Archive for the ‘celebration’ Category
Party Decorating for your Child’s Birthday Party Celebration
What is a party without decorations? While decorations can range from the simple to the very elaborate (and expensive), the one thing all decorations have in common is that they require planning and thought.
Here are some tips to get your creative juices flowing:
Plan your party decorations according to the party layout that you have in mind. You can focus on decorations for the performance area (or cake cutting area), dining table, and general areas. The activities area and food area should be kept relatively free of decorations to allow children and guests to play or get their food in a hazard-free environment.
Decorations you can get include: banners, streamers, balloons and centerpieces. Allow your birthday child to get involved by letting him/her choose the colours of the balloons, or even, if you wish, the theme of the party decorations. It is after all, his/her special day!
The backdrop is a very important element for party decorations. This should be placed at the performance/cake cutting area. If you’re holding the party at a function room, this should be on the stage backdrop. You can get a colourful banner as the center of the backdrop and get birthday flags and streamers to add to the backdrop. If you have balloons, add balloons at the side of the backdrop.
The backdrop can be themed, elaborate or simple – it is really up to you. Having the backdrop at the performance/cake cutting area, also allows you to get beautiful pictures of the cake cutting moment with a fantastic backdrop.
General Areas
Helium balloons are a favorite of children and are great for decorations. The balloons can be used to decorate the general areas. You can use colours that your child or you have chosen. Try to use more colourful balloons so as to add to the party atmosphere. If the party is themed, you could use printed balloons, or even aluminum foil balloons that go with the theme.
Keep in mind though, that children will tend to grab the balloons, so ensure that there are still enough balloons for decoration even if the children decide to get the balloons for themselves. Alternatively, get streamers for the general area as well to add colour and vibrancy to your party. This also ensures that even if the children do grab the balloons for themselves, the general areas are still decorated.
Dining area
The dining area should be decorated but still kept generally clear so that your guests can enjoy the food. The most ideal decorations that can go on the dining tables are centerpieces. They can simply be a bunch of balloons that go on the middle of the table. This allows a continuity of the party decorations and still ensures your guests can enjoy the food without the decorations getting in their way.
If your party is a themed party, you can consider getting printed plates, utensils and napkins. These add to the general theme and look good as decorations on the whole.
Entrance Area
Besides the performance/ cake cutting area, the dining area, and the general areas, you can consider adding decorations at the entrance for your party too! The decorations can be just a simple greeting banner that welcomes your guests to the party, or you could have some balloons at the entrance to the party. This not only makes the whole party look more fun right from the start, but also has the added advantage of letting your guests know that they have reached the right venue for the party!
Do keep in mind that while simple decorations like these can be cheap to get, you will need time to put them up as well. Remember to plan your time properly so you have time to decorate the venue before your guests arrive! Or simply, you can save yourself some time and hassle, by getting the decorations done at an affordable price from professionals like Mighty Magic Factory !
Flavors of Norway — Syttende Mai
Ask most people what the biggest day on the Norwegian calendar is and they would probably say the first day of the ice fishing season. If you’re in that group (come on, be honest) you may be shocked and surprised to find out you’re WRONG…close…but WRONG! If you live in Dane, Rock, or Green Counties, you should be run out of town on a rail.
The correct answer is Syttende Mai. (Pronounced Setten de my). Syttende Mai holds the same significance in Norway as the 4th of July holds in the United States. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Norway, which had been under the control of Denmark since the mid-1300s, was given by Denmark to Sweden. The Norwegians were miffed at this turn of events since they always considered themselves an independent country and on May 17 (or Syttende Mai), 1814, they signed a constitution declaring themselves so. Sweden was unimpressed and continued to rule Norway for another hundred years, finally granting independence in 1905.
But I digress. Syttende Mai is celebrated with children’s parades, big parades, dances, and food, lots and lots of food. And what do Norwegians eat, you may ask? According to Howard Mohr, in his bible of Scandinavian lifestyle in the Upper Midwest How to Talk Minnesotan, Norwegians like white food. If it’s not naturally white, they’ll make it white. While this is mostly true, it’s not completely true. A little color does creep in, here and there.
