Do you know how to draw a picture of clean air?

The children of my church do!

And they drew healthy food and fresh air. And peace.

Amen.

Raising Funds for the people of Haiti......and awe.

I had a "to do" list this week that could choke a horse, well that is if a horse would eat it. I kept trying to find one that would, but no luck.

No, not really. I love my work, love my family, love my volunteer work on the LREDA board (why oh why oh why are ALL the GA deadlines on January 15th? OK, not all but it sure felt like it!) But still, it was a heck of a list.

But sometimes things just have to wait. And you have to be ready to take on the really important things. Sometimes it's a family issue, and you just have to drop some project or activity and focus on a child for a few hours, or a few days or weeks or even months or years. It's always worth it.

Sometimes a clean house is just out of the question--yes even for weeks or months. Other things need to get done and everyone has to learn to deal with the piles of crap everywhere.

Sometimes it's just some of the daily things that seem to be urgent--sometimes there's a wake up call and it puts everything in perspective.

Like this horrible tragedy in Haiti.

I have a very odd talent for being able to feed large groups of people. It's nothing I've worked on, I think I was born this way. And I knew that even if no one else had time to help, that I wanted to have a benefit lunch to raise funds for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee at church this week. We made a quick plan, I knew I could get everything at the local restaurant supply store for about $100--and the minister sent out a group email announcing the lunch and telling people to contact me if they wanted to help.

Here's the awe. Almost immediately I got a whole slew of emails offering to make food, bring food, set up, clean up, serve. Offers to help. We were all looking for a way to turn our grief into action. I let things settle for a day, made a list of what we needed, divided it up and sent out the assigned food. It took all of 20 minutes.

And we raised over $800. EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS! 149 members! A holiday weekend! Wow.

Top it off? My son led the service this morning. And he preached. And he was great. And his friend, also a teen, preached and was great, too.

That's enough day for me. I'm putting on yoga pants and watching me some Golden Globes. No, it's not on that monster "to do" list! Not on any list. I'm still doing it. The guys are going to a guy movie, the little dog and I will cuddle up and see what all this fuss is about Paul McCartney's neck wear and celebrate a wonderful day!

I am deeply blessed and deeply grateful.

Help for Haiti--Order of Service Insert!

Feeling helpless isn't something I like to do. Nope. Not that I never feel helpless. Like, take now. All the suffering and pain in Haiti? Oh I feel it. Deeply. But sit with it? No way. I think it has something to do with being raised in a fiery Unitarian Universalist Fellowship who never took anything without a fight.

So, we're having a lunch at my church; "Help Haiti!" It's a lunch to benefit the efforts of UUSC/UUA to help the people of Haiti. I had such a fabulous response to the announcement of the lunch, that we added a bake sale. Kids can knead and make no-bakes and at least do something to help

Not helpless.

And UUSC created an insert for the bulletin for Sunday morning. Very cool.

http://www.uusc.org/files/Haiti_OS_insert.pdf

At least a little bit less helpless.

Blessings All~