Showing posts with label shopping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shopping. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

The Detritus of Our Lives


It’s Yard Sale time in the Highlands!  The ladies of the church are gathering in the detritus of our lives and I love it.  I get to go over to the church whenever I want and troll through all that stuff and it is glorious.

I know, I know.  I shouldn’t be so interested in the material world.  Preachers, after all, are concerned (or should be, so I am told) in things more eternal and somehow thus ethereal.  But it’s just so fun to troll, to see what others have cast off and even run across my own leavings and second-guess whether I really wanted to let that heart-shaped knick-knack go or not.  I mean, it did look good on the guest room dresser.  No, I sternly tell myself.  Let it go.  And giggle, because I actually have ‘bought back’ stuff before.

Then I move on to the glass and table ware left in one home by the former owner . . . the items lovingly packed away when an aunt recently died . . . the continued down-sizing of friends getting older and no longer interested in so much stuff . . . children’s things no longer wanted or needed as the kids have grown . . . evidence of projects that won’t be done this time around . . .

What we let go of is as interesting as what we keep.  And oh, what bargains!  I’ve got a dollar in my pocket.  I think I’ll do a little early shopping.


Friday, December 14, 2012

Shopping for Jesus


Yesterday I went with Laura and Priscilla to town.  The occasion?  To buy Christmas gifts for three Angel-Tree children on behalf of the church.  Presents may not buy or even bring happiness, but they are tangible evidence of important things – things like: you are loved; the spirit of Santa is real; you matter; life isn’t always about too little; giving is at least as good as getting; time spent with friends is never wasted; knowing each other is crucial to genuine gifting – it’s hard to pick the right jacket for a wee one you’ve never met; and perhaps most of all, how very, very, blessed I am.

I actually get to help a family bring a small measure of Christmas joy to its children.

I just hope Jesus likes the presents we picked; after all, they’re mostly for him.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Scotland -- Day Four


Worship!
Halleluia!
I’m in church
and I’m not in charge!

Now that’s
a Halleluia!
moment!

Singing praise
looking upward
eyes guided by the song words
on the screen

looking upward
and seeing the high windows
joining the roofline
and spying
the blue sky
beyond

lifted eyes
lift spirit
upward
ever
upward

***

Shopping for clothes
for Ruaridh
and Zara
and Liz
and me

yes - the one
who can’t shut
her suitcase
decided that she
wanted --
nay
needed
more clothes

"Do you think it’s a sin
to love to shop for clothes?"
she asks her fellow minister
and friend

more friend than minister 
in the moment,
Liz reassuringly answers
“No”

I love this woman

***

Afternoon Sunday
just like back home
once the church scurry
is over
it’s total sabbath relaxation
whether hanging the laundry
washing the car
pulling weeds
or relishing the
nothing doing
of the moment

and it is glorious