Like most cuisines, Norwegian cooking includes things both wonderful and to the uninitiated…frightening. Here then is a quick overview of Norwegian cooking. The most famous Norwegian foods are the ever-popular lutefisk and lefse. Lutefisk literally means lye fish. Lutefisk is air-dried cod, called stockfish, that is sawn (literally) into manageable pieces, soaked in fresh water for eight days, a lye (you read it right, lye) solution for two days, and then fresh water again for an additional two days. After all that, lutefisk is simmered until it is firm and translucent. Lutefisk is NOT an acquired taste. You either like it or you don’t.
While lutefisk is available here and there in grocery stores, especially around Christmas, it’s not the easiest thing to find. The Olsen Fish Company on the north side of Minneapolis is the world’s largest producer. They make over 650,000 pounds a year. They sell stockfish for the do-it-yourselfers and processed and ready to cook lutefisk for the rest of us. The lutefisk is packaged under Olsen, Viking, Kemps, and Mike’s labels but you can’t buy directly from Olsens for they are strictly a wholesale company.
Lefse is made from potatoes. It’s thin and flexible, and it looks and feels much like a flour tortilla. It has been likened to a dish rag but that is an unfair judgment by people who have tried poor quality, store bought, or old product. Fresh lefse is a delicate, flavorful delight, especially when buttered and rolled up with brown sugar.
The absolute best place to get lefse is to find a church with a crew of little Norwegian ladies who set up in the church kitchen and crank out lefse to sell as a fund-raiser. Stoughton, Mount Horeb, or Westby are good places to start. Failing that, the general consensus among lefse connoisseurs is that Countryside Lefse in Blair, Wisconsin, is by far the best commercially made lefse around. The reason is that they make lefse the same way you would at home (or at church). They use real potatoes and they roll and flip the lefse by hand. Countryside Lefse is distributed to local grocery stores but you can also order directly from them on their website lefse.com.
Lutefisk isn’t the only fish dish around. Almost as ubiquitous is pickled herring. Norwegians eat tons of the stuff every year. Herring are pickled in the traditional manner with vinegar and spices and then things get interesting. There are 15 species of herring and at least that many ways to pack them. The two most popular variations are in a sour cream or wine sauce, but recent years have brought about new varieties including Cajun and fresh dill.
Fiskeballer (fish balls) and fish soup can contain almost anything. The main trick with fish balls is to run the meat through a grinder at least five times. Oddest sounding of all is fiskepudding or fish pudding. It’s exactly what it sounds like. To get the light, spongy consistency required, you need really fresh fish. The fish is pureed with cream and some other stuff and then baked. It’s usually served hot and drenched in butter.
Now that those are out of the way, we can move on to the important stuff — cookies and baked goods. The most recognizable Norwegian cookies are krumkake. These cone shaped delights are sometimes filled, but often are served plain (as God intended) and are light and crispy with just a hint of cardamom. Sandbakkel come in a variety of shapes. The dough is pressed into forms that are essentially tiny tart tins. They have a thicker, more substantial texture and a definite almond taste. Fattigman (poor man’s cookies) are similar to sandbakkels in texture but without the almond flavor. Fattigman cookies are different in that they are deep fried. A little powdered sugar on top and you have a very tasty cookie.
By far the prettiest and most delicate cookies are the rosetter, or rosettes. The cookie starts with a thin batter, then flower- or star-shaped irons with long handles are dipped into the batter and then lowered into hot oil. The cookies fry until they are a beautiful golden brown. Once they are sprinkled with powdered sugar, they are as much a work of art as they are a paper thin, yummy treat.
