holy moments

For some crafting is a full-time trade.  Others juggle crafting part-time, kids, work and much more.  For me crafting is a hobby relagated to Saturday naptimes and after the kids are tucked in bed and off to dreamland.  Right now would be about the time I would be opening my fabric drawer like a kid in a candy store and pulling out the next fabric treat ready to be made into a crayon roll.  Not tonight though.

Many of you know that much of my time - day and night - is spent pastoring a wonderful group of people in a wonderful little community.  I've spent seven years visiting newborns, baptizing kids and adults, marrying couples, sitting in hospital rooms . . . holy moments.  One of the most holy moments is being with a person when they pass from this life into the next.  Today I experienced another one of those holy moments.  And although all I did was sit there, my body, mind and spirit are as exhausted as if I have just run a marathon.  It's hard to explain . . . this humbling privilege of watching a family say good-bye to a beloved parent, grandparent, great-grandparent who has lived life well.  

Lately, I've been echoing the words of prayer-poet Ted Loder.  Here's one of his works that speaks to me and for me today:

Eternal Friend,
grant me an ease
to breathe deeply of this moment,
this light,
this miracle of now.
Beneath the din and fury
of great movements
and harsh news
and urgent crises,
make me attentive still
to good news,
to small occasions,
and the grace of what is possible
for me to be,
to do,
to give,
to receive,
that I may miss neither my neighbor's gift
nor my enemy's need.

 

So . . . no crafting tonight . . . no report of my crafting antics or sewing adventures . . . just attentive listening for holy moments. 

What are your holy moments?