A Return to the Friday Five

Signs of hope,signs of spring Friday 5

Here's my answers:
What have you seen/ heard this week that was a :
1. Sign of hope?
A nearby congregation, which ours partners with on many things, recently experienced a terrible tragedy. There are amazing signs of Christian love and hope in this midst of this horror - people within and without that church reaching out to support them, and even to support those who were a part of the perpetration of the horror, and my own congregation has been wonderfully creative in ways to offer love and hope to all of them, even though we stand outside it all.

2. An unexpected word of light in a dark place?
The scripture readings for this week - resurrection and new life all over them babies!

3. A sign of spring?
Spring is popping out all over the place here - most in the form of weeds, however. It's supposed to be 77 degrees today - sorry, sorry to those in colder climates. But I do love the little tiny purple flowers that are gracing my front lawn, I'll take pretty weeds any day.

4. Challenging/ surprising?
A member in my congregation who I'm certain is in early Alzheimer's, who gets things astonishingly mixed up, had a new story last night about attending adult Sunday School last week and being told there were only enough seats for the people who usually come, and there was only a chair for her because one of them couldn't be there. She was quite upset that a church would have a closed sunday school class. The story is completely untrue, I have no doubt, but I've also learned that telling her she's wrong is a bad idea - she will be mad at me for months. Not a surprising story - but extremely challenging. She is not open to my prodding about talking with her doctor. Ugh.

5. Share a hope for the coming week/month/year....
I hope I get through Easter! And I hope I manage to be also able to be fully present with my kids during upcoming science fair/little league/preschool/doctor's appointments/fun play time in the midst of Holy Week prep. Basically I hope for balance!

Bonus play... a piece of music/ poem guaranteed to cheer you?
Paul Simon's Graceland! An album my mom used to play around the house and I still love - full of hope!