Ash Wednesday prayer

I wrote the following prayer for the Ash Wednesday service at the church where I am doing my supervised field education. I incorporated a hymn called "Don't Be Afraid" from the hymnal More Voices, which I sang a capella. The Spirit moved in our midst as we prayed...

Compassionate God, lover of us all,

From scattered lives, we come to be reconnected…

            With bruised or broken hearts, we come to be healed…

Feeling isolated and alone, we come to be loved…

We long to be reawakened to the melody of your presence that sings through our lives…

Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger; my love is stronger than your fear.

Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger and I have promised, promised to be always near.

In our times of distress, when the pressures of life overwhelm us

We sometimes worry others will not understand…and we become afraid to share our burdens for fear of judgement…

When we feel disconnected from our shared human experience…

When we no longer look into the faces of loved one’s to see our own beauty mirrored there…

We can lose sight of how wonderful we are as embodied expressions of your divine love,

We are numb to your Spirit moving in us and in the spaces between us. Our relationships begin to unravel…

O God, draw us back into community when we wander too far alone in the wilderness of life…

Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger; my love is stronger than your fear.

Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger and I have promised, promised to be always near.

In the shadows of a lingering winter…

When cold temperatures and slippery roads often mean we are housebound and cut off from the incredible glory of the earth that sustains and shapes our being…

Our relationship with Creation can become weakened and distorted…

Life-giving God, breather of life and energy into every particle of the cosmos…knit us back together, as one body, on Spirit, one strand in the great cosmic web of the universe…

Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger; my love is stronger than your fear.

Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger and I have promised, promised to be always near.

God, your healing touch renews our souls…

You enliven our life, our being, our relationships with one another…

Thankful for your eternal presence binding us together,

we tenderly offer the silent prayers of our hearts...

Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger; my love is stronger than your fear.

Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger and I have promised, promised to be always near.

Saturday Photohunt: Clean

This week's photohunt theme is CLEAN...but I have missed the past month, so will do a catch up post to get back on track! :)

Magical

There is something very magical about fire...I am enthralled and enchanted by it. My daughter jokes that I am a pyromaniac! But I don't love destructive fires, I just love watching the flames in our firepit at the camper. It provides hours of entertainment...doesn't take much to amuse me!

 

Creative

 One of my favourite bands is The Message, who create the most gorgeous contemporary Christian music. Here they are sharing one of their songs during worship time at the United Church of Canada Maritime Conference's annual general meeting last weekend. Love, love them!!

Taste

When in Cetona (Southern Tuscany)...do stop by Cantina La Frasca for a taste of the many delicious products from their farm. Wine, cheese, cured meats, bread, honey, other condiments. Sample to your heart's content and then buy whatever suits your fancy! The shop is just up the hill from Piazza Garibaldi.

Clean

Does anything beat the fresh clean scent of the air just after it rains? This was our view every day when we spent two weeks in Cetona. And every day was a wonderful new surprise. We didn't get much rain, but this one day it rained briefly and I loved the smell of the air, and the look of the wet stone and the misty landscape beyond...sheer bliss!!

As a bonus photo for this week's theme...the streets of Cetona were so clean!! I loved it there! I want to be there right now! Did I mention I loved it there?!? lol







Check out Sandi's Saturday Photohunt page for more good CLEAN fun!!

Italian fauna

My last post got me thinking about all the cats we saw wandering around in Italy last summer. Cats...and other beautiful creatures!

"You can't see me..." says this cute little bunny hiding under an old piece of farm equipment...

This gorgeous boy playfully lolled around in the shade of a big flower pot...a perfect spot to rest in the heat of the day!

Mom and I are both cow people (you know, like cat people or dog people...only with cows! lol) So we were enchanted to pass this magnificent herd of gentle Chianina cattle on the road between Montichiello and Cetona. This breed is one of the oldest in the world, dating back over 2,000 years.

Cetona is full of surprises...like these roosters who lived in a coop in the old town wall, just down from our rental house.

This friendly old kitty almost blends into the stone steps! He did rouse himself to come and say hello to me, and rub his head against my legs, while I was exploring the immediate neighbour before the church service began.

Frolicking colts in a field beside Abbazia di Spineto. There were lots of adult horses too, but these young ones were adorable!

Driving along the Strada Provinciale di Sarteano toward Radicofani...we came upon this herd of sheep. They were in no hurry to get out of our way either! These mountain sheep were quite different from what I am used to, they were larger and also had tails.

