On my first trip to India this was part of my insight;That somehow Work was honored. All work was important.
The way they would put a large pile of stones outside a home, hut, on the road and the job of the worker was to take the stones about football size and make them gravel size was honored work. Those who didn’t have the work would gather to watch the workers pound the rocks to stones to gravel.
When we had to spend almost 8 hours in an airport with plane delays there was a woman who worked in the restroom and would flush and clean out your toilet each time and you paid her pennies. You honored and truly appreciated her work. There were three of us waiting and we’d each give her a high end tip for her work. Before we left the airport I gave her $20 in RS. She said “oh no no no, you give too much. “ I said. I honor your work and thank you.
We watch from the sidelines as workers in meatpacking plants are sent back to work with no regard for their health or safety in this VIRUS Pandemic. We try and voice our reaction to injustice and sometimes those words get to the right person who will pass them along. Here’s a link to harvest jobs now available. https://www.indeed.com/q-Harvest-l-USA-jobs.html?advn=9636559106873020&vjk=3cb4edda0827ca98
Words have been my work for some time. Finding the right words to share the Good News of how we are all Beloved, beloved children of God. The color of our eyes or skin doesn’t; entitle us to preference. There is no particular preferred child of God and perhaps it is the realization and acceptance of that truth that makes us uncomfortable. Our goodness doesn’t; earn us anything special.
When I had the five church parish I would listen to this song driving over on Sunday morning written by Derek Webb, “Thankful.”Here are part of the words
“I am thankful that I’m incapable Of doing any good on my own I’m so thankful that I’m incapable Of doing any good on my own
It’s by grace I have been saved Through faith that’s not my own It is the gift of God and not by works Lest anyone should boast “
We have much to learn, As Justice workers we have so much work to do. Remember, We are all holding up a part of the sky, together.
God abides, for that I am ever Thankful Bobbie Giltz McGarey @04/2020
When our kids were little I was often interested to see that the first time we watched a movie they seemed only to be paying a little attention. They would sometimes wander in and out of the room.
Now I realize that probably the wandering was a symptom of their anxiousness about the story. In order to cope with the scary parts leaving seemed like a good tact. (Our daughters children put their hands up on their cheeks and keep watching. Sometimes patting their cheeks in the really exciting parts.). But they too like watching movies repeatedly.
Now I have to confess, or share depending on if you think it’s ok, that I too like watching movies repeatedly. You know good chic flicks that turn out well with very little violence or swearing or real anxiety in the story. Ok there can be tension but since the it is not my first time through it is ok. Movies like Jane Austin stories, or The Lake House, or While you were sleeping, or Guernsey literary and Potato Peel Society, and and and and.
This is not really a new phenomenon. But I can now understand in ‘these’ days that it makes sense. The news stories often bamboozle me with issues, facts, actions, plans, and ideas that take my breath. Some that bring tears to my eyes or turn my stomach. I need something no matter how trivial is sure to turn out ok. No double endings like on Waynes World, or a flip switch at the end where the good are really really bad. (Too much like the news).
How about you? Do you watch movies that challenge you and leave you hanging out somewhere and then reel you back in to a mostly happy land. I like movies right now in particular that make me really relax and happy.
So don’t judge me.
God abide, sweet dreams. Bobbie Giltz McGarey -04/30
`Earth Day was every Saturday Growing up in Columbus with a father on the Biology faculty, Maurice Giltz, I thought every Saturday was the best day every week. My daddy would get us up early and we’d have breakfast. Sometimes at home he’d make the worlds best ever soft boiled eggs with toast. But there were also the Saturday’s, probably when the weather was good in the spring or summer, that we’d take breakfast and eat by the pond or in the car. We’d have those little boxed Kellogg cereals in the little boxes with the perforations on the back and the cereal was in waxed paper and you’d pour the milk on the cereal and eat it
RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX. I put that in all caps because that’s just how big a treat it was.
Until I was in K we would go out on these Saturday morning field trips. Mainly to the farm at Ohio State which now has the west campus on it. There was on the farm a pond. The frog pond. Little did I know my daddy was studying both the frogs and the cattails. I just thought it was our time. He called them Snoopers’Hunts. I so enjoyed them.
Long before it had a pedagogical name, Inquiry Method of teaching, my daddy taught me by asking questions. He said if you can frame a good question you can usually find an answer. Or do research and use the Scientific Method to test your guesses. This is before I was 5.
He taught me to observe the world and then put together all you knew that made it like hypothesis about what I had seen. For example, There was a row of trees that all bent to the one side. He told me that i can look up the name of the tree but could I figure out why they would all be bent like that. For weeks we’d observe them and I would make guesses and he’d help me think about it and I would see why or why not that was right. I taught our kids like this too.