Cakes of all kinds are part of the Norwegian diet. Two in particular are worth noting. One is the kransekake. This is an almond cake that is baked in 18 thin concentric rings that are then stacked to form a cone 12 to 18 inches tall, all glued together with frosting. Kransekake is usually served on special occasions, especially weddings. They are decorated for the occasion with real flowers, party poppers, flags, or whatever. They’re about as putzy as a cake can get and seem deceptively simple to create once you have the special baking rings. When things go wrong, kransekake are next to inedible. However, when Ole and Lena smile and it turns out as it should, kransekake’s pleasing texture and almond flavor make all the work worthwhile.
At the other end of the spectrum, Norwegian apple cake is a study in rustic elegance that satisfies without pretension. Sugar, flour, salt, baking powder, apples, nuts, and an egg combine to create a sturdy cake loaded with bits of nuts and apples. It’s simple, but this is a clear case of the sum being greater than its parts. Serve it with a little fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream on top. Best of all it’s even better the second day.
Odd and assorted other Norwegian specialties include rommegrot, fruktsuppe, and sweet soup. Rommegrot is sour cream soup that is usually generously drizzled in butter and sprinkled with sugar and ground cinnamon (Norwegians seem to do this a lot). Rommegrot is thick and sweet and needs something to wash it down. Red current juice is popular, but you might be better served by beer or Aquavit.
Fruktsuppe, or fruit soup, is pretty much what it says it is, a soup made with tapioca, prunes, raisins, apples, oranges, and just about any other fresh, frozen, canned, or dried fruit you happen to have around. The difference is that while Americans like their fruit soup cold, Norwegians serve it hot, garnished with lemon and orange slices.
Sot suppe (sweet soup) is pretty self-explanatory. It is also a fruit soup made with dried fruits, especially raisins, currants, prunes, and tapioca, but this one is served cold. Accompaniments include Christmas bread, Christmas cookies, open-faced sandwiches, and a variety of sliced cheeses.
This is far from a complete list of Norwegian foods. Norwegian is as wide and varied a cuisine as that from other countries and it waits for you to go exploring. Many of the foods I’ve ment
ioned are available prepackaged or as mixes. The web offers recipes galore for those who want to get hands-on. Either way, you can enter into the spirit of the holiday because, like on St. Patrick’s Day, on Syttende Mai everybody is Norwegian.
Buying Norwegian in Wisconsin
Many Norwegian food items are things you cannot get at the local Pick ‘n Save or Piggly Wiggly. These are specialty items that are only available at certain shops. Some require special appliances. Lefse and krumkake griddles and sandbakkel tins are usually available at the same stores. Here is a partial list of places to check out.
Open House Imports, 306 E. Main St., Mt. Horeb, WI 53572, (608) 437-5468 openhouseimports.com
Open House carries a nice selection of products including Freia Chocolates, sandbakkel, lefse, and rommergrot mixes, fish soup, fish balls, salmon and caviar spread, lingonberries, and Hartshorn Salt (a hard-to find ingredient of some Norwegian dishes). They also carry Norwegian equipment.
Dick’s Quality Meats, 201 Main Street, Mt. Horeb, WI 53572. A good source for herring, lefse, and, at holiday times, lutefisk.
Norske Nook Restaurant and Coffee House and Gift Shop — Osseo, 13804-13807 7th Street, Osseo, WI 54758, (715) 597-3765 norskenook.com
Norske Nook — Rice Lake, 2900 Pioneer Avenue, Rice Lake, WI 54868, 715-234-1733
Norske Nook — Hayward, Hwy. 27 South, Hayward, WI 54843, (715) 634-4928
The Norske Nook is a legend in Wisconsin, offering “from scratch” cooking and fabulous baked goods. The restaurants offer a limited selection of products but the selection at the Osseo gift shop is more extensive with imported cookies, lingonberries, lefse, potato dumpling and Norwegian pancake mixes, and more. They also carry lefse and krumkake griddles, sandbakkel tins, and other needed equipment.
