Jerusalem Jackson Greer's Blog, page 3
June 13, 2020
Good News in the Garden
It is no secret that life on the farm is a full-self experience for me. It is the place that nourishes me body, mind, and soul. And since COVID-19, it has been nourishing my soul more than ever. As is evident by my excitement over radishes as show above.
So you can imagine my delight when I was invited to talk with Anna Woofenden and Sam Chamelin -host of my favorite podcast, The Food and Faith Podcast about just this thing! We also talked about prophetic chickens, which lands have shaped me, and about an amazing new project from The Episcopal Church called Good News Gardens– something anyone can participate in!
If you are in need of some good news or just some crowing roosters, I hope you will take a moment listen below or visit here. You might have almost as much fun as we did.
[image error]
PS- if you want to join the fun come learn more about the Good News Garden Movement! Its not just for Episcopalians… Happy growing friends!
[image error]
May 17, 2020
Doing Church Outside
I don’t know exactly when it began, when the seeds were planted for my love of outdoor church, but I think it probably began with VBS, with the brown bag picnics we would have on the lawn on the last day. In my memory those days are full of friends, laughter, food, and singing – and church. All my favorite things together.
Or maybe it was the annual fish fry at the Presbyterian campgrounds that my grandparents took me too. More food, laughter, fishing, lots of singing, prayers of thanksgiving for the earth and for the bounty.
Of course it might of been that summer in Clearwater, Florida when my parents were part of a rag-tag church startup that often met at a local park, holding worship – and lunch – under a rented pavilion. Once we moved to Southeast Alaska outdoor church happened less often – but occasionally, maybe once or twice a year, – the weather would be so fine, so beautiful, that my dad couldn’t help himself. We would arrive at church to find that he had set up folding chairs – and a pulpit- in the parking lot, right where anyone driving by could see. We couldn’t always hear what was being said, but we could take in the beauty all around us – the mountains, the eagles, and the warm sun thawing out our winter bones.
[image error]
Now, fast forward a couple of decades, to the moment when Nathan and I knew we were being called to the land. We knew that what we were being led into was a small farm of our own – for what purpose we had no idea – but we knew we were being pulled as strong as the moon to the tide, to an agrarian-based life. . In the ten years that passed between that moment and when we actually signed the papers on Preservation Acres, many other things had occurred, not the least of which was we became Episcopalians.
[image error]
The Episcopal Church is part of the Anglican Communion, which of course flows out of The Church of England. As Anglicans, a large part of how we organize our lives and our worship -personally and corporately – comes from two places, the Liturgical Calendar and our book of prayer, both of which point us to blessing and caring for the land, for those that work the land, and for the bounty it provides. For us, this call to be good and faith-filled stewards of the earth is part of what it means to follow Jesus, and to join with God, living into the prayer thy kingdom come, thy will be done here as it is in heaven.
[image error]
If y’all have been around me at all then you know I am head-over-heels in-love with the Liturgical (or Church Year) Calendar, and on the calendar there are days set aside for blessing gardens, farms, and other agri endeavors. These days are called Rogation Days. In The Episcopal Church these officially take place about two weeks before Pentecost Sunday- but can be celebrated at the beginning of any planting season. In the fall Michaelmas, the feast of St. Michael and all the Archangels, is often associated with the harvest. Within the Book of Common Prayer and other prayer books there are multiple prayers related to care of creation, planting, harvesting, and so forth. The Church of England also has an extensive list of agriculture prayers, including The Blessing of the Plough which I particularly love. As Anna Woofenden points out in her book, This is God’s Table, in England, the understanding of what a parish is extends beyond just a building, and covers a whole geographical area. Therefore – the priest, ministers, and church members – are to care for the whole, not just the particular. The care of land goes beyond the grounds of the church property itself, and beyond the people who come in their doors. This care and responsibility flows deep and wide throughout the entire area.
[image error]
All of this is a really longwinded way of saying, that as soon as we had a farm, I wanted to have church here. I wanted to live like that English priest, pushing the boundaries beyond the walls of a building, and connecting faith to the land and relationships that sustain us.