Anyway every Saturday was an Earth day. It was because we’d be out, no matter the weather, and we would try and learn something new.
The level of the pond varied according to rain and the season. One year there was a good size rock, about the size of a football, but heavy. Every Saturday for about 6 weeks when we went to the pond I’d try and lift up that rock. Each Saturday at breakfast I’d eat more to see if I could get stronger and lift the rock. He once told me I ate 4 soft boiled eggs one morning sure that it would make me strong enough for rock lifting. Finally, at some point, I went around the pond and found my rock and reached down and picked it up. Daddy! I did it. Then I put it down and started crying. He came over where I was and was trying to figure out what in the world could be wrong. I’d just accomplished my goal. And that Was the problem. I said, Daddy, what’s next. I’ve done everything I always thought I needed to do. I picked up the rock. What do I do now.
Friends we will contemplate this in our next installment.
`Earth Day was every Saturday Growing up in Columbus with a father on the Biology faculty, Maurice Giltz, I thought every Saturday was the best day every week. My daddy would get us up early and we’d have breakfast. Sometimes at home he’d make the worlds best ever soft boiled eggs with toast. But there were also the Saturday’s, probably when the weather was good in the spring or summer, that we’d take breakfast and eat by the pond or in the car. We’d have those little boxed Kellogg cereals in the little boxes with the perforations on the back and the cereal was in waxed paper and you’d pour the milk on the cereal and eat it RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX. I put that in all caps because that’s just how big a treat it was. Until I was in K we would go out on these Saturday morning field trips. Mainly to the farm at Ohio State which now has the west campus on it. There was on the farm a pond. The frog pond. Little did I know my daddy was studying both the frogs and the cattails. I just thought it was our time. He called them Snoopers’Hunts. I so enjoyed them. Long before it had a pedagogical name, Inquiry Method of teaching, my daddy taught me by asking questions. He said if you can frame a good question you can usually find an answer. Or do research and use the Scientific Method to test your guesses. This is before I was 5. He taught me to observe the world and then put together all you knew that made it like hypothesis about what I had seen. For example, There was a row of trees that all bent to the one side. He told me that i can look up the name of the tree but could I figure out why they would all be bent like that. For weeks we’d observe them and I would make guesses and he’d help me think about it and I would see why or why not that was right. I taught our kids like this too. Anyway every Saturday was an Earth day. It was because we’d be out, no matter the weather, and we would try and learn something new. The level of the pond varied according to rain and the season. One year there was a good size rock, about the size of a football, but heavy. Every Saturday for about 6 weeks when we went to the pond I’d try and lift up that rock. Each Saturday at breakfast I’d eat more to see if I could get stronger and lift the rock. He once told me I ate 4 soft boiled eggs one morning sure that it would make me strong enough for rock lifting. Finally, at some point, I went around the pond and found my rock and reached down and picked it up. Daddy! I did it. Then I put it down and started crying. He came over where I was and was trying to figure out what in the world could be wrong. I’d just accomplished my goal. And that Was the problem. I said, Daddy, what’s next. I’ve done everything I always thought I needed to do. I picked up the rock. What do I do now. Friends we will contemplate this in our next installment. God abide, stay safe and healthy. Love Bobbie Ps. What are you doing next Saturday morning?
If our lives could lie before us like a straight and narrow hughwaySo that we could see forever before we took the ride We would never look to heaven make a wish, or climb a mountain, ‘Cause we’d always know the answer what’s on the other side.
Have you ever wondered what is ahead In your life.? Like where will I Be next month, or next birthday, or after a major event, like a graduation, Or wedding…We don’t know .
But we have made plans and provided for our wellbeing We have food in the fridge or in the cupboard. We have so many clothes we could never wear them all. We have a car, or two. We have books…lots of books What’s ahead? These days especially when it is clear that Once-was will probably never be here again. I can’t say But I believe God has a plan for our lives..a plan for Good. Do we live in the Will-be? This current virus plucks people somewhat randomly from this life, chews us up, and spits us up as new people. It won’t be familiar but it will become safe as we pluck from the good from New ways and creatively turn it into Good way forward through the what if’s/ohMyJesus Cc Here we Go !
When I was the pastor of New Life Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque, NM. We had a time in the service, “a time with the children”. We had a few children when I first got there but they moved, or grew up, and it was really a time for adults. I still kept in the in bulletin with the original name, a time with the children. Well, we are all children of God right. Yes
So I started using the time with a story that would somehow illumine the upcoming sermon text. I realize that many of the stories had a slight comic but timely twist. Many of the stories I believe started… When I was a camp counselor. … and then some story from camp. I was most always been able to round come to a point that had a spiritual application.
