Month: June 2018

Alaska Wild Teas Raspberry Tea

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A year ago, I was enjoying a journey through Alaska with my family. It was a wonderful week exploring beautiful places, relaxing, eating delicious food, and spending quality time with my family. One of my souvenirs to remind me of the trip was this delicious tea. Since I love all things raspberry, I thought a raspberry herbal tea would be the perfect way to remember my time in Alaska. So to remember the trip, I enjoyed a cup of this tea this week.
This raspberry tea is a smooth, easy to drink tea with a subtle taste of raspberry. It is delicious and not too full of raspberry flavor. It pairs well with See’s Dark Chocolate Balls (a favorite treat of mine). It does appear that you can order this tea online if a trip to Alaska is not in your future. I’m planning to enjoy this tea as my evening summer beverage as I remember a great trip.

Here, I Pause!

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Here I pause in my sojourning
giving thanks for having come
come to trust at every turning
God will guide me safely home. 
 
–Come, O Fount of Every Blessing, 459 New Century Hymnal
 
In church, we sang these words, and they stayed with me. It is easy to not go to church-as one who used to work in the church and now does not-I have a much better understanding of how many others things pull at our attention. So as I was sitting in church singing these words, I felt like they were written for me. Coming into the church calms me. It feels like a pause and change from my daily life. In worship (especially when I am not leading worship), I am calmed. I breathe deeply. I feel connected.
I do give thanks for being in God’s house. I give thanks for being welcomed, for familiarity and comfort and for being challenged. I give thanks for God’s never-ending love for each of us. And I am reminded that God “will guide me safely home”.
Loving God, Today we hear your voice in song. We know that you want to spend time with us. We know your want us to live out our faith. We know you want us to slow down and look for you. Help us to do these things and help us to practice gratitude because when we stop to count our blessings it changes us too. Thank you, Holy One. Amen.

Always Say Thank You

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After a rough week, I thought a glass of wine with dinner would taste good. When I went to the fridge in our garage to take out a bottle of wine, imagine my surprise when the first bottle I grabbed was half empty. I have no idea when this bottle was opened and my best guess is at least three months ago. So, I went on to bottle number two. (And don’t worry I did bring the half empty bottle into the house to empty and recycle). Now back to the full bottle of wine. I looked at it and thought it was a screw top wine, so I tried to twist it open and nothing happened. Now, I could have asked someone else in the house for help opening the wine. Instead I thought maybe it actually has a cork in it, so I got out the cork screw and tried to open it. I tried three times to open the screw top wine bottle with a cork screw. Finally, my husband saw what I was doing and opened he wine using the screw top. And because this story wasn’t funny enough the wine was not good. It tasted terrible. After all that, I had two sips of it. Of course the second sip was to make sure it was terrible, and it was.

I share this story to acknowledge that we all make mistakes, second guess ourselves, and try to solve problems in ways we know won’t work. When life is more challenging, it is difficult to be at our best, thinking creativity and finding solutions before problems exist. My prayer for myself and for all of you is that we can be kind to ourselves, take time to take care of ourselves when we are too tired, too worn out, too overwhelmed, too burdened.
Compassionate One,
Life can be hard and life is beautiful. You walk with us on easy days and hard days. You are with us when we are at the top of our game and when we’d prefer to crawl back under the covers. You are our constant support and giver of all good gifts. For days when nothing goes as planned, we ask your help in doing our best, keeping our sense of humor, and knowing that tomorrow is another day. For perfect days where everything goes as planned, remind us to still give thanks. Thank you, God for the gift of life and every other way you shower us with your blessings. We say thank you, thank you, thank you. Amen.

A Man Called Ove-Book Review

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A Man Called Ove
Fredrik Backman
So often a big part of my job at hospice is helping people realize their purpose and set goals. When someone can no longer work or possibly leave their home, they might feel useless and a burden to family and friends. By listening and encouraging them to share their story, a new purpose for living can be found and new goals can give life added meaning.
Ove is a man who feels like his life has no meaning. And on the surface, Ove is easy to dislike. He is a grumpy man who wants to be left alone. Everything in his life must be just so and when we meet him things are not right in his life, and he cannot imagine they will/can ever be right again. I hope you’ll join Ove on his journey through grief, finding a new purpose (even if he doesn’t want one), and love. It is a two tissue book. (My Mom and I agree on that).
“One finds a way of living for the sake of someone else’s future. And it wasn’t as if Ove also died when Sonja left him. He just stopped living. Grief is a strange thing” (326).
Warning-due to the themes in this book, if you are actively grieving the death of a loved one, this may not be the right book for you at this time. Instead I would recommend The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper which also explores themes of grief only in a more lighthearted way.

A Thank You to Up with People

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A Thank You to Up with People
Last Fall my husband and I traveled 5 hours to see an Up with People (UWP) show. It had been 11 years since our last show. If you are not familiar with UWP, it is a fantastic organization that has spent the last 50 years asking us to see each other as human beings, to work together for change, and to spread a message of hope and peace.
I first saw UWP in Sharon, Pennsylvania at a show with my grandparents when I was young. I remember loving the show and leaving singing the theme song with my sister. In 2006, I hosted a staff member and a cast member when they came to Wisconsin.
As I was enjoying the most recent show, I realized I need to thank UWP. Without UWP, I may never have met my husband. I married an Uppie (an UWP alum). He traveled across the United States, Canada, Norway, and Japan with UWP. My California born and raised husband moved to Wisconsin to attend college because of UWP. And we met in that Wisconsin town. So, I’d like to thank UWP for the ways it changed and shaped my husband’s life and mine. And thank you UWP for letting me marry into the family.
If UWP is in your neck of the woods, see a show or better yet become a host family. (When former cast mates get together, they always remember and share stories about host families).
If more people were for people
All people, everywhere
There’d be a lot less people to worry about
And a lot more people who care.
More than 50 years later and the theme song is still challenging us and calling us to work for hope and peace in our part of the world! Thank you Up with People!