Showing posts with label traditions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label traditions. Show all posts

Sunday, October 21, 2012

autumn weekending

We've developed a wonderful autumn weekending tradition around here - visiting an apple orchard, corn maze, climbing haystacks, eating donuts and cider.  We've been so fortunate each year to find glorious weather aligning with the various fall festivals at farms in our area.  

I so love this tradition.  I love the warm sun and beautiful blue skies.  I love the chill and the crispness in the air.  I love the smell of hay and cornstalks.  I love the stickiness of apple-themed treats.  I love the celebration of another harvest.  I love the community brought together.  Oh, I love it all!

Here's a glimpse at our autumn weekending:












Sunday, January 15, 2012

a special box

This box is amazing!


A simple gift given to my children by a loving community of faith.

It's story is even grand.  

When we lived near this community of faith, I was very involved in the music program.  Music is, after all, my most meaningful form of worship.  Music touches me on levels nothing else can.  Not prayer. Not meditation. Not communion. Nothing. (I digress)

There came a time when this faith community needed to replace the old pipe organ.  It was just time.  Though there was great sensitivity about the waste created in this process.  What to do with the old pipes? the wood casing?  This old church of mine repurposed every piece.  EVERY piece.

This box - is our small piece of that organ.  Every piece of this box was made from the wood of that old organ.  The organ that I sang with. The organ that accompanied countless solos.  The organ that has a solid hold on my heart.  

This box is the first of it's kind.  The first.  And somehow that feels special, too.

It's grandness, however, does not stop on the outside of this box.




The inside holds special treasures as well.  You see, this is a baptism box, made for each child of God for their baptism day.  In ours, you will find baptism trinkets and reminders of other special events in the faith lives of my children.  Sometimes it is just a reminder of something special (a lock of hair from their first haircut, a recording of the 911 call placed when I was in labor with my second child).  Each of our baptism boxes is filled with wonder and stories.  Each box contains our past, just like it contains the music of that organ!

Today, these boxes also contained our lesson.  We read about Jesus' baptism, talked about our own, explored our boxes, and performed a baptism.  






It was a beautiful morning!