"Hello! May I join you for dinner?" 

When we ate at the restaurant in Bagno Vignoni, this sweet kitty sat at my feet almost the entire meal. So cute...but I fear she went away without a morsel off my plate. (Dave has me well trained apparently...NO feeding pets at the table! lol)

Ahhhh...la dolce vita!

Slightly blurry pic of a stunning husky by the castle in Sarteano. He did not make a sound, or really even acknowledge our passing, as we went by, which was most unusual for a dog, I thought.

A gorgeous cat in Sarteano.

This handsome guy was keeping an eye on the grounds of the convent of Scarzuola, near Montegiove, Umbria.

A striking looking cat in Parrano, Umbria. She soon left this perch and gracefully made her way down the wall to find a spot free from tourist cameras...

Feed me...feed me!!!! This little guy went from table to table in the cafe in the Villa Borghese in Rome. He was very lively and cute, but I did not give in to those big brown eyes!

And now I have in my head a fun song we've sung in church a few times, complete with hand puppets and fake animal noises! I think it was written by Bill Staines...

All God's critters have a place in the choir

Some sing low, some sing higher

Some sing out loud on the telephone wire

And some just clap their hands, or paws

Or anything they got.

 Good times :)

Flash Mob...and I was there!

I was involved with Intermediates at Conference this past weekend, and will write an entry about it soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this video!! 


This flash mob happened one day in the cafeteria.  We were upstairs with the Intermediates (12-15 yr olds) when Youth Forum (15-19ish yr olds) down below broke out into the song "Praise". My daughter Moira and Val's daughters Kaleigh and Sarah were with Youth Forum, and are part of the mob. It was an amazing and uplifting and exuberant few moments!!





Edited to add the link to Youth Forum's facebook page if you'd prefer to watch it in HD:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=669791953&sk=info#!/video/video.php?v=10150643637355006

One more step along the world I go...

Hooray!!  My Discernment Committee has officially recommended me as a Candidate for Ordained Ministry in the United Church of Canada!!  Whoot!!!!!  I'm so excited!!!

I was almost positive they were going to, but it feels grrrreat to have the paperwork signed off.  They filled out their Report and Recommendation, which we all signed.  I filled out my Application to be Received as a Candidate for the Order of Ministry, and attached the required "1,500 word" narrative of my faith journey (which ended up being 2,226 words - oops), and resumè.  Those documents now go to my church council (aka session)  And here is how things go from here (copied from the Process booklet):

Concluding the Discernment Process

Session
1. The session receives the discernment committee’s recommendations and the inquirer’s application and makes a decision.
2. The session completes CAN 203: Action by Session and Presbytery/District Regarding Inquirers, page 1, and sends it with the original of DIS 202(a) and the application CAN 202(b) to the Presbytery/District E&S Committee.

Presbytery/District Education and Students Committee
1. If the inquirer is applying for candidacy for ordered ministry, the Presbytery/District E&S Committee completes CAN 203, page 2 top, and sends it to the Conference Interview Board (CIB) with DIS 202(a) and the application from the inquirer.
2. The CIB meets with the inquirer. Following the interview, the CIB fills out CAN 203, page 2 bottom, and returns it to the E&S Committee with the CIB’s recommendation.
3. The E&S Committee interviews the inquirer and makes its recommendation to the presbytery/district regarding candidacy.
4. Two members of the E&S Committee sign CAN 203, page 3, “Police Records Check.”
5. Then they send CAN 203, DIS 202(a), and CAN 202(b) to the presbytery/district secretary.
6. The E&S Committee also makes recommendations on educational programs using CAN 204: Initial Certification to School or Program.
7. The presbytery/district secretary completes and signs CAN 203 (page 3) and distributes it as indicated on that page.



Yup...bureacracy is alive and kicking in the church just as it is in government!  But the end is nigh, and much of the remaining steps happen in the background from my perspective.  I just need to show up for the interviews and wait for paperwork to be completed by the various parties involved. Not to downplay it all, am sure the interviews will be stressful, as interviews tend to be!  But hopefully they will go well, and everyone concerned will agree I am called to ordained ministry. :)  And in the meantime, I am applying to the Atlantic School of Theology to be accepted into their Master of Divinity program starting in September.

