Friday Five: Dream a Little Dream

Dream a Little Dream for the last Friday Five this year, for 29 December, 2006:

"In the Last Days," God says,
"I will pour out my Spirit
on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy,
also your daughters;
Your young men will see visions,
your old men dream dreams.
When the time comes,
I'll pour out my Spirit
On those who serve me, men and women both,
and they'll prophesy."
(Acts 2:17-18, The Message)

On this final Friday of 2006, it seems appropriate to speak of dreams. A very important dream about a lighthouse played a role in my journey towards ordained ministry, and mine last night were vivid and included a flying church.

Please feel as untethered yourself in responding to this Friday Five.

---

Being tethered by the HS, from Tucson, AZ, here's my play for today:

1) a dream you remember from childhood

I'll bolt some distance from those halcyon (not!) early days and cite some songs that refer to dreams, so here are a few I'll probably add to at a later time; at this moment I'm not linking to them in my usual compulsive manner because I'll be on my way to Tombstone in a few:

• Dan Hartman - I can Dream about You
• Spanky and Our Gagn - What a Day for a Daydream
• Eurythmics, ANNIE Lennox! - Sweet Dreams are Made of This
• Fleetwood Mac - Dreams
• Gary Wright - Dreamweaver
• Heart - These Dreams

2) a recurring or significant dream

Not recurring but significant and confirmatory: shortly after I realized I absolutely positively needed to spend a lot of time this winter in prayer, contemplation (maybe discernment, too) and apartness from my usual pace, I dreamt I was in the courtyard of my complex looking up to my condo and seeing it disheveled yet in a neat (decent?) and orderly manner. In the dream I realized I wouldn't be able to get back in my living space for several months, but amazingly, I calmly told myself, "At least I have everything I need for the winter here with me now."

3) a nightmare

About a week ago I dreamt I'd showed up for a guest preaching gig in very not-put-together nor well-coordinated clothes and bedroom slippers, made all the more perplexing knowing I'd left home attired reasonably appropriately. This wasn't horrendously nightmarish, but I've long been maybe too concerned about my public presentation, due to lots of things—early childhood, basic personality, my love of an audience and the years I spend in a public position. However, more often than not, I carry this to extremes, so the dream became a cautionary tale.

4) a favorite daydream

What a time for a daydream...moving right into the New Year 2007...I love pretending I'm back in one favorite place or another, beach, city, desert or wherever, and often I end expressing the daydream in color, line and design. Of course, it's sometimes possible to approximate the situation right where I am now!

5) a dream for the New Year

As a Daughter of the Church, I constantly pray and dream of healing for one of the churches I'm involved with and for continued health and growth for the other.

Reign of Christ

We Bow Down

You are Lord of the Heavens and Lord of my life
Lord of the land and the sea
You were Lord of Creation before there was time
And Lord of all Lords You will be!

We bow down and we worship You, Lord
We bow down and we worship You, Lord
We bow down and we worship You, Lord
Lord of all Lords You will be!

You are King of the Heavens and King of my life
King of the land and the sea
You were King of Creation before there was time
And King of all Kings You will be!

We bow down and we crown You the King
We bow down and we crown You the King
We bow down and we crown You the King
King of all Kings You will be!

~~Twila Paris~~

Thanksgiving to Advent to Winter Solitude

I'm cross-posting this blog.

Thanksgiving

The time of year is here for listing reasons for attitudes of gratitude! In my heart I hold thankfulness for nothing if not for God's matchless gifts of Church and Sacraments, and above all for Jesus Christ, Gift of Gifts. I bless God that in baptism I am paradoxically both dead and alive in Christ--both dead to the world and alive for the world; that the Good Gift of the Eucharist connects me with all creation everywhere in every age while challenging me to discern the body within the community where I find myself at that particular moment in time and space. I give thanks that I am bound by water and the Word yet claim the liberty of the children of God—bound above all by grace! This Thanksgiving 2006 I give thanks for nearby neighbors and emerging friendships, and amazingly, for a pair of online sites that have shown me (the physical, tangible gospel person) that community, trust and friendship can happen over the internet! Who would have thought?!

I give thanks for shelter, warmth, food, creation, beauty of every kind, the year-long Design School program I finished a month ago at the local branch ("expression of" as we'd say in the Church) of the New Media Consortium—I especially give thanks that God knows to keep putting options in my path sufficiently late to force me to make quick decisions! For the IMCP I interviewed and attended orientation on a Friday in early January, started classes at 7:00 the following Monday morning.

