being PopPop!

Sawyer Todd Mraz, our seventh grandchild was born yesterday, June 30, at 10:18 a.m. weighing 7 lb 6 oz and 21" tall. Our grandchildren now range in age from 0ne day to 16 years old. They all call me PopPop. Of all my titles; Reverend, Pastor, etc., this one carries the most responsibility and honor. I am silly with the young ones and funny with the teenagers. I visit museums with Kaylyn (16), play golf with Brendan (14), attend Morgan's (6) dance recitals and soccer games, go on hikes in the woods with Noah (5), mow the grass and work in the garden with Jacob (5), push Jena (2) in her stroller, and hold Sawyer in my arms. I read books outloud and make up stories, chase lightening bugs, prepare chocolate chip pancakes, have tea parties, and make the "tickle monster" come alive. Most of all.....I simply try to "be there". To be truly present in ways that I failed to do for my children. That is the gift of this season of life; to be free to choose how we spend our time more wisely. And so I am available to have lunch, pick someone up at school, take one to an appointment, go to a play or a movie, bowling, etc. You see, nothing very dramatic, not life changing or saving, certainly not memorable by themselves but the sum total of the activities together build the memories of growing up with PopPop. Morgan, Jena, and Jacob

Brendan and I

Noah

On Monday, Kaylyn and I spent a marvelous day together. We drove on route 2 over the mountain to North Adams, Mass. to visit Mass Moca, a huge museum of contemporary art.

Vermont

Here is a link to an article in the New York Times regarding the Mad River Valley in Vermont where our son, Josh, and his family live. The above pic is in the article and Josh passes this farm every morning on the way to work. Josh's office is in the General Wait House which is mentioned in the article.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/travel/escapes/26Amer.html

days, weeks, and months

Mary gave me a new calendar for Father's Day. It begins July 1, 2009 and ends December 31, 2010. Eighteen months, seventy eight weeks, five hundred and forty nine days.......all blank. It is a great gift. The gift of anticipation, yearning, dreaming, and planning. The gift of the future yet to unfold. I begin to fill in the blanks. The first week of July; the birth of Sarah and Todd's son is expected, grandchild number 7. I skip past the summer months to November and write in the anticipated birth of Josh and Elizabeth's daughter, grandchild number 8. This will mean that each of our four biological children have two children, a boy and a girl for each. How symmetrical and how wonderful for the grandparents.

Thinking of the family leads me to write in our family gathering at the end of August each year on the shores of Lake George. I then block off the winter weeks when we plan to be in Florida enjoying the warmth of the sunshine state as our house groans under the weight of the winter snow and ice. We are renting a house on a lake this year and I look forward to fishing for those big Florida bass.

There are opportunities for ministry to plan for also. A couple of weddings, the ordination of Jennifer Peters McCurry on August 29th. Jen has asked me to preach at the service. It is such an honor. Jen attended the congregation I served and I have known her since she was a young child. This will be the second young woman from our congregation whose ordination I am blessed to participate in.

I have received an invitation to serve as the main speaker at a youth gathering of Senior High youth that will be held in Niagara Falls in mid-March. Another honor and surely a blessing to be able to share in the excitement and energy of that event. The planning for what I will say will never be far from my mind the next nine months. Later that same month I will turn 65 years old. What a sense of humor God must have to give me this opportunity in this season of my life. Conversely, this November, I will be speaking on "Faith and Aging" for a Senior group.

So it goes, as I fill in a date here and a date there but most of the days remain blank. This is when the excitement grows. What surprises await me on these monthly pages, what joys and sorrows are yet to be? I am reminded of Jesus' words as recorded in Matthew.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,

for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Therefore I choose to anticipate the next year and a half with hope, excitement, and gratefulness.

Good Morning!

I started my morning with the words, music, and images of "Morning has Broken" by Cat Stevens. Then I went to work in the garden. Click HERE and enjoy.

the hopeful gardener

“I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener.” (John 15:1)

I have been thinking about this image from the gospel of John as I have prepared my own garden for planting this Spring. For twenty five years I have attempted to coax a harvest out of the stubborn clay soil in our backyard. The compost and manure we added over the years helped to enrich the soil but the annual harvest was always disappointing. So this year I decided to dig, build, and create raised beds for our vegetable garden.