We closed tonight's meeting, our last as a Discernment Committee, with the following prayer...which I wrote straight out of my head in a couple minutes before heading out the door to the meeting.  I wrote it in advance because I knew I would be expected to do the closing prayer, and am not yet comfortable doing so spontaneously.  Not sure why I still feel awkward about sharing my prayer straight from heart to lips, fear of being mocked, I suppose.  (Say grace, anyone?)  And yet if I write the words of my heart down, even in an unedited stream of consciousness kind of way, I can share them without hesitation.  Very strange.  I don't doubt that one day prayers will roll off my tongue as comfortably as they roll out of my fingertips...I just need to practice cutting out the written step and trusting that God will put spontaneous words in my mouth.  But I digress...here is the prayer with which I closed off our discernment period...

Dear God, we give thanks for your wisdom and guidance this past year, as we discerned together your call. When we listen for your voice, we are able to find our own voice and find the strength and courage to sing our song of faith for the whole world to hear.
 
It is with deep joy and blessedness that we feel your Spirit moving among us. We have gathered as people of the light, seeking to know your will, to understand how we can shine our own light in this glorious yet often broken world of ours.  I personally give thanks for the people around this table [names edited out for privacy] who have given so generously of their time and thoughtfulness to help me discern where you are calling me.  We go out now, empowered by our relationship with you, O Holy One, and by our relationship with Jesus. In following his example, we are strengthened and enlightened to embrace our own divinity and step out in risk in order to serve others. We journey with a sense of hope, of surprise, of expectation that we can make a difference.

As we all move forward from this time of formal discernment, I pray that we will continue to hold within our hearts the sense of wonder, and of possibility, that we have found here together. And continue always to answer your call to an abundant, extravagant, astonishing life beyond our imagination! In Jesus name, we pray. Amen

And then I broke into spontaneous song (one of my fave hymns from Voices United):

 ♫ ♪ ♫ I'm gonna live so (live so) God can use me
Anywhere Lord, anytime (anytime)
I'm gonna live so (live so) God can use me
Anywhere my Lord, anytime!!! ♪ ♫ ♫

A wordless song...

In the depth of my soul, there is a wordless song...

So wrote Kahlil Gibran and his words resonate in my heart.  I am so thankful for the gifted poets and lyricists who are able to give voice to that song.  Able to reflect with their own words, the astonishing and sustaining song of God that sings us out of darkness and into the light, that sings strength and comfort and joy into our hearts, that guides our journey and moves us out into places we never thought we'd go.

Until recently, while discerning God's call to ministry, I have been set on returning to school full time.  Hoping to obtain my MDiv in a classroom setting, immersed in an ecumenical community of students and faculty.  There is another path to ordered ministry in the United Church besides the full time classroom study route - a distance program - but it hasn't appealed to me.  Except now I have felt a nudge to explore the possibility.  This nudge could just be because I am feeling the weight of an impending, possibly unmanageable, financial struggle...having just learned the Fund that used to automatically cover tuition for United Church Candidates is having hard financial times of its own...thus has substantially reduced tuition funding and made it a needs-based bursary instead of being automatically available to all. 

When I got the email yesterday containing this news, it came as a total surprise because earlier this very week, I'd been told tuition support was secure - needless to say, I felt quite disheartened.  Had a little chat with God that I won't repeat here lest I bruise anyone else's sensibilities, let's just say my inner child wasn't on her best behaviour -  good thing God loves me anyway!!  Between this new obstacle, and the one-step-forward-two-steps-back feel of the discernment process (not my discernment itself, just the process), I said to Dave that it would be ever so much easier if I saw all the technical difficulties as signs that ministry isn't the right path for me and so could turn away feeling satisfied that I gave it my best shot...not everything is meant to be, after all.  But I don't feel that way.  I feel the song of God calling just as loud and clear as ever...come closer, child of mine, I am with you on this journey and we've only just begun...and I feel just as compelled as ever to answer, to follow, to keep walking in faith..

But you, O Lord, know me;

      You see me and test me – my

            heart is with you.

                    (Jeremiah 12:3)

So here I am, exploring the possibility of studying through AST's Summer Distance Program.  (Handbook found here.)  In this program, one studies throughout the year while in a part time ministry position, plus comes together with others in the program for a six week intensive period of study each summer.  As I read the document, I remembered my friend Iain telling me that his pastoral charge was applying to be a Learning Site.