Sometimes, to be hones, I wasn’t sure of where I wanted to go. I would let the spirit lead me.
Most of the time though I would have spent time i the prior week figuring out what story I wanted to use. Sometimes we sang, or read a psalm responsively and we got through t all together.
But I think by far the stories were what people liked best. Sometimes, often, people would come to me and quote a time with the children. A least as often as people would remember something said in a sermon.
When I was a camp counselor is the preamble to many of my favorite stories and memories, You could add in Junior Counselor. A myriad of them roll through my brain. Sometimes I can’t tell you the name of the woman I met last week, but I can tell you about the time we dared the guy who ran to dishwasher to put his arm, in as far as he could up to his shoulder, into the garbage can that was full of left over spaghetti. I think we paid him $3.00
Years later karma surfaced when a woman in my church who had brought her real silver for a dinner and couldn’t find a fork and blamed everyone for throwing it away. I reached into the spaghetti remnants and found the fork. Promise I got the giggles flashing back on our $3.00 bet. And, yes, I found the missing fork. I found a knife and a spoon as well. And she didn’t pay me $3.00 or even offer a thank you.
Not long ago on a Facebook page for camp Akita Alumni I found a post from a guy that was a junior counselor, and later a counselor with me. We are going to share some of the things that have happened in the last 42 years. Somehow it doesn’t seem that long ago because so many of my best stories begin..when I was a camp counselor…. And Mike is part of those stories.
There used to be a corollary that many of the people who became ministers had a meaningful experience at a church summer camp.
You know, When I was a camp counselor. How much time do you have?
LETS BE HONEST. I have to confess that I’ve been doing a lot of online shopping. I fill Carts… then I delete them. I keep getting messages… you have items in your cart. Stores are having sales. Temptation is everywhere. Ok Ok, I did buy a pair of shoes which have yet to appear. You know one of those Facebook pop up shops with dresses and shoes many of which are less than 20$. (I have a cousin who bought a recliner. That makes sense with the Netflix marathons these times demand.). ( have you watched Longmier? Or the Crown?). Anyway Clothes sometimes make sense. Now for me, I’m newly retired. I look at tops and think they would work under my clergy’s robe, or is formal enough just to work for visits.
However, for the past two months I’ve been away from home with my mother in law. I packed in a hurry as I was going to stay with her while her broken ribs mended. She is all healed from that. I hadn’t expected to stay this long but when the stay home call came out I’ve stayed. (BTW we still love each other). I didn’t pack a wide range of clothing choices, There’s my TX t-shirt, my Metanoia T.Shirt, three plain JJILL T SHIRTS, a OSU college of osteopathic medicine shirt, an Ohio State T-shirt, three pairs of pants, one dress, Uwear, one sweater, my bathing suit, ok that was excess. Two pairs of shoes, (on that I should have brought more). But you see i am getting a little tired of rotating those. Not because I need more for our quarantine time together but it must be boring for her to see me in the same thing. Then I read this article. See one of the things ahead for me is that when my husband retires in a few months we are really cutting down on ‘things’. Clothes are going to be one of my challenges. I have many many clothes, So I am sorting them in my head. I think many of them will be going to the thrift store at the Catholic Church in Raton. They are fine clothes, just not what I’ll need or be wearing. This article is a wake up call. I think I’ll still go shopping online…not ever checking out. Be kind. Bobbie
How can it be Easter Week? Easter seems so far long ago. Ministers are preparing g for the Sunday after when a lot of folk give themselves the Sunday off. Many ministers also take the Sunday away because of the General Lenten/Holy Week Fatigue Syndrome.
And in case some folk think that a Stay Home Sunday is any less tiring for the minister, often the arrangements for that are even more complex. Keeping in touch with the vulnerable folk. Praying for all the people who are ill. Trying not to get ill themselves.
This week for my husband John, Rev.Dr. John, has been filled with things yet to be accomplished. Then he let me know he got bitten by a dog. Geeze really? He didn’t need that. He knows the dog and the owners and can find out for sure the dog has had his shots. I don’t want to contemplate what’s next if he hasn’t. *prayer request.
But if you were one of Jesus’ followers this must have been a confusing and faith challenging week. You have reports of Jesus out of the tomb, of people seeing him and meeting him and eating with him. You may even have been one of he ones he appeared to and so you’ve got convince everyone else what you encountered. It was a new beginning. It was a whole new job description. What did you sign up for anyway?