This has turned out to be a very labor intensive project. First step was to remove the sod from an area measuring four by twelve feet. This is accomplished by forcing a spade into the dry, resistant, and stubborn clay dirt and removing 12” by 12” squares. These forlorn looking chunks are placed beside what will become the planting bed. Step two is to use a garden fork to loosen the dirt and break up the clods that are in the 4’ by 12’ bed. Then I place around the bed the frame that I have constructed from 2” by 8” lumber. Now it is time to return the sod I had earlier dug out by placing them grass side down in the bed so that the grass and sod will decompose in the earth. This is followed by using the garden fork to break up the sod as much as possible. Then a 1” layer of compost is laid down and followed by a 4 to 5 inch layer of good top soil. Finally, the soil is ready for the seeds and seedlings to be planted in the three raised garden beds we built this week. Yes, I have repeated this process three times. This brings us back to the Apostle John’s image of God as the gardener. How persistent and patient God must be with us as he prepares us for the seed of his gracious and compassionate Word. I know that the soil of my heart and mind can be as dry and unyielding as the clay in our yard. Yet God continues to work in my life and yours….digging out that which prohibits us from growth, breaking down our resistance, adding those ingredients that nourish and sustain us through all the seasons of life. Gardening reminds me that spiritual growth is a process. A process that takes time and preparation and patience.
Now the seeds and seedlings have been placed lovingly and hopefully in their new beds; not to sleep but to awaken and grow. They are in a place where they will receive 10 to 12 hours of sun a day, when it is not to cloudy. So…if I remember to water every day…and the rabbits don’t eat everything….and the weeds don’t get ahead of me………..
Spirit of the Living God, be the Gardener of my soul. For so long I have been waiting, silent and still-experiencing a winter of the soul. But now, in the strong name of Jesus Christ, I dare to ask:
Clear away the dead growth of the past. Break up the hard clods of custom and routine. Stir in the rich compost of vision and challenge. Bury deep in my soul the implanted Word. Cultivate and water and tend my heart. Until new life buds and opens and flowers. Amen! (from Prayers of the Heart by Richard J. Foster)

Spring in Upstate New York

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ~Mark Twain

In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours. ~Mark Twain

The above quotes from Mark Twain are a reminder that the season of Spring is a time of yearning and uncertainty. Nature’s awakening in this season stirs in us a yearning for change, newness, and rebirth. And Spring does not disappoint. Soon the tulips will be in bloom in Albany’s Washington Park, blossoms will adorn the fruit trees, leaves will cover the now bare limbs, and peas will be picked in the vegetable garden. Soon…but when? Like children on a journey we ask each Spring morning; “Are we there yet?” We are impatient after a long and cold winter and desire a rebirth NOW!
And that brings us to the uncertainty and fickleness of Spring reflected in Twain’s second quote. This season of hope does not come to us in a smooth and steady revelatory process with each day becoming progressively warmer and full of more and more promise. No, it is an on again/off again season with ups and downs, joys and disappointments. Today as I write, it is in the 50’s but tomorrow brings the promise of an 80 degree day.
Spring is a wonderful metaphor of what it means to be on a faith journey. The Holy Spirit stirs in us a yearning and desire to walk closer with God. To experience the Holy Presence in all that we do. We wish that we would make a steady progression in this most significant task. The truth is that it is on again/off again and filled with days of hope and days of disappointment. This is not because God is fickle or uncertain. The promises revealed to us through Jesus are certain and assured. It is our fears, anxieties, and impatience that create the uncertainty in our hearts.

The year's at the spring

And day's at the morn;

Morning's at seven;

The hillside's dew-pearled;

The lark's on the wing;

The snail's on the thorn;

God's in His heaven -All's right with the world!

~Robert Browning

Hope springs eternal when “God’s in His heaven-All’s right with the world”!

Easter Eve

With hours to go before this most significant dawn.....I am pondering this statement by Richard W. Swanson...

The task on Easter (which is every Sunday for an Easter-based faith) is to tell stories about resurrection in a world where everyone dies.