[image error]
And so we did. We had church here. We started with our House/Farm Blessing and eventually we would have two Ascension Day Eucharist (which falls at the end of the traditional Rogation Days), one wedding, multiple youth group Advent celebrations, and countless church Small Group meetings here. And those were just the official gatherings. Unofficially, the holy is always buzzing around these parts – there are the sacred conversations had on the porch swing, the prayers said by the pond, the thanksgivings given in the garden or when a new chicken hatches, or the bread broken between our family on an ordinary Tuesday night.
[image error]
Hopefully, as we move out of quarantine, we will be able to have more- more blessings, more harvest celebrations, more feasting, more weddings, more Eucharist, more Small Group, more Agape Meals – and maybe even someday more singing – on the farm. Maybe we will be able to offer Preservation Acres again as a place to experience the unique beauty that comes from the farm to table/ table to soul combination. I hope so.
[image error]
The Good News is that this way of worshiping isn’t limited to our farm. It can be done anywhere – on a church lawn, in the forest, on the beach, on a patio, or in a park, or wherever three or more are gathered (and for now 6 feet apart) out in creation.
As we continue to navigate life in the time of COVID-19, I have a feeling more and more holy gatherings will take place out of doors out of pure necessity, and thankfully there are tons of resources to help churches and communities navigate this way of being church, for both lay and clergy-led groups. Below you will find a list of my favorites – articles, books, curriculum, groups, and liturgies for doing church in the great outdoors.
While we may not be able to practice some of the more traditional elements of a faith-filled gathering, I think there are ways to do some of these things creatively – for a meal everyone could bring their own meals, brown bag style. For seating people could bring their own picnic blankets or camp chairs and then spread apart as needed. I imagine there would be waving and peace signs instead of handshakes or hugs, and of course no singing (for now). And this way of being may work best in groups of 10-20 people, instead of 50 or 100 or 500.
Whatever happens, whatever your reality, I hope that these resources and ideas will encourage and inspire you in a time when it is easy to feel discouraged and at a loss about “what comes next?” Maybe what comes next is breaking bread on the beach with Jesus. Or in the garden, with our our neighbors, 6 ft apart.
[image error]
Church Outdoor Resources
For Kids
Abundant Life Garden Project from Episcopal Relief & Development. There is both a Sunday School and VBS version of this curriculum. The majority of it could be done out of doors, some could be done virtually.
Books
This Is God’s Table: Finding Church Beyond the Walls by Anna Woofenden – It’s the story of what happens when people garden, worship, and eat together—and invite anyone and everyone to join them.
Resurrection Matters: Church Renewal for Creation’s Sake by Nurya Parish – Resurrection Matters is a fruitful study and action guide for any church that owns property and in which groups gather together to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ.
Soil and Sacrament: A Spiritual Memoir of Food and Faith by Fred Bahnson – Part spiritual quest, part agricultural travelogue, this moving and profound exploration of the joy and solace found in returning to the garden is inspiring and beautiful.
Harvesting Abundance; Local Initiatives of Food and Faith – Brian Sellers-Petersen – Discover where the movement is alive and growing, and find ideas for starting your own “food and faith” initiative in your own backyard, roof, or front porch.
Podcast
The Food & Faith Podcast – Conversations from the soil and around the table. With Anna Woofenden and Sam Chamelin.
Liturgies
An Ascension Day Picnic Eucharist and Rogation Day Blessings – A service that can be adapted for any Rogation Day celebration
A Harvest Celebration – for the end of a growing season, with or without Eucharist
An Agape Meal – These are are two liturgies. The first is called “Liturgy for the Love Feast” and is adapted from the Iona Abbey Worship Book with reference to the United Methodist Book of Worship. This liturgy can be used as any time. The other is from the Book of Occasional Services of The
Episcopal Church, approved at the 2018 General Convention. This one is entitled “Agape for Maundy Thursday.” Its tone is more solemn as befits the events of this, the last night of Jesus’ physical life on earth.
Sites
Wild Church Network – A network of churches and communities who worship outside in a variety of ways.
Cultivate – A gathering of information regarding the faithful food movement in The Episcopal Church.
The Christian Food Movement- an ecumenical site with a ton of resources
Groups
Agrarian Ministries of the Episcopal Church – Connect with others doing agri ministry of any kind (from personal to commercial) who are in community with the Episcopal tradition in some way.
