Fair week begins

Fair week starts tomorrow.
Actually it "started" quite a while with new refrigerators that had to be ordered, and a new hood vent over the grills out at the fair stand plus the ordering of supplies and food items, the phone calls to recruit workers and pies. Fair both cleaning day was on Thursday. Cooking was going on at the church kitchen this morning. I enjoy seeing people pitch in and show up for the fair work. I plan to get some time in on the grill but especially the visiting!

My family returns from traveling tomorrow. I think I have a good start on next Sunday's sermon. I had an outdoor wedding on Saturday that the weather accommodated nicely. On Friday I had the opportunity of offering the invocation prayer at The Relay for Life. It was quite moving for me to be there as I discovered how many people I knew .


A couple of devotional thoughts for the day :

By Meister Eckhart at inward/outward
Be prepared at all times for the gifts of God and be ready always for new ones. For God is a thousand times more ready to give than we are to receive.


and this from Spirituality and Practice:

The eighth-century Chinese Zen master P'an-shan had his first satori (enlightenment-glimpse) while walking through a marketplace. He overheard a customer tell the butcher, "Cut me some of the good stuff"; the butcher replied, "Hey, take a look — nothing but good stuff!" This was just the catalyst P'an-shan needed. He took a look, perhaps, at the ground, the sky, the people in their bustle of buying and selling . . . and everywhere he saw nothing but good stuff.
— Dean Sluyter in Why the Chicken Crossed the Road and Other Hidden Enlightenment Teachings from the Buddha to Bebop to Mother Goose

So with this is mind, I will try to be open and aware of the gifts and good stuff in the week of the Fair
See you there!