is Ash Wednesday and we remind ourselves Easter is coming.  If we receive the cross of ashes in the morning, we show the entire world our solidarity with the suffering Christ.  The Community of Christ is marked with ashes, by touch.

A sermon this week has me thinking of community—what is it, how do we form it, how do we share what we have? I have no definitive theory but today my answer is touch.  All communities involve touch.

Families are formed by touch.  Tentative fingers feel for another's hand, culminating in the merging of lovers.  A mother caresses her newborn on her chest— a touch of welcome into the family made or changed by that child's arrival. A man reaches to squeeze his wife's shoulder, she pats his leg.  Our family holds hands around the table and bows in gratitude.


In our churches we greet or pass the peace with clasped hands and hugs. We pat the shoulder of a friend, offer our arms to the broken hearted. In our American culture, a first meeting involves touch as we shake hands in introduction.    In sports, rambunctious young men high five with open palms or bump chests after victory on the playing field.   All it takes is a small touch.  "I care for you. We are connected. We're a team."

But what about random touches?  What happens when we touch a stranger, in public?  We need to pass in a crowd and we softly touch a shoulder, "I'm here. Excuse me, please."-sometimes without saying a word.  Standing in line, a woman may tuck a tag into a stranger's blouse. We graze hands as we grasp the pole on the bus or train.  Usually there is a brief smile, a recognition we are here, together. Sharing the space, sharing the planet.

So how do we form community?  We touch. If even for the briefest moment we commune—French for "gathering of people sharing a common life."  What if we viewed the stranger as a member of our common life?  As God's creation worthy of care and respect? How can we share the fullness of Christ and use our words only when absolutely necessary.

I encountered a stranger at the Tucson gem show.  He sold skin care and we formed a small community for the half an hour he gently dabbed creams on my face and smoothed his magic under my eyes.  Yes. we established I was a Christian and wouldn't really enjoy a night at a club in his home of Las Vegas. Thank you, anyway.   But through touch and laughter, we shared our stories and found the common link of humanity.

Did I prevent despair? -it is said that even eye contact, let alone touch, can lift the spirits.  Likely not. He appeared quite happy and claims to love his job.  Did I impact his life at all? who knows? That's not mine to judge.  And of course, he was charming; I realize he was selling a product.  All I know was the time enriched me. I love the fascinating interaction with a stranger, the sharing of a slice of time.  He was worth my time and attention, as I much as I was worthy of his.

So Aaron, you asked what I write about and this is it- Life and love and people and Jesus and.... finding the touch of community.  Thank you.

Focus- postponed ...

Well, so much for resolutions, words for the year, all my good intentions.  I'm on the road again and life is so distracting.

My sister and I left South Dakota, stopped in Wyoming to leave the dog with Janet's friend and took off for Salt Lake City on a glorious sunny day under the blue western sky. As storms pounded friends and family on the east coast and Denver got another foot of snow, we drove across the wide open grasslands of Wyoming and into Utah.  We approached Salt Lake City through a canyon rimmed by snow capped mountains against blue skies.  It was a magnificent road trip.  

And we ended up at a gym the next day!  So I can say I've been focused- on fitness.  Janet is a gym rat- familiar with all the machines, not fazed by the loud music, so instructive I feel safe.  I've only joined a few gyms over the years.  One close to  my house convinced me their machines would work magic on my muscles.  My chiropractor warmed me those same machines would wreak havoc on my joints- so true.  I got my money back.

But back in Rapid City, a dear friend recommeded Planet Fitness. I am not getting rewarded for my plug and there are certainly weaknesses with this gym as well, but it has been a place I can go without my usual reluctance.   In Salt Lake City, we had "massages" on the hydromassage- a single size water bed whose jets pound against your back and nothing gets wet!  Lovely after eight hours on the road.

Yesterday after a Phoenix airport run , I found a PF gym and had another massage and did stretches on the machines as Janet instructed me.  Here in north Tucson, there's a PF about two miles from my brother's house. Very handy.  Same machines, same massage beds and same shaking thing.

Their shaky thing machine seems like a joke- a modern variation of fat farm vibration belts from the '60's but there may be something to it. You stand inside a round space- it's basically a very large version of a bank pneumatic tube! Then therapeutic lights come on and the floor vibrates in a variety of ways.  Janet has a torn tendon in her knee and after a month of work on the shaky thing, it is better.  I have an inflamed tendon in my elbow- it's a bit trickier to put your hands on a shaking floor inside an enclosed tube but it can be done.  We pray no one is secretly filming us or if they are, they are enjoying a good laugh.

So while I am not doing much writing and none for public exposure, I am walking. I am learning how to work an elliptical machine without falling off and I'm doing a variation of Twister on a shaking floor pad while being "bathed" in blinding light.   There- that takes Focus!

How is your week going? Any thought to your words?  It's hard to add one more thing to a busy day so I want to create a small collage to remind myself. I'm a visual girl.

That's the Focus for the upcoming week for me- continuing to enjoy some new FITness time and being Faithful to both my body and my creative mind.  Hope you can contemplate your words this week as well,