I saw Jill’s big smile when she spotted Sally Ride when we visited Space Center Houston.  The astronaut was coming out of a model of the space shuttle and we heard Jill cry out “There’s Sally Ride — she’s an astronaut”.  Much to our surprise Sally  Ride walked over to where we were standing and shook Jill’s hand.

Uncle Dickie was Jill’s favorite person in the whole world.  I saw Jill’s big smile when we made a surprise visit back to Indiana for Christmas one year.   Dick’s family always got together at his sister Wanda’s and Jill spotted us as we walked up the sidewalk to the house.  Suddenly the door sprang open and Jill flew down the porch steps and jumped up on her Uncle Dickie, wrapping her legs around his waist.  It was all he could do to keep his balance, but it was the best greeting he’d ever gotten.

Jill isn’t the only person I know who has a smile as big as the moon, though.  The summer I worked at Camp For All I had two turtles living in a terrarium in my office.  Butch and Mary Nye gave me Norm and Norma when I went to camp.  The kids loved to come to my office and see the turtles.  When the weather was too rainy to go to the small animal compound, Norma and Norma were taken out on the porch of the Gathering Hall for the kids to handle.  One of the camps was a camp for kids with neurological and behavioral problems and one of the campers would sneak away to  my office for a piece of candy and a visit with Norm and Norma.  When one of the turtles would take food from his fingers he would give me one of those big as the moon smiles.  It was one of the most beautiful, heartwarming smiles in the world.

But, the highlight of the week was yet to come.  On Friday night there was a dance for the campers in the Gathering Hall.  Because many of the campers had epilepsy, we didn’t use the disco ball because the flashing lights might cause a seizure.  What nobody expected, though, was that my young friend would discover the fire alarm pull.  And, being in an exploratory mood pull the alarm.  That not only alerted the Burton Volunteer Fire Department who responded with trucks and an ambulance, but set off the blinking emergency  lights in the Gathering Hall.  My young friend’s twin brother and several other campers began having seizures.  Of course, this gave not only the camp doctor and nurses something to do, it gave the paramedics who responded a new experience.  And, the kids got a treat out of seeing the fire trucks and fire fighters.  Once again we saw those smiles as big as the moon!

The movie tonight made me think about Jill and my campers.  I feel sorry for anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure of knowing one of these special people and seeing that smile that is as big as the moon.

This morning I’m getting ready to go clean off the van and make my way cautiously down the hill to Parker to do my chaplain rounds at the hospital.  Yes, it’s snowing (again)!  I’ve only made good on my threat to dig in and stay home one time — the first snow back in September.  That day I sent Mike, the head chaplain at Parker Adventist, an e-mail saying I wasn’t going to make the drive because of the weather.  In my defense, we did get something like 6 inches that day, so in a way I was justified.

We’ve had several snows since then, and I long since decided to suck it up, clean off the van, and head out.  Besides, the volunteer gig is going to turn into a paid position soon.  And, the extendable combination window scraper/brush I got for my birthday helps a lot.  And, what the heck… nothing ventured, nothing gained!

While I love the character of Rabbi Alfred Lewis who asks Albom to write his eulogy, I found that I related more to Pastor Henry Covington as I read.  Maybe because Henry, like me, relied heavily on God’s grace and received it a thousand times over.  But, towards the end of the book Albom tells about the time he asks the Reb why he thinks he became a rabbi.  His answer, with the exception of number three, pretty much describes my journey to becoming a hospital chaplain.

“It is summer and we are sitting in his office.  I ask him why he thinks he became a rabbi.

He counts on his fingers.

“Number one, I always liked people.

“Number two, I love gentleness.

“Number three, I have patience.

“Number four, I love teaching.

“Number five, I am determined in my faith.

“Number six, it connects me to my past.

“Number seven — and lastly — it allows me to fulfill the message of our tradition; to live good, to do good, and to be blessed.”

I didn’t hear God in there.

He smiles.

“God was there before number one.”

