DEFEND US AGAINST ENEMIES OF THE GOSPEL

 

 Recently the prayer of the day in our church included the words, "Pour out your Holy Spirit on your faithful people. . . protect and comfort them in times of trial, defend them against all enemies of the gospel, and bestow on the church your saving peace . . . ."  The phrase "defend them against all enemies of the gospel" particularly caught my attention.  

In our congregation we have mentioned whether the Church should be political.  Some fear that politics sows division.  Others suggest we not criticize each other for our political beliefs--and we don't.  That may be because we are fairly homogeneous, but perhaps not.  Perhaps we simply love our neighbors as ourselves and do unto others as we would have them do unto us.  It is the core of our faith.

But if refraining from politics means that we stay silent and passive in the face of oppression, then no.  Both Pope Leo XIV, the Catholic church, the Lutheran church bishops and others do not shy from speaking out.  No Christian should.  No American should.  No human being should. 

Many recognize that this administration and its supporters in Congress act as "enemies of the gospel."  How so is that true?  After all, do not all of us sin, repent and ask for forgiveness?  Of course we do. 

But we do not steal from the poor to give (tax cuts) to the rich.  We do not terrorize immigrants of color, cut food benefits to children or fire government employees; we do not deny science, make American businesses pay tariffs to the government, or build grand ballrooms where the beautiful East Wing of the White House once was--where Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosalynn Carter, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama once had their offices.  Where Jackie Kennedy planned the Rose Garden (now also demolished).   

Here in America, our white (like me) president has fired the black Chair of the Joint Chiefs, the first Black person to serve as Librarian of Congress, the first Black woman to serve on the National Labor Relations Board,  the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve, the first Black chair of the Federal Energy Commission, the only Black member of the National Transportation Board, the first Black woman on the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors and so on.  None with cause.   

As Christians, as humans, what do we do with this information?  Ignore it?  Pray it will disappear?  Keep silent?  Our service the same week ended with "Send us to do good and to share our possessions with all in need."   Our Prayers of Intercession included, "Move us to understanding and reconciliation between people of other faiths...." 

This is a lot.  But we can't eat the bread and wine that are Christ's body and blood if we let others go hungry.  Hunger is a weapon, whether used against Palestinians in Gaza or poor people here.  ICE raids, troops on our streets, racial terror are evils to overcome. That's why 7,000 of us, many from our congregation, were at the NO KINGS day in our town on October 18.  That's why the speaker was the Rev William Barber--look him up if you need to--, a Dr. King successor. 

Most of us aren't politicians and have no pulpit or bullhorn. All we Christians have is the Holy Spirit feeding us and the words of our faith guiding us.  But we, along with those of other faiths and no faith, have the duty to bear public witness, hold leaders accountable, speak out and resist systems that oppress.  

Some things--the most important--are moral, personal, religious and political.  Think justice, mercy, fair-dealing, respect, goodness, the virtues that stand opposed to sin, including the seven deadliest ones.   We can't ignore politics and keep sin at bay.  We can't fear to mention the names of our two American political parties in a Christian setting and speak truth to power.  Of how we treat the poor, Pope Leo XIV said recently, "Either we regain our moral and spiritual dignity or we fall into a cesspool."

My thoughts of the present are animated by God.  We woke to ICE in Charlotte this morning and to protests against them.  As of this writing 81 Charlotte residents have been arrested for the color of their skin and their first language. God is in the midst of them.  He is in our midst.  No where else do we find hope but in His promise to defend us against all enemies of the Gospel.  The calls to prayer are legion, but so are the calls to peaceful action.  Not my words, but to give up is unforgivable.        In peace, Nina Naomi

 

VERY ORDINARY FALL DAY

November Early Darkness

The best thing about today might be now, sitting outdoors by the fire pit waiting for the early darkness that comes in mid-November.  The citronella candles are lit, since soon it will be too dark to type out here.  the air is mild, I am in long sleeves only by this fire.  We have so much old wood lying about, any strong wind brings down branches to scavenge. I love this place, this patio, this old house, the fire pit that was shiny copper at the beginning of the pandemic, now tarnished by smoke and ash.  

