J Schroe's Ramblings...

2008-03-01T07:41:00.001-08:00

Jackpot

2007-12-29T13:27:00.000-08:00

Beer and fun.

2007-12-29T12:39:00.000-08:00

My brother drinking good beer and schooling sudoku.

Our wild and precious lives...

2007-05-29T07:22:00.000-07:00

Mary Oliver ends her poem, "The Summer Day," by asking, "What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" One of the ways I answer that question is by paying attention (and that's partly how she answers that question, in her own poem.) So I've been paying attention to the changing back yard. Every day a new plant is blooming, blossoming, or fading away. It's remarkable.

Right now the peonies are bursting forth, and the poppies just bloomed this morning. A few columbines are holding on to their beauty.

And the Canadian Lilac still offers up it's sweet fragrance and the Monarch butterflies love it. Juliana and I have been spending lots of time in the backyard, eating, talking, relaxing, and just enjoying our little rainbarrel filled paradise. It's incredible to think that just 2 months ago it was all brown and looking dead.

Worms, Worms, Worms

2007-05-21T11:02:00.000-07:00

Back in February, for my birthday, Juliana got me a worm farm. Actually, it was just a warm composting system, but in the following months, the worms have multiplied, like little rabbits, and now it truly is a farm. They've been prolific and now I've got a great big bin full of black gold - worm compost! The worms were obviously quite happy, and it was time to give them some new bedding and start another worm bin, and continue the wormy happiness. So on Saturday, I took the worm bin outside and dumped out the contents into about 6 piles on a tarp. Very quickly, the worms moved toward the center of the pile, away from the sunlight. This allowed me to "harvest" the black gold. As I took away more and more of the dirt, the worms moved closer together in the center, until there was a squirmy, wormy, seething mass! (They don't have eyes, but they must have some sort of photo-receptors on their body, I guess.) It was grotesque and beautiful all at the same time.

It took a while to "harvest" all the black gold, but ultimately I ended up with a couple pounds of the best soil ever. Prior to this dumping the worms out, I had prepared the new worm bins, tearing up sheets of newspaper to use as bedding. I also put in some leafs and a bit of dirt for grit for them. I moistened it all down and then added the new worms, but not before I held them in my hand. Pretty incredible little creatures and very able composters. I've add their "black gold" to a pot that I just planted basil in. I hope it will be the best basil ever. Right now, the worms handle most of the kitchen scrap, and the rest goes out to the compost. One of the most facinating things was that after I'd transfered all the worms to their new bins, I started to bag up the good soil and I noticed that there were dozens of tiny little baby worms still in the soil! Tiny little guys and gals. There were also lots of other little buggy critters in the soil, which I hadn't noticed before. There were little egg shaped things about the size of a Cilantro seed. I'm not sure what they were. But I suppose I've got a whole little eco-system in there and shouldn't be surprised to see other life forms. I'll have to consult my worm book to see if I can figure out what they were.

Guess who's graduating?

2007-05-10T20:21:00.001-07:00

Hello avid readers! I know you've all been waiting with baited breath for the news....and the news is that I'm really truly graduating on June 3 from Meadville Lombard Seminary! Yippee. Truth be told, I didn't even know the date until earlier this week and I wasn't even planning to go. But it's been five years of school and a couple of different states as I've pursued my Masters of Divinity, so Juliana and I rented a car from our neighborhood Enterprise Rent A Car, and we're going to blast down there on the morning of June 3. The ceremony is at 3pm in the afternoon, so we'll leave early on the 3rd. I've got a wedding the night before, otherwise we'd leave then. I'm hoping to do a little visiting with Laurel and Freddie and even grandma and grandpa. For a while I didn't even know if I'd want to go to my own graduation, but then the spirit seized me and it became clear that that's what I needed/wanted to do....it does meaning something.

The funny thing of this is that because i wasn't up on the date, Juliana's mom will be town, because Juliana's having a wedding shower on June 2. So maybe her mom will drive down with us.

I really can't believe I'm graduating. It actually feels really good. I'm not sure how edujamacated I am, but it does feel good. It's funny, though, because I feel like I've been doing ministry for at least 4 years....

In other news, our July Honeymoon plans have all come together. We'll be heading out to glacier national park after our wedding. We've set July 5-15 as the dates for that. Then, we'll come back and fly to out New York on the 18th. Then down to DC for a wedding on July 21 for a good friend. Then out to the outer banks of North Carolina from July 22 to July 31. Yippee! A whole month of relaxation.

That's the word from rain barrel central.

Here's a cute picture of my niece.

Birthday Celebration

2007-05-03T17:38:00.000-07:00

Twice in one day - it doesn't get much better than that! Last Saturday was Juliana's birthday and we had a birthdayrito party. Basically, it was a big celebration with some of the best burritos you've ever had. We turned part of the back yard into a burrito buffet and then later in the night, had a pinata that was loaded with goodies. I took some good wacks at it, but it was our neighbor Chris who finally busted the thing apart and we swooped down like hawks, grabbing up little chocolate morsels.

Here's a picture of me going at the pinate. After the pinata, we just hung out by the fire.

In my last post, I talked about the rain barrel adventure I've been having, and based on some of the questions/comments, I don't think I explained it very well, so I'll go into a bit more detail. I hope someone else who's interested in rainbarrels reads this...anyway, here's how it works:

You take a 55 galloon plastic barrel and flip it over. The bottom has two bungholes screwed into the plastic. Both of the bungholes are threaded with 1/2 inch thread, so a 1/2 inch elbow screws in perfectly. A five foot piece of hose comes off of the elbow and then attaches by an S-hook to the top of the barrel. At the top of the barrel, on one side, there's an overflow valve and drain that takes excess water away from the barrel and house. I'm thinking of linking barrels so when it does overflow, I just fill up another barrel. I've attached another picture that shows some of this.

Here's a couple pictures of the yard - the garden and some of the new raspberries I planted. Should be yummy, but maybe not this year. We'll see.

Building a Rain Barrel

2007-05-03T06:14:00.000-07:00

I'm back to my regular schedule of posting every two months. Spring is here and it's beautiful: tulips are up, dandelions are everywhere, the pigeons are laying eggs all over the roof. Ah - life is good! In an effort to reduce water usage this summer, I've created 4 water barrels from old 55 galloon plastic barrels. I found these barrels at Western Container, over in Minneapolis, and at the Barrel Man, right near where we live. For the local folks reading this, I would recommend the Barrel Man. Each barrel cost $12 as opposed to the ones from Western Container, which were $16. Plus, with the Barrel Man, the barrels still have the labels on them, so you can get food grade barrels. This was important to me, because I wanted to use two of these barrels to water the garden and other edible plants. I don't want residue of some unknown chemical going on my plants. Now, the lawn, that's fine! After a good rainstorm, I collect about 200 gallons of water. My goal for this summer is to not use the outside house at all. Each barrel is built with a junk/misquito stopper barrier, made up of mesh and old screen, as you can see in the picture. I didn't attach spigots to each barrel. Instead, there's a 1/2 pvc elbow that comes out of one of the bungholes in the bottom of the barrel that's attached to a 5 foot piece of hose, which acts as a value.

I'm currently working on a grey water system for the washer, but need to do some more reading on that before I jump into anything.

Snow Storm!

2007-03-02T06:54:00.000-08:00

If you're wondering how it is that I can post three times in one week, when I haven't previously posted in many months, it is due, in part, to "snow days." Yesterday, I telecommuted, and today I'm doing the same thing. I did have to go into work yesterday for a wedding rehearsal and that was a bit treacherous, but managable. Today, though, I plan to walk to the library and otherwise just hang out at home, reading, writing, and doing some more shoveling.

We've had quite the snow storm! There's probably at least two feet of snow on the ground. I realize that some of the Colorado folks are not going to be impressed with these numbers (given the gazillion feet you've had), but up until this point, we've had about 10 inches of snow all year, so we've doubled what we've gotten so far. We're planning to go skiing tomorrow, too, which should be fun. Last week, I rented skis from REI and Juliana and I went skiing twice! Super fun.

Sierra came over last night (to stay the night, rather than risk life and limb driving back to Minneapolis), and we played cribbage, ate a good dinner together, and watched some Six Feet Under. Perfect things to do in the snowy weather! Oh yeah, and did I mention I beat her at Cribbage?! We had set up a little competition that whoever got stunked (if it happened) would have to get up early and shovel the sidewalk and clear out the snow so Sierra could get her car out. No one ended up getting stunked, but I still got up early and helped clear out the snow.

So how much snow did we get? Here's a before and after picture from this morning, as I cleared snow from the front yard and Sierra's car

And here's a picture of the happy shoveler:

Prosper on Prosper? Thoughts on peer to peer lending...

2007-03-01T08:21:00.000-08:00

Do you all know about this relatively new website, Prosper.com? It's a person to person loan operation. The loans are actually originated through Prosper (not you personally), but at lower interest rates than many credit card companies. I just created an account and am transferring a couple hundred dollars in. I'm really curious about it. You can see applicant's credit ratings, their specific request (ie, what they hope to do with the loan), and whatever other information they want to post. Prosper takes a .5% percent cut as their share, but then you get monthly payments as the person pays back their loan. The interesting (fun?) part of this gig is that, sorta like Ebay, you bid on people's loan. You can bid starting at $50. When the bidding is done, the lowest bid, on the interest rate the lender is willing to accept, based on the applicants credit rating, is the rate that's set for that loan.

