Celebrate Today- ceremonies and celebrations to make your days count

  I patched this prayer together for our sendoff for Anna the night before she went to college last summer.  Gracious God, Thank you for giving Anna deep roots, and thank you for giving her wings. Prepare Anna’s heart to revel in new exploration of new communities, new cities, new ideas, new classes,  and of landscapes less familiar. Along the way, may she pause to savor the way your diverse imagination is expressed in the beauty around her, and in an artistry of peoples and cultures. Waken her vision and rouse her heart that she might be shaped by those whisperings of your goodness and grace all around her. Let her play, let her laugh, let her to find rich community. Keep her safe from injury and harm and make her a blessing to all she meets in college. Guide her as she goes to Scripps, be her refuge, be her shade in the heat, be her shelter in the storm, be her rest in weariness, be her protection in trouble, and be her strong staff in danger.   For all our days together, we give you

We celebrated Pentecost with the 50 red balloons I brought with me to church... Such a sweet celebration to bring this new tradition to our church family at Union.  While there's no symbol that can really reenact the way the disciples were amazed and astonished when the Spirit came upon them, this is a small way to invite us as a church to delight in God's presence  with us through the gift of the Holy Spirit...

Two years ago when we were in lockdown mode with Covid, I decided to put some Easter messages on the sidewalk to wish people a happy Easter. I started drawing hearts on the sidewalk and made it halfway down the block. Then one thing led to another, and Anna, Taylor, and Dani who were with me got roped in to help and we ended up drawing 814 hearts together that night covering both sides of the block from 52nd to 55th.  Last year, we rallied some help from some neighbors and knocked out the project again (even with Anna on her belly on a skateboard drawing hearts at one point!), but this year, the folks I reached out to were not around so I slowly but surely got hearts all the way down the block on my own.  Today on Easter, I was sitting in the front yard soaking up the sunshine, and one woman walked around the block with her dog. She stopped when she got to our house and asked if I had made the hearts. I said I did, and she explained that she was a little sad as she had not been able to

A week ago, I made sure that Taylor, Jason and I wrote our annual Valentine letters to Anna in time to be able to mail them to her for Valentine's Day since this is our first year with her away at college.  And unbeknownst to me , Anna also wrote letters to us and sent them in the mail (okay- that in itself made me want to cry!). So, we rallied on FaceTime last night to read our letters as we have done for so many years for Valentine's Day. Taylor has made it clear that he pretty much hates this tradition because he does not like writing these notes, but nonetheless, we all still had a sweet time sharing some reflections and laughter and showering each other with a little bit of love.  group photo 

When I went to visit Anna at college in early December, I brought with me a large shipping bag filled with twelve brown paper packages tied up with string. Each one had a tag on it with the date of when to open it following a 12-day countdown for her to enjoy some Christmas cheer in this time before finals. They were simple gifts- a gingerbread house to make with friends, some candy canes, some Trader Joe's goodies, along with other treats to bring in the holiday spirit. The final gift was today, and she called me when she opened it. And lo and behold, it was a big surprise for her to find Gnome peeking through the clear top of the box to greet her. (After we left it in her kitchen when we dropped her off at college, she had brought it home for Thanksgiving and hid it for me to find in our room.) See below for the FaceTime call when she opened the box tonight! 

I was asked to write up a post for Godspace for their gratitude theme for October and November, and this was published today:  https://godspacelight.com/2021/10/07/gratitude-letters-a-thanksgiving-tradition/?mc_cid=ca6746b6c4&mc_eid=508df85536 SPIRITUAL PRACTICES THANKSGIVING AND GRATITUDE GRATITUDE LETTERS – A THANKSGIVING TRADITION October 7, 2021 by  Emily Huff , This is what our kids have to deal with having a mom who is a teacher.  Our family assignment every year around Thanksgiving is to write a letter about what we are grateful for and to share these letters around the table. While there might be some eyes that roll when I remind them of this exercise each year, I am convinced that this is such good work for us all to build these muscles and to practice giving thanks together. The notebook where we keep all these letters from years past also serves as a pretty sweet time capsule (as we started it in 1995), and we get some good laughs looking back through different reflectio