But we live in an age of COVID-19. It I even pops up if you write the first two letters. We live in a stay at home time. But some folk aren’t. We live in a time when we don’t know without testing who has the virus and who doesn’t. How long does immunity last if you do get it? If you do get it and survive. What do you do? Which set of treatments are prescribed by Your local hospital. Is it the same as in PA? Or CA, or WA, Or other? And which one works best. And are they really the same virus? Or are there more than one strains… AGGGGGHHHH. Oh God help.
And basically that is our prayer these days. O God help us and all involved with healing the sick. Help us not to die. (Just saying) and help us to be of service. And help us not fear. Because that won’t help. That one is even harder than remembering to put on a mask.
I get to FaceTime now and then with my family. That is great. We look like the Brady bunch in the boxes at the opening. Looking around. They are even all on their phones in the house. Uh oops wait…they didn’t have cell phones when little ones are growing up.
I started counting the numbers of reference from so many different viewpoints remarking on the ‘reasons’ for the virus. Many say it is Mother Nature’s direct intervention to get the planet back on course. Others consider it a ‘smite-Thee’ plague visited upon on the people for sins.
There zero few who want to say. Viruses happen.
Please understand I’m not being Blaise about this. It has proved itself to be dangerous, lethal, terrifying, crippling, and a scourge on human life. There are ways to keep from passing it around and we, most of us are trying, to follow the rules so that we don’t get it. Many of us so we don’t pass it on to someone we love as much as not wanting to endure it ourselves, or even die from it.
Every cough or sneeze you hear, or have, sets the mind to wondering if this is it?!
Your mind races through the list of symptoms that come and go and are broadcast and repeated and thrown up as if there is a step by step progression. There may be some but usually you hear it just hits. No warning about someone who gave it to you because you may have encountered them two weeks ago.
Is this where the real dilemma comes from. When my children got the chicken pox I knew exactly the friend they were playing with who later that day popped out into the pox. (My kids got it from a friends kids…at least it was the Presbyterian Pox.). This is different.
But it happens.
So what do we make of this? Perhaps the question should be what do we learn from this?
We have learned some things just by observation: That we don’t need to go to the store everyday. That the sky is clearer when there aren’t so many cars on the road. That rivers run green and clear when companies are not’ dumping waste into them upstream.
We learned that people really do need people and that being around only q few people for a long time isn’t easy. We learned that teachers have a big job. We have learned our children can be really funny just on their own. We learned that the internet can connect us for conversations and meetings we otherwise would not get to have with friends or family.
If we are paying attention we learn that the world is not fair—That some people can’t just stop their work or their families won’t eat—That not everyone has backup or money in the bank to tide them over.
We know that there are millions of people in other parts of the world who are sick and dying and we will never know their names or how many of their families die or their villages die or their people die. Nevertheless, we don’t seem to care.
The sun shines on us all. The moon reflects the same light on all the world. The rain falls and doesn’t fall on the good and the bad.
We all go together or we don’t go at all.
Let’s go together from now on. Imagine there’s no boundaries between us. It’s just all us.
It’s not some great plan to punish some and reward others. It’s the way life on earth has always been. We can change and slightly manipulate our own little part of the earth.
We are really all the same. Bobbie Giltz McGarey 04.16.2020
AND THE WORLD IS ABOUT TO TURN.” Canticle of Turning.
Oh sweet call of the Spring time. White cotton tails. still young, come to the door to remind us of the turning of the days. The sun behind it passes through it’s ears, here I am.
This is the first Easter in 42 years I haven’t been preparing to celebrate Easter in my own church. I’m retired now. That is as it should be. But I do miss the preparations and the prayers that go into putting together an Easter service. How to make it even more poignant and exciting to those gathered for worship? How to line up the music, the moments, the scripture the action, the communion, the decorating in the church to bring forward the joyousness of the occasion?
This year I am celebrating with my Mother In law, Gladys McGarey. It is her 100th Easter. She’s still 99 till November but here it is. She was born in India to medical missionary parents. Easter was a grand day there.
Our plan at present is to get up before dawn and go on her roof top patio and watch the sunrise from there. We will then have an hour before worship starts at my daughter’s church in Allentown PA where we will join them online live in worship. All of us are staying home this year because of the virus. But in that ‘away/togetherness’ we will be together. There is something powerful about us being able to join them in ‘real time’ as the worship progresses. This church, FPC Allentown has been doing everything right with the production of the services. We worshipped on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Now Easter.
I have so many memories of Easter. Of little things going right, of little glitches in the planning, that turned out worshipful anyway, of being a child waking to find what the Easter Bunny left for me, of times with cousins Martha and Janice and our parents together, of Easter dresses and Easter shoes, of Jelly Beans.