I met them last Wednesday in the ICU.  Our resident was spending the holidays with family in Texas, so I was covering the ICU after my rounds in General Surgery.  The head nurse in the ICU asked me to check in on them.  I introduced myself to the husband and daughter and we stepped outside so the nurses could clean her up.  Her sons arrived as we stood talking.  The head nurse and I helped them find a place where the daughter could buy them a cell phone with local service.  The husband had a cell phone, but the roaming charges were using all the time they were allotted on their cell phone plan.

After the daughter left to buy the phone and the sons had wandered off to the cafeteria her husband and I continued talking.  He hadn’t left her room, except to get something to eat, since Sunday night.  He was afraid something would happen to her while he was gone.

I checked on them on Friday and again on Monday –  not much change.  They couldn’t do the surgery on her femur until her cardiac function improved.  He still hadn’t left the hospital.  But, his friend was going to drive up to Cheyenne with him to check on the house and the cats, pick up mail, and pay bills.

While I was eating lunch in the hospital cafeteria he came to my table and asked… “Watch over her while I’m gone”.  I couldn’t bring myself to tell him that I wouldn’t be at the hospital today and it’s been incredibly hard not to go today, even though I’m not scheduled to be there.  But, as Pastor Chris told me (several times) when I was spending a lot of time helping one of our Camelot Pines folks a couple of years ago, I can’t hold myself responsible for everybody I minister to.  But the first place I’ll go after nursing rounds in General Surgery tomorrow is the ICU to make sure he got back safely to find she was waiting for him.

Someday in the future will my sons look at it in wonder when they sort through the things I left behind like we did with the little notebooks Dick found in his father’s toolbox?  I still pull them out of  the cedar chest once in a while and read through the notes he made… bowling scores, what’s happening at the Natco.  Not a lot about the family except for births.  One day he stopped writing, but why?

Just another new experience for 2012 I guess!

For the last three years, as a result of my Community of Hope training, I’ve started my day with the daily reading from Sister Joan Chittister’s The Rule of Benedict.  That was one of the reading requirements in the training with the idea was that we would develop a more spiritual life through the daily readings.  It did make me think more about how I “walk the talk”.  I almost stopped the readings last winter and then I decided to read Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth and World Without End.  The books take place in a Benedictine monastery, so it was helpful to have an understanding of Benedictine principles.

So, starting tomorrow I’m going to prepare for the new year by reading the preface and Sunday morning I’ll begin the daily readings.  Time to change things up a little!

It all kind of came to a head when I moved from Texas to Colorado and started driving from Castle Rock to Loveland to give a domestic hunger workshop or to take Megan to a rugby game in Fort Collins.  What really sealed the deal, I think, was my trips to places like the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless in downtown Denver.  Brian and Darla decided I needed to have a Garmin.

For a while I thought I had them convinced I didn’t need one.  But, after my trip to the Synod office for a meeting a couple of weeks ago I began to change my mind.  Denver is full of one-way streets that don’t intersect to the other one-way streets that I want to get on.  I spent about 20 minutes driving in a circle because I didn’t want to come home on I-25.  I wanted to get back to Santa Fe and come home the way I went down.  But,  after a tour of the area around the Synod office and finding it was darned near impossible to get where I wanted to go before rush hour started and seeing some really nice older homes in a neighborhood my kids would die if I moved to, I started thinking maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

So, I was excited to open one of my  Christmas presents and find a Garmin.  Strangely enough, it didn’t come with a written instruction manual.  But, I’m not afraid to start pushing buttons — or touching the screen as the case may be — so I’m learning how to use it.  Fortunately, it doesn’t have some  annoying voice telling me how to get somewhere.  Or, if it does it’s not turned on and I have no intention of turning it on!

I have,  however, given my new traveling companion a name — Carmen.  I’m looking forward to many fun trips with Carmen.

