A Time to be Silent [room 2]

A Sacred Space for Lent [room 1]

Lent. I used to make fun of Lent. "I'm giving up Lent for Lent this year." Was my little quip. Then LW started doing "The Labyrinth". Which later on became simply known as a "Sacred Space". That ran in our Chapel during Lent. I miss it this year. Nothing's been said. I think we just can't take the Chapel away from it's other uses this year. And I understand that. Still... I miss it. We have been blessed with very creative people. -at least I have. Last year, I gathered up the courage, early one Sat. morning, to go in with my tripod &; camera &; "sneak" a few pic.'s of our Sacred Space. I made sure not to disrupt anyone in there. I actually was completely alone for the entire time I took these, which was the only way I had the guts to do it. I never want to distract anyone from their alone time with God, or make anyone uncomfortable. Sometimes I've gone in these feeling like they are "triage" for my soul. I hope you enjoy these. [oh, if anyone objects to my doing this, I won't continue... assuming someone tells me they are bothered by it] There is a companion book that goes with this, explaining each room. I had nothing to do with the writing of this book, so if I post anything to go along with any room, it will not be plagiarized from the book.
Well... I will give the name for each room...

Preparation





This room was common for all Sacred Spaces. We need time to quiet ourselves so we can be attentive to God. This room was always one of the rooms I personally spent a great deal of time in. Writing down all the little whispers of "I don't have time to quiet down" in. Then I'd close my notebook, &; sit... until it was as quiet inside... as it was in this room...

Let Me Be Myself

I laughed when I first saw the Geico commercial that this song was in. When I viewed it on youtube, I laughed, at first, because it’s part of the “official music video” for the song. The “geico cavemen” are all the way through the video. I did think of someone who I felt I could sing the song to… but I couldn’t let go of the song. Somehow, I thought that it wasn’t because of a need to sing the song to someone. So then I wondered, & even prayed, could… could there be someone who needs/ needed to sing this to me? Sobering, to say the least. I even wondered about the band. Did someone in the band go through a situation where the song would be appropriate? Did they know someone who they felt was “no longer their true self”? Weeks passed, not that this was the only thing I thought about during that time. Finally, an even darker, more important truth was revealed. I knew who I really needed to sing this song to… me. The reason the “other person” couldn’t let me be me… was because I couldn’t. I had to be somebody else. [so I thought] As our relationship got better, I thought they were changing… it wasn’t them, it was me. Do I get in the way of being me? Am I the me I'm meant to be?
Why share such insecure thoughts?? Because, sometimes we need someone else to share what we are thinking. We need someone else to prove that we aren’t the only one to ever struggle with something.

Be you. No one else will ever do it right. No one else knows how to. Your cooler than you think. Your not as alone as you think, either.

A time to laugh

Everyone needs a laugh. I’ve been wanting to post of laughter, mostly of the “I hope I’m making you” kind.
I have a very narrow food pallet. However, I have a very broad musical one [to balance things out I guess]. What I get tired of is the “same ol’ same ol”. When this happens I tend to “go Weird Al” on songs that I get to hear too often…

[to the tune of “The Leader of the Band”]
“…the heater in the van has died, & I don’t know how to fix it, it’s from a Plymouth Legacy, the heater in the van…”

[Breakfast at Tiffanies]
“…& I said, ‘hey what about lunch at Dennies?’, she said, ‘I don’t know but, I guess if I have to…”
[created during a particularly brutally awful day, "I'll be your crying shoulder" ]
“…& I’ll be glad when this is over, I’ll be the happiest man in the plant”

[Desperado]
“…monticarlo, why don’t you step on the gas now, the lights’ been green for 2 minutes, so why don’t you move, it may be rainin’, oh, well that’s what the wipers are for now, your prison is drivin’ with that ugly paint job…”

yes, this is “just a taste” [I know… “WAIT, there’s more! If you act now you get absolutely nothing absolutely free. Send $9.95 if you want it, $4.95 if you don’t to… …or visit us on the web at: thingsyou’llsell@yournextyardsale.com” sorry, does not come with a set of guinsue knives.]

I hope I've made you laugh. Sometimes we need to. In case my songs didn't...
Chick-fil-a [to the tune of "Yesterday"] & Weird Al

Hope you had a good laugh...
B

some poetic writings for today...

On & On by Kevin Max
"...take me to your drawbridge
come take me to your door
take me when I'm hungry, baby
take me when I'm poor
take me when I'm sick of love
take me when you've had enough
take me when I'm
lost alone & don't
know the reasons why

on & on
we dance until the song is
off the radio
on & on
we hold each other long after the crowd has gone
on & on
yeah
our love goes
on & on

you are a vision
& I am blindness..."

Mick said it was ok to share...

The continuing story of a Mickey [but not the mouse]

I know who you see
when you look in the mirror
…your wrong you know
she really is a girl of great beauty
she’s smarter than she knows
she’s funnier, too
she’s all mine
she makes going to the store
an amazing story
she makes being snowed in
the best surprise of all
her voice is a warm breeze on a cold day
her eyes
have a dance all their own
I always dreamed I’d fall
“head over heels” for her
I never thought
I’d fall this far
we aren’t perfect
not even close
we probably don’t win a “couples race”
but we are learning together
learning of each other
I feel our best years are way ahead
though she sometimes seems tired
I’m glad she’s still running this course
with me

By Brian Eugene Noll

Let It Snow!!!

I just found this very restful for some reason... [the photo & my walk through snow slightly above my knees]


I took a lot of photos of the sun dancing on the snow. dancing, gleaming, sparkling... loved Connie's words on the symbolism of snow. Reminded me again of words by Over the Rhine:
"...darling, the snow is falling, falling like forgiveness, from the sky..."

I think this might be Jared's [snowman above]. Jared is LW's sound-man extraordinaire.
So glad I wasn't parked along the street!
And we get an "encore presentation" in just a few days.
[I feel I should apologize at this point. ahh... yeah, I did order this... thanks for asking.]
I put up a few different ones here.

on a slightly downer note, I will -yet again- miss encounter. So I will post of it later...

mostly for Gabe...

I said I wasn't going to post for a while... I'm caught in a strange place. childlike wonder [it's snowing here], the need to laugh, & the need to speak to a sorrow...

for the laugh & snow:
[insert me singing in my best Bing Crosby impersonation]
"I'm... dreaming...of a white... Saturday?"

now for the sad part. A friend buried his son today...

A land without goodbye

I say goodbye
knowing you are no longer near
my chance
to bend your ear is done
no more walks
I can’t feel the sun
It’s temporary
being alive has always been
I say goodbye
wishing I could
start all over again
and one day
we will
I know
for every goodbye
there is another hello
but one day
we will be together
again
in a land without goodbye
in a land
where goodbye
is obsolete

by Brian Eugene Noll

It's weird... everything that comes to my mind when thinking of death. Songs, Something King David said, stuff written in my mother's Bible.

When King David lost his son, his servants thought he would do something terrible. Instead he said this: "I will go to him, but he will not return to me." [2 Samuel 12:23]
I find it odd that when someone dies we say we have lost them.
I haven't lost my: grandparents, nephews, etc. I know where they are... & when I go to see them, I shall not return.

reflection from my mother's Bible [on the loss of her mother]
"Death is not the extinguishing of a flame. It is the turning off of the light, because the dawn has come."

May His indescribable peace be wrapped around you like a cloak,
B