One of my favorite memories with Janice and Martha was when we were in college and our families got together. Our dad’s had gone out on an errand the day before and it seemed a little suspicious. We didn’t really consider what they might be doing but they had some plan you could tell. We came down for breakfast and were seated at the table when my Daddy said, “I don’t know for sure Frank, but I thought I saw something the the back yard this morning,”. “Me too,” said Frank, “could it have been the Easter bunny? Do you think it might have been?” Martha and Janice and I were giggling by this time. “You better go look girls.” We laughed and went out into the yard searching for who knows what. They had gotten each of us a stuffed bunny and hidden it in the yard. Which ever one we found was ours. As we got them we looked at each other and I remember crying a little and being so touched that they had done this for us. What sweet sweet men.
Many other Easter’s too are in my memory. One year I’d hidden eggs for the kids around the house in Utah. They were looking inside and Betsy found one in the piano, behind the music stand. She and I looked at it as it was one that didn’t match the others with the wrappers. We both started to laugh realizing that this chocolate egg must have been from Last Easter.
Two years ago on Easter I was pastor at New Life Presbyterian in Albuquerque, NM. Our daughter Betsy was due to have her second child at the end of the week. It was an exciting time. I was getting ready to go and be with them on Tuesday, a week before her due date. I had decided to drive over to church early and walk the labyrinth as it was a beautiful April morning. So I got up early and was just driving in the parking lot, 2 hours early, and Betsy called me. I said How sweet it was for her to call and wish me a Happy Easter, “Yes,” she said, “I’m in labor”. “What? Wow are you doing ok?” “Oh, yes, i am already at the hospital.” The real serious laboring hadn’t started as yet. “Do you want me to come today? I can check on the flight possibilities into Bethlehem?” “Well, you could, “.she said, “That would be good.” ‘It will have to be after church,”. I’ll check to see if the fare is possible” . I parked at the church, the sun wasn’t totally up over the mountains even though it was really light outside. I ate my breakfast sandwich and looked up flights on my phone. There was one that left at `1:19 pm from ABQ to ABE. It wasn’t more than I expected. I booked the flight and called her back and said, I’m coming. I’ll be in at 11:45pm.
Now Betsy’s labor with Maggie Mae had been long and so we both thought there was a chance I could be there when the baby came. I told her not to wait, at this she laughed. They ordered an Uber to pick me up at the airport and get me to the hospital in case Sean shouldn’t leave when I got there. But, there was still church.
I went home right then, the Easter Breakfast wasn’t for an hour and 40 minutes so I could pack. Though I hadn’t actually put clothes in a suitcase I had mentally gone through what I wanted to take. I packed, got everything I needed, and was back at church in 20 minutes. I had plenty of time before the breakfast. I didn’t make an announcement but when folk asked me how she was I’d say that she was in labor and explain I was leaving right after church for the airport. I found someone to take me to the airport.
We had a wonderful gathering of people at the breakfast and in church. I wore my white robe under my dark robe taking the dark one off after “ He has risen, Indeed” had been declared and we were singing the first hymn. A few folk noticed. The worship went well. I was able to focus and the Good News was spoken, sung, prayed, communioned, and celebrated. Right after church I left for the airport.
I relaxed. I would be there, when I got there. Excited to be sure but confident and praying for her to have a good delivery. When I walked in her hospital room they were putting the baby on her tummy and she said, “Mom, come meet your grandson.” What joy. I washed my hands, picked up my phone for photos and walked over to their side. Sean was on one side and I was on the other and little wee one, Ian, was there looking around. He was so beautiful. Her labor had progressed well and for that I was grateful and I considered that I was there when he was born. Deep sigh. What a great moment. We called Gramps and told him the news. They named him Ian Maurice. He has brought such good light into the world.
Easter, He is risen. Easter, He is not here, for he has risen. Easter, New life, new joy, new challenges, same promises from God. i will be with you always, Come, follow me.
This Easter we are sheltering in place trying to protect ourselves and others from the Virus that is killing people around the globe. We stay in, some people longing for interaction in big groups. We will be one and two and four and more scattered here and there across the country, now celebrating. It is only part of the message that has been spread since dawn came on the other side of the world. It is a good time.
Mother Earth seems to be showing us what pollution we are truly responsible for producing. With fewer people out and therefore fewer cars polluting far distances are easily seen. What then can we learn during his Lenten pause that can carry us to a more just, generous,and grateful people.
God abides, and I thank God with every breath. Love, Bobbie Giltz McGarey
The Spirit Will Tell You 