Or maybe the best thing was this morning when I got to sleep a bit and then drink tea.  Lazy Saturdays are always special, left from years of working long hours with stress and travel delays, trying to finish up and get home.  Especially as the weather changes, isn't a slow start nice?  

Or perhaps the best might be this evening when some grandchildren (no longer children), family and friends come for my husband's small birthday supper.  If the fire is still burning they may join me outside for a few minutes.  I made sloppy Joes, my husband's favorite.  And a bought cake.  Maybe that will be best.

Still, isn't the best part of the day when we slide into bed?  Are we ever not happy about that?  Even when as new parents we didn't know how much rest we would get, it was still a desperately needed lie-down.  Sound sleep is a luxury.  After a meal and clean-up, I always think how nice a warm bath and cozy bed will feel.  Body lotion, clean old tee-shirts and raggy sleep pants, Pillows just right.  Just writing this makes me look forward to the end of the day.  

What is best for you?  Every morning I look forward to getting up and every night I look forward to going to bed.  I wonder if this is true for everyone.  Maybe we're just made this way.  Absent disasters and crises and all those times in our life that are too hard, maybe our default is to mostly love all the parts of our day.  Even work, over now in retirement, I could never have done without.  I remember not working and looking. for the right next step being more worrying than working.  

This is seeming like a very good, very ordinary Fall day, like one that most of us are having in our own individual way I suspect.  A weekend, some family, relaxation.  I hope you look at your day and find good things.  My wish whenever I write, is that what I am thinking connects in a small way to those reading, those who choose to read a simple diary of a mindful nature lover to the end of a post.   

The fire is dimming now and needs some stoking. 

Blessings to all, Nina Naomi  

 

LORD, TEACH US TO COPE

  

Someone I read the other day wrote about distancing as a fair way of coping.  Resistance, activism, helping others--but then in our arsenal as well, distancing.

What am I talking about? That no one in America is immune from the current destruction of our society.  SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) runs out now.  It may be reinstated by the courts, but over this regime's opposition, and even though the money is there to fund it.  Hungry people, the old, the young, the disabled used as leverage.   The kind of cruelty you see in war, an evil never justified.

Distancing is a respite from anger, frustration and despair.  It's a regrouping so that we don't give up.  It's a temporary move to reboot and refresh. It's not apathy.  It's self-care.  And it's OK.  

We can call it a refresh.  I've been doing that for a few posts. But whatever we call it, it's healthy.  It's healthy even if we are the hungry one.  It's healthy to go outside, take the kids for a walk, look at the leaves, gather acorns and pine cones, think about something else.  I did that today.  

I admit, I am not hungry.  I am privileged in my old age to be self-sufficient.  Why I have been given this blessing I do not know. But none of us takes it for granted.  None of us can take credit; we all work hard, we all do our best, maybe especially those who worry about each meal.  

Everyday we should try to do something other than worry.  Donating makes us feel good; if we have enough, it's the least we can do. Volunteering if we have time and strength.  This afternoon going outdoors into our woods brought home what we want to preserve. 

We are having friends over tonight.  They have been through some hard times.  Cancer strikes young as well as old.  That is their family tragedy right now.  We know how that feels.  Our young son died of cancer twenty years ago this year. No one forgets.  So I made a tablescape of acorns, nuts and luminous fall leaves.  I added some blossoms from the mums in the yard.  And a candle.  Honestly, so simple but gratifying.  Friends, maybe some music, a prayer before the meal, a supper of fish and rice and greens.  We won't talk politics.  We'll take a respite.  We'll show love to each other.  

My prayer is that I will do more for others; that goodness will prevail; that God will help us defeat evil, the evil that is trying to destroy our democracy and even the White House itself. The rest of the prayer we might leave to God.  Fashion the prayer we need, please Lord.  Teach us to pray as you did with the "Our Father."  Help us never loose our humanity.  Echoing a past Sunday's Prayer of the Day, "Pour out your Holy Spirit on your faithful people. . . protect and comfort them in times of trial [and] defend them against all enemies of the gospel."   AMEN

REFRESH PART III

Pilot Mountain, NC

Part of keeping a balanced life, refreshing ourselves from, at least in America, the unhappiness that the current regime takes pleasure in spreading, is taking care of our bodies, minds and souls. We all do this.  We might grieve the destruction of the East Wing of the White House, where Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Kennedy, and Betty Ford held sway.  We might protest the extra-judicial killing of Venezuelans who may or may not be transporting drugs. We make daily acts of resistance.  But we also take care.  

