Lessons Learned from Dumbo

The first time I watched “Dumbo” with my family as we sat in my parent’s Oldsmobile at the Lincolndale Drive-In, and we were allowed to eat in the car. (Fun Fort Wayne Fact: The Lincolndale had a 500-car capacity.) 

I watched late last night “Dumbo,” celebrating this classic’s 75th Anniversary, and I had forgotten the lessons learned, including:

• If you have faith in a feather or something or someone else, the unexpected can happen. “Don’t just fly, soar.”
• It is not the quantity of your friends matter. It is the quality.
• People can change their minds and help you in a moment’s notice.
• A mother's love cannot be replaced.
• Adults can be mean in their actions and words.
• Some clowns aren’t funny. They are scary.
• Drink clean water or you could end up in a tree and out on a limb.

And mostly, “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.” NLT
The lessons from "Dumbo" can be valuable in our lives.

Protecting the Homeless from the Elements

Seattle's Morning Commute Today

We are driving to work with the rain pounding on the car. Maybe we are complaining about the commute; however, we are being protected by the elements.

I give gratitude for my friend, Jolynn and the reminder she posted on her Facebook page this morning:

"The weather is awful today and as I work (from our branch office) I can hear multiple people outside the window who are picking up their "homes" from last night's stay on the sidewalk. The sidewalk, my friends. The current conversation is about an umbrella. Reliance on an umbrella to protect them from this horrible weather. An umbrella, my friends. It hits me at my core that we live in a country full of wealth and resources yet we have human beings living on sidewalks only relying an a tiny umbrella to protect them."

I buy umbrellas and the blue plastic tarps throughout the year at discount and thrift stores and hand them out in my neighborhood during the rainy season. It's time to get them out of my storage unit and pass them out in my neighborhood.

I am not a proponent of giving money to those living on the streets. I encourage you to give to an organization that walks the talk in my neighborhood through their Street Ministry and other programs. It is Nightwatch.

I would like to thank the Rev. Rick Reynolds and  for their work with Seattle Nightwatch. I encourage you to go to their website and read their mission and history and learn about their respective programs:http://www.seattlenightwatch.org/index.htm

If you do not have the means to financially help or to volunteer, offer a prayer for those in need.

Mats from Bags

Join us. I will be there. And feel free to join Mats From Bags group on FB: 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1801435326802560/

If you are interested or want to be a part of making mats out of plastic bags for our homeless neighbors, we will meet again at Third Place Books in Lake ForestPark this Saturday at 9 am. We need people to flatten, fold and cut bags into strips, others to loop strips into 'plarn' (plastic yarn) and we can all learn to crochet.

Hope to see you this Saturday at 9am. More details will be posted in the FB group Mats from Bags.

Out with the Old and in with the New

I noticed this this church on my way home a few weeks ago. I parked my car and walked around it. The lights were on and no one was home. I knocked on the front door, and then I knocked on the side door. I wanted to walk in and sit on a pew and imagine the people who had been in the Sunday worship service. The stained glass windows were mesmerizing.

I wish I had a home where I could use these windows. I am saddened. I have always wanted to live in a church and make it into a community center.

Is change always good? All I am sure of is that "God is Good. All the time."

http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2016/10/109-year-old-church-slated-for-demolition-on-14th-ave/