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Showing posts from November, 2023

Acts of giving thanks (Guest Writer: Walt Martzen)

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I've asked my son Walter to write a short thank you to everyone as well as further share my meal train link. Please enjoy, and happy holidays! My parents and I have felt your love, thank you! 💓 Something I observe is that in our modern world, simple acts can get overlooked in their ability to convey the most intimate and life-sustaining messages. Acts like these can seem simplistic or cliché or mushy or redundant, but they aren’t. They are the building blocks of connection, relationships, family, and community. It’s why my dad’s persimmon cookies don’t taste the same when someone else makes them, or why my mom’s soups really do seem to have magical elixir properties. When the spirit of God is with us, so is the spirit with the presence, gifts, and service that we make.  This might be new information for some, but my dad began at-home hospice recently to match his increasing medical needs. It's been a difficult new adventure for him and all of us, with many challenges yet oppor

Aragorn and the vocation of lament

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We first meet Aragorn as a tall, scruffy-looking guy, lurking in the shadows at the Prancing Pony, where Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin, just beginning their journey, had stopped in for the night.  Initially in  Lord of the Rings , Aragorn was known to the locals only as Strider, probably because of his long legs. Since little else was known about him, it was assumed he was up to no good. Barliman Butterbur, the proprietor,  advised the hobbits to steer clear of him. Ironically, the man turns out to the direct descendent of Isildur, one of the great kings of old, and he was not just lurking in the shadows.  He and his Dunedain clan had been watching over and protecting the region from rising forces of evil, until that day when his true vocation would be revealed. Most of us have have had jobs of some sort to make money, to put food on the table, and a house where you can put the table.  But a vocation is a perspective that gives meaning to our activity, whether it makes money or not. The