Cardboard hurts

Have you ever had a paper cut? You know, slice, blood--hey, OUCH!

Today I got a cardboard cut. Actually two of them. Putting away the finances I've been working on for hours, or really if you want to know the truth, for days. Cardstock and then--slip and then a string of words that my children should not have heard.

It's been a long day. Or a long days. Really, it's all good. I mean, the kids had Coldstone for lunch, how bad can it be? And I am ready for a new dawning, a new revelation. A re-birth of the savior come to rescue me from this life of a sinner. Or at least I'm ready for driving across the state line for some rockin' fun!

So, I'm going to the Professional Days workshop for my job. Hey, really, there is no place I would rather be. And I mean it. Jesus can go have his fun, I'm going to Salem (ha! get it, Salem!) to meet with my friends and colleagues. And my dear friends and I are going to hear one of the women who wrote the OWL curriculum speak. And we're going for dinner together. And you know there will be stories and sighs and lots of that thing we all need desperately that is called support. And we'll maybe even go sit in the jacuzzi and eat brie and we'll be happy just to be together again.

Ahhh. And all cardboard will be banned from my hotel room, banned do you hear me?

Blessings to all who walk this earth and all who dream and to all who dream those wonderful dreams. Blessings!

And damnation to all cardboard.

I've got nothing interesting to say...

...but she does. Great new blog called Chalicelight Hearthfire.

Don't miss the post called "Martha Stewart and Porn".

....and another ending

My dear deranged husband had to show our kids THIS alternate ending to "It's a Wonderful Life". Yeah. Shakin' my head.

Election Night Coverage spoofed by my kids

Take the quiz: The Ultimate Church Community

I got an email yesterday "Gini Courter has confirmed you as a friend on facebook". Such a funny world, we zap information back and forth across cyber space like it's a Jetson's cartoon. Oh no big deal, the moderator of the UUA is on facebook asking for feedback from everyone on the UUAs "Ends". Core values, what do we really want. No, really want. Whatever, now I'm gonna go poke my friend and see what my kids' status messages say.

That deserves a little head tilt. "Hunh?"

Well, Gini is of course, using her facebook page not just to poke religious leaders across the globe, she's asking good questions. I gave my little bit of feedback on her note, but really what happened is that it got me thinking.

What do I want? What difference should UUism make in the world.

Well, like the youth at our cons here in the PNWD yell when someone yells "what is it for us to do?" they yell "It is for us to heal the world". Good. I like that. But I'm old and my brain then goes to the details, goes to the "but... how?" with a whine like a three-year-old who just gave up naps.

So, last night as I worked in the church office with the slowest computer on the planet, and it's brother molasses-head, with the lovely company of one of the kids who had tagged along for a meeting. I nattered away at the copying and new sign-in forms and turned in expense reports. This "ends" business kept looming.

I want to grow. I want more people to find that in their hearts they really do just happen to be Unitarian Universalists. And I want them to come into community with us and drag along all their gifts and talents and their in-laws. I want more of us to lean on each other and to pick up the shovels and picks and to get on with this work of healing the world. It's a really big job. We need more helping hands and loving hearts.

We'd better get on to being an expecting congregation, expecting everyone. Ready to welcome them. We need some people sized spaces in our congregations so that when folks show up, there's a spot just waiting for them. We need to just be ready. Once when I was a new Religious Educator I was walking through a room where there was a new member meeting and the president was talking about growth. I think someone had mentioned that they liked our cozy size and wouldn't want us to get much bigger. I tossed over my shoulder that I thought that growing was a moral imperative; that we need to be ready for new people just like this place was ready for us when we peeked in the door.

I was naive and optimistic, but I was right. That's it. We need to find our people out there and welcome them in.

Well, good. Now that we've got that settled I think I'm gonna go take a new likeness quiz on facebook, who knows, I might just figure out the meaning of life.

A **Funny** Break

Watch til the end....