Here's a bit more detail from Prosper.com: "Borrowers create loan listings for up to $25,000 and set the maximum rate they are willing to pay a lender. Then the auction begins as people who lend bid down the interest rate. Once the auction ends, Prosper takes the bids with the lowest rates and combines them into one simple loan. Prosper handles all on-going loan administration tasks including loan repayment and collections on behalf of the matched borrower and lenders."

I still like my IngDirect Account (4.3% interest) for stability, and the stock market for long term gains, but it seems like you might be able to get 12-15% returns (including some defaults), without too much difficulty on Prosper. I'll stick my toe in and let you know how it goes. Seems like it could be a way to help folks get a lower rate, and make some money yourself. I don't know if I'd ever use it, though...

Speaking of peer to peer lending, click on over to Kiva to check out something really remarkable. You can lend as little as $25 to help someone in Ghana, or Honduras, or wherever, start or expand their business. It's basically an interest free loan that will be repaid (about 98% percent are repaid, per microlending date), that you can then invest in someone else and their family or business. I'm planning to sink some money in this too, because you know what? The reality is that I've got everything I need in my life (except some good kitchen knifes!), and I can afford to 'share' a hundred bucks to do some good in the world. Go poke around. See what you think. Then chip in $25 to help someone create a better life for themselves and their family.

Back online

2007-02-26T12:18:00.000-08:00

I've decided I've been out of the loop too long. Today has been a big catch up day, so I figured I'd catch up with blogging, too. Catching up with bills, library visits, etc. But the thing I'm most excited about is this: all the bulbs in our house are now compact flourescents, including the dimmers (1000bulbs.com has a lot of bulbs!). And I've just called Xcel Energy and signed up for their Windsource program. Now, 100% of our electric energy from them is generated at a Windfarm in the Southern part of Minnesota. It's $2 per 100kWh (for those of you who are interested, a kilowatt hour is a thousand watts - so a 100 Watt light bulb could stay lit for 10 hours with one Kilowatt.) On our bill last month, we used 584 kWh (which means we used enough energy to keep 584 100 Watt bulbs lit for 10 hours each) which would have cost us about $12 extra if it had been Windsource. But because we're now 100% Windsource, we'll get credits on our Fuel Cost Charge and Environmental Riders - about $4-$6 per bill, I'm guessing, which means we'd 0nly pay $6 or so for Windsource. So for $6 we went with Windpower! That's a freaking drink out, you know?! What a deal!

And with newer lightbulbs in, we're dropping our electrical light usage by %60 or %70 (again by way of comparison, Compact flourescents put out the same light as incandescent lights, but at lower wattage. For example, a CFL that puts out 100 Watts of light uses only 23 Watts of energy, so we could basically have 4 x 584 = 2336 CFL bulbs lit for 10 hours each with our 584 kWh we used last month...! Not that we would want to do that. But if 20 of those kWh came from regular bulbs, we're now looking at about 5 kWh going to bulbs.) And I've just ordered an energy audit from Xcel to find out what else we might be able to do, since we'll be here for 2.5 years.

Much of this energy and action came from reading Tim Flannery's "The Weather Makers." It's a fantastic book, which is very readable, that outlines the impacts of climate change; what's already happened and what's going to happen. If we get on the ball right now, he estimates that we can save 1 out of every 3 species in the coming decades from going extinct, and stabilize the climate by 2100 or so (there's already so much CO2 in the atmosphere that it is going to continuing warming before it stabilizes). If we continue on with business as usual, 3 out of 5 species will go extinct in the coming years. This book was a huge wake up call for me. This isn't an issue for my children or grand children. It's my issue. In a huge way.

And I hate feeling hopeless about it, so I'm doing what I can. I'm changing to wind energy, looking at solar, and changing light bulbs. And I got a worm farm! (Not that that helps climate change much!). Wind Energy is availabe in Colorado, too, so all you readers out there, if you're not already hooked up with this program, check it out. It's easy to do, and the cost is minimal. As more people sign up for it, more windfarms will be built and the cost will come down even more.

So that's my little update. Yee-ha.

Justin

Rolling into the holidays...

2006-11-13T09:24:00.000-08:00

Christmas stuff is everywhere and it's sorta ridiculous, I have to say. It's not just holiday stuff this year, but Christmas stuff. Just a quick little rant. It's like Thanksgiving - a time to reflect and be thankful, and pause from buying stuff - just got wiped off the radar.

I haven't posted in a while, so I do apologize to all my faithful readers! (all 3 of you!). I've been on the road quite a bit lately - in San Diego for a UUA Round Table presentation on Young Adult and Campus Ministry, and then in Chicago for an Internship Conference, and then at Pere Marquette, in Southern Illinois, for a minister's study group. The internship is half over and has been great so far. I had the chance to preach a short homily on Nov. 5 and that went well and I'm really enjoying all that I'm learning, too.

Partly because of all the traveling, I've had the chance to do some reading and I can recommend: Appetites, by Caroline Knapp, Stiff, by Mary Roach, and Lincoln at Gettysburg, by Gary Wills. I bonded with Laurel over Stiff, when I visited her and Freddy in Chicago. I also got to see Band Geeks, which was shockingly disgusting and funny all at the same time. I just saw Borat which gets about the same review: shockingly disgusting and funny. It was really good to see Laurel and Freddy and their digs. I liked hanging out with my sis. And of course, the time with the grandparents was really good, too.

Laurel and I got to talking about finances while I was out there, so I want share some of the websites that I find very helpful/informative:

www.mymoneyblog.com
www.fool.com.

I'm off to pick up JJ who's coming back from a long weekend of visiting her sister.

love,
j

Roasting Marshmellows

2006-09-25T16:55:00.000-07:00

So one of the cool things about our house is that we have a little fire pit in the back yard. It's more like a circle of rocks and not so much a pit, but that didn't stop us from making a fire last night and roasting some marshmellows and making s'mores. I had some scrap wood in the basement and there were some other logs already out there, and before too long, we had a nice fire going.

Then the roasting sticks came out and the marshmellows went in the fire. Yummy! It was chilly last night, but the fire was keeping us warm. What a great way to wind down a weekend. It's the first fire we've had, and we kicked around the idea of having a fire in the winter time - making some hot chocolate and sitting around in the falling snow with a nice fire going!

Earlier, we had a great dinner, with lots of fresh greens from the small garden I planted right after we moved in. I can't believe it worked (that things actually grew), but it did. We have cilantro, dill, green beans, lettuce, mustard greens, arugala, and fennel. The green beans aren't big, but they're big enough to eat and that's what we did!

So one thing I haven't mentioned is the pigeon problem we've been having. The previous owners were clear about the bird problem, and they even listed it in the seller's disclosure statement, but not having had problems with pigeons before, I didn't really get it. Now I do. Pigeons are disgusting and sort of like flying rats. They have some favortie hang outs on our roof, mostly under the eves, where they like to perch and poop and make noise. Mostly they just poop. And it is disgusting. So I've done some research and it seems like pigeon spikes work pretty well, so I've bit the bullet and ordered some of them. I'll try to place them in some strategic places, to lesson the pigeon impact, but I doubt we'll get rid of them. I wonder where they go in the winter?

Fall is Here

2006-09-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

I don't have any pictures, but because it was a dry summer, many of the trees are bursting into yellows and oranges and reds and it's gorgeous. It's also cold and wet. I'm waiting for that last burst of summer. We'll see if we get it. I'm not ready to bundle up for winter just quite yet. After a busy first two months, it's all caught up with me. I've come down with some sort of cold, so I'm home from work early, catching up with the blog, although I'm so far behind, it's almost impossible to catch up.

One highlight that I do want to mention is that this last weekend Huston Smith came to Unity Church for a Morgan Forum (on Saturday) and to preach on Sunday. Juliana and I were lucky enough to have dinner with him on Saturday night and it was remarkable. He's quite hard of hearing and he was tired because he had been lecturing all day, but he still had a sparkle in his eye. We talked a bit before dinner, and he told us he was excited to get home because he couldn't wait to celebrate his 62 wedding anniversary with his wife (he was in St. Paul for the actual day and he was going to celebrate when he when he returned Sunday night.) Anyway, after sharing a few stories, Huston told us about a street person he befriended in Berkeley, Cal. He would sing a song to him and then give him a dollar and then other times, this fellow would sing to Huston, and then Huston would give him a dollar. They swapped songs with each other. Anyway, this started us off, and we sang songs together all through dinner - spirituals, hymns, you name it, we sung it! Then we sang him off to bed...it was a magical, unexpected moment, a moment of grace perhaps.

I've been doing some work around the house, too, which has been rewarding. I've also learned that some projects aren't as easy as I think they'll be! I wanted to replace the stairs leading down to the basement, and even board some wood to do so, but messing with stairs is way more work than I realized, so I ended up just repainting them and putting new treads on them. I'll post some more photos later on, but right now I gotta run.

Why I'm a minister...and not a general contractor

2006-08-22T05:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was "Home Improvement" day. Home Depot should sponsor me an give me a $1000 gift card - I'm the classic blumbling do it yourself guy. First project - fill in the gap between the kitchen and the stove. The previous owners had left a nice piece of wood laying in the kitchen and it looked like it would fill the gap; a little bit of investigation revealed that it did. The only trouble was that is was just a little bit thinner than the sink wood we were trying to match it with. So I had to rig up some cardboard to put under the end closest to the sink so that it didn't sit lower than the other piece. It looks like a simple job, but this actually took me about 45 minutes to do; I think the little right angle braces are pretty stylish - who knew Home Depot had such things? It's already been worth it, though - last night I did dishes and you can stack the dishes there, not to mention tasty beverages. (I should also say that the kitchen picture does not have the posting approval of my significant other; and I claim full responsibility for the messiness of the kitchen!)

