Summer endings

State fair corn, a walk along Superior, feeding the ducks, a Joan Osborn concert and a long shadow while running at sunset followed by a trip to Chicago for a little work seems to be the best way to wind up a busy summer. Started teaching at Concordia today, thus it must be back to school time.

B.W.C.A.

Growing up a youth minister, being on a boundary waters trip, there is an inner prompting voice of duty claiming that I should remember to prepare morning devotions, have closing words, organize times of solitude, and lead the singing of a few camp songs. This trip didn’t need a spiritual director. The trip itself was a prayer, devotion, a tribute, and a song. This trip was about being. And, being with amazing wonderful people was everything this youth minister needed for my soul to be fed.

A year

"O that day! One kept waiting for that shattering day to unhappen, so that the real -- the intended -- future, the one that had been implied by the past, could unfold. Hour after hour, month after month, waiting for that day to not have happened. But it had happened. And now it was always going to have happened."

-- Deborah Eisenberg, "Twilight of the Superheroes"
about 911, sent to me from Ken and Mary

A year.
Crystal writes and says that the one thing that changes after this day is that not every thing is a first.

No getting over, around or even through. I don't sense that need. Walking onward, yes, but also walking with, being, and I'm okay with that. The boys and I decided that first night that it was time to canoe, so we are.

Nathan Night

Nathan performed one his best shows ever with about 150 people outdoors in Burnsville's Nicollet park. Creative, fresh, appealed to all ages.

People left saying,

• "How did he..."
• "I never saw anyone do..."
• "That was really...."

Don't miss him at the "318" in Excelsior.

"318"
09/07/2006 07:30 PM -
318 Water Street, Excelsior, MN 55331,US - $5
Stop in for a great night of music, food, and drink!
This will be an ALL AGES SHOW!

www.nathangriner.com

Art Class

Sunday's Art Show

For one day over 50 pieces of