[An FYI sidebar - Iain was my minister when I first came to the church a few years ago, and has come back into my life to share this part of my journey with me.  Valerie is sharing it with me too, of course but as friend, not as minister.  Through discernment, one really needs someone in a kind of mentor/pastoral care/spiritual support kind of role...and our friendship is way too close and personal for her to be that for me.  Was kind of funny when she and I talked about the fact that I needed someone else as minister through my discernment period, we both named Iain almost in the same breath!  He (semi)retired eight years ago (which is when Val came to our church) and since then has been part time minister in a rural charge not too far from my home...he claims to be soon retiring on a full time basis!]

I am not yet convinced the distance program is for me, but it feels to be where the Spirit is moving at the moment, so I am giving it serious consideration.  Iain said his charge is just getting their application in for the designation, and that they are a "sensible, faithful bunch", which certainly sounds appealing!  Plus they apparently have a wonderful manse, so I'd have a whole separate space where I could retreat to study and plan worship in the absence of all the regular distractions of home.  (And, as I told Iain, no doubt Dave would be delighted to ship me elsewhere those times when I am wrestling with God and full of faithful angst!)

This morning, I was filling Moira in on this latest twist in the journey, and admitted that the In Ministry program feels like a much scarier option than full time study.  I don't feel even remotely ready to suddenly be in an active ministry role, even as Student Supply.  Then I added oddly enough, this gives me the sense that this really IS the path I am meant to take.  I heard the sound of laughter...it was Dave, laughing because taking the scarier path is exactly what he would expect of me.  He said: "we always seem to end up on the hard road, don't we?"  Yes my love, that we do.  But isn't it wonderful!

After all, God is nothing if not challenging.  And it is always by stepping outside of my comfort zone and rising to a challenge that I grow the most and discover I am capable of amazing things I hadn't thought possible.  Sometimes I have the feeling God likes to flaunt her mysterious ways...

You've Got a Friend

A couple weeks ago, my friend Valerie shared the following story in her weekly email to our congregation.  (I am going to assume that since she herself broadcast it in a mass mailing that she'll be ok with my sharing it here!)

Have you ever had one of those days when your soul is heavy and your nerves are thin?  The kind of day that comes every now and then perhaps as a result of some life event or perhaps as a result of things that have been accumulating for a while.  Well that is where I found my self yesterday.  Everything felt heavy and uncertain and my energy was at an all time low.  When I arrived in the office a voice inside me suggested I pick up the phone and dial a friend.  For me this was a nudge from the Divine that happens every so often and I try not to ignore it when it happens.  I left the office and picked my friend up.  We went for brunch and then sat in the park on the shore of the Bedford basin.  The scene before us was touched with holiness and the presence of my friend beside reminded me that we were indeed on Holy Ground.  Sometimes it is not the words that are spoken but the blessed silence between two souls that can bring a sense of light in darkness and calm in chaos.  Here in this place there is healing and hope renewed.


My prayer for each of you is that you have that ‘kindred spirit’ with whom you commune on those days when life needs a lift.  Take the time to sit and share the beautiful silence that speaks of a journey shared.

Isn't that an amazing and beautiful connection?  Valerie has told me about this friend before, and I hope to meet him one of these days.  A few evenings later, she and I were at a concert at our church.  A Nova Scotian musician, Rachel MacLean, was performing.  I highly recommend seeing her perform.  She is warm and friendly and has a gorgeous voice.  I am really glad we went, although disappointed at the low turnout.  (Alas, supporting such events is not a strength of my congregation.)  But those of us who did go got quite a treat!  Rachel shared stories of her family, sang some of her own compositions as well as a few songs written by others.  One of the cover songs was Carole King's You've Got a Friend, which is one of my all time favourite songs in the world.  As Rachel sang, I was thinking of Valerie's story and how blessed she is to have such a friend to call when she's down and troubled, as the song goes.  I found this video on youtube, and post it here for Valerie and her Kindred Spirit! ♥

Free the Children's We Day 2010

I just watched CTV's broadcast of We Day 2010 event held recently in Vancouver.  18,000 young people gathered on October 15 for a day of inspiration and motivation and celebration.  A similar event was held in Toronto in September, and there is an upcoming one November 12 in Montreal.  The website says about the day:

Free The Children’s We Day is more than just one day of celebration and inspiration. It’s a one-of-a-kind event and part of an innovative year-long program created to celebrate the power of young people to create positive change in the world.

The event kicks off a year-long program of action, called We Schools in Action. We Day is free of charge and open to any school that wants to be part of the experience. In exchange, each school group that attends is asked to make a commitment to follow the We Schools in Action program, which includes taking local and global action throughout the year.

