20 Days of Nothing New

Sitting down to a feast of Thanksgiving goodness at church Sunday, I had opportunity to talk with my friend Mary about my Nothing New adventure.  She was shocked to hear that I had actually included food in the "no shopping" ban.  "Yeah, use up everything in the pantry," she said.  "I should do that," she said.

I didn't tell Mary that I was certainly not going to use up everything in the pantry this November.  As the photo here shows, I still have enough jello and tuna fish to see me through the Zombie apocalypse.  And that 24-roll shrink wrap package of toilet paper I bought Halloween night?  Haven't opened it yet.  My pantry is a little overstocked ...

I was raised in a family with four kids and I raised four kids myself, so my understanding of "normal" when it comes to filling pantry shelves is a little skewed.  It may take more than one month of exploring the word "ENOUGH" before I really start to understand the concept ....

Church Chicks Are Hot

Today at Edison Middle School the Central High School band came to perform in an all church assembly.  Luke nabbed a front row seat where he was waved at repeatedly by a couple very attractive high school girls.  One of the drum majors, who took her turn conducting the high school band, seemed particularly attentive to the 8th grader.  After the performance she gave him long and enthusiastic hugs.

Edison Middle Schoolers:  "Luke, is that your sister?"
Luke:  "No, just a friend."
Edison Middle Schoolers:  "Right.  Just a friend."
Luke:  "Seriously, we're just friends."
Edison Middle Schoolers:  "Right.  You just have a friend who happens to be super hot."
Luke:  "She goes to my church."
Edison Middle Schoolers:  "Lucky."

Church Youth Group.  Where the hot chicks are.

Nothing New

Yes it's true, there's been nothing new.  Actually I feel a little bit guilty about how easy this has been.  When I decided the night of Halloween that I would commit to buying absolutely nothing for the whole month of November (except gas for my car and paying my bills) I thought it would be harder than this.  Luke and I have a tradition of going to Sonic at the end of every school day before I drop him off at home and return to work.  That was swapped out for hot chocolate at home .... which truthfully, has been better.  We had a habit of eating drive-thru some nights when I had evening meetings and felt lazy, or running to Dos Reales after a meeting for a cheap date.  With a well-stocked pantry and fridge, fixing something at home has not been a hardship.  When Luke is with his dad, they eat out, and I have had at least 2 work meetings each week which included a meal.  So .... this is really TOO EASY so far!

I will give myself a big pat on the back for the ONE place it feels like I am sacrificing. With a pop machine steps away from my office door, I usually buy 2-5 cans of Diet Coke per day. I know, I know, it's TERRIBLE for me.  This November I am drinking water and making tea in the church parlor and doing just fine.  So far so good.  I am just really, really glad that the church machine has never carried Diet Dr. Pepper.  That might have been a game changer ....

Nothing New November, day 12.  Bring it on.

Begone, Green Alien Menace!

About those green tomatoes. . .

I came home late Sunday afternoon to pinched alien faces still glaring at me like a mob of recriminating ne'er do wells -- judging ME for lack of action.  All they had done for the last week was sit on the counter letting their skin start to sag, while I was BUSY! True, I plucked them from a comfortable life in the garden with no real plan in mind, but put-out by their obvious disdain of me I remembered a cartoon Luke showed me in the midst of Matthew's juicing craze and in idea started to dawn.

For the full juicer humor piece, click here.

To avoid the gaze of all those green faces I went upstairs to my bedroom with laptop in hand to create a cooking plan. For good measure I took a corkscrew and the best bottle of chianti classico in the kitchen.  After pulling out the cork from the bottle I remembered that I had not factored in wine consumption as I filled my grocery cart on All Hallows Eve.  Crap.  Sinking to the bed with full glass in hand I contemplated a Thanksgiving Day with no wine.  I should definitely invite Jesus over that day.

Having recently piled 5 blankets on my bed to compensate for the decision to keep the thermostat at 54 degrees throughout Nothing New November, a change out of church clothes led quickly to my laptop settled on a pile of blankets, wine glass on bedside table, and Kris dreaming of green tomato soup, green tomato au gratin, green tomato bread, green tomato jam ...