Dregnes Scandinavian Gifts, 100 S. Main St., Westby, WI 54667, Phone: (608) 634-4414 Toll Free: (877) 634-4414 DregnesScandinavianGifts.com. Dregnes had the best selection of goods of all the places we checked. They offer Norwegian cheeses, fish soup, two different kinds of fish balls, vanilla and pearl sugars, Ljus syrup, glug, and numerous mixes. Their kitchen shop carries any cookware necessary to turn out a delicious Norwegian meal.
Nordic Nook, 176 W. Main St., Stoughton, WI 53589, Phone: (608) 877-0848 Toll Free: (866) 912-6665 nordic-nook.com. The Nordic Nook has a nice selection of Norwegian cooking gear and all the standard food offerings. A couple of unusual and yummy additions are pepparkakor (gingersnap) caramels and Ole and Lena fortune cookies.
Cheesers, LLC 186 E. Main St., Stoughton, WI 53589, Phone: (608) 873-1777 Fax: (608) 877-0362 cheesers.com. Stoughton has the biggest Syttende Mai celebration outside of Norway so you know Stoughton is serious about Norwegian food. Cheesers doesn’t offer the cooking equipment like the others but they do offer a nice selection of products including a broad selection of flatbreads and crisps, fresh lefse, coffee, Jarlsberg cheese, and two kinds of Gjetost. This is a great place for all your cheese needs. Their selection is comprehensive.
A Walk in San Francisco: God, Bishop, Man, Church: Diocese of California Celebration–july 17, 1999 (a Meditation and Report; Some Notes )
Thursday, December 04, 2008
A Walk in San Francisco: God, Bishop, Man, Church:
Diocese of California Celebration–July 17, 1999
(a meditation and report; some notes on a public spiritual walk with observations and side comments)
By Peter Menkin
(written July 17, 1999)
Starting in the Morning
Some months (now years) have passed since the walk occurred, and a moment of reflection on the event makes me want to continue in prayer. I believe that there can be a silence in our emptying of our mind, in a Zen fashion. Doing this allows the Triune God to enter in, and it allows the archetype to whisper, and the speaking of our past lives to bring new impressions of reality to bring in our day.
When we gather together as a Church, or a Diocese, and walk among the Shepard, and are ourselves the people who as children of light seek to let that light come in, there is a Springtime of Easter where we can be receptive and allow the promise of his presence to bring us to that beating heart of our body to be Christ.
The morning is a difficult time, for we await the light, we await the waking of the world, the birds to sing, the everyday working life to begin its struggle and toil, its very labor as Job would in his exceptional relationship enter into another waking oblation in complaint, love, and observation with the Lord. This commentary, no stranger to the children of Abraham, is a Biblical time and I recommend the reading of Acts, and at this time of year for our Easter Luke.
Wondering is good, but the quiet of the Sunday is really the joy of measure that brings us closer to ascend and discern, to be and to contemplate. May we find someone who is suffering and in need, who is a good soul, and a genuinely gifted person as the Tibetan Nun in China who suffers so greatly at the hands of her torturers. To be in prayer and solitude with her is the silence that is the Zen moment. There is to know another who is a great distance, and to walk with them in the spirit on a journey that is an immensity of the times and in the world. I ask your prayers. God grant us grace to walk among the creatures that we have been given, and to maintain our selves in stability, in the love of our Lord, as we come to know the inevitability of the mystery of the resurrection. This we do when we walk together as Church, as Christian, in seeking our God, and knowing God who is a great and wonderful thing as a force for entry the narrow way. Oh, light, bring us this morning. This is the day that the Lord has made, let us be glad in it.
What’s Right In the World
There is a comfort in knowing the presence of God, and eventually one may find that this kind of willingness to travel with a restful attempt to remain in the presence of the almighty is refreshing. The most unusual thing about this Saturday walk with clergy and church members was it reminded me of the importance to be aware in preparation for Sunday. If it hadn’t been for the others along the way, I would have had a very much difficult time climbing the hill to the Cathedral.
