Springtime Faith

Every time we purchase something, it’s an act of faith, isn’t it?

• Faith is buying a thick wheel of rubber and believing it will carry a car for dozens of years.

• Faith is purchasing medicine and expecting it will do for us what it says on the label.

• Faith is ordering an article of clothing from a far-away place and trusting it will show up in our mailbox, fit us, last ages, and not go out of style.

Many daily activities are acts of faith:

• sending a child to school, day after day, and hoping that they’ll learn something new.

• moving a tiny switch on a wall in our homes and assuming it will bring light to a dark room.

• retiring to bed at sundown, becoming unconscious, and trusting that in a few hours, the sun will rise and wake us up.

Springtime is filled with moments of faith:

• seeing a lone robin and believing more will appear.

• watering a patch of soil and believing green grass will pop out of the ground there.

• planting a seed and believing it will turn into food or flowers.

Because of the past two years—a world-wide pandemic!—many of us fear going out without masks, hugging each other, or gathering. For plenty of our fellow parishioners, entering our church building for services during the preceding year was a challenging choice. And yet, scores of us have.

It’s an act of faith, isn’t it?

• that if we sing collectively, our voices will become stronger.

• that if we listen together, we will hear better.

• that if we pray simultaneously, our intentions will transport further.

We have faith that if we attend church together, by zoom or by chapel, we will multiply goodness.

 

(Originally published in Mid-Week Message, First UMC Alamosa, 12 May 2021)

Broken Mug, Broken Dreams

From my Writing Journal, 14 August 2018:

My writing mug broke all to pieces.

I found it years ago when I was Wishcraft buddies with Jean D. Back then, I was starting to buy cups for New Years' Resolutions: a "home sweet home" mug to remind me to say please and thank you and remind the kids as well, a Victorian house cup to support our move to the "the propitty" outside of town, a love mug to remind me to seek joy for the health of my heart. Sometimes I got money mugs, but my financial status never really changed. Another story.

So, to boost my efforts as a writer, I looked for and found a drinking cup picturing books on shelves. Also, on the shelves were a lantern, a chess piece (the knight), and a paper airplane. Evocative, eh?

Holding it carefully, I showed it to Jean who had been encouraging me to recognize myself as an author. She gasped in happy surprise. “That’s perfect!”

Then I spread my palms and the two halves of it fell apart. “It broke,” I said to her. “What does that mean?”

We both wanted to cry. Such a perfect vision for a wanna-be-writer. What did it mean that it cracked? That it split neatly into two chunks?

I chose to believe that my dream was not broken just because of a coffee mug. I glued it back together. I’ve been using it as a pencil, pen, quill holder since. I felt like I dodged fate.

But then, Jones the cat stretched across my desk, and he knocked the mug onto the floor. It shattered. A few large shards, but mostly shrapnel; no gluing it back together, even for a pencil holder.

I gathered the pieces and threw them away. I swept the floor carefully, hoping to find any remaining, dangerous slivers.

Now I have a metal Hershey’s chocolate syrup can on my desk.

I choose to believe that the book mug was never meant for me. I was already an author. Am already a writer.

No need for aspirations when I was already living the dream.

~~~~~

Today, 24 April 2022, I’m still using the chocolate syrup can for holding the tools of my trade.

That’s right, today, writing stories is my daily work, my craft, my love.

I encourage anyone with a goal to use my coffee cup idea. It’s a way to tap into our subconscious to support what we love. But it might not be a good idea to use said mugs for desk tools, or to allow cats onto desks. [Shrug.]

(Still not sure what my subconscious sees in the chocolate syrup.)