Yesterday was also the day that the rest of the family left after our great vacation at Lutzen. It was pretty incredible to 1) see the North Shore, 2) have all the family together, and 3) do our secret Santa business (for those reading who don't know about the "secret Santa" business - every year, we draw names out of a hat to get the name of one family member who we get a super duper Christmas present for - our specific person to focus on. With such a large family, it would be daunting and financially challenging to get gifts for everyone, and with this "secret Santa" method, it lessons the stress, and is still very fun.) But it was sad to see everyone go - except that this has been the year of great family times - I think we've spent more time together in the past year than we have in the past 5 - and, I now know who my secret Santa is, and the gift planning has already begun.

The other home improvement project was to build a "custom made bookshelf" for this little nook area at the top of the stairs in our loft. I had the vision in my head, and with a little consulting with Nathan, Quentin, and Dad, I felt pretty confident I could do what I needed to do without putting a screw into my knee. I got to the Home Depot and quickly realized that although my plan called for 1x12's in #1 pine (that's good pine), all they had was 1x12's in bad (#2) pine. I checked out other options, including plyword pine, but it wasn't the dimenions I wanted and I didn't want to use 1x10's (which was the biggest they had in #1 pine.) Basically, I wanted to create a bookshelf that would fit perfectly in this little space between the banister and the chimney upstairs; I wanted it to be able to hold a bunch of books, as well as our radio, CDs, and other miscellaneous stuff. So I consider other options, and then took a calculated risk and decided to buy the #2 boards (a warning: I would probably not do this again; even though I checked out all the boards and got the least warped boards I could find, they were still pretty warped and not very even...) I had the Home Depot guy cut the boards and when I got home (after 2 hours in the store; I had to get other stuff, too), I realized he was off by an 1/8 inch here and an 1/8 inch there. Ah well, that's what I get for not having my own power tools.

Ah yeah - the other thing worth mentioning, and the reason for the title of this post, is that I bought some Sawhorse brackets, thinking, that'll make things easier to do. Well, the problem was instead of coming as a set of two in a box (which would make sense, right? After all, you can't really just use one set), after I got home I realized that I only had half the horse, or one horse, when I really needed two. Haha. Here's a picture of my single horse. Nice looking horse, but not great for doing much.

I took everything down to the basement and the project began. The first piece, building the frame, was the hardest, but once it was framed, things really came together. I pre-drilled all the nail holes, which was the best suggestion ever, and nothing split or busted out. Here's the basic frame, with the shelves tentatively placed:

Then I put it back on it's backside and put the shelves in. Although the measurements were a bit off, a bit of jostling and hammering seemed to help move them into place. After the shelves were in, I attached the back. The back is 2 1x12's and 1 1x10, which makes it heavy, but since I didn't see anything else I liked or could use, that's what we went with. Also, because I used #2 word, I still need to sand off all the tags and print on the boards. It didn't all match up perfectly on the backside, but it's nothing some sanding can't fix/help out. After I finished it, Juliana helped me bring it upstairs to see how it looked in the space. I like it. I think I'll keep it, and stain it.

Learnings: 1) Framed things are super easy to work worth. Is there an easy way to get something frame? 2) Pre-drill all your nail holes. So much better and cuts down on stress and frustration. 3) Read all boxes and instructions. I needed another horse, and only had one. 4) Have a real work area - I just used the basement, which worked, but wasn't the best area. 5). Get a circular saw; the Home Depot guy was nice, but I would have liked to have done some final/exact cuts. 6) Always have a great fiance to help you with your projects!!

Family Vacation

2006-08-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

The last 3 days have been Lutzen Family Vacation '06. Thanks to some hard work from family members and some good recommendations from native Minnesotans, we settled on Lutzen Mountain Resort as our place of gathering for games, beverage imbibing, and lots of good eats.

It was a wonderful introduction to the beautiful land of the North Shore. The lake and the hiking were incredible - and the people weren't bad, either! One of highlights as driving through "Schroeder," MN, and stopping to take a picture.

How often does that happen? Another highlight was having everyone over at our new home and serving up a great dinner. It was especially meaningful, because although many people saw our house in Tulsa, not everyone did - so to have the entire family here after we've been here for 3 weeks, was awesome! And here's the family pic -

Housing Update

2006-07-31T16:40:00.000-07:00

So here's a picture of the garden area. The squared off area is ripe with lettuce, spinach, and other greens. And to the right of that is a horse radish plant and a fennel plant that might be dead. Just to the left of the brick pathway is a rhubarb plant (one that already here), plus two other ones that I brought with me from Tulsa.

Here's a picture of Juliana in our hammock tree swing thing. I shimmied up the tree and looped it around. (But before that I stood on the ground and loop a rock, with the rope tied around it, up into the air, again and again. The shimmying method worked better.

Here's a picture of us enjoying the cool 83 degree air that our new Window Unit is providing for us.

And finally, here's a picture of the box springs we built last night.

Since we've settled in, I've been finding all sorts of deals online with new bank accounts and credit cards - and applying for some of them, but I think this house has jacked up my credit and I've been declined, in so many words. Bummer. Juliana just said that this makes me sound like a little bit of freak, but if you're interested in knowing how to make a cool $100 on a Target gift card, you might just want to check in with me. (Yes, I'm turning into Juliana's dad, for those of you who know him!)

The Best Brother Ever!

2006-07-31T12:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Nator stopped by with Sierra and helped install a kickbutt window AC unit. It was scorching hot here and we were dying! Now, our upstairs room is a sweet hang out pad, and we get to contribute to global warming at the same time. (Speaking of which, I just read an interesting article on drastic measures to stop global warming.) Anyway, thanks bro, for helping us out!

In other news, we've got beans and lettuce coming up. I hope to get some crop in before the cold weather sets in. We'll see how that goes. We're continuing to unpack and put things together. We stopped at the Home Depot last night and bought some wood for a box frame for our bed, so that's finally off the floor. It looks nice. I'll post some pictures later.

We're chilling today before I start work tomorrow.

More soon....

The Moving Process

2006-07-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

We made it in one piece to St. Paul and are partially settled into our new house. It's been a marathon event of sorts, but all the pieces came together. We sold our house in T-Town on Monday and then drove up to Omaha Monday night to stay with a friend up there. Then on Tuesday we rolled into St. Paul and closed on our house. We love it! I'll post pictures soon, but first I want to describe the Leaving Tulsa Experience. Day by day, we packed up more stuff as we prepared to leave. Somewhere along the line, we decided we wanted to use movers, which was a pretty good decision, all things considered. So we kept packing and packing, and having garage sales, and slowly each room became a bunch of boxes, with some furniture. We slowly packed up our life, piece by piece. It made me think alot about things - and how many things I have, even when I don't think I actually have that many things. Packing is like watching your life unfold in a reverse sort of fashion - the goal is to arrive at an absence: an absence of stuff in the rooms, an absence of furniture. Everything we built our life around needed to end up in a box or gone. It's a funny process. (A side note: now that I'm unpacking stuff here, I can't believe some of what I brought - we'll probably have another garage sale or something!) It was also sad to leave the T-Town pad, because although we didn't do much to the inside while we were there, we did all sorts of stuff outside, and it was hard to leave that. In fact, I didn't leave all of that - I took some rhubarb, some horseradish plants, some irises, and some seeds from plants I had put in this spring. So tonight put in green beans, cilantro, and dill. We'll see what happens. My guess is that it'll germinate and we might have some fresh cilantro. I'm also clearing out an area for some greens - lettuce and other stuff.

The house in Tulsa was great - a first house so there's some deep bonding there, but this house is great! I hadn't seen it until we arrived on Tuesday, but I love it. The back yard is small and intimate, but had room for a picnic table and a hammock. I want to figure out a way to get our hanging hammock attached to the tree somehow. We'll see if that can happen. As far as stuff near buy, there's a great coffeeshop not too far away called the Bean Factory. We spent some time there today. I suspect we'll be frequent customers.

Garage (Carport) Sale

2006-07-18T15:13:00.000-07:00

Seeing as how this past weekend was our last weekend in Tulsa (it looks like I might be wrong about that, though, as I just found out we can't close on Friday as I had hoped we might be able to, so maybe we'll be here another weekend...bummer.) In any event, as we've been packing up stuff for our move to the Twin Cities, we keep wanting to get rid of more and more stuff. So we decided we didn't really want our couch any more (we'll get a new one in St. Paul or a "new used" one.) We didn't really want our entertainment center, either. And that gigantic desk in the Westwing - we didn't really want that either! The couch and the entertainment center were pretty easy to get out the front door. The desk was another story.

We had to remove two doors and sprain several backs to move that desk. Then we plunked it in the yard. We thought a lady was coming by today to pick it up, but so far she hasn't. We even had someone pay for a hammock stand we were selling and then say they'd come back later to pick it up, but they haven't. Is there a technical term for people who pay for something at a garage sale and then don't return for it? That's how I got the desk in the first place; the previous owners had a garage sale, sold the desk, and something else, and someone was supposed to come pick it up (at least that's the story they told me.)

Big ticket items seem to do well at garage (carport) sales. We ended the day loaded up with duckets. Or at least more than we started with. Plus, it was nice to unload some of our junk and some books too. We so often buy other people's junk, there's a perverse feeling to actually sell some of that junk back to people!

It was freaking hot, too, for the carport sale; the whole week has been in the 90s and 100s. It's a sign of global warming, I'm convinced. And I need to get off my ass and do something about it. Yes, me personally!