Wild Church Network Group – Connect with others doing church out of doors and find great resources and tips
Videos
Starting a Small Group
Small Group FAQ Video – Some churches might have to begin meeting in smaller groups before they can meet as a whole. This video might help answer some questions about how that works.
I know there are many more resources out there and I am sure each of these will lead to dozens more once you begin to investigate. And as much as I love Farm Church (what I call what we do here) I also miss the buildings and the traditions. My hope is that someday we can again have both, and that until then we don’t give up in finding ways of gathering together, breaking bread, and continuing in the apostles teaching.
[image error]
April 13, 2020
Sometime in April 2020
Shortly after my father died, back in December of 2019, my
brother purchased grief journals for my sisters and I, and our mother.
My journal is pink (he knows me well) and quotes Matthew 19:26
on the cover.
To be honest I haven’t used the journal much. In fact,
before the recent turn of events, of living in Corona-time or Quarantime, I had
only written in it once. Not because I
wasn’t grieving -no I have grieved plenty, I am grieving still – but because (and
I only know this looking back) I was still moving rather fast. Work and travel
and family were clicking along at rapid pace, and there was little room in
there for stringing thoughts together, or for staring at a blank page until the
words arrived at the tip of the pen.
[image error]
But now things are different. The clipped-pace of life
before Covid-19 has become a steady-if not-slow – crawl of predictability, laced
heavily with uncertainty, and I found that I needed a way- other than on a
keyboard- to write out my thoughts. To straighten out the jumble of emotions
and feelings that living through a pandemic, isolated on a small farm with my almost-grown
children and my husband, away from extended family, friends and colleagues, has
wrought.
So, now I am using the journal. And sometimes what I write
is specifically about grief and sometimes it is just a whole bunch of nothing. The
record of the weather, or what we cooked, or what we were planning to cook. (We
have a schedule of who cooks on which nights, and the greatest anticipation we
have in our Groundhog-esque Days is what’s for dinner.)
At the top of each journal page there is a place to write
the days date, but I have given up that task. I have no idea the date, so my entries
begin in this way:
Sometime in April 2020.
Easter Monday.
Corona-time.
I figure that if I die and someone desperately needs to figure out the exact day in April 2020 on which I wrote the words “everything is both simpler and more confusing” (deep thoughts by Jerusalem Greer) they can just look at the liturgical calendar from that year. It’s the best I can do given the circumstances.
[image error]
Of course, things are both simpler and more confusing.
Today I made a completely ridiculous Bingo Card about myself and I grieved my dad
– wondering if his Easter – something he loved on earth – was as glorious in Heaven
(or whatever is after this life) as he hoped it would be. Praying it was, even
as unsure as I am about what comes next, when our bodies give out and our souls
move on.
Today I am amazed at how beautiful and green the farm is, spring is one of the most magical seasons here, and I so desperately wish I was in an airport heading out to do my work as an Episcopal Evangelist.
In the past week, Holy Week was weird and sad, and Easter was lovely and fairly normal (minus the in-person church service.)
I don’t know what to say about all of this, or what to do (other than STAY HOME) but I do want to remain present to it all. I don’t want to pretend that living in a time when a mass unmarked grave is a normal thing, one that shouldn’t tear each of our hearts from our chest. And still each day the goats have to be fed, the trees continue to bloom, dinner needs to be made, and selfie bingo cards provide a moment of comedic relief.
This is where we are now.
Sometime in April 2020.
Corona-time.
Eastertide.
Simple and confusing.
[image error]
April 1, 2020
Come chat with me!
With so many of us searching for solid ground in the midst of troubling news and off-kilter schedules, come hear a bit about my messy path towards accepting what is rather than what could be and here me attempt to offer a much-needed dose of humor (for myself especially!), wisdom, and perspective. During this hour I will share how even the smallest challenges can be redemptive, and how we can practice the presence of God through ancient contemplative practices—right in the middle of cooking, gardening, and taking care of kids while we wade through these overwhelming new waters of Quarantime.