Since 2007, youth from across North America have come together to discover the passion they have in common, to celebrate their successes, to become aware of new challenges, and to build lasting friendships. The We Day events feature speeches and performances from global leaders and social activists, cultural icons and entertainers.

Free the Children was founded in 1995 by (then 12 year old) Craig Kielburger.  Kielburger had read a story in the paper about a boy named Iqbal Masih, who had been sold into slavery at age four and spent six years of his life chained to a carpet-weaving loom.  Somehow this boy found a way to speak out.  Iqbal lost his own life defending children's rights, but in raising his voice, he inspired others to take action.  From the website:

Craig gathered together a small group of his Grade 7 classmates from his Thornhill, Ontario, school and Free The Children was born. Free the children from poverty. Free the children from exploitation. Free the children from the notion that they are powerless to affect change. These were the messages that fuelled Craig's mission. The idea was a good one. And it caught on. Today, Free the Children is the world's largest network of children helping children through education, with more than one million youth involved in our innovative education and development programs in 45 countries.

I first heard of Kielburger a few years ago through my church's participation in his Operation School Bag.  Church members were asked to fill a school bag with specific items, which bags were distributed to students in empoverished countries, who would otherwise be without school supplies.

The We Day 2010 event included many speakers, including Al Gore, Craig and Marc Kielburger, Martin Sheen and Jesse Jackson, as well as musical performers such as Barenaked Ladies, Colbie Caillat, Hedley, Greyson Chance and K'naan.  What an uplifting show!  I found these words by Jesse Jackson particularly powerful and thought provoking:

It is often said you are our future.  I do not accept that premise.  You are our right now.  You are right now.  Whether you choose dope or hope, you are right now. You must do the right thing right now.

To me, that call to action in the here and now feels far more empowering than telling our youth they are the future.  It occurs to me that perhaps speaking of our youth always in terms of the future is diminishing.  Are we blinded to their dedication, passion and ability to make a difference now if we are always thinking of them as being the change agents of the future?  I witness the amazing ways in which our youth speak out and stand up for what is right...and I think we have as much to learn from them as they do from us.

The We Day show ended with a performance of Wavin' Flag by K'naan.  Apparently at the Toronto event, the youth began chanting the words to this song at 8:30 am and didn't stop until K'naan took the stage five hours later!

Leading a life uncommon

Life Uncommon by Jewel has long been one of my favourite songs.  I find the lyrics inspiring and moving and full of hope.

And lend our voices only to sounds of freedom
No longer lend our strength to that which we wish to be free from
Fill our lives with love and bravery, and we shall lead a life uncommon.

The chorus starts out using the pronouns you and your but by the end, we hear the more inclusive our and we throughout.  I love that movement from the individual to collective.  The acknowledgement that we cannot just tell others how to live, we must live our own words.  That whole practice what we preach idea.  Which, as most anyone can attest, is easier said than done!


In her book Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, Anne Lamott wrote:

Why couldn't Jesus command us to obsess over everything, to try to control and manipulate people, to try not to breathe at all, or to pay attention, stomp away to brood when people annoy us, and then eat a big bag of Hershey's Kisses in bed?

I laughed when I read that.  And then I read it again and thought about what we - those like me, and like Lamott, who name ourselves Christian - are called to be as disciples of Jesus.  Certainly we are not called to live lives of selfishness and indulgence (although eating chocolate in bed on occasion is not a bad thing!)  We are called to love one another.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  John 13:34

And that is not always easy.  Loving as Jesus loved requires that we stretch ourselves way outside of our comfort zones.  It requires that we take risks, physical and/or spiritual, as we stand up for the powerless, speak out for the silenced, practice radical hospitality.  It requires a shift in attitude, leaving behind our individual wants and instead focussing on the needs of our community, both local and global.  Such a shift can be challenging, especially in our western culture where we are bombarded with messages to consume and accumulate more, more, more.  An appendix on the context of the UCCan's Song of Faith describes our market economy thus:

We live in a culture in which economics (commerce, commodities, consumption) governs what we count as important. The economic world view is so pervasive that we are barely aware of its impact on our relationships, values, identities, and understanding of church. Many find their spiritual hunger co-opted by the culture of consumption. The dominant mindset commodifies the world, reducing it to objects merely to be manipulated and controlled. Many find themselves feeling impoverished in a society of affluence, leaving them indifferent to real poverty.