As update on the housing situation. Things for the Blair house (St. Paul) are all lining up just fine. We got the appraisal back and that was good, and the loan is coming together, too. But here in T-town, I'm afraid we hit a snag. We can't close on Friday which is what we wanted, and I'm not sure what that means. I think maybe we can close on the weekend, but I don't know. Drats. This house thing is tricky.

Housing Excitement (and two sermons)

2006-07-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

Well, the terminte inspection happened today at our Tulsa home; we came through that with flying colors and it looks like we'll close on July 21st. It's been an interesting process doing this by ourselves (without a Realtor), and has had a bit of a learning curve, but it's all come together. Given that we're also buying a house in St. Paul, I now know more about Mortgages, Homeowners Insurance, Title Companies (closing companies), and Realtors than I ever knew before. The bottom line is that no one is really out for you - they all want a piece of you, but they aren't really looking out for you. We ended up going with Eloan, which offered us a good rate on a 5 year ARM, and Country Financial for homeowners insurance, which offered us a good rate if we bundled our car insurance with them. Eloan is also going to credit my account with some Frequent Flyer miles, too, per $10,000 of the loan. So it's all winding down; today, I canceled a bunch of utilities and our phone. We'll be hooking stuff up at St. Paul. We close in St. Paul on July 25th, which is darn close.

I finally mowed the lawn and I think I'm going to go home soon and clean out the gutters and pack a little bit more. A box here, a box there, it's slowly getting done. We're using movers, which is a new thing for me, but it sounds like it will be good; my back has been really sore, so it'll be nice for other folks to haul things around. On Aug 1st, my internship starts at Unity Church. I am excited about that, but it still feels really far away.

As some of you know, in early May, the 3 year old daughter of the Sr. Minister at All Souls, died unexpectedly. It was such a shock - so painful - so unimaginable, and it's still working it's way through me. I spoke at her eulogy which was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Just yesterday, I heard that another church member's five year old son died in a car accident. It's just too much.

It makes me believe in hell, in a way I never have before. I believed in hell before, as a sort of abstract painful, violent, oppressive, dark place here on earth, but a part of me now really nows the reality of hell. Hell is a very real thing/place. It's not separate from "heaven" and god doesn't put you in hell. Love and god can both frequent hell and often do; it's what helps us emerge from those places. But hell is real. It's dark. It's deep. It touches so many people and in so many different ways. My role as a minister is to seek to lessen the very real hells that exist in this world, or at least to have the courage to journey into the hells that others are in, and bring my presence, my faith, and my love.

....

I'm going to post my final sermon or two from All Souls, since I don't think those have been shared yet.

love,
jms

May 21, 2006 Sermon, “Driving at Night” by Justin Schroeder

I’m going to testify today!
And you all can start witnessing, when you feel the spirit!

I’m going to testify to that “Holy Ghost Fire,” that the Jones Sisters sang about, that spirit of love and compassion, that moves in our lives even in the darkness, despair, and uncertainty.
I think of what author E.L. Doctorow, says about writing and life.
He says, “It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

I’ll testify to that: many years ago, I was driving at night in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. I was on my way to a cabin to stay with friends.
I left late in the afternoon, and darkness had fallen and I was still driving. I slowed down, because all I could see was the 30 feet in front of me that the headlights illuminated.
The road twisted and turned and twice I nearly hit deer, scared frozen in my headlights.
It was frightening, but I finally made it.

“Driving at night” is exactly what we’re going through now, as a congregation, with the unexpected death of Sienna Lavanhar, and all the accompanying grief that that has opened and reopened in our lives.
We can’t see past the headlights to what’s next…and there’s no road map for doing the hard work of driving at night.
It often feels easier and safer to stay in the light.

There’s a story from the Middle East called “The Lost Key:” “One night a neighbor strolling by Nasrudin’s house found him outside under the street lamp brushing through the dust.
‘Have you lost something, my friend?’
“I’ve lost my key. Can you help me find it?”
After some minutes of searching and turning up nothing, the neighbor asked him, ‘Are you sure you lost the key here?’
Nasrudin answered, ‘No, I didn’t lose it here. I lost it inside the house.’

‘If you lost the key in the house, Nasrudin, why are you looking for it out here?’

“Well, there’s more light out here, of course.”

As the Rev. Mary Samuels says, well-lit places are the safe places of life, the easy preoccupations that keep us from feeling the loss of someone, or the impact of a transition, or change.
We keep busy, we deny, so our minds won’t go to the emptiness or darkness.
It might be easier to search for the key in the light, but the real aliveness - that holy ghost fire – that aliveness we long for, and fear – comes only from driving at night.
And that’s where we are.

I think of Jacob from the Bible.
After leaving his uncle, Laban, Jacob goes to meet Esau to make amends after stealing his birth rite.
The night before he meets his brother, Jacob collapses into a deep sleep, alone in the wilderness on the bank of the Jabbok river.
During the middle of the night, a stranger, perhaps an angel, it’s not clear, comes and wrestles with Jacob.
All night they wrestle – intertwined.
When this stranger sees that Jacob can’t be overpowered, the stranger cripples him with a blow to the hip - which leaves Jacob with a limp.
But still in Jacob’s grasp, the stranger says, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
Jacob replies, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
The stranger asks, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answers.
Then the stranger says, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”
Then he blessed him there.

One could say that in the darkness Jacob wrestled with his doubts, fears, and weaknesses…and with the dawn’s light, was a different person.
This very human struggle, this wrestling, this “driving at night,” whether it’s the changes that come with graduation, leaving or grieving, is, as Benedictine nun and writer Joan Chittister says, about “vulnerability, darkness, exhaustion, and scarring.”

Yet, with the aid of the “holy ghost fire,” it is possible to emerge, as Joan Chittister says, out of the darkness and struggle with the deepest gifts of life – conversion, faith, courage, surrender, endurance, and transformation.
With a limp or a scar, yes, but also blessing…

"Jacob does what all of us must do," writes Chittister, "if, in the end, we too are to become ‘real.’ He confronts in himself the things that are wounding him, admits his limitations, accepts his situation and rejoins the world." [1]
It’s easy to celebrate power, confidence, victory, and abhor and fear weakness, struggle, and doubt…but it is precisely there that the “real aliveness” comes from.[2]

Right now, we (this congregation, our graduating seniors, me) are all driving at night – in that human struggle - all of us on the verge of something new and unknown.
We want answers and assurance about the future, what’s next on the road, but all we know for sure is that we have the gift of today, with the holy ghost fire flickering around us.
In the darkness, amidst the wounds and scars, we can learn how to become like that holy ghost fire.

As we “drive at night,” facing uncertainty and transition, we can become, as the proverb says, the candle of the lord!

The Rev. David Bumbaugh writes, “A candle is a careless thing…it is always stretching up and reaching out.”[3]
It gives its substance without murmur or complaint to the flame that is consuming it. It doesn't even seem to care into what corner the flame flings its light; whether the corner is clean or dirty, far or near, deserving or forgotten. It doesn't care to whom it sends its warmth; whether to the outer chill, a lonely heart, a child's delight, a bore or a lout.
A candle that tries to conserve its substance is poor company on a dark night. It was pleasant to look at in the day time – slender and smoothly appealing. But any candle that does not give itself away is a disappointment in the deepening shadows of a long evening.
A candle must give itself away.
In the giving, the spending, the spreading, the sending, it finds itself.”

As we drive at night, let us spend ourselves, careless with our love.
Let us become candles of the Lord – lighting the way for each other, giving our lives to the holy spirit of fire without murmur or complaint, like the sun shares its light with the earth, never saying, you owe me![4]

Today is graduation Sunday – and although change is in the air for all of us, we have shared the road together as fellow travelers for many years.
These memories will remain…
We honor what we have shared together by making room for the new, by launching what needs to be launched, by saying goodbye, and by loving that which remains.
Ultimately, we have no choice, because life churns on, bursting, bubbling, ebbing, flowing – like the river, and sea, never staying the same.

And yet what remains, through all of this – my leaving, Sienna’s dying, any death, all change - is that holy spirit of fire that I’m testifying to – that calls us to burn, to catch fire, to spend, to send, to give, to “repair, renew, and recover”[5]: and in doing so, in catching fire and giving ourselves away, we find our deepest selves…that core which remains.
I close with a poem from Rabbi Harold Schulweis:
We have seen Yitzhak PerlmanWho walks the stage with braces on both legs on two crutchesHe takes his seat, unhinges the clasps of his legs,Tucking one leg back, extending the other,Laying down his crutches, placing the violin under his chin.On one occasion one of his violin strings broke.The audience grew silent but the violinist didn’t leave the stage.He signaled the maestro, and the orchestra began its part.The violinist played with power and intensity on only three strings.With three strings, he modulated, changed, and Recomposed the piece in his head.He retuned the strings to get different sounds,Turned them upward and downward.The audience screamed delight, applauded their appreciation.
Asked later how he had accomplished this feat,The violinist answered:It is my task to make music with what remains.

As we ‘drive at night,’ and bravely face the world and all that it offers, may we too make music with what remains. May be it be so. Amen
[1] From http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20050725JJ.shtml.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Bumbaugh wrote this based on John Wood’s poem, “A Candle is a Careless Thing.”
[4] This is a reference to a Hafiz poem.
[5] From a sermon by Rev. Mary Samuels.