The webinar will be Thursday, April 2nd | 12:00 pm EST
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
February 25, 2020
Giving Up Doing
The following is an excerpt from my book At Home in this Life and shares the story of the first time I gave up multitasking for Lent. something I am fasting from again this year. I have included this excerpt and a primer graphic on the chance that maybe this is a fast that the Holy Spirit is calling you to as well…
…The spring after I broke my foot I decided to give up multitasking for Lent. I was fresh off of the enlightenment of having discovered Jeremiah 29 and forging deeply through monastic writings. I was anxious to begin practicing as many spiritual disciplines as possible, eager to test my theory that there was a way to slow down without moving to a monastery. So I gave up multitasking. For the sake of the fast, I defined multitasking as doing more than one thing at a time by choice. Under these terms I could no longer watch Downton Abbey while combing through Pinterest on my laptop, while simultaneously checking Instagram and Twitter on my phone. I was not allowed to read a magazine while talking to Nathan. I tried my hardest not to check the e-mail on my phone while walking from the parking deck to my office at the school. Or while riding in the elevator. No phone calls while driving. No folding laundry while watching a movie. Instead, I had to do each independently. One. At. A. Time.
[image error]
This practice was brutal. And completely freeing. And to some degree it broke me. Something in me that had been running at warp speed for two decades suddenly cracked and split wide open, all that go-go-gumption spilling out. The mechanism inside my mind that told me to do more, run faster, and try harder had frozen up, and no amount of cajoling would get it running again. The Monday after Easter I tried to return to my multitasking, fifty-plates-spinning-in-the-air habits, but I just couldn’t find the motivation to work at it any longer. I didn’t like the feeling of being rushed, frazzled, and split into a hundred different shards of myself. Racing against the clock no longer held any sort of attraction. And even if I wanted to return to life at warp speed, my brain no longer worked that way. Suddenly, I realized I could no longer text my sisters, listen to Nathan explain his plan for a garden, and catch up on my blog reading all at the same time without losing my place in at least one of those conversations. Some days I couldn’t even cook dinner and hold a conversation simultaneously. Whatever multitasking mojo I had before Lent was now gone. My brain had reformed itself into one whole piece, and it could no longer function at its old pace.
A longing for slowness and stillness had been ignited instead. I had tasted the smallest sample of a different way of being in the world, and I wanted more of the peace I had found during those six weeks.
______________________________________________________________________________
You should read the book to find out how, but I will tell you I did learn how to access fill that longing with regular stillness and silence. But even a regular practitioner needs a reset every once in a while, which is why I am once again giving up Multitasking for Lent. If you would like to join me, here are is a primer:
[image error]
Remember, you don’t have to do ALL of these things – but maybe pick one area or a few practices to commit to over Lent. You might just find some beauty and restoration waiting in the wildernesses.
Prayers for your journey-
[image error]
November 4, 2019
The Unpageant Pageant for Christmas
Last year at my church we needed an unconventional replacement for our Christmas Pageant, so I wrote a little readers theatre that can be performed by adults, teens and kids, requires no costumes and little rehearsal, and comes with a short sermon that anyone could adapt and deliver.
This skit works best if the congregation doesn’t know it is coming, interrupting their expectations for the service, much like Jesus interrupted Mary and Joseph’s plans all those years ago, and is still interrupting ours today. This little reader’s theatre, and the short sermon that accompanies it, are meant to shine a light on the gift of Holy Interruptions, and invite all who hear to open their hands and their hearts to the gift that God offers us through Jesus.
The Cost: $15. You will receive the script via email within 24 hours after I have received your payment. Click Here to purchase.
April 22, 2019
New and Old – Easter 2019
[image error][image error][image error][image error]
This Easter was a little bit new tradition, a little bit old. Starting with the old: The ancient dying of the eggs…. Even though the boys are big and even though no one hunts for eggs anymore, and even though we have chickens that lay us beautifully- colored eggs most days, the one tradition we cannot let go of is dying eggs on Holy Saturday, mess and all.
[image error]
A new tradition: In the Episcopal Church the first Easter service is the Easter Vigil on the night of Holy Saturday. In that service we literally go from dark to light as we move from Lent to Eastertide, from the sting of death to the hope of resurrection. The service is a lot like a midnight Christmas Eve service in that it ushers in a new beginning. For several years I have wondered what it would he like to celebrate Easter’s arrival at the Vigil and then spend all of Easter Sunday basking and celebrating in the gift of New Life – much the same way we do on Christmas morning, with a slow start, the preparation of amazing food, and just being together as a family with no agenda. Just us and the beautiful awareness that the light has won, that death has been conquered. This year we had that opportunity and we are soaked it up properly, and I have to say it is as lovely as I had hoped. If you ever have the opportunity to try Easter this way I highly recommend it.
