Photo contributed by Mike Willock

The "Indian summer" rolls on with temperatures in the 60s and 70s and sometimes even the 80s, deep into October. (For now, gardeners have been spared the dreaded the first frost). In that connection, a colleague of mine at school, John Mohrmann, circulated this poem about being grounded. He writes that he choose the poem because of its reference to late summer in the first line, but "I mostly like this poem because it reminds me that when I worry about how I measure up in the 'halls of judgments,' I need to stay connected to my foundation, to 'what I am.' " And make sure you scroll down to see the corresponding beautiful photo shared by Mike Willock  -Tim Woodcock My Rock   Summer’s ending. I sit on my desert rock, listen           to the world’s hum.                    Crows and ravens caw, finches and sparrows chirp. A dog barks.             Can I face   ...

As Maria sang in The Sound of Music , "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens…" Photo taken outside the front of the church by Mike Willock after the food pantry on Saturday. 

During Sunday's service, which held outdoors at Tower Grove Park, the theme was tables - a rich image if ever there was one - and as part of the service we read a poem by 2nd Pres member Ellie Stock (written in 2008). It's an expansive poem that explores that literal and metaphorical tables in our lives, held together with the refrain, "Here at the table - the table of our lives." Rather than a sermon, what followed was a series of fascinating discussions in small groups (seated at wooden tables around the edge of one of the pavilions in the park) about how tables appear in our lives and various meanings we give them. If you were part of the discussion, and have an observation or insight that you'd like to share - or if you seeing this poem, for the first time and any lines or images strike a chord with you - please drop me a line at timwoodcock AT speedpost.net. I will gather these together in a follow-up blog post. Here at the table --  the table of our lives -...

 An offering of beauty to the 2PC parking lot from our next door neighbors (photo by Mike Willock)

Tim Woodcock writes:  There was a very interesting guest essay in the New York Times by Anne Lamott headlined “I Don’t Want to See a High School Football Coach Praying at the 50-Yard Line” responding to the recent Supreme Court Case. Hopefully you can read it here , but that depends on whether you have subscription and/or how many other NY Times articles you’d read this month: Lamott doesn’t get too caught up in the specifics of the Kennedy v. Bremerton School District court case , in which a good deal of showboating and posturing in the media somewhat disguised the real question at hand of whether a sports coach in Washington State public school was inappropriately using religion to exercise his power and influence over his players. Lamott’s strategy is to sidestep the news story almost entirely and instead critique it by cataloguing the small private prayers that punctuate her daily life. And of course, being Lamott, she writes in an idiosyncratic and entertaining styl...

Tim Woodcock writes: At recent church retreat for session members, we explored in depth the Working Genius model, which previously been presented to us by Travis. It is partly a personality test and partly a tool for analyzing productivity, developed by Patrick Lencioni, a consultant for businesses and non-profits. If you’ve taken a Myers-Briggs test or something comparable before, the gist of the questionnaire would not be unfamiliar to you, but its focus is primarily on how people approach complex tasks and work in groups. Patrick Lencioni I was, to be frank, a little dubious to start with: it sounded like voguish corporate speak, a needlessly novel set of labels for a familiar set of concepts. The use of the boastful-sounding word “genius” rubbed me the wrong way initially and still does a little. Nonetheless, each session member plus Travis took the assessment prior to the retreat and when we discussed our questionnaire results as a group, almost everyone said it captured somethi...