After waking up a few hours later (I don't adjust well to time change Sundays), I snapped the laptop shut and pulled up the 3 recipes I wanted on my phone.  Back in the kitchen fortified with a second glass of chianti and the determination to rid my kitchen of the alien menace I pulled out the Magic Bullet contraption Luke convinced me to buy for $15 at a garage sale this summer.  Within minutes I had this:

Then this:

and finally this:

Emboldened by the knowledge of how quickly a green tomato becomes something else entirely, I created for dinner a Green Tomato Au Gratin with Italian seasonings, breadcrumbs and Italian cheeses.  It turns out tomatoes in Italian cooking don't have to be red at all!  It was delicious, evidences by the fact that I ate a quarter of the pan ...

The Apple Cinnamon Cake (anyone trying to get a 13 year old to eat more vegetables knows you don't use the name of the secret ingredient), Apple and Raisin Bread, and AuGratin were all a hit.  And stored away in my freezer the rest of the tomato puree awaits another baking day this winter!!

Harvest

In my part of the world early November is a time of harvest.  Everywhere I drive the evidence remains of farmers completing the chore of bringing in the sheaves.  No, it's not the quaint nostalgic picture of twine-bound stalks of corn or woven baskets filled with seed heads.  Harvest time here is a matter of massive machinery on the roads and lights on well after dark both at the machine shed and out in the fields.  Grain is being brought to grain elevators in small communities all around Champaign County this week.  At the same time many crops are simply tilled under due to drought and hail damage which did them in.  There is an uncertainty inherent in the lives of those who measure time against an anticipated day of harvest.

My growing season was much more modest by comparison.  Two 4' x 8' raised beds housed a small assortment of herbs and vegetables this year.  It was fun to eat fresh lettuce, cut broccoli, pluck peppers and to pull leaves of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme from the garden to spice up what I came to call "Scarborough Fair Chicken."  Thank you Simon and Garfunkel.  By far, though, my most plentiful crop was tomatoes.  Through the summer they were red and vine-ripened in abundance.  With the threat of frost it was finally time last week to harvest the remaining green tomatoes and pull up the plants.  So I did.

Now what?

The point of Nothing New November is to live in contentment with the abundance at my fingertips.  As this counter overflowing with green tomatoes begins to look to me like a sea of pinched alien faces glaring in judgment over my indecisiveness, it has become clear I must soon take action.  I have read articles about Eastern Europeans' enthrallment with green tomatoes and now have an assortment of recipes at my fingertips.  But what to do?  Sweet breads?  Savory butters?  What to do?

Stay tuned ...

No, No, No November

That's ENOUGH!!  

As mother to four children, if I had a nickel for every time I have sternly reprimanded one of mine with the above phrase, well ..... I would have a lot of nickels.

That's enough ...

bickering

sugar 

roughhousing

mac-n-cheese 

lotion

ramen

complaining

salt

handfuls of candy

bathwater 

syrup

toilet paper sheets

Lucky Charms

backtalk

                                                                               ... the list goes on.   

Of course, I have a not infrequent need myself to be told when enough is enough.  And my mother is far away and much too busy with her own life to hover around monitoring mine.  That leaves it up to me. So this month I'm telling myself firmly that enough is enough. Enter Nothing New November.

Three years ago my son Matthew joined others in the fun of No-Shave November. For an entire month he did not shave, not even to trim a little here and there.  For a young twenty something year old, the boy can grow a gnarly beard in 30 days. Shaving it off bit by bit and sporting silly styles December 1 just added to the fun.  

This November Matt is taking an equally joyful but much more ambitious approach to the month with Nutritious November, exploiting the benefits of his newly acquired juicer to rev up his vitamin intake.   Feeling really inspired, he went on to devise a whole year full of fun monthly commitments which you can read about here on his sister's blog. (She's really impressed.)

My first attempt to do something special in the month of November was last year when I participated in No Dr. Pepper November --  30 days of abstaining from carbonated beverages. Talk about needing to hear "That's ENOUGH!!" I have a serious problem with consuming WAY too much Diet Dr. Pepper.

Inspired by Matt's excitement in challenging himself this year I am taking my No Dr. Pepper November experiment from last year several steps further in 2012.  Nothing New November.  On All Hallow's Eve I made sure the house was well stocked with canned goods, toilet paper, lotion, Lucky Charms and maple syrup as I made my last shopping run until December 1.  For a full month I am committed to buying nothing except gasoline for the van and paying my monthly bills. For the record, I didn't buy a single can of pop and came home to no Diet Dr. Pepper in the house, so this is already day 3 of No Dr. Pepper November.

I will admit my shopping cart on October 31 was a little ridiculous and may have raised some eyebrows, not to mention more than one woman the age of my mother who looked at me as I stood in line, clearly wanting to say, "Now that's ENOUGH!!!"

Enough Already?