[image error]
Of course, the whole day was thrown off by egg dying and resurrection, so we hit up the McD’s after the Vigil and on our way to the grocery store at 10pm…
[image error]
…so that we would have all the things we needed to make all the food Easter Sunday.
[image error][image error][image error]
[image error]
We turned the Remember banner around now that our Alleluia’s have been freed from the grave, I made the best deviled eggs ever. Also, menu inspiration came from one old and one new entertaining book.
[image error]
And I whipped out the good china – some of my Nana’s and some of my wedding china – along with some Azalea’s from the front yard. (Note: The good china is so much easier to use now that the boys are old enough to hand-wash it themselves.)
So there you go, a little recap of our Easter 2019.
[image error]
March 18, 2019
New Growth
Well, it’s Spring, and it is Lent, which can only mean one thing – more succulents! Every spring I buy a collection of new succulents, and every year about half of them live and half of them die. This means that slowly, little by little, I am gathering a healthy, year-round collection of these water-saving plants.
But these little gems are not the only new growth around Preservation Acres these days. Some big changes have been happening as well. In the fall Wylie went off to college and Sweet Man, Miles, and I begin to learn how to function as a household of three instead of four, while Wylie began his journey into adulthood. The baby chicks from last Spring are now full grown and laying eggs like crazy – we are trying to establish an egg subscription service, but until then we just keep shoving eggs in the direction of anyone who stops by. There are some significant remodeling projects on the horizon, but the really big change, the new growth that has impacts our daily life the most, is my new job.
[image error]
On March 1 I began work as the
I know, crazy long title right? But so amazing.
So, how did I go from being a Family Minister, writing books about home, and crafting, to a Staff Officer for Evangelism? Well, God. But also through a process of discernment in which I learn to listen and follow the Holy Spirit’s leading, thanks to my Spiritual Director/Soul Coach Marna Franson.
As my second book, At Home in this Life, was releasing I began to experience a crisis of vocational identity. I began to really wrestle with who I was and what I was doing in terms of calling. The crisis began with my inability to make a decision about how to celebrate the release of At Home. While I had a very clear and exciting sense of the pre-order gifts and the At Home Collection idea, I couldn’t figure out what sort of launch party to have. I couldn’t decide when or where or how to accomplish such a celebration. When A Homemade Year released the vision was so clear, so obvious, so fun. But with At Home, I just couldn’t find the beat. There was this strange ambivalence, almost resignation, that sat right underneath my rib cage whenever I thought about the party. It was if there was a dense fog around every idea, every possibility and I just couldn’t quite make out the solution, but instead of fighting and cutting through the fog, I just sat down and waited for it to clear – for the way to be made visible.
[image error]
In the end I had two very lovely launch events, but both much smaller than the Homemade Hootenanny from A Homemade Year, both of which were largely organized by friends, because I – the one who always has the plan – felt completely at a loss – and quite frankly – lost. The fog had never cleared.
Which to me signified something though I wasn’t sure just what it signified. But little alarms began to go off in my head – something was different, something was shifting.
When the book released it was as if a little bitty rock had been thrown into a pond, instead of a boulder into a lake. Without the blog-tours of the old days to help push and promote the book, I had to rely on word of mouth and the sharing on Social Media. And quite frankly that last bit was fairly lackluster. For whatever reasons – life, timing of the release, connection with the book itself – the online support that I had counted on from fellow authors and friends did not happen as robustly has I had hoped for. The sharing and tagging and chatter that generally follows a book release – even if for a week or two – was more like little wisp and whispers. At Home slipped into the world quietly, and then just floated for a bit – like a happy, sleepy child on a blow-up raft in the pool. Lovely, but not exactly making waves.
