Red Door By the Beach

I attended seven weddings this morning.  Today was the first day for same sex marriages in California.  A clergyman friend was going to the courthouse this morning to lend support for any couples choosing to marry today.   Since I also support the law, I went along.   Seven couples representing over 100 years of committment were married.  The average number of years was 17 per couple.  It was an historic morning.  The simple fact that these loving people can now legally be each other’s next of kin makes it all clear.   We blew bubbles, handed out roses, and offered wedding cake to each couple, and even sang a few songs.  We were thanked for our demonstration of love and acceptance.    I make no judgments.  My personal faith says God so loved the world, not just some of it.   Here is an open letter which states this position better than I.

My youngest grandson has found a place to store Cheerios for later snacking.

It will soon be Memorial Day.  Somehow every year we drift away from what the day is about and see it as another day off or the official beginning of the summer season.  Another flurry of sale papers inserted into our newspaper and more commercials advertising how to save money.  The history of Memorial Day dates back to the Civil War.  It was first called “Decoration Day” and if you have family members the age of mine, many of them still refer to the day as that. 

A lasting memory of my childhood was watching a Memorial Day parade and seeing my grandmother riding in a convertible with other Blue and Gold Star Mothers.  I was about 8 or 9 and I will always remember my mother telling me about why there were two colors.  My daddy came home from the war so Grandma is a Blue Star Mother.  The Gold Star Mothers had sons who died in the war.  I think it was the first time I really thought about what war was really about.  I had seen death before.  Coming from an era when open casket funerals were the norm, I had seen many old people in their caskets, but this was something else altogether.

Today our country is again at war. As more and more of our soldiers are put in harm’s way, more and more Blue and Gold Star mothers are being created.  I grieve that I know someone who was killed in Afghanistan.   Who will become our next commander-in-chief?  How many more soldiers will die in this war?  Why haven’t the candidates adressed this more?

In honor of my father and father-in-law who served in the Navy during World War II…hear the Naval Academy Band playing one of the most beautiful hymns ever composed. 

“The Navy Hymn: Eternal Father, Strong to Save” by the USNA Band

 Words by Rev. William Whiting.
Music by Rev. John B. Dykes

Verse 1
Eternal Father strong to save
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave
Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea!

Verse 2
O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy word
Who walked’st on the foaming deep
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep
Oh hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea!

Verse 3
Most Holy Spirit Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude
And bid its angry tumult cease
And give for wild confusion peace
Oh hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea!

Verse 4
O Trinity of love and power
Our brethren shield in danger’s hour
From rock and tempest, fire and foe
Protect them wheresoe’er they go
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea

Here’s my nephew playing one of the drums in a Scottish band.  He’s the one doing the fancy stick work.  Glad those music lessons paid off.

WHAT sweeter music can we bring,
Than a Carol, for to sing
The Birth of this our heavenly King?
Awake the Voice! Awake the String! 

( Robert Herrick)

Here is the list of some of my favorite things to sing at Christmas that I found on Youtube.  Beautiful music from different times and places. 

 Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (Bach, J.S. - BWV 1 - 1.)

Bogoroditse Devo

Gabriel’s Message

Victoria - O magnum mysterium

Nativity Carol

For Unto Us a Child is Born (from Handel’s Messiah)

Shepherds’ Farewell

Gloria (From Vivaldi’s Gloria)

Dona Nobis Pacem (Bach’s B Minor Mass)

I was checking out the latest news online this morning and the first two faces I saw were those of Karl Rove and Larry Craig.  Is it Halloween already?  Talk about rushing the season! Pretty scary stuff.

O come, O Dayspring, come and cheer our spirits by thine advent here
And drive away the shades of night and pierce the clouds and bring us light. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee O Israel.

Advent begins on Sunday.  For all of you who want to ease away from the commercial side of Christmas, embrace Advent.  Start with the online advent calendar from Beliefnet.  It will inspire you each day of the month.  If you have never had an advent wreath, make one.  The United Methodist Church has a great resource on how to include this lovely symbol into your holiday season.  Finally, listen again to “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”

What do you get when 25,00 thousand or so monarch butterflies come to spend the winter in a ecalyptus grove just a few miles from the Red Door? This morning I saw the first monarchs tasting the oregano plants in my butterfly garden.  Who doesn’t like Italian food?  It is a sure sign that the seasons are changing when the butterflies stop by on their yearly migration. The first time I visited the grove, I thought the trees had an unusual number of orange leaves.  Then I realized those were the butterflies hanging on the leaves.  What a sight.  Then there is butterfly sex…..doing it in the air.

To learn all about the butterflies, check out the resources at monarchbutterfly.org