Mr. Airy, NC

  I can't write about our simple trip to a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains, only 2 hours from home, without first acknowledging that.  We're under stress, but we take care.  All of us.  

This week after the joy of NO KINGS DAY on October 18, with the eloquent Rev. William Barber exhorting us, I chose a mountain overnight to celebrate my birthday.  We drove past Pilot Mountain with its knob on top, to the town of Mt. Airy, which was called Mayberry on the old Andy Griffith show.   Small town North Carolina at its best.  Just about everyone in our region has been here. 

  Then we headed up and down the mountain to the even smaller town of Fancy Gap, year-round population under 300.   We stayed in the cabin pictured below, perfect with a fire pit outdoors and a lovely view of the property.  It was just cold enough. 

Cozy Cabin, Fancy Gap, VA

Of course, Bluegrass is the specialty of the region and we were excited that jam night at the Country Store in Fancy Gap is Thursday, the night we were there.  So barbecue and music was the evening.  Musicians wandered in and joined the circle.  Someone named a song and a key and strummin' and singin' began. 

 

Country Store, Fancy Gab, VA

The next day because it was my birthday I got to browse pottery and arts and crafts at my leisure.  I felt completely lucky the whole time, with such a fun experience and change from our ordinary day only 2 hours away.  It felt like a big trip, just the one overnight, and left me totally refreshed.  These kinds of good things, all good things in fact, are reminders of what we are holding the line for, why we resist, and why we won't give up and let our country become Turkey or China or Russia or any place with a billionaire tin-horn dictator. 

 

In peace, Nina Naomi 

 

  

 

PEOPLE AND PLANTS--A POWER COUPLE

 

Plants sustain all life on earth.  They provide the oxygen we breathe, the food we eat and the trees we use for shelter.  We devour them with relish, berry, flower, fruit, leaf, stem and root. Red Raspberries, crisp radishes, fragrant plums and peaches.  Plants feed the sheep whose wool warms us, the cattle whose milk sustains us, and the goats whose Goat-milk soap washes our bodies.  Our barns and beds are of wood, our bodies clothed in cotton and flax. 

Plants regulate the climate, prevent erosion and store carbon. They connect us to the land and to each other. They shelter the birds and mammals that wait near our bird feeder.  They inspire artists, from Vincent Van Gogh's SUNFLOWERS to Monet's WATERLILIES  to Georgia O'Keeffe's Poppies, lilacs, and petunias.  Each month is represented by its own flower, carnations for January, violets for February, daffodils for March and so on.  Flowers speak our hearts.  Nothing says "I'm sorry" or "I love you" or "Get well soon" like a bouquet of fresh flowers. 

Flowers feed the insects who in turn pollinate the flowers.  Walking and sitting among, or even just looking at plants and trees, soothes our souls and lifts our spirits.  Nature mends us.  Aloe vera relieves our skin. Trailing ivy absorbs formaldehyde and other toxins.  Bamboo Palms humidify a dry room. The forest is a pharmacy of phytoncides that reduce inflammation and protect our neurons just by breathing.  Like a human kidney, sea grasses filter and clean water and feed and protect manatees.  It's hard to be depressed outdoors on a beautiful day. Or to stand beneath a giant sequoia, 3,000 years old, and not feel the breadth of the Universe. 

I am glad we have this daily gift.  Nina Naomi

 

 

REFRESH PART II

 This is a different kind of refresh.  Over the years I've written about museum days, those days when you can join any century mid-stream and hang out with Dutch Masters, French Impressionists, whomever you want.  What about today taking a break with Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986).

Earlier this spring we were in Santa Fe, New Mexico and visited the O'Keeffe museum and sights.  On assignment for LOOK magazine (anyone remember LOOK?), photographer Tony Vaccaro took this picture of O'Keeffe in 1960 in her Abiquiú house.