“A Good Goodbye” by Justin Schroeder 6/4/2006

I haven’t always been good at goodbyes.
As I shared in my final Soulful Sundown service last month, I wasn’t really aware of this, until a good friend, back in Colorado, said to me, “Hey Schroeder, you never really say goodbye to anyone. You just kind of sneak out of the room.”
“What do you mean?” I said.
“Well, you say, ‘See you later, or take care, or after a while, crocodile,’ but you never say, ‘Goodbye.’”
“What?! Yes, I do!”
But the more I thought about it, I knew he was right.
It was easier to slip out, to sneak away, to say something other than goodbye, because goodbyes, even little goodbyes, were hard.
As the Rev. Elizabeth Lerner says, “Goodbyes acknowledge endings, and there is so much tied up in endings – attachment, loss, uncertainty, sorrow, loneliness, or even fear.”
It’s true.
It’s easier to pretend a goodbye isn’t happening, than to actually acknowledge something is ending.//
In some ways, it’s no wonder, because other than funerals and memorial services, which are extreme goodbyes, our society doesn’t give us many ritualized chances to say goodbye for the endings, even mundane endings, in our lives.
So this is our ritualized chance to say goodbye to each other.

And for a good goodbye, whether it’s for children leaving for college, a relationship that’s coming to an end, or a pet that’s gone, it is crucial, as Rev. Elizabeth Lerner says, “…to be willing to say goodbye without cutting out the caring which makes goodbyes poignant and emotional.”
Sometimes the emotions are almost too much, and we hardly know what to do with our caring.
I think of my grandfather, my mom’s father, who is not a particularly emotional man.
In fact, he didn’t really know how to do goodbye in words, but I do remember that his eyes would always moisten over – even if he was talking about something that had nothing to do with goodbye.
He may not have known what to do with the caring, but at least he didn’t cut it all out.
Because if something or someone deserves a goodbye, it should be real…and the emotion that’s there honors the relationship that’s ending.

Like I said at Soulful Sundown a month ago, I am determined to say a “good goodbye,” with lots of caring, because I owe it to all of you, and to myself.
We have been through so much together – especially this last month - and over the years, we have laughed, cried, worshipped, and worked together to nurture and change our little corner of the world.
By saying a good goodbye, we honor all that we have been through…

I also want to say a good goodbye, because when I left Fort Collins, Colorado, five years ago, I didn’t do a good job of saying goodbye, and it made leaving and then settling here very difficult.
It became clear to me that I had said to say “Goodbye” to the “Fort Collins” Justin.
I couldn’t just say, “Take care,” or “See you later.”
I had to say “Goodbye” to that part of who I was, so that the “Tulsa” Justin could be born.
It was not an easy process…but saying goodbye (to whatever it might be) is a way to formally acknowledge the changes taking places…it takes courage, honesty, vulnerability, and clarity to say goodbye well.

So I am determined to say a “good goodbye,” to honor what we’ve shared, what we’re feeling, and what it has meant…and to open space for the “St. Paul” Justin to be born as well as to open space for the many new “Hellos” that will surely come in our lives.

Done well, hellos and goodbyes can be part of a deep spiritual practice.
A good “hello,” really being present, paying attention to what you’ve just encountered, can reawaken us to the mystery and miracle all around us.
A good goodbye, although hard and perhaps akin to a miniature death of some sort, can help us stop and see the whole of what we’ve experienced, lifting to the surface what’s been important and meaningful, what has touched and changed us.

For me, despite the sadness of saying goodbye, gratitude has been lifted to the surface.
Gratitude for the humor, talent, and music of Rick Fortner and all of our choirs.
Gratitude for Kathy Keith for her strength and talents.
Gratitude for Marlin, for believing in me…
Gratitude for Panny McElroy, for believing in the vision of a Young Adult and Campus Ministry program.
Gratitude for Juliana, my partner, for her patience, wisdom, and love.
Gratitude for our entire staff.
Gratitude for life itself…

And gratitude, most of all, for you who are the church, and for all we’ve shared.

You have let me into your lives, and shared your dreams, sorrows, hopes.
You have let me be your minister.

One of the things I have most enjoyed is sitting on this chancel and seeing all of you gather in the pews, Sunday after Sunday – many of you sitting in your favorite seats, regular as clock work – almost defending your territory!

But it’s deeper than that.
When I sit and preach from this chancel and pulpit, looking out at you, I also imagine all the ministers that have sat on this chancel and preached from this pulpit.
All the people who have sat in these pews –
All the babies that have been dedicated on this chancel –
All the Coming of Age Credos shared,
The couples married,
The lives remembered,
The prayers, prayed – and I think of that mighty cloud of witnesses that are a part of our history and tradition.

It is in these memories, that I feel the very spirit of life, of the holy, of the divine.
We are not alone in this sanctuary!
We stand on the shoulders, and in the presence, of those who came before us –
great ancestors who fought for the freedom to believe as their conscience dictated,
who believed in humankind’s potential for great goodness,
who believed that reason could be a part of one’s faith,
who believed in creating heaven on earth,
and who believed in the unity of a loving God. //

There is something remarkable here at All Souls, a promise kept alive, a dream still being dreamt,
a vision beckoning.
That spirit was alive like never before at our 85th Anniversary Celebration at the Brady Theatre.

Two weeks later, that same spirit was present, as we gathered together to mourn the sudden loss of Sienna Lavanhar – and in the midst of that pain, we reaffirmed that love is indeed the spirit of this church and service is its law, and that our lives have a meaning and a purpose.

Through it all, and especially in this process of saying goodbye, I feel an undying gratitude to have been a part of this tradition and church. //

It makes me think we should practice saying goodbye
more often – monthly, weekly, daily - to the things and people we love.
Like in the story, “Goodnight, Moon,” when we go to bed, we should say goodnight and goodbye to everything in the room, everything we love, because there’s no rubber stamp guarantee of a new day, as we know all to well.
A heartfelt goodbye, for the day we’ve had, for the people we’ve known, for dear friends leaving, for whatever it might be, gives us room to feel, to let go, to find ourselves in a new kind of wholeness – and to greet the new day with a “Hello.”
And when that new day comes - when the sun rises, again, like a prayer answered, whether or not we prayed - and it is indeed a day that God has made, let us rejoice in it, and be glad.
Let us, as the poet, Philip Larkin, says, “Be kind, while there is still time.”

And let us remember that done well, hellos and goodbyes put us directly in touch with our own mortality and the truth that all life is change, holding on, letting go, holding on, letting go.
As the poet Mary Oliver says, “To live in this world you must be able to do three things: “To love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; And, when the times comes to let it go, to let it go.” //

Now is the time for bravery and courage, for naming what is happening.
I am leaving. Our time together is ending and I will no longer be one of your ministers.
So today, amidst the tears and laughter, I am asking you to let me go.
Not to forget me or to cut off the caring, but to set me free, to launch me and Juliana.
As you set me free, know that what we have shared over the past 5 years, my early fumblings and fuddlings with Soulful Sundown,
the weddings and worship, memorials and meetings, prayers and pastoral visits, all of it –
burns brightly in my heart and will light up my future ministry in St. Paul. //
At the same time, I let you go.
I set you free, not forgetting or cutting off the caring, but setting you free, so that you can make room in your hearts for Debra Garfinkel and Tamara Lebak’s arrival and all the gifts that they bring.

It is time to say goodbye, to acknowledge what we have shared, and all we have done.
Remember that goodbye is a benediction of sorts, an act of blessing, which comes from the Latin and means, “saying a good thing.”
Goodbye means “God be with you…”
So this morning I say Hello, Goodbye, may God be with you – may that spirit of love, freedom, and healing, be with you today, and in the days to come!
With love and gratitude, Amen.

Thank you, United!

2006-07-11T05:22:00.000-07:00

We arrived at DIA at 8:20 last night and made it to our gate with no problems. Juliana needed a tag for her bag and while she was up talking to the agent, she asked, "Is this flight overbooked?" and the agent said, "Yes, actually, it is." Then Juliana said, "We'd be happy to fly tomorrow if you'll hook us up with some fatty free tickets and a room at the Timbers!" (Actually, she didn't say that...we had no idea what the Timbers was.) The agent gave us free tickets to use anywhere, anytime, in the 48 States with no blackout times.

And the Hotel voucher? All we knew was that the hotel was 20 minutes from DIA which seemed like a long ways. We wondered if maybe it like a Motel 6 or something. But it a free night in Denver, so we didn't complain. We hoped in the Shuttle, our free tickets, hotel voucher, and breakfast vouchers in hand, and as we drove into Denver, we saw an incredible lightning storm. Then we arrived at the Timbers. And holy cow - what a pad! If we had found this in St. Paul, we might have rented it!

It was the sweetest hotel digs we've ever been in, and we promptly made ourselves at home.

All in all, it was one more night in Colorado, a great treat and a wonderful way to end our vacation! Love to all the Colorado folks and thanks for a great time at the FC retreat center!

Big Time Catch Up!

2006-07-10T16:34:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been months since I've last posted and they have been some crazy months! We've leaving Tulsa and moving up to St. Paul, Minnesota, as many of you know. In the middle of June, we went up to St. Paul to find a place to rent for the 3 years we'll be there. After looking for 2 days, we realized that with rent being what it was, we might as well buy a house a safe some money, or at least that's the plan.

So we made an offer on a house in Frogtown, and we're closing on the 25th of July. More pictures and details to follow.

Being up in St. Paul was great, as we got to see some family and start to learn more about the city.

Being in Fort Collins has been incredible. Juliana's mom came out for part of the time, and we had a fantastic trip up Trail Ridge Road, and a good meal at Coopersmiths. It was really nice for Juliana's mom to meet my family and parents - that was the first time they've met. Other than figuring out all the house stuff (doing a FSBO on the Tulsa house and taking care of the all the logistics for the St. Paul house), it's been relaxing.

Dad and I had some crazy cribbage championships and I ended up on top, 6-3. We started to play at 5 cents a point, but they moved to playing for 2 or 3 lottery tickets, which was super fun. The way I see it, the Schroeder Rankings might be

1) Sierra
2) Justin
3) Dad...