By our all climbing that hill together, like followers, like disciples, like strugglers, like penitents, like lovers, and as friends, my own journey was made easier. How glad I was along with the others for those who shepherded us on to worship. This Saturday morning of July 17, 1999 the entire group of people who attend the Episcopal Church in my area of San Francisco, started gathering in the morning for a walk up California Street. I arrived early from a sense of desire to participate in an early morning time in the City. One of the nearer towns to the Cathedral, where our journey in pilgrimage together was taking us, is in Mill Valley in Marin County.
Others came from Contra Costa County, and some from South of San Francisco like Christ’s Church located near Stanford University. Our Saviour was the group I started looking for in the morning, and was happy to find a Reverend Gwen, a Deacon, who also arrived early to begin sheparding us along. She had a map showing the way up the California Street Hill, and our places to gather together for the walk. There was a woman Priest named Gloria who was on one corner of the congruent point of arrival.
Beginning at a Crosswords
We began at a crossroads. She was dressed in a long coat, since the morning was cool and the fog had lifted. The Reverend Gloria speaks Spanish. Across from her, to the West towards the Ocean side of the Bay, was another small gathering of Church members. They held the first lone banner, to be joined by others with banners to lead their small groups. Love called us. So it does as we listen when we walk for that bidding of love, the love that is offered to us in friends and others.
There is a treasure for us to be enjoyed in a walk, by ourselves in solitude or with others as I am describing to you here. By the time the morning had risen for us to greet the arrival of the leaders, we were pretty well organized and happy to continue up the walk. Later the St. Gregory’s Church community waved us along, refreshing us, as we sent the way through the middle of the street. They are a joyous group.
They walk in a bunch. The diversity of the Diocesan Episcopal Church USA group was described in a dispatch from the Church as: ” Let It Shine, the procession, which included Chinese dragons, bagpipers and a sea of church banners, numbered more than 2,500 people and stretched nearly four blocks.” So wrote Dennis Delman the Church magazine.
There were people of all nationalities and colors in our group, and there is no singleness in Christ, nor a barrier to him or in the walk I am describing here. San Francisco is a diverse group of families from many places in the world, as are the people who were gathered in friendship.
Presiding Bishop Led the Way
The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church was accompanied by his wife, and The Honorable Frank T. Griswold had this to say about the occasion, that is true for us as a spiritual direction in taking a walk up the hill wherever we may be: “‘Be thankful,’” our reading from the Letter to the Colossians urges us, ‘and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.’ A spirit of gratitude opens the way for what is given to appear as gift, as the poet Stephen Mitche observes with regard to prayer.
Gratitude helps us to release our grasp on life: to be grateful is an act of non possession; it is a yielding of control which delivers us from the harsh and unforgiving judgments we so often direct against ourselves and others.” The way we journeyed along together, this large community gathering in its spiritual exercise of shepherding to a place of worship, was by approaching the excitement with an acceptance in faith for the coming entry to the Cathedral.
This preparation for a feast inside, continued us along in a companionship of desire to be together, and to join in saying the very words that we as a community believed would bring us closer in faith, and know in love the source of the being that is the Triune God. We can bring this into our body, incarnate this for the good of our soul.
Italicized Comments: Expectations
Sometimes in retrospect, looking back just those short few weeks ago from today, I consider that the amazing coincidence of fate that brought so many together in joy for the festivities of banners, excitement, and experience to live in a more liturgical and spiritual manner together was joyful.
The power of the living word, so aptly and well said as a love to the lips in breathing just the clean air itself in this morning climb was preparation for us enough. When taking a walk, remember as others and I do, that this is a preparation for worship in your own Church. That God would be with someone alone, though, later, is another matter. God is with us, and this is the message that I want to leave with you as I recount what it is to take a walk in the coun
try or the city. Look for him. I tell you this because it is not only what we brought in joy and anticipation, but in the expectation that we would return to our homes, families, and later in worship to our own Churches of the communion that made us happily able to walk.
So we came, friends, carrying in and enjoyment of banners and yes crosses, willing to carry them together with the clergy among and before and behind us.
