Peace Pole

Today I worked with our Trustees Chair Jeff on forming the area for our new peace pole. Jeff worked on forming the stairs as I dug out the semi-circle for the concrete which will be poured next week. What a great event this will be, to plant a peace pole right now in the midst of a time when so much war and conflict that ravages our world. I am more aware as we prepare for the planting on January 25th, of all the sad news of those who are losing their lives every day of this new year, both home and abroad. Perhaps since I live in Covina, a community trying to make sense of the killing of nine persons on Christmas Eve by a man grieving for a failed marriage, I am more sensitive to those tragedies that cause suffering. Perhaps it is because I have friends who have worked in Israel, and have been intimately involved with caring for those in that place, I am more sensitive to the violence going on there.
Whatever the cause, I yearn for a peace, peace in the homes of those who are my neighbors here and all across the world. I yearn for a time when we can settle our differences without violence and that my brothers and sisters all across the world can live in peace, with liberty and justice for all.
It is what I dream of as we prepare to plant the peace pole at our church, a new world, one that does not destroy one another, but learns to love one another. I know that this is not an easy dream to have, because the images of war break my heart, we still bicker and harm one another, the conflicts seem so impossible to solve. But God calls me to be a peace maker, to work for peace each and every moment each and every day. Planting a peace pole means to me that here and now I am recommitting to be a peacemaker in what ever way God calls me to.

Happy New Year

It is now 2009 and I am settling in after spending time off watching the Rose Parade with my daughter. Ever since I grew up watching the Rose Parade in my native Massachusetts, I have loved this parade. Now that I live close enough to go to it each year,I have only missed once, last year due to a bad case of the flu. Not this year, I enjoyed every moment, and to share it with my younger daughter was great. Usually I have taken my older daughter because it was when my wife and I were looking at the floats post parade 22 years ago, she went into labor and on Jan.2 my daughter was born. For the first 10 years I would pack her and I up and my wife and younger daughter would stay home, we would trudge up to Pasadena, try to find a spot for a stroller and me to sit and watch and we would have a great time. The last 10 years we would go up the night before and spend the night at a church, watching the cars go by with shaving cream or marshmellows or silly string all on them, and then after welcoming the new year, we would catch a nap inside the Holiston UMC and then wake up early at 4 to start cooking breakfast for 400 plus people who would be coming at 6am. We would work until about 9am when the parade would make it to the church and then we would sit in curbside seats reserved for us workers, the paying customers were up in the grandstand behind us. Then after wards we would wait for traffic to die down and head off to home to sleep and watch the channel 5 repeat of the parade and get more information on the floats and bands and riders. This year the parade has been shortened, and it seems like the pace was much faster, it was over before I knew it. My older daughter had gone to another New Years event and did not come, my wife has been having difficulty walking due to a knee injury, so it was just my younger daughter,Susy and I. We went to the post parade float display and got to see up close the detail of each float. It is always so amazing to me how they do it. Yes the holidays are now over, but the beauty of the flowers, the artistic designs, the happiness I feel when spending time with my daughter and sharing with her the parade, these experiences will live with me for a long time to come. I thank God for being healthy this year, for the beautiful day for the parade and for the opportunity to see such a great event. I hope you will, if you have not already, go to the Rose Parade at least once, who knows maybe you will get hooked on the experience just like me!

The Christmas Gift

What started as a spark of inspiration,
In the clouded mind of a husband,
was extinguished by horror.
The horror was replaced with a question
"How was this year any different from
Failed attempts in the past
To truly give something,
anything,
To express the deep passionate love
for another?"
The task to find a gift was always
Sidetracked with fear,
Of buying the wrong gift,based on a
Faulty perception of what the other wanted.
Panic played a bigger and bigger role in the
Crucial period of time necessary
to procure this treasure until
All options fell away, and fewer choices remained.
The chill in the air was nothing like the
Frozen imagination paralyzed by fear.
Oh for unlimited resources
Unlimited wisdom and timing
The pressure pushed up ideas
As bubbles of desperation pop into the steamy air.
The gift giver cries:
"My kingdom for just one good idea!"
SPM 12-9-07

How does your christmas shopping proceed and do you have any hints to make shopping less stressful?