Dear Friend,

I have to tell you that prior to putting this week’s Midweek Musings together, I was having a day. To begin with, it’s the week before school starts so both of our children have haircuts plus there are two dentist appointments, a therapy appointment, a doctor’s appointment, a piano lesson, two open houses for two different schools, and a soccer practice—and that’s just for the kids. Plus they both need school supplies, but not just any school supplies, specific school supplies, but not just any specific school supplies, they want to pick the color of the specific school supplies and God help us all when that color doesn’t actually exist and/or is out of stock. And, you know, it’s the last week of summer and school is starting next week so there are a lot of different emotions roiling under the surface for all of us.

Additionally, for some unknown reason, there are no summer camps the week before school starts, so both kids are home all week and at loose ends. But we just got back from being gone for two weeks so Adam and I both have a significant amount of work to catch up on plus the house looks like a tornado hit because we left without things being totally settled and now that mess has been compounded by half-unpacked suitcases, school supply detritus, and the evidence of (fortunately successful) hunts for piano music and the next size of shin guards. So … there’s a lot of loudness in our house because people want attention and other people want quiet so they can get some work done and, really, no one is happy about anything. Plus, we tried something new for dinner tonight and that didn’t work.

I could go on, at length, but you get the idea. And, I know that many of you are living the same reality only in your own particular context with moves and family drama and all the rest. I tell you all of this not to elicit sympathy (though by Friday I might be in need of that), but to share with you that in the process of pulling together this Midweek Musings, I found that my soul settled. And I am reminded that there are certain things that center me, give me life, and ground me in my gifts and calling (like finding good videos and articles and prayers to share in the Midweek Musings), and I am amazed that I’m still amazed at the peace that doing those things offers (I mean, it also helps that both of my children have been asleep for a couple of hours, but …).

All of which is to say, I hope you are able to do something today that grounds you in who God has created and called you to be, and that in the doing, you experience some of God’s peace, that peaces that defies all understanding.

Pastor Sarah

The Love of Dog

by Diana Butler Bass

This substack article is old now, but timeless in a way that makes it always relevant, I think. As I was re-reading it this week, I was reminded of my children. Not because they’re canine, although they do act like wild dogs sometimes, but because their struggles and frustrations serve to focus my attention much as Diana Butler Bass describes in this article. And, at the same time, challenges with my kids also always make me remember who they have been in the past—sometimes marveling at the variety of people they have been in their short lives, and other times lamenting past iterations of their personalities (depends on the day, really). But what I found most poignant about this article were these paragraphs:

“I don’t mean to be sad — or to make you sad — but it is all so bittersweet. If I were God, I would have never given dogs a life so much shorter than our own. I’d have them live the same lifetime as do we, dying on the day that we pass on to Jesus. To take the final walk together. I’d make our lives and the lives of our beloved pets match.

“But it doesn’t work that way. And I wonder if one of their most special gifts is helping us practice endings — to recognize the slowing down, to be attentive to the changes, treasure the moment, learn how to accept loss, and to care for others with kindness during the winding down.”

Read the full article here.

A Prayer for Peace: Guitar Duet

Maria Linnemann and Leon Frijns

I love this peaceful and melodic guitar duet. Listening to it did feel like prayer for me, and I hope it will for you as well.

To Be In Awe: Wisdom from a 96 Year Old

Reflections of Life

First of all, if only old age looked like this for all of us. This woman is amazing. I hope that, should I ever reach her age, I will be half as impressive as she is and have the same equanimity about death as she does. There are too many quotes to share, but the first one that captured me was, “I want to be a child of wonder and astonishment.” I also loved her reflections about what play is—”I think playing means exploring, experimenting, being curious”—and her advice to go slow.

A Prayer in the Morning