Walking with God and Man
When I returned home, and in the days following I practiced reflecting on the way that I walk. When one walks with God, does one wonder as one walks, does one look for beauty and think of the glory of God, does one examine the earth and know that it is a soil of forgiveness and charity?
How does one walk, in the breathing silence that is the living presence of the Almighty?
Pondering these matters, I considered the Bible a source of the joy in which I might come to know a way that is Christ, and how I could remain more fruitful in a care for others. What is this manner that we or I can do with a friend in the expectation that God is in his willingness, and we are able in the necessity of our virtue to offer a simple prayer of pleasure in the living that he offers us. Ponder we did, I am sure, as the many who were there did, as a friend did who made the journey and was so specially blessed to be brought home refreshed, though drained. Another friend had been a singer in the Choir, and this for her was probably a remaining hymn for us as a living testament to the condition that this kind of prayerful or spiritual desire can offer by the experience we shared.
Peace was a theme of this celebration, and how aptly this message is given by the very nature of the worship. Even during the liturgy we offered to one another a time to say a peaceful word. This exercise in being a good neighbor, to be decent to another is worth reflecting on because that is the fruit of the spiritual walk.
I look towards a walk in the daytime, or at evening, in a way that is a journey towards friendship and in peace, despite my own travails and difficulties. This kind of desire can be difficult to maintain, since many people suffer seriously from unhappiness. Some say Christ brought the lame, the maimed, the halt, the forgiven, the sinner, and others to a satisfaction in the grace of living in this world.
Celebration & Love
God helps us we celebrate, and we remember in the story of a journey we take on a walk that we have homes and children with whom we can find a love and some ways to bring to one another a more cheerful and giving time in our lives. God helps us do these things. There are many who haven’t these things in their lives, the less fortunate and the poor. By every step of the way, catching prayerful thoughts can be accomplished. This is one foot in front of another, and the whole body in quiet, in rhythm with the living God, and the light of others, along the way where there are buildings, or people, in streets, on a path in the woods or a garden, we see as we look to take our path that we are hastening towards our heavenly home.
Many of the parents who were with the clergy who shepherded us to this enjoyment were younger than I am, and this kind of presence of people who are so well prepared in their lives to offer us aid and support is a gratifying thing to know about.
That lesson of walking with others, or walking alone, helped me to continue my own path of spiritual awakening in the Church. This kind of journey that we find in an everyday event is refreshing. Thank God for the time we took in this joining together in assembly. Though we walk apart, we go forth in the harmony that the Lord is with us.
Conclusion
Say a prayer along the way. There are many subjects for prayer, and a prayer can be short like a brief moment in time as a still point. Like letting loose small pieces of folded paper into the air for others to know about, these prayers can be available to others as we offer them to God.
A Walk in San Francisco: God, Bishop, Man, Church:
Diocese of California Celebration–July 17, 1999
(a meditation and report; some notes on a public spiritual walk with observations and side comments)
By Peter Menkin
(written July 17, 1999)
Starting in the Morning
Some months (now years) have passed since the walk occurred, and a moment of reflection on the event makes me want to continue in prayer. I believe that there can be a silence in our emptying of our mind, in a Zen fashion. Doing this allows the Triune God to enter in, and it allows the archetype to whisper, and the speaking of our past lives to bring new impressions of reality to bring in our day.
When we gather together as a Church, or a Diocese, and walk among the Shepard, and are ourselves the people who as children of light seek to let that light come in, there is a Springtime of Easter where we can be receptive and allow the promise of his presence to bring us to that beating heart of our body to be Christ.
The morning is a difficult time, for we await the light, we await the waking of the world, the birds to sing, the everyday working life to begin its struggle and toil, its very labor as Job would in his exceptional relationship enter into another waking oblation in complaint, love, and observation with the Lord. This commentary, no stranger to the children of Abraham, is a Biblical time and I recommend the reading of Acts, and at this time of year for our Easter Luke.
