My word for 2016 is ATTEND
Although I don’t think attending is a superpower, some days I wish it was. On those days, I think if one more person promises that he or she has the superpower to right all wrongs and save US from THEM, I daydream about sticking a pencil in my (or someone else’s) eye. On my better days, however, I choose to acknowledge that while I have no superpowers and am responsible TO the World – I’m not responsible FOR it. I’m responsible FOR my life and how I choose to live it.

To that end, I will attend to what and whom I can. And I’ll remember that I don’t have to attend every argument, drama or political whack-o-doodleness to which I’m invited. Each Sunday , I’ll share something here – an image, a poem, a song or maybe even a story that’s helped me attend to what I can that week.

Some weeks, waiting is the most powerful attending I can do. That was this week.  A dear woman I (AND MANY) love, died, weighing 42 pounds. Inconceivable. 

 It SEEMS Mom is entering a new phase of this phase of her life.  Who knows?  

I do know my living with a perpetual knot in my stomach isn’t attending.  So somewhere in between a mega meltdown and coming to Pelican House, to lead an Advent Retreat (about waiting, duh...) my broken self let God drive again. 

Want to know what happened?  My  soul sister /friend Jackye’s life was and will be honered, Mom is still hangin’ in there, and I got to spend a divine (on SO many levels) weekend with seven wise, faithful, trusting, and gloriously creative & generous humans.  

We pondered spiritual, cultural, and culinary mysteries.  We even tried to remember how to do that ‘cat’s cradle’ thing with a piece of string. Mostly, we were present with each other in the waiting – in The Not Knowing.

Here’s what I’ve relearmembered (that means I got to re-learn something I’ve learned exactly when I need to remember it):

• None of us are alone In This, community Is The Point;
• God (or whatever you call your Higher Power) really is in Control;
• A miracle is always ready to be witnessed;
• We all yearn to express ourselves in our own language;
• We need more substitute teachers for Latin teachers;
• Homemade potato chips ROCK;
• I may not always agree, but I can always listen and hear; and 
• All Shall Be Well.

                                   What kind of attending have you witnessed or experienced lately?