A Look of Holiness

What does holiness look like? Many writers on the general topic of spirituality talk about "thin spaces" where eternal realities and temporal limitations almost touch one another. Those places where silence and attentiveness bring us face to face with what is sacred in our existence tease us into contemplation about what else may be there "on the other side."

My friend Carl posted this week on Facebook these photos of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. In May of this year he made life promises there as a lay Cistercian.  (read about it here) With him were Father Luke (100 years old!) and Father Anthony, whose promises long ago have led them into a life of simplicity, prayer and community.  The photo of the MOHS sanctuary strikes me as a place that is "thin" for many, not only the monks who reside there but the thousands of other seekers who come to be welcomed by a community of hospitality that ushers them lovingly into such thin spaces.

 

Many also find thin spaces in the world, outside of the walls of sanctuaries and temples. Talk to my friends who have spent time on Crystal Lake in Michigan and you will hear sacred stories of community, connection and Christ.  In both places, the sacred experience is tied to more than just physical beauty or the way the world is hushed by chanting or the lapping of waves on the shore.  Holiness may look like the loving eyes of Father Luke who has prayed with countless pilgrims or it may look like the genuine grin of a young camp counselor who finally makes a 3rd grader laugh out loud on the last day of his first experience of sleep-away camp.  What does holiness look like for you today?

For the beauty of the earth, for the wonder of each hour ... we approach this summer in search of thin spaces and rejoicing in the love we find there.

Children's Choir Singing For the Beauty of the Earth

I Pray Shalom for You

Six months ago when I was just starting as the new pastor here at UniPlace Christian Church in Champaign one of our elders read a beautiful prayer to me from this book.  I asked for a copy of the prayer, and not long after received the book itself as a gift from her.  Today as I was reading through I came across the prayer again.  It remains my favorite in this book:

I Pray Shalom for You

I pray shalom for you --

That you wake each day eager to meet whatever comes,

That you look in the mirror and are pleased with what you see,

That you accept with courage any limitations on your abilities,

That you accept with humility, but develop creatively, your special talents,

That you know which things take priority,

That you are not stressed by having to set some things aside,

That what you do illuminates who you are,

      and that you find joy in all you do.

I pray shalom for you --

That your face is turned towards God,

That you are secure in the forgiveness of Christ,

That your life is infused with the presence of the Holy Spirit,

That your whole being is daily transformed and integrated into oneness with Christ,

     and hence wholeness and wellness,

That in having died to self you are alive to your true self,

That love is your prime motivation.

I pray shalom for you --

That you have a soul-friend to walk life's journey with you,

That you are surrounded by a community of support,

That you are a builder of community,

That you are able to transform difficult or destructive relationships through love,

That you may live in a society of justice, peace and harmony,

But if not, that you may be able to absorb whatever suffering comes your way

     And transform it, for yourself and for society.

I pray shalom for you --

That the beauty of God's creation entrhalls you,

That your love and way of life enhance that beauty and do not deplete

     the resources of the earth,

That the rhythm of your life may be in harmony

     with the rhythm of others' lives and of all creation,

     to be part of God's plan of restoration and renewal

I pray shalom for you --

That your faith may grow,

That you be filled with love,

And that hope never dies.

-- Isobel de Gruchy, South Africa

The Devil Made Me Buy This Dress

This week during sermon prep time I came across this YouTube clip of an old Flip Wilson sketch.  I was wrestling through a passage of Paul's letter to the Romans and reflecting on the contrast Paul makes between living "according to the flesh" and living with the indwelling of the Spirit.  I had forgotten how funny Flip Wilson was, and how accurately he could sum up our human struggles in 3 minutes.

Everyone's favorite character (from Flip's many personas), Geraldine, describes why she ends up in the predicament Paul describes, saying, ^"15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate," and " ²¹So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand."  [from Romans 7]

While Geraldine draws a vivid picture of a personified force of evil (the De-vil!), Paul has a more nuanced and complicated understanding of this human struggle to will and DO what we know is right.  To live according to the indwelling of God's Spirit is a life-long process of re-orienting our thinking from an individualistic concern for what is pleasing to "our own flesh"to what is driven by God's desire for us to live in community with regard for all. Materialism, greed, selfishness ... they are all symptoms of a deeper problem, what Paul called living according to the flesh. The antidote Paul prescribes is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  A week ago we filled the sanctuary with red and welcomed the Spirit's presence on Pentecost.  Now to remember that the Spirit came to dwell in our hearts, not just decorate our sanctuaries!