Laurel and Freddy made it out here, too, which was fantastic - they are so much fun, and we got some good Badminton playing in.

On Saturday, we went and hung out with some old highschool buddies, did some grilling, and enjoyed catching up.

Today is our last day here and we've got a late flight from DIA. We hiked around the Poudre River today and just chilled out. It was relaxing and fun.

I'm getting excited about seeing more of Bruno, Nator, and Karen, and doing some family reunion action on the North Shore later in August.

I'll catch you all up on other happenings soon...I'm hoping to post more often and share this link with other friends and family, so people can stay in the loop.

April Showers

2006-04-24T08:27:00.000-07:00

The forecast is for some heavy thundershowers today. We could use it. It's been super dry lately. The old globe has got a fever, it seems.

There's a lot to catch up on. The unicycling is going smashingly well. I am able to turn fairly well (a pretty key element if I ever want to get back to where I started! Otherwise, I just keep going straight down the street), and I think I'm close to being able to juggle as I ride, although I haven't tried that yet. Learning to ride the unicycle is the best thing I've done in a long time. And if any of you all want lessons, I'm happy to teach.

The house has had a lot of lookers, but no buyers. We've been doing lots of gardening, but I have to admit I was a bit sad when I read Duoteam's blog about cucumbers and pumpkins and so on. Because we'll be leaving this summer, we have put in tomatos or cucumbers or cantelopes or any of those things. We won't be here to enjoy them and if a non-gardening buys the house and lets them die, that would break my heart. So we've been planting stuff we can eat and enjoy right now - cilantro, lettuce, spinach, peas, beans, beets, broccoli, lots of strawberries, onions, chard, and some volunteers basil from last year. The back yard looks good, but there are no cucumber tee-pees or tomato cages up. Sigh. The irises from Colorado bloomed this year - I had planted them too deep last year; I replanted them last fall and now they are gorgeous.

Here's a before and after picture of the front yard. We had a dry/bald spot that I re-seeded and it's finally taken and looks pretty good.

In other news, we just celebrated the 85th Anniversary of All Souls this past weekend. It was something I'll never forget. On Sunday, we rented out the Brady Theatre, and had our worship service there. We had close to 1500 people! I had several roles in the service and it felt like such a great way to wind down my tenure here. I've been in T-town for 5 years now, and some of the connections are pretty deep, but I'm slowly letting go and still very excited about St. Paul.

Now, if we can just sell the house! We had another open house on Sunday and several people came by, but no bites yet. We've still got plenty of time, so we're not worried. The house is looking good - it's cleaner than every before.

Sierra is winding down her time with us and I'm feeling sad about seeing her go, but I'm thinking we'll all connect again in Minnosota. It's been great having her here, and highlights have included camping trips, long walks, cribbage games (she's kicking my ass!), movie watching (anyone seen Slither?), and much more. It's been a treat having her here. This Friday promises to be a big hurrah - we'll have J's family here (dad and step-sisters), and we'll all be celebrating her birthday on Friday - with a pinata and many other surprises. There will also be a badminton tournament and who knows what else.

Finally, after many hours of playing Settlers of Catan, I caved in and bought the expansion sets, Seafarers of Catan and Cities and Knights of Catan (I think that's what it's called). They should be arriving today, I think and that may entail a few phone calls to recruit some game playing fools! We've played Settlers with several of our friends and they all liked it. It's a quick easy game.

It's my day off. Time to go unicycle!

Unicycle Adventures

2006-04-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

Well - it's been two weeks now, and I'm happy to report that I'm well on my way to unicycle riding. It's been a slow, sore process. For the first couple of days, my seat was too high, so I sawed off an inch and that helped. Plus, it takes a little while to figure out to probably mount the unicycle, so my inner thighs took a beating! If that's too much sharing, stop reading now. As I told people, the good news is, I'm learning to ride my unicycle. The bad news is that I may not be able to have kids. Actually, it wasn't really that bad, and now that the seat is lower, it's much easier to mount. When I first started, I had to lean against a wall or have someone hold my hand as I trashed and crashed. Then, last weekend, I went to a bank down town that a covered employee parking area with a great wall to balance on. I practiced there for a couple of our hours. Then, I began to practice in my driveway, under the carport, lurging from pole to pole and riding along the side of the house. Now I can lurch and trash for about 15 to 20 feet before I need to balance on a wall or pole. So what's it like? It's a rush, I'll tell you that! It's the best feeling ever! I'm hoping to learn how to juggle and unicycle and then maybe to unicycle backwards. But one step at a time. I need to learn how to ride for a while without balancing on a wall first. I'll try to post some pictures later today. Final thought: it takes time to learn how to ride, but it's not as hard I thought it would be...probably the first 3 hours are the hardest and then it gets easier after that!

UUU

2006-03-27T13:04:00.000-08:00

Well - after a day at the coffeeshop, I've prepared an agenda for a 6pm meeting tonight, prepared material for a 7pm meeting tomorrow night, ordered Settlers of Catan (yes!) and done extensive Unicycle research. There's all sorts of important things to consider - seat comfort, wheel size, weight, prize, etc. I surfed around for a while, reading, bookmarking, etc. I even called a couple of places in Tulsa, but no one around here seems to have much in the way of Unicycles, so I resumed my online search.

I got one with a 26" wheel size which means it will be harder to learn on - but not impossible - and then better for actual transportation around. (I plan to get some Unicycle snow tires for the St. Paul experience!).

After a bit of practice I anticipate being able to do this!

Now..for a helmet and some kneepads...

Disturbing Face of American Democacy (you got $?)

2006-03-27T08:56:00.000-08:00

This article is deeply disturbing...and makes me have a greater clarity about what I need/want to do with my life and ministry. Time for the the heretics and the real people of faith to rise up!

Lake Tenkiller Retreat

2006-03-27T07:52:00.000-08:00

So I'm exceeding my own expectations for blogging - this is twice in one month, so consider this a bonus treat. I had one of the best weekends of my life. We all bailed on work early on Friday afternoon, and packed up the car to head out to Lake Tenkiller, about an hour away from Tulsa. We arrived about 5pm or so, and played catch, watched the sun set, and then made the best pizza ever! It was loaded with veggies, cheese, and pure goodness. We gorged on that. We played cribbage and Cranium and had a great time.

The next morning, we played more games, ate a fantastic omelette thingy with hashbrowns, and then went for a great hike around the lake.

After the hike, we laid out some blankets, ate the best lunch ever (which included melting icecream and graham crackers!), and played some more cards. We also discovered a number of ticks. I found two - one on my arm and one trying to get on my arms. After that, the game sort of broke up and we decided to head back to Tulsa.

Then, that night, we all rolled back into Tulsa, and played Settlers of Catan (which I haven't played in 5 years!) I used to play this game all the time with folks in Fort Collins and it's been forever since I've played. We played two games and Juliana and I won one of them! I may have to buy this game, too, because it's just too fun, and easy to play. It takes an hour to play and there's strategy, trading, scheming, treaties, and more. A classic game, in my opinion.

While we were away we had an open house, and 3 couples came and looked, but so far, no one's biting. I've got a good feeling about today, though. We'll see it. It's sort of an emotional roller coaster having a house on the market, but I trust that everything will work out.

I can't believe how fast time is flying. We have only a couple of months left here (2 or 3) and then we're free for the summer. I'm hoping to do some camping, catching up with old friends, and then moving to St. Paul and settling in.

I'm thinking about getting a Unicycle. I think I'd like to be known as the minister that Unicycles. What do you think?!

That's the update from T-town. Hope you're all well!

Once a Month Blogger

2006-03-12T18:02:00.000-08:00

Well, at this rate, I'll post an entry every month or so.

I love reading Duoteam's blog. I love it when the Minnosotans get polical! (And yes, Kettle chips are out of this world.)

The news around here is that our house goes on the market tomorrow. Yup, our cute little bungalow will be for sale. It's a sad feeling, owning a house for a while, and then getting ready to sell it. Sorta like taking "Old Yeller" out to the shed.

But the house is looking great. Flowers everywhere. Painted rooms. Replaced light fixtures. The smell of fresh baked cookies everywhere. Ah yes, the fresh baked cookies!

In the midst of all these house prep, I've found time to avoid writing papers and read some good books. If you're looking for good books to read, you might check out Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver or the Schopenhauer Cure by Irvin Yalom. Yalom is a fantastic writer. So is Kingsolver, for that matter.

As far as the weather, spring is here - as you can see from the blooming flox, one of my favorite flowers.
Tulips and daffodils and all sorts of other things are coming up, too. This is one of my favorite times of year, but it's been super dry and almost too warm.

I've been reading up on global warming, and basically, we're in some major trouble. If we keep up with business as usual, we'll be looking at the ocean in our backyard, (or a sort of hell) or maybe that will happen anyway. I think this is the fundamental issue of our lifetimes. Yes, we still have to get our minds around institutional racism (Crash offers a facinating look at the complexity of race/racism, class, and gender...) and post-colonial colonialism, and gender inequality and all that, but now much of that will matter if we don't have an inhabitable planet?

That's my rant. And the real question, for me, is how will I address this in my ministry? The faith community, for the most part, is silent on this issue, and yet I think that people of faith can and should speak to this issue.

And now for something upbeat: photos -

Here's a great picture of my dad in our newly painted kitchen, from a couple of weeks ago:

And finally, it's good to focus on some of the good things in life, like chilling in the back yard with a book:

Until April, JMS.