Most of us think of O'Keeffe as the person who painted large flowers.  The artist disputed male critics who saw the blooms as depictions of female genitalia. They're flowers, she said.  I make them large so you can see them.  We must agree.  What great female artist wants Freud as her muse?  An interpretation that is gendered and outdated.  Although for me as a woman, the idea of our bodies flowering can also be quite lovely. No contradiction, I think. 

Red Canna, 1919

Untitled Abstraction, 1970s

But her range is much wider.  This abstraction was painted when O'Keeffe was in her 90s and apparently reveals small hand tremors in the movement of the brush.  Then, years before, Geranium Leaves in a Pink Dish, 1938, so clear and round where the other shapes in Abstraction add curves and verticality.  

Oil on Wood Panel

Today we went to the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh and found another O'Keeffe.  Art, poetry, music, the wind in the trees, orange and yellow leaves covering my back patio, chili in the crock pot, family coming to dinner--so many ways to refresh ourselves.  

 

Yesterday was NO KINGS and 7,000,000 people across America protested the authoritarian policies of Donald Trump.  Our demonstration in Durham was a wonder.  We were 7,000 marchers--one out of every 1000 demonstrators was right here in my city.

 

Thank you world.  I am refreshed.       Nina Naomi 

 

REFRESH

Brock Basin, Pine Knoll Shores, NC

OK, if you're an American who is well-informed, you are likely existing under the weight of serious day-to-day stress.  Obvious, right? The stress that comes not from personal crises (though those too), but from newly coping with and trying to defeat an authoritarian regime. I'm ready for the next big NO KINGS DAY, OCTOBER 18.  I'm watching the lower courts hold the line.  I'm listening to AOC and Bernie Sanders and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and hoping that the news about a cease-fire in Gaza brings lasting peace.  I admire the governors who protect their citizens. 

So why lead with a picture of canoes?  Because we also need to keep our balance and take breaks.  What more appropriate symbol of balance than a canoe.   Plus, following my own advice, I thought that picking some special photos, posting and writing about them would give all of our minds a refresh.  

So I chose this snap of colorful canoes just waiting to cut through the water with someone's strong strokes.   I love the way their random shelving ends up looking artistically pleasing. My first ever post was about canoes, Feb 2, 2017.

 

Then I located in my library this otherwise regal alpaca whose silly mop-top belies her distinction.  She lives with her family at the Museum of Life and Science here in Durham.  Alpacas are docile animals, but you wouldn't know that from their bray.  They hum too! 

Is there a farm near you?  Do you raise farm animals yourself?  My granddaughter and I have a date for Goat-Pumpkin Carving; can't wait to see how that works out.  

                                   A picture of healthy birch trees shedding their bark in sheets, caught my attention next.  We saw these paper birch on a visit to New Jersey.  So my break includes remembering times of small pleasures. Our woods has beech trees, which also have white bark, but it is smooth.  Their brown leaves stay on all winter until spring buds force them to fall. 

Here's another cute alpaca from the herd.  Can't resist.  The Museum is just 30 minutes or so away; I don't know why I don't run over more. There's a butterfly house there too, and lemurs and rescue bears.  The picture is a reminder to be more child-like once-in-a-while and ooh and aah at these unique species. 

 This snap I just took yesterday.  The fungi are sprouting in the leaf-mold as the air cools and nights lengthen. This tiny red-cap is a beauty.  There's a cluster of them just out my door south of a patch of moss. Here's another view.  

The deer eat them, we've noticed, so they don't last long.  The best break today was of course, searching the woods for what to photo, keeping my literal balance in our rocky terrain and inspecting the mossy trail I've maintained for over twenty years now.  I call it a fitness trail only because it keeps me fit (ha!).

Finally, let's end this refresh with upside-down reflections in pools.  I wrote about this too back in 2017, September, an early post.  We were taking a slow journey from North Carolina to the Eastern Shore and back.  The Dismal Swamp is on the Virginia-North Carolina border, 113,000 acres of wetland forest and coastal plain swamp. Again, so close to where I live, we should visit more.  

The water is only 6 feet deep but brackish, and reflections of tree and cloud make it look much deeper, don't you think?   

 

Last treat:  

I hope you enjoyed your break.  Thank you for being here.  Nina Naomi