The Space Between

Between ...

     leaving and arriving...

          being away and being home...

Between take-off and landing...

     good-bye and hello...

           the wave that knocks me down and the next foaming crest of water...

                 in my tradition, between burial and resurrection...



Sometimes we don't think of this space, or avoid noticing it.  I often cover it by reading, working on a crossword or Sudoku, or sleeping through it.

If I find it easy to ignore, either I am still wrapped up in thoughts of where I have been, or what will be next.

This is liminal time, where the ground falls away, . .  or rises to meet us... where life and death touch...

 

About a week ago I plunged into a space between -- and at moments thought I would be endlessly stuck in it. I was going home from "Beyond Walls," an amazing week of learning, writing, reading, praying, listening, talking, pondering and more held at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.

Actually, I slid into the space, gradually saying good-bye. I rode to the airport in a Kenyon van with 3 other BeyondWallsians and our Kenyon driver, endured the amazingly long lines for checking in with one of my BW compatriots, discovered another near my gate... then she boarded her flight and and my time at Beyond Walls 2015 ended. I sat waiting for the overdue plane, between our Kenyon experience and my home (which ended up being a much longer time then planned -- of course).


I decided that if "Beyond Walls" had to end,

                   I could at least enjoy the cloud views from the plane on the way home.

Between.

Accessibility Issues -- part 2

I'm working to get "alt tags" on the photos here, but sometimes it's hard to tell if they are working. At the moment, I'm using http://webaim.org/ to help me see where I need to edit my text or pictures to be usable by folks with vision issues. WebAIM provides a free "checker" at http://wave.webaim.org/ which scans a site for possible road blocks and provides information about them. Going forward, I'll use it to scan my new blogs and repair them. As time allows, I will also check my earlier posts for obstructive errors.

First prayer learned “by heart”?

What was the first prayer you learned “by heart”?

For me, as far as I can remember now, it was “Jesus, Tender Shepherd,” a bedtime prayer. My mother taught it to me,  telling me it was the prayer she said when she was growing up.

A flock of sheep in Wales

“Jesus, tender shepherd, hear me,

bless thy little lamb tonight

through the darkness be Thou near me.

keep me safe ‘til morning light.”

    -- written by Mary Lundie Duncan, the year before she died (1814-1840)

from http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/j/t/e/jtenders.htm

Michael the Archangelic, curled up to rest next to toy panda.

I assumed that this prayer my mother learned so long ago, which had been written even longer ago, would have pretty much disappeared by now, but I Googled it anyway. To my surprise, it still seems to be in use both as a song and as a bedtime prayer. For instance, it is played and sung simply in this YouTube video featuring pictures of sheep of different breeds, ages, and states of shearing.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxWCmozYrAQ

And in this “Jesus Tender Shepherd Hear Me” YouTube video, “Emily Button Russell shares a story of her son's favorite prayer.” About 88 when this was taped, Emily tells the story about her son learning the prayer and her response to his wanting to change one of the words, then sings it herself. I ended up checking out some other videos of her stories, just because I thought she was a fun, spunky woman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brypwtDT5Bs

Do you remember the first prayers you learned or who taught you? How you felt about the prayer or the way you were taught?

One thing that I find interesting, as I remember learning "Tender Shepherd," is that even though we always knelt to pray in church, my mother taught me to say it lying in my bed. Perhaps she thought bedtime would be easier if she got me into bed before the prayer than persuading me I really did have to go to bed after I said it. I did say this prayer, in bed, nightly, at least until some time in high school.

A prayer as you turn homeward from GC 78

A prayer as you turn homeward from GC 78

God of salty lakes and seas, mountain streams and broad rivers,

God even of waters we have polluted;

God of volcanoes spewing lava and steam,

of downy new chicks pecking free from their shells,

of LGBTQ and S humans in all shades of skin,  

all types of hair, of nose, eye and shape,

with all sorts of histories;

God of every diocese and diocese-to-be in this church:

tend your children as they leave this convention,

sustain them in exhaustion and sorrow,

their relief and their joy.

God of our Baptism,

as they leave this moment of your space and time,

may your people be unencumbered, may they travel as lightly

as those Jesus sent out without baggage, without supplies,

simply intent on giving flesh to your love

in the joyous, unsettling power of your Spirit.