When you get my postcard on Labor Day, I hope it finds you resting from your labors. I am on an adventure. It has more plot twists than a Mission Impossible Movie [cue sound]. Most of these adventures were planned. And they include travel by road, rail, air, and water. What adventures
are on your mind as this last few weeks of summer begin winding down?
The world and all it's heartbreaking news has been so much to withstand. Every headline seems to call for a protest. Or at very least a
lament. So I'm sharing some good news with you today. Not all the world, nor all the news, is truly unbearable. It is a mixed bag. Here are some signs of hope encountered on my journey so far... numbers correspond to my postcard pics.
(1) Schools are still working hard to inspire, educate, and form students to be "bigger than they are" presently. I love these messages about being and thinking big for a generation of students who have been coming of age in a world that asks them to be small, afraid, and isolated. Think Big. Think beyond yourself. Let yourself have big ideas. That is a word. Where do you need some bigger thinking?
(2) My travel partner for half the days of this adventure is my spouse and partner of three dozen years. We are celebrating his birthday on this very day when you get my postcard. How are you celebrating the ones you love and care for in your life? How are
you celebrating each other?
(3) Part one of our journey was delivering a car to my niece, and part two was helping my daughter move into her new dorm. I love how these young members of my family are finding their
way in the world, planting goodness and keeping hope alive. It is not easy. But seeing live plants in my daughter's window sill gives me a boost of hope and joy. What is giving you hope and joy these days?
(4)
"Look both ways!" One of the first messages we encountered when landing in London. It is good, and life-saving advice for tourists not used to cars coming from the right! It's also good advice for life and how we navigate it. Jesus said to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves. How do you need to look more than one way as you traverse the busy streets of your life?
(5) In Paddington Station I went looking for the famous bear. He's re-installed on platform 1. (Last time I was there, he was in a temporary spot due to renovations.) His note says, "Please look after this bear. Thank you." I felt this so much. I was deeply tired after a long, early-morning flight and fitful sleep the night
before we flew. (See how tired I look in that pic!) We could all use a sign like this. We need to remember to look after ourselves and each other. As Jesus so succinctly put it based in his own Jewish tradition, Love God. And love your neighbor and yourself. My goodness how the world would be different if we did that?!
Watch for a few more postcards from me. And if you have a spare moment, I would be grateful, so very grateful, for your care with and for me. Would you pray for me as I travel, speak to various groups? Pray for those students and professors, too? I'll be presenting some research and lectures, and I'll also do some study and writing, as well as renewing my soul. This is
likely to be a full adventure, but it is certainly not impossible. It will be more possible, and more joyful, if I know a few of you are surrounding me with love and light. You already have my gratitude.
Blessings and peace,
Eileen
PS - my daughter, and so many children in Britain where I will be this week, and college students and seminarians are all heading back to school. Need ideas to support them?