Birthday Action and More

2006-02-22T08:21:00.000-08:00

It's been quite some time since I wrote, over a month, and there's a lot to catch up on. I just celebrated my 31st birthday, which was a fantastic event. Juliana turned into a super crafty woman and managed to organize a surprise party for me, which really was a surprise. I had no idea of what was going on; that's the first time I've ever had a surprise party thrown for me, and I loved it! Mom and dad were there, too, which made it even better. Juliana had coordinated with another friend to use her house and things worked out perfectly. Probably the best birthday ever.

As many of you know, Sierra is here, chilling in the fixed up West Wing, kicking it with dial up internet connection and her own hip pad to hang out in. She's been getting up WAY EARLY since her new job started - about 6:30am or so every morning. I don't envy her that! But it's been great to have her here - we've got a major cribbage championship underway and we're documenting all the games on a little piece of paper on the refrigerator. So far, she's a ahead by a few games, but that will soon change. One of the dorkiest things we'll do is go to the coffee shop with our laptops and then play cribbage against each other online. Talk about nerdy. But it's good times.

I preached last Sunday; it was great to have family there, even though hardly anyone else was there, because of the cold weather and ice.

The house should be going on the market sometime in the next few weeks. We've got a few things left to do and then we'll be ready to put it up. Having mom and dad here last week was incredible - we got rooms painting, light fixtures put in, and so much more. It's not transformed, but it's looking much better! Our realtor recommended that we paint our bedroom another color (it's a light purple right now), but I don't think we're into that, at least for the time being.

I'm still working on a couple of papers for Meadville Lombard...actually, I'm behind on a couple of papers for Meadville Lombard, but I have until the middle of March. Then it's just a final integrative paper (30-50 pages or so) and the internship and I'm done! I'll be graduating in June of 2007.

Yesterday was a great day, which is worth noting, because often Tuesdays are long days full of meetings and such and it doesn't feel like I get much done. But Marlin was out of town so I've been running our staff chapels and staff meetings and that has been really nice. I really am a "minister" and have the ability to be a ministerial leader! Not that I don't already know this, but usually he runs the chapel and the meetings, so it's nice to step into that leadership role and feel competent. The Campus Ministry group met last night as well and we had a great conversation - I've just felt energized since I got back from Chicago - and we had one of our best discussions ever last night, about Brokenness.... we talked about feeling broken, unloveable, not whole, and more. We also talked a bit about Brokeback Mountain, which is an incredible movie.

So I'm chilling this morning, before I head into church for a long day...I love reading all you're alls blogs, so felt like I needed to post to get you all up to speed.

Justin

Family Gathering in Chicago

2006-01-22T18:37:00.000-08:00

As I type this, I suspect that Nathan's still driving back to St. Paul, and perhaps mom and dad and Quentin are in the air (they had a long delay at Ohare.) I'm done studying and writing (at least for now, but maybe for the night - I already did 3 short papers, isn't that enough?!).

It was great to see you all...

Some memories: I enjoyed playing the slot machine, although I feel destined to be forever a loser. Juliana, as you can see by this picture, is not a loser! The funniest part of the whole thing was when Grandma starting giving us back our money, because she "couldn't take all that from us!!!" Grandpa was disgusted, but she gave us all back a dollar!

I love the smell of Grandma and Grandpa's house; it has this particular smell that I can't quite identify as anything other than G and G's house.

I also love it that Juliana came down from T-town to meet my grandparents. She handled Grandma like an old pro and I think both of them loved her! She deftly handled Grandma's questions and at one point, asked Grandma, "Where did you neck when you were young?!" Grandma confessed that she necked out in the hallway of the dorm (in fact, I think mom said the same thing!) Anyway, it was stellar to have Juliana there, even if she was fighting a cold and feeling stressed with work stuff.

So - I love you all - thanks for the laughter, tears, beers, pool games, snow walks (JJ), and more...it was good times!

Spring Time in Chicago

2006-01-14T06:16:00.000-08:00

This is hardly the Chicago I remember from Januaries past (this is my 4th January here, in the Modified Residency Program at Meadville Lombard). It has been down right balmy, with lots of rain. Yesterday, it couldn't decide between rain and snow and ended up sticking with rain. Bizarre. I wish it would snow.

It feels like spring, actually. The grass is somewhat green, there's all these Hyde Park parrots flying around, and it feels like tulips and crocuses can't be far behind. It's actually got me in the mood for spring and gardening. During class this week (it was a class on Unitarian Universalist Congregational Polity (ie, how our churches govern themselves; despite the title it was a fascinating class. We have our roots in the Pilgrims and the Puritans and their desire to form 'freely gathered' churches outside the church of England. Of course, it was based on the their understanding of the early church in the Christian Scriptures, but the key part was to be able to gather freely together, without coercion, to love and care for one another, to walk together, and to listen to the 'holy spirit' as it guided them...anyway, this is the tradition that we come out of...that freedom of conscience and independent churches, relating laterally to each other, is more important that hierarchy and coercion..))....so, back to the point: I've been looking at old pictures of our house and the awesome garden we have. I realize that many of you have no idea what the back yard even looks like so I've decided to share some pictures, given that it feels like spring time and I'm in the mood for planting. And on a more metaphorical note, I feel like I'm being "reborn" here - spending time connecting with colleagues, with my grandparents, and probably soon, with Laurel (and then a whole bunch of you next weekend!).

So - above: In March of 2003, while Juliana was away, I started work on the backyard patio. I order two tons of dirt and a ton of sand and a pallet and a half of sandstone rocks. Below is an updated shot from this summer (2005). There's another photo above, too. It has been the best part of this house, being able to garden, plant, work in the soil, and end good food that comes from 20 feet away. Last summer, we had eggplant, tomato, greenbeans, lettuce, watermelons, cantelope, cucumber, beets, peas, zukes, lots of strawberries, and more... I'm not a farmer, or even an expert gardener, but I really love it, and moving to an apartment in St. Paul has me a bit sad about not being able to garden. Just being connected to the soil/soul of the earth is healing for me...Maybe I'll do a little box garden.

Chicago Update

2006-01-06T20:21:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been in Chicago now since Monday. It feels like it's been a year. I arrived on Monday, after a significant delay in the Tulsa airport because of the weather in Chicago. So I sat at the Sport and Grub place and ate some Chicken Tenders (someone remind me again how gross and horrible the meat industry is) and drank some Jack and Cokes. I finally arrived and check into the cool pad - an apartment building about 4 blocks south of Meadville Lombard. It is the bomb apartment. Kitchenette, washer, dryer, two bedrooms. We've got an extra bed, too. There's three of us - Dennis from Eugene, OR, and James from Washington. James and I are 4th year Modified Residents at Meadville, Dennis is 2nd year. But when I arrived, no one was here, so I unpacked and ordered some Dominos Pizza, which I haven't done in years. It was stellar. Then I went to bed anticipating my Peapod order arriving the next morning. It did and I was set.

I left Tuesday afternoon for Ohare to meet Juliana to fly up to St. Paul to meet with the ministers at Unity Church, where I'll be doing my intern next year. Both Juliana and I are super excited about this opportunity, even though it will mean leaving Tulsa. I took a couple of pictures of the church, which I'll try to include here. On the left is the Courtyard in the middle of the church building. On the rigth is the sanctuary, still with Christmas Trees (the wood paneling is called the reredos (pronounced rere-re-doss, I think).

On Wednesday night, Juliana and I visited with Nathan, Karen, and Bruno for a little while, and got to see their cool digs.
That was nice, but I was tired, so we left after a little while. We went back to our bed and breakfast and crashed out for sleep.

Thursday morning, Juliana and I flew back to Chicago...and I came to Meadville and she went back to Tulsa. I miss her...

Now I'm settling into things here...this will be my last January here, then I'll do my internship and graduate in Spring of '07, I think.

Finally, instead of doing a recap of the time with family over the holidays (which was awesome!), I'll include my sermon from January 1st. I mention Grandpa and mom in it, and how spending time with you all made me think more about my mortality and the gift that life is. The time we had was incredible and has influenced my thinking about family and priorities. This sermon expresses some of that.

Until next time,
J

Here's that sermon:

Sermon: “After the Party” Jan 1, 2006 by Justin Schroeder

There’s only 358 shopping days left until next Christmas.
You know what that means? (Aside from just being ridiculous!)
It means we’ve made it through the holidays and have come to January 1st, with an entire new year spread out in front of us, and an entire old year behind us.
As you heard in the 2nd reading, Janus, (from which the word January comes), was the Roman god of gates, doorways, beginnings, and endings – transitions, in other words.
Today, January 1st, is doorway into the New Year.
Today, the great whale we’re riding on – planet earth – pauses before it begins another trip around the sun, spinning through the ocean of our galaxy.

Actually, as you know, the earth doesn’t ever really stop rotating and revolving around the sun, but today, as we sit in the doorway between the old and the new, we can imagine the earth pausing just long enough for us take inventory of our lives.
I like the New Year not for New Year’s resolutions, but for New Year’s reflections, to take stock of where I’ve been, and where I’d like to be.

After all, in this New Year, I don’t want to be pushed around by the waves of life and drift listlessly in the ocean.
Instead, I want to hoist my sail, and direct my little boat, my life, in a direction that matters.
I want to reflect on who I’ve been in the past year – what parts of myself have dominated, what parts have timidly hidden, what parts are begging to emerge.

Whether it’s today, this week, or next month, I believe we all need to stop and evaluate our lives – to ask, “How am I doing with my living?” - because we don’t live forever.
If we did live forever, perhaps we would never stop and reflect: “I’ll get to that next decade…you know, I’ll get to that next century, if ever…” Nothing would be pressing if we lived forever.