While we ate our treats I discovered that Sonja and I have a mutual love of flamingos (she brought a stuffed flamingo toy with her to the party).  Since I didn’t have a Christmas-theme plate (they all got put in a TOL rummage sale before I moved) I put my treats on a  flamingo paper plate.  Sonja was not happy that she couldn’t take the dirty plate home with her, so I’ll  take a few to give her on Christmas Eve.

Glenn Hecox, the music minister at the “mother church” over in Littleton brought his keyboard to accompany us and one of our new members, Jim Barber, played along on the guitar.

Jim and his wife, Deb, who are both graduates of the Naval Academy, recently retired from the Navy and moved to Parker.  They have adopted two little boys and are in the process of adopting an African-American brother and sister.  Deb has a beautiful voice (she sang in the Naval Academy choir) and it was fun to sit next to her as we sang.  We tried to get them to sing the Hallelujah chorus, but only a couple of people would go along with us.

We ended with a rousing rendition of “Go Tell It On The Mountain” reminiscent of having Craig Stephan on the piano at Tree of Life.  Sonya was joined in the dancing by big sister, Linnea, and Evan, who’s more of a hip-hop dancer.

After the party one of the Papula triplets (they’re the ones who have cerebral palsy) asked if I would help her get down the steps to her car.  The triplets have become some of my bestest friends (according to Clint, who doesn’t have CP) at Abiding Hope Castle Pines.  That was an adventure since it had snowed something like 2-3 inches while we were having a good time.  But, Cate didn’t let Miss Diana fall down the steps!

Saturday evening we will have Christmas Eve worship and Pastor Matthew (that’s him sitting in front of Glenn and Jim) thinks we’ll have 100+ people there.  Some of the choir members from the “mother church” are coming to help lead the singing and Deb and I are going to sing with them.

And, so, it’s coming full circle here in Colorado.  My first Christmas Eve with my new church family!

I have to admit that when our little group decided to adopt three families at the Mission Planning meeting in November it both surprised me and made me just a little nervous.  We’re a new church plant of Abiding Hope Lutheran Church in Littleton (the “mother church”).  We worship between 40 and 60 people a week in the gymnasium at the DCS Montessori School.  But, they were sure we could do it, so I asked for and was given three families.

The first Sunday I brought the list of names and needs/wishes for Christmas not very many names on the list were spoken for.  The next week all but two people had been sponsored.  A couple of e-mails later every person in the three families we had been given had been sponsored.  Last week the gifts began to come in.  Each one wrapped with a name tag on it.  Even the car seat requested by one family was brought to church.

Today with Pastor Doug Hill, the lead pastor at the “mother church” in attendance, the rest of the gifts were brought.  Pastor Doug was impressed by the outpouring of love and generosity shown by our little congregation.  Matthew blessed the gifts during the service.  A couple of high school and college girls helped me load the gifts into my van after church.  It took four trips up the steps to my second floor apartment to get everything but the car seat safely inside until Matthew and I deliver them on Thursday afternoon.  I’ll never get the car seat up and down the steps, so it will stay in the van, covered with a blanket, until Thursday.

We may be small and we may worship in a school gymnasium under the watchful eye of the school’s cougar mascot painting.  But, these folks know what it means to be the heart, hands, and feet of Jesus in the world.  Today showed that big time!

“I’ve never had a humble opinion.  If you’ve got an  opinion, why be humble about it?” – Joan Baez

“I believe the second half of one’s life is meant to be better than the first half.  The first half is finding out how you do it.  And the second half is enjoying it.” – Frances Lear

“I have never wanted to be a man.  I  have often wanted to be effective as a woman but I never thought that trousers would do the trick.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“For every  hero in this world, there’s at least one shero.” – Johnetta B. Cole

“The only sin is mediocrity.” – Martha Graham

“I have the same goal I’ve had ever since I was a girl.  I want to rule the world.” – Madonna

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” – Anais Nin

“I became a feminist as an alternative to becoming a masochist.” – Sally Kempton

And last but not least this gem…

“The roosters may crow, but the hens deliver the goods.” – “Ann Richards