Impoverished in a society of affluence...I believe that truly is a pervasive feeling in our society.  It's hard to avoid under the weight of the debt loads many of us carry.  I feel that way myself when looking at the state of my own finances!  But I keep reminded myself that I am, in fact, very wealthy compared to much of the world's population and indeed, even compared to many of my fellow Canadians.

Valerie and I attended a film screening a few weeks ago, of a film called Poor No More.  It was eye opening to hear the stories of Canada's working poor, and learn that this is a growing problem in a country so teeming with abundance as is ours.  One of the stories was of a woman named Vicki, who had to go for her chemotherapy treatments on her lunchbreak because, even after 12 years with the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (a corporation with revenues of $4 billion), she still did not qualify for paid sick leave and couldn't afford to take time off for her treatments.  I found that shocking and deeply disturbing.  The film offered some ideas around fixing the issue of working poor and the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots in our country, including an overview of the Swedish economic model, which appeals greatly to me.  (There's an interesting article in The Swedish Wire about Americans' view of this model.)

Of course, I don't have the answers to poverty or the other problems in our world, but that doesn't mean I will stop trying to do what I can, even if that means stepping far outside the boundaries of my own comfort zone.  Fill our lives with love and bravery and we shall lead a life uncommon.

Vincent...for Kathy

This video is for my blogfriend Kathy (TrekCapri), who is soon travelling to Amsterdam and wrote here of her plans to visit the Van Gogh Museum.  She captured his style and energy beautifully with this sentence: "His unmistakable tumultuous style of swirling brush strokes and vivid use of color is full of passion and emotion."

Kathy and I share a love of music.  Her profile includes the line "Music energizes and soothes my soul!"  And, like me, she frequently posts videos and snippets of lyrics, so I recently called her my song-sister! :)  As I was reading her Van Gogh entry, I was reminded of the Don McLean song Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)...which is a beautiful tribute to an amazing artist.  So I looked on youtube and found this lovely video of the song set to a slideshow of his art.




(Sidebar...did you know Don McLean's mother's family - the Bucci's - came from the Abruzzo region of Italy? Seems there's always an Italian connection whenever I start looking into things...)

My heart stops when you smile...

Before you were conceived I wanted you
Before you were born I loved you
Before you were here an hour I would die for you
This is the miracle of life.

- Maureen Hawkins

Moira and I heard this song - Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars - on the way home from the movies last night (Valerie and I played hookie from choir practice in order to hang out with the girls...because, well, sometimes that just feels like the thing to do.)

Chorus:

When I see your face
There's not a thing that I would change
Cause you're amazing
Just the way you are
And when you smile,
The whole world stops and stares for awhile
Cause girl you're amazing
Just the way you are

I said to Moira that I love this song because it makes me think of her...that my heart stops when she smiles.  Her reply: "that is so SO cheesy, mommy!"  I try... :)
 

Come live in the light...

Here I am in my new blog home!  Hopefully those who found my old blog interesting will make their way to this place, and continue to share my journey.

For anyone finding this without having gotten to know me on my old site...I hope you will find something here that strikes a chord, provokes a thought, gets your toes a-tappin', moves you to action, or perhaps just brings a bubble of laughter to your lips!

My blog title is a verse from Ecclesiastes that resonates with me.  Light IS sweet, both in a physical sense and a spiritual sense.  As those who know me can attest, sunrises and sunsets figure prominently in my photo collection!  The glorious swirl of colour and movement that spreads across the sky when the sun is close to the horizon is something that never fails to lift my spirits.  And that's the Sound of Sunshine...coming down.  (See the preceding post for the video to that delightful and uplifting song by Michael Franti and Spearhead.  It seemed a fitting way to open my new blog!)

I am also lifted by the movement of the Spirit within and around me, calling me to live in the light, and to let my inner light shine bright.  David Haas expresses this beautifully in his song We Are Called:

1. Come! live in the light!
Shine with the joy and the love of the Lord!
We are called to be light for the kingdom,
to live in the freedom of the city of God!

Refrain: We are called to act with justice.
We are called to love tenderly.
We are called to serve one another,
to walk humbly with God.

2. Come! Open your heart!
Show your mercy to all those in fear!
We are called to be hope for the hopeless,
so all hatred and blindness will be no more!

3. Sing! Sing a new song!
Sing of that great day when all will be one!
God will reign and we'll walk with each other
as sisters and brothers united in love.

Michael Franti & Spearhead - The Sound Of Sunshine