Dear Friend,
I’m late with the Midweek Musings this week for a thousand reasons and no reason at all—just one of those weeks where I started it and then forgot to finish it. So apologies for landing in your inbox later than normal, but here’s hoping it was worth the wait and something in here sparks your soul or soothes your spirit during this very cold week in Wisconsin.
With gratitude,
Pastor Sarah
something Worth reading
The Natural Pace of Change
by Barbara Brown Taylor
Barbara Brown Taylor is one of my favorite preachers. This email landed in my inbox this morning and, in addition to making me wish I lived somewhere warmer where water was actually flowing in February, I find the imagery of water flowing around rocks helpful:
“How old are the stones in this riverbed? Millions of years. How long does the water stay? About a minute. Together they make a river, with a life expectancy sure to exceed mine. As odd as it is to rejoice in my ephemerality, that’s where the release comes. I’m the water, not the stone. Changing course can take ages, across all kinds of lifetimes. My job is to find my place in the great procession, rising and whirling like those who have gone before me for the little bit of time I have. My part is not to lose heart.”
something worth hearing
Winter Charm of a Lasting Life
Zambra
Winter Charm of Lasting Life is a traditional Scottish waulking song. This song would have been sung while newly woven wool cloth was “waulked” by women around a table. As they worked, the wet cloth would be pounded and passed from hand to hand. This process would make the wool fibers knit together to produce a tight, weather resistant fabric. Women would take turns to sing improvised verses as they worked a piece of cloth.
White the sheep that gave the wool
Green the pastures where they fed
Blue and scarlet side by side
Bless the warp and bless the thread
May the charm of lasting life
Be upon your flocks in full
From the hill where they rest
May they rise both whole and well
Bless the man who wears this cloth
May he wounded never be
From the bitter cold and frost
May this cloth protection be
Bless the children warmed within
Three times three our love enfold
Peace and plenty may they find
May they grow both wise and bold
Now is waulked the web we’ve spun
Winter storms may rage in vain
Bless the work by which we won
Comfort from the wind and rain
White the sheep that gave the wool
Green the pastures where they fed
Blue and scarlet side by side
Bless the warp and bless the thread
something worth watching
Gastrointestinal Hypermotility in Tuatara
John Green
Admittedly, I clicked on this video because the name was unusual. It’s not actually a video about gastrointestinal hypermotility in tuatara, but I was glad I clicked it nonetheless. It’s really a video about despair and community and the little things. And, it’s only 4 minutes.
something worth praying
Teach Us To Look For You
turn our faces to the East to look for your presence.
Turn our faces in any and every direction
from which you draw near to us.
Teach us to look for you in places
we would not expect to find you.
Teach us to find you in places so well known to us
that we now fail to see you there.
Help us to see you in every guest we entertain.
Let the beauty of a rose, of any bloom, reveal your presence to us.
Let every bird who wings across the sky above
remind us of the freedom that is ours.
Let every star in the heavens be a light
in the darkness of our lonely nights…
Never let us forget that you are love
and that those who abide in love abide in you…
Teach us to look east, Sweet Mystery,
and north and south and west
that we might find you in every place we look…
including within ourselves.
Amen.
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