Beautiful Sunday Morn and Random Thoughts on the Key

I awoke (or rather finally dragged my sleepy self out of bed) to the wonderful strumming of a boy and his new guitar. It was 48 degrees inside. The heater had been tuned to fan only.  We stopped at Music and Arts yesterday on the way home from church for a pack of clarinet reeds...but Noah had his treasure box of money in the car...and when he saw the Takamine beginner guitar on sale...well, he solved the store's no-ones on a non-bank day dilemma and patiently counted them out.

Yes, we went to church. It has been nearly a year. Noah and I woke early and headed to Harbor Pointe Community Church in Hampton where my friend, Bert, would be speaking at the early service. We arrived an hour ahead of time, went to Buckroe Beach (which Noah knows as the hand-holding beach...for Hands Across the Sand...see here), and managed to get lost at least three times before finding our way back to 351 E. Mercury.  I was a little nervous all over again about the whole church thing...but needn't have been. Sometimes we put ourselves in the imaginary box. It isn't there at all. I promise.

Bert's message on belonging and living loved was exactly what what my spirit needed...and as it turns out, it was what Noah needed as well. I could elaborate on that, but the kid needs at least a touch of privacy and I'm not prepared to share the intimacy of his spiritual journey. Harbor Point was inviting, small, relaxed...easy.  Noah participated in communion for the first time. It was the most inspiring and soulful communion service in which I've ever been a part.
It was a beautiful Sunday morning.

So, today I am home with Noah. It is inching closer to 50 degrees in here. I just manged to spill 9 cups of coffee on the kitchen floor while still filling one completely and not a drop on the counter (Oh, the amazing things I can do). Noah and I both have big projects to complete. For me, it is an annual report for work. For Noah, it is a project for English class.  We will feed the animals at the farm, check in on our neighbor, Tom, and think about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The following is a quote from King's acceptance speech in receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. I believe it resonates as strongly today as it did then: Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

Love is the key...to peace both at home and away...to happiness...to security...to freedom that rings true for everyone. Love is the universal puzzle piece...without which all life's puzzles remain incomplete.  I am a huge advocate of loving first, understanding later (insert big smile). As many of my friends can attest, that philosophy on occasion gets me into hot water (okay, so at times it is boiling).  For me, it is still an awesome perspective to which I clutch tightly.  It takes me wherever I go, enlightens me, opens so many doors,  but it is also a part of what sometimes makes church/religion hard with all the rules on who is accepted, who isn't...and I worry about making certain that Noah both knows that he is always loved and is able to love others different from himself...yet, church wasn't hard on Sunday. It wasn't hard at all.

I looked for Bert's message on Extravagant Grace to post here, but couldn't find it. What I found was really the best news in a long time, and I would do it a huge injustice to paraphrase, so read it here...and I hope it leaves you like me...grinning from ear to ear, jumping up and down on the inside, and excited about the possibilities that are present when LOVE WINS.

I'm off to the farm for some chores.  Peace and Love, Krista