By stopping and reflecting, we have the chance to face our demons, to find meaning in our lives, to invite our best selves forward, and in this process of reflecting, to take the road less traveled.

Although it’s perhaps easier to just stay on the road of routine and familiarity, I don’t want to follow the same road from 2005 to 2006, without at least stopping to pause and see what’s around me.

And as I pause, I feel my mortality all the more deeply.
This is what it means to be human: to live, laugh, love, and struggle, knowing that we will one day die.
It all hit home over the Christmas holiday in Colorado with my family, my brothers and sisters and my parents, all being together for the first time in years.
While we were there, we received word that my grandfather, my mom’s father, who lives in Baltimore, was back in the ICU with continuing heart problems.
In the midst of the joy of our family reunion, there was deep sadness as well, as I (my family, too) realized that my grandfather, who’s in his nineties, will probably die in this new year…which means that soon both my mom’s parents will be gone (my grandmother died 9 years ago)…which means that my mom and I will both move one step closer to the edge of that great diving board – that all of us are lined up at, that all of us one day must go off of.

I enter this New Year knowing more than ever how short and precious life is, and how important loved ones are. Thinking of my own life fills me with appreciation and gratitude, and I am aware of how I must live try in the service of love, justice, and all that is life giving.
I enter this New Year aware of how important relationships are – with loved ones, with friends, with God or the mystery of life itself.
It is relationships that sustain and strengthen us, giving meaning and purpose to our lives. My relationship with so many of you, over this past year, has been a source of great joy.

And it is our relationship together, as a covenanted church community, coming together in this time and place, “to seek the truth in love and to help one another,” it is this promise that speaks to the better angels of our nature, and reminds us of who we might yet become.

It is appropriate to pause, because as the poet says in Ecclesiastes, there is a time for everything under the heavens – which means, there is a time to pause, to stop being busy, to reflect, to be in infinite moment.

Robert Fulghum, the Unitarian minister and well known author, offers an updated version of Ecclesiastes in the form of a story.
He explains that everyday his neighbor, Sam, takes his dogs for a walk.
Sam has an old dog and a new puppy. They walk at different paces, with differing levels of enthusiasm. They seek different things on their walks.
Fulghum writes, "Sam knows the old dog will not live much longer, so the young dog is there to overlap the inevitable loss. Sam thinks the young dog will learn a lot from the older dog that he can't learn from people. And having the young dog is an acknowledgment of life and death and a gesture toward the future - of Sam's continuing to be around for a while himself.”
“Several years ago Sam spent weeks at the bedside of a close friend who was dying of cancer. His friend was a man who had many regrets.
He said if he had only known death was so near, he would not have hurried to meet it. When asked what he would have done differently, he thought for a long time and said something surprising: For one thing, he would have taken time to walk his dog.
Fulghum continues: “There is, indeed, a time for all things under heaven.
And for all the great rites of passage; weddings and funerals, graduations and retirements. a time for anniversaries and reunions; for sunrise and sundown, for moon and rain, for stars. A time for the first breath - "ah" - and the last breath - "oh."
But in the meantime, there is the infinite moment - a time to do the dishes, and a time to walk the dog." (http://www.uusterling.org/sermons/1998/sermon%201998-01-04.htm)

This New Year, I don’t want to hurry toward death, blazing through the year, not really “awake.” I don’t want to be in such a hurry that I ignore (at my own peril) my inner shadows and demons; I don’t want to be in such a hurry that I don’t have time to plumb the depths of my own soul; or time to pray, or tend to my relationships.
I wish to pause and then move forward with intention into the days that are mine to live.

Although the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, doesn’t happen until Sept of 2006, the ten days of Rosh Hashanah are about taking yourself and your relationships seriously, asking, “Where did I go astray in the past year? Who have I harmed? How can I return to the service of life?”
Rosh Hashanah is also is a time to renew one’s connection to life, responsibility, forgiveness, inspiration and commitment. Rosh Hashanah concludes with Yom Kippur (the day of atonement), when people focus on making amends and restoring their sense of living a life that is, as Rev. Elizabeth Lerner says, “meaningful, spiritual, and most important of all, right.”

The New Year, whether you celebrate it in Jan. (as many of us do) or Sept., (if you’re Jewish) can be a time of awakening and renewing your focus on relationships and right living.
Speaking of awakening, this Friday is Epiphany, which we don’t often celebrate. However, like many religious holidays, Epiphany holds powerful truths about the human condition.
Epiphany, as you know, is the 12th day of Christmas, the day when the Three Wise Men (or Three Kings or Magi) are said to have visited baby Jesus, the first to recognize him as the new born king.
Thus, the term epiphany means "to make known" or "to reveal." Their visit revealed Jesus for who he was.
Today, when we use the word epiphany, we speak of “a sudden, intuitive realization,” or a deep insight, awakening, or revelation about something in life.

This New Year, may we all pause long enough to be open to “sudden, intuitive realizations,” in our lives. After all, it is often the smallest of things, a new born baby, for example, that can lead to life changing insights, and great changes, even in the darkest of times. These epiphanies can be life saving.
Years ago, UU minister Clark Wells wrote about large changes contained in small things, in other words, epiphanies. He wrote:
“During my first year in theological school I was in despair about life, my own included. One cold, dreary Chicago day during the worst of it, wandering aimlessly along 63rd Street, going silently crazy, I suddenly, without intending or willing it, turned and stepped into a fresh fruit bar and ordered a glass of orange juice.
I drank it unthinkingly, then tasted the juice, the pulp. And slowly something happened. The orangeness of that orange juice, its sweetness and sunfilled-ness, the feel of it going into my throat and into my body, awakened me.
I remember mumbling to myself how those oranges were doing good by me, actually caring for me without my asking, and the least I could do was say—if not “thank you”—at least “okay”.
Maybe if oranges could be such a pal—zinging good things through me—why not other things? The sun, the air, the sidewalk, the music pouring from the bells of Rockefeller Chapel across the midway. I finished my orange juice, walked back to the Meadville Library, wrote an A paper on Luther and the Anabaptists and went on into the ministry.”

Clark Wells continues, “…I have faith that…down the street somewhere, around a corner, the gift awaits, like the grace of God in the peeling of a fruit, when I listened to the orange.” (From: http://home.att.net/~USNH/20020106.html)
Epiphanies, these sudden manifestations of new truth in our lives, come in surprising and unexpected ways. Be open to these moments of grace and new insight.

Undoubtedly, this New Year will bring many changes in our lives, people we know and love will probably die.
People we don’t know will come into our lives and impact us in ways we cannot imagine.
Old friends will continue to bless us in the New Year.

But today, the party’s of last night are over. The ball has dropped. We’re arrived, in the New Year.

My wish for you in this New Year is that by pausing and taking stock of where you’re at in your life journey, you might bring forth something beautiful and healing into the world.
My wish for you in this New Year is that you have time to walk your dog, to play with your children, to spend time with those you love, to just sit under the open sky.

My wish for you in this New Year is that you taste the miracle in orange juice, that you feel in a real and tangible way, the miracle of your own life, of all life, and that you stop to smell the flowers along the road less traveled.
I promise you, when you come to the end of your days, it will have made all the difference.
Amen.

Cribbage Victory!

2005-12-27T09:26:00.000-08:00

I realize this entry may not be relevant to many people, but I think that it's important to document a recent cribbage game I had with dad. After being behind 10 to 15 points for the entire game, I turned it on on 4th street and won, leaving dad in the stink hole! Not that I'm paying much attention - the point, after all, is just to have fun!
(But I tell you what, I have a lot of fun when I win and dad's in the stink hole!)

Yesterday, we all went snowshoeing at Rocky Mountain National Park. It was beautiful weather and the hiking was great. We were a group of 11 and often broke into smaller groups of 4 or 5. I tried to imagine what it would be like to be solo - to spend a day and a night out there alone, hiking, camping, just you and the great wild cold. I'm sure there are people who snow camp and I wonder what that's like. Do all your thoughts begin to revolve around warm and food and fire? Do you slowly forget about the internets, the mundane trouble you're having, the book you're been reading? Do you have a heightened sense of what it means to be alive when you're facing an indifferent wind and dropping temperatures?

These thoughts crossed my mind...and then slowly left. I kept hiking, eating snack mix, and enjoying the scenery.

Christmas Day

2005-12-25T17:47:00.000-08:00

After getting up at 5am, Juliana and I had a quick drive to the Tulsa Airport and were off to Denver...we arrived early and grabbed the shuttle.

On the way up here (to Fort Collins) I talked to a guy on the bus, who was like, "This whole 'happy holidays' thing is crazy. All these people trying to be politically correct. Holidays comes from 'holy days.' So what's wrong with saying 'Merry Christmas?'"

It's been interesting reading about this debate, how the humanists and atheists are trying to destroy Christmas by refusing to say "Merry Christmas." And how the Christians demand that we keep the "Christ" in Christmas.

My two cents is that the season is about family and about hope and peace and possibility being born into the world, especially in the darkest time of the year. This hope comes in many ways and many places. The message of the season is that we have to make room in our lives (in our "inns") for hope, love, and joy to be born. It doesn't matter if we're theist, atheist, agnostic, or pagan...we need to make room for the "divine," for life to surprise us - we need to make room in our lives for the unexpected. That's the point of the season.

And, as a factual tidbit, the early Pilgrims and Puritans weren't into Christmas, at all. You'd be put in the stocks if you celebrated that Pagan Holiday.

This is my virgin post in blog land. A trial run, if you will. But I was inspired by Laurel's and DuoTeam's blogs and couldn't resist..

Merry Christmas, all!