Wondering is good, but the quiet of the Sunday is really the joy of measure that brings us closer to ascend and discern, to be and to contemplate. May we find someone who is suffering and in need, who is a good soul, and a genuinely gifted person as the Tibetan Nun in China who suffers so greatly at the hands of her torturers. To be in prayer and solitude with her is the silence that is the Zen moment. There is to know another who is a great distance, and to walk with them in the spirit on a journey that is an immensity of the times and in the world. I ask your prayers. God grant us grace to walk among the creatures that we have been given, and to maintain our selves in stability, in the love of our Lord, as we come to know the inevitability of the mystery of the resurrection. This we do when we walk together as Church, as Christian, in seeking our God, and knowing God who is a great and wonderful thing as a force for entry the narrow way. Oh, light, bring us this morning. This is the day that the Lord has made, let us be glad in it.
What’s Right In the World
There is a comfort in knowing the presence of God, and eventually one may find that this kind of willingness to travel with a restful attempt to remain in the presence of the almighty is refreshing. The most unusual thing about this Saturday walk with clergy and church members was it reminded me of the importance to be aware in preparation for Sunday. If it hadn’t been for the others along the way, I would have had a very much difficult time climbing the hill to the Cathedral.
By our all climbing that hill together, like followers, like disciples, like strugglers, like penitents, like lovers, and as friends, my own journey was made easier. How glad I was along with the others for those who shepherded us on to worship. This Saturday morning of July 17, 1999 the entire group of people who attend the Episcopal Church in my area of San Francisco, started gathering in the morning for a walk up California Street. I arrived early from a sense of desire to participate in an early morning time in the City. One of the nearer towns to the Cathedral, where our journey in pilgrimage together was taking us, is in Mill Valley in Marin County.
Others came from Contra Costa County, and some from South of San Francisco like Christ’s Church located near Stanford University. Our Saviour was the group I started looking for in the morning, and was happy to find a Reverend Gwen, a Deacon, who also arrived early to begin sheparding us along. She had a map showing the way up the California Street Hill, and our places to gather together for the walk. There was a woman Priest named Gloria who was on one corner of the congruent point of arrival.
Beginning at a Crosswords
We began at a crossroads. She was dressed in a long coat, since the morning was cool and the fog had lifted. The Reverend Gloria speaks Spanish. Across from her, to the West towards the Ocean side of the Bay, was another small gathering of Church members. They held the first lone banner, to be joined by others with banners to lead their small groups. Love called us. So it does as we listen when we walk for that bidding of love, the love that is offered to us in friends and others.
There is a treasure for us to be enjoyed in a walk, by ourselves in solitude or with others as I am describing to you here. By the time the morning had risen for us to greet the arrival of the leaders, we were pretty well organized and happy to continue up the walk. Later the St. Gregory’s Church community waved us along, refreshing us, as we sent the way through the middle of the street. They are a joyous group.
They walk in a bunch. The diversity of the Diocesan Episcopal Church USA group was described in a dispatch from the Church as: ” Let It Shine, the procession, which included Chinese dragons, bagpipers and a sea of church banners, numbered more than 2,500 people and stretched nearly four blocks.” So wrote Dennis Delman the Church magazine.
There were people of all nationalities and colors in our group, and there is no singleness in Christ, nor a barrier to him or in the walk I am describing here. San Francisco is a diverse group of families from many places in the world, as are the people who were gathered in friendship.
Presiding Bishop Led the Way
The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church was accompanied by his wife, and The Honorable Frank T. Griswold had this to say about the occasion, that is true for us as a spiritual direction in taking a walk up the hill wherever we may be: “‘Be thankful,’” our reading from the Letter to the Colossians urges us, ‘and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.’ A spirit of gratitude opens the way for what is given to appear as gift, as the poet Stephen Mitche observes with regard to prayer.
Gratitude helps us to release our grasp on life: to be grateful is an act of non possession; it is a yielding of control which delivers us from the harsh and unforgiving judgments we so often direct against ourselves and others.” The way we journeyed along together, this large community gathering in its spiritual exercise of shepherding to a place of worship, was by approaching the excitement with an acceptance in faith for the coming entry to the Cathedral.