With Rascal Flatts ["Bless the Broken Road"– 2004] I bless the broken road on which I've tripped and frequently fallen. I am increasingly grateful that the God of the bible, Lord of the Church, is a servant God Who Self-reveals not in ornate finery but in the Cross of Calvary Hill and in extravagant unmerited gifts of grace given in spite of me, in spite of us, sometimes because of the messiness, brokenness and devastating shatteredness of life disintegrating into simple survival. And surely the Best News arrives to the dis- or less-enfranchised, to the broken and empty?! (I don't need to mention smelly shepherds quite yet, or do I?) If the upcoming days were not shorter, darker and a little depressing even here in Southern California, how else and why else would anyone ever be motivated to look for the light that would be invisible if not surrounded by night?

To Advent

Sunday we'll celebrate Reign of Christ, and then the season of Advent, with its retrospect and prospect of judgment, repentance, renewal, redemption and hope will be upon the world once again! In the Bethlehem manger we meet the God Who comes to earth amidst silent darkness, pleased to share our common lot--of casino-style payoffs, fast bucks, fast cars and fast career tracks? No, not—because surely brokenness, estrangement, stranger-ness, strangeness, disappointment, disillusionment, loneliness and betrayal are far more common than what the world out there deems success?! God comes to earth incarnate not only into the thick of human need but in human need, too...Jesus born in Bethlehem, Little Town of House of Bread, reveals to the world the God Who forms us, shaping our identity in situations and relationships full of uncertainty and precariousness--not in the assurances of institutions of higher learning like Harvard Business School!

To Winter Solitude

I hope to make the coming season into an experience of real, near-total winter, getting as close as possible to a somnolent hibernation into darkness in the midst of the city. What with everything going on in my heart and in my head, estivation would have been helpful this year as well, but being in the thick of design school during summer 2006 effectively zapped any estival options. Three days and three nights in the heart of the earth: heart is earth written with H at the beginning rather than at the end! Heart as an organic metaphor, a spatial one or place where emotions, will and humanness reside.

To Wintersong: this far by faith

Check out my blog for Epiphany 2006, where I quote Marty Haugen's version of the Service of Light that opens evening prayer or vespers:

1. Joyous light of heavenly glory, loving glow of God's own face,
   you who sing creation's story, shine on every land and race.
   Now as evening falls around us, we shall raise our songs to you,
   God of daybreak, God of shadows, come and light our hearts anew.


2. In the stars that grace the darkness, in the blazing sun of dawn,
   of the light of peace and wisdom, we can hear your quiet song.
   Love that fills the night with wonder, love that warms the weary soul,
   Love that bursts all chains asunder, set us free and make us whole.


3. You who made the heaven's splendor, every dancing star of night,
   make us shine with gentle justice, let us each reflect your light.
   Mighty God of all creation, gentle Christ who lights our way,
   Loving Spirit of salvation, lead us on to endless day.

© 1990 GIA Publications, Inc.

Isaiah 51:3

Isaiah 35:6-7

...with a new version of the similar graphic that includes blue—not sure if I've blogged this one before:

Deuteronomy 28:3

Early August note: Oh, how I love Deuteronomy, with its constant refrains: "into the land, into the land..." and "the Lord your God, the Lord your God..." Here's a digitized version of an old styling of God's promise of a holy wholly grounded Good News—at first I thought the original was too damaged to clean up well, but later on...

Monday, November 6: This morning I Photoshopped another plain version plus one with filters that came out so well (probably due to my being relatively rested and fresh-brained after three weeks away from school) and will display advantageously on the Big Screen, too, but at least for now I'm keeping all of them here—changing the blog post date from early August, too.



With filter—sprayed strokes; and layer style—vivid light:



Finally, here's the scan of the very original:

tfbf october 2006

this far by faith october 2006

[Thursday evening]

Last Monday I tried blogging directly from Google docs with their word processing nicely called "Writely!" I have a half-dozen blogs in mind, plus the rest of a Generous Orthodoxy that initially excited me and then I all but forgot about in the excitement and intensity of finishing a final IMCP portfolio and graduating last Friday the 13th. My only complaint about Writely is the fact this blog didn't get a title, so I'll give it one now.

Next Wednesday I'm moderating the FOW discussion of our current study document, The Nature and Mission of the Church, so I need to work through "The Church in and for the World," which maybe I'll blog about on desert spirit's fire. Then I hope to get to my other ideas before they grow not only stale but moldy.

Separated and yet bound--Paul Tillich's all-so-true observation. Bound by water and word; bound above all by the cross. Separated by?

Isaiah 60:1

So far as I can figure, this is brand new—well, actually old, but I just finished editing for my portfolio:

Isaiah 43:11-12

Another revised version with a very different effect:

Psalm 63:7

Genesis 49:10

1 Timothy 4:10