[image error]
Within a month or so of the book releasing, I found myself speaking at small Episcopal Christian Formation conference in the mountains of North Carolina. This conference is a week-long endeavor with a fairly slow pace, and so I found myself often alone, in my room or walking the grounds, thinking about all the things – the book release, my work in a local parish, whether or not I was being called to the priesthood, if I wanted to write another book, was my place in the larger Christian Author landscape, and where I fit as an Evangelical-refugee turned Episcopalian…
It was during that week that two significant things happened. First I met Lisa Kimball and Tricia Lyons, women God used to change the trajectory of my life- both through the witness of seeing them use of their own gifts with abandon, and through their amazing friendship to me. Secondly, through a funny vision involving me as a little girl with a wagon chasing after older, “cooler” girls, I realized that I had to emotionally and spiritually remove myself from the pursuit of trying to be like or being liked by authors in my same genre. Instead, the time had come to grow up and grow into who I was created to be. I needed to stop chasing who I thought I wanted to be, dragging my little wagon behind me, and instead I needed to go sit on my own porch, and have a little chat with God.
This vision of the wagon and the porch became a catalyst to my discernment process – that process of figuring out where God was leading me and who God had created me to be. And it led to this defining question – a question I spoke out-loud, sitting on my front porch, not long after coming home from that conference, “Is God calling me to go wide or is God calling me to go deep?” Was I being called to use my gifts to speak to a wide audience across Christendom or am I being called to go deep into the Episcopal tradition I love so much?
[image error]
Even as the words tumbled from my lips I knew my answer. I was called to do deep. Which was terrifying and scary and seemed counterintuitive to everything I had worked for up until that point. But I knew it in my gut, the way I knew I should marry Sweet Man, that this was right and good so to do.
But still I worried – did I hear right?
And then I got a call to help redesign and develop a curriculum for a large Episcopal organization. And then I was asked to join the team of Baptized for Life, an Episcopal Discipleship Initiative, and then another curriculum job, and then and then and then and then…
For a solid year the offers and opportunities poured in – opportunities to create, to write, to speak, to lead, to collaborate, to use my evangelical-liturgical translation skills, to really live into all my gifts. I have never in my life experienced such vocational abundance – it felt nothing short of miraculous. I no longer doubted that I had heard the Holy Spirit say “go deep” – it was as obvious as the nose on my face.
Also during this time- thanks in large part to my work with Baptized for Life -I was able to discern with complete clarity that my call in this season of my life is absolutely without a doubt to the wider Episcopal church and not to parish (congregation) ministry. Something that didn’t make much sense (and was slightly scary) at the time seeing how I was employed by a local parish.
[image error]
And yet, again, I knew this was the call, irregardless of how the logistics would play out. And so I begin to pray, and to watch for where God was leading, where the intersection of my gifts and the Church’s needs might just kiss. And this is where God led – to the Staff Officer for Evangelism postion with The Episcopal Church. A job I could never have dreamed up all those months ago, as I sat on my porch and heard the words “go deep” in my heart, but a job I now hold and am over-the-moon grateful to have.
So what does this mean for my writing, crafting, speaking, traveling, preaching, family life?
Well, I will travel about a third of the year (maybe a little more) speaking and teaching on Episcopal Evangelism, the Way of Love, and Discipleship. I will also be helping to plan Episcopal Revivals (yep, that’s a thing!) work to help create a trained network of Episcopal Evangelist, help with the Evangelism Grant program, collaborate in creating digital content for Evangelism, and work with the team to expand the Way of Love initiative – and much more! And when I am home – I am home! Thankfully we still get to live here at Preservation Acres, and we can continue to work on making this place a place of hospitality and restoration for all who visit. I have been hard at work on turning our guest room into a crafty studio/guest room, and I am hoping to get back to stitching and creating now that I will be home more. We are still members at St. Peter’s in Conway and now we get to enjoy parish life there as “regular” people – serving where our gifts lead (though I still plan to spend most of Holy Week up there – some habits are hard to let go of!)
And I would love to come back to this space more often – using this online home to still talk about hobby farming, home projects, gardening, kid raising and of course – liturgical shenanigans. I have missed this part of me for the past year or two, and I hope that as I go deep into this new job, space will open up for creativity in other areas like blogging old school style!
As to books, there are none in works right now, but someday I would like to write a devotional book of some sort – I have found that that is my favorite way to write- so that idea is always hanging around the fringes. But first I need to spend time tending this new growth – figuring how to nurture and maintain a new rhythm of life, a new call, and a new season, – learning to be rooted once again.
[image error]
February 12, 2019
Greer’s take Manhattan
Thanks to my work on Way of Love I had the opportunity to pack up the whole family and haul them to NYC with me for five days back in January. While I spent the majority of my days working with the WoL crew, the boys and Sweet Man took Manhattan by storm – mastering the subway, playing saxophones in Harlem, watching a show on Broadway, eating Korean BBQ and so much more.
Thankfully I was able to join them for one and half days – packing in a whole ‘nother round of fun. Here are the highlights of that our time together:
[image error]Loved this wall outside a cafe near our hotel.
[image error]
While we didn’t tour every single tourist location, there was a lot of suddenly looking up and realizing that some iconic building was right in front of us.
[image error]We contemplated ice skating, but opted to just be spectators instead.
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
We didn’t ice skate, but we did go to the top of Rockefeller Center which was totally worth the price of admission.
[image error]
[image error]
We ate some pretty good food, but I have to say that we haven’t quite yet cracked the food code in NYC yet. We weren’t wowed by our choices – nothing was bad, but nothing made us moan with pleasure and delight. Of course we are pretty spoiled. Central and NW Arkansas has some crazy amazing eateries and the bar is set pretty high for our tastebuds. We all agreed that we will just have to go back and keep trying…
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
Everyone got to choose one thing they really wanted to do, and the museum that Wylie really wanted to go to was MoMa. It was great to see what are now classics up close and personal, but my favorite exhibit by far was the one of Charles Whites work.
[image error]
One of the highlights of the trip was seeing Wynton Marsalis and band at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Our seats were over part of the stage, which meant we missed seeing some of the musicians, BUT we could see Wynton (and the saxophones) really well. I think that concert may have been the highlight of the trip for me.
[image error]
A funny thing that we saw when we got there was live Christmas trees tossed onto all the sidewalks. At first I was very surprised that so many people had used live trees for Christmas (here it seems almost everyone has fake) but then I realized that they probably don’t have anywhere to store huge boxes with fake trees in them (unlike here where everyone has a garage and an attic and maybe a barn…) It seems there was a coordinated Christmas-tree pick-up effort by the NYC sanitation department, because later in the week down in Chelsea we saw huge dumpsters full of them.
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
I love, love, love Grand Central. In fact I have since been back to NYC (for less than 24 hours) and the one thing I did was go to the market there and into the main hall. It is just one of the most magical places I have ever been. I made the boys pose for this picture because everyone told us not to look up while in NYC because it would make us look like tourist – but truth be told we didn’t mind.
[image error]Did I mention that we road the subway?
[image error]
One of the few things I wanted to do is go to Purl Soho.
When I started blogging back in the Stone Age, back when I mostly blogged about crafting and babies, this store was one of those mythical places that I read about on other peoples blogs. It was just as beautiful and lovely as I had imagined. I didn’t buy a thing because frankly my craft supply stash is very full and gathering dust, but it sure was fun to look.
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]We saw this station somewhere on our way to the Tenement Museum. Such beautiful details.
[image error]An icon in the chapel at the Episcopal Church Center.
So there you go – highlights from our 36 hours touring NYC together!
[image error]
January 29, 2019
Teaching the Lord’s Prayer
A while ago I was looking for a gift to give at church for children’s baptisms or to new parents, when I stumbled upon these jumbo prayer beads, perfect for little hands. Wanting to connect the beads to a practice of prayer, I devised a little method of traveling the beads while praying The Lord’s Prayer, connecting each bead to a portion of the prayer, in the hopes that this tactile practice would help the children both memorize and internalize the prayer that Christ taught us all to pray. This simple prayer guide is now available for download for anyone who would like to use this method for guiding little hands and hearts as they learn to follow Jesus, and his way of love.
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
Here is an easy, tactile way to teach kids of any age how to pray The Lord’s Prayer.
All you need is:
Large chunky wooden prayer beads (I recommend these, but of course you could make your own. If you do make your own, make sure to string them according to the pattern on the card) Printed Copy of the Prayer Card (save the picture above, or download the PDF here.)Dedicated time to practice –Practice praying The Lord’s Prayer with children at bedtime, at the dinner table, or in the car.
Enjoy!
[image error]