This preparation for a feast inside, continued us along in a companionship of desire to be together, and to join in saying the very words that we as a community believed would bring us closer in faith, and know in love the source of the being that is the Triune God. We can bring this into our body, incarnate this for the good of our soul.
Italicized Comments: Expectations
Sometimes in retrospect, looking back just those short few weeks ago from today, I consider that the amazing coincidence of fate that brought so many together in joy for the festivities of banners, excitement, and experience to live in a more liturgical and spiritual manner together was joyful.
The power of the living word, so aptly and well said as a love to the lips in breathing just the clean air itself in this morning climb was preparation for us enough. When taking a walk, remember as others and I do, that this is a preparation for worship in your own Church. That God would be with someone alone, though, later, is another matter. God is with us, and this is the message that I want to leave with you as I recount what it is to take a walk in the coun
try or the city. Look for him. I tell you this because it is not only what we brought in joy and anticipation, but in the expectation that we would return to our homes, families, and later in worship to our own Churches of the communion that made us happily able to walk.
So we came, friends, carrying in and enjoyment of banners and yes crosses, willing to carry them together with the clergy among and before and behind us.
Walking with God and Man
When I returned home, and in the days following I practiced reflecting on the way that I walk. When one walks with God, does one wonder as one walks, does one look for beauty and think of the glory of God, does one examine the earth and know that it is a soil of forgiveness and charity?
How does one walk, in the breathing silence that is the living presence of the Almighty?
Pondering these matters, I considered the Bible a source of the joy in which I might come to know a way that is Christ, and how I could remain more fruitful in a care for others. What is this manner that we or I can do with a friend in the expectation that God is in his willingness, and we are able in the necessity of our virtue to offer a simple prayer of pleasure in the living that he offers us. Ponder we did, I am sure, as the many who were there did, as a friend did who made the journey and was so specially blessed to be brought home refreshed, though drained. Another friend had been a singer in the Choir, and this for her was probably a remaining hymn for us as a living testament to the condition that this kind of prayerful or spiritual desire can offer by the experience we shared.
Peace was a theme of this celebration, and how aptly this message is given by the very nature of the worship. Even during the liturgy we offered to one another a time to say a peaceful word. This exercise in being a good neighbor, to be decent to another is worth reflecting on because that is the fruit of the spiritual walk.
I look towards a walk in the daytime, or at evening, in a way that is a journey towards friendship and in peace, despite my own travails and difficulties. This kind of desire can be difficult to maintain, since many people suffer seriously from unhappiness. Some say Christ brought the lame, the maimed, the halt, the forgiven, the sinner, and others to a satisfaction in the grace of living in this world.
Celebration & Love
God helps us we celebrate, and we remember in the story of a journey we take on a walk that we have homes and children with whom we can find a love and some ways to bring to one another a more cheerful and giving time in our lives. God helps us do these things. There are many who haven’t these things in their lives, the less fortunate and the poor. By every step of the way, catching prayerful thoughts can be accomplished. This is one foot in front of another, and the whole body in quiet, in rhythm with the living God, and the light of others, along the way where there are buildings, or people, in streets, on a path in the woods or a garden, we see as we look to take our path that we are hastening towards our heavenly home.
Many of the parents who were with the clergy who shepherded us to this enjoyment were younger than I am, and this kind of presence of people who are so well prepared in their lives to offer us aid and support is a gratifying thing to know about.
That lesson of walking with others, or walking alone, helped me to continue my own path of spiritual awakening in the Church. This kind of journey that we find in an everyday event is refreshing. Thank God for the time we took in this joining together in assembly. Though we walk apart, we go forth in the harmony that the Lord is with us.
Conclusion
Say a prayer along the way. There are many subjects for prayer, and a prayer can be short like a brief moment in time as a still point. Like letting loose small pieces of folded paper into the air for others to know about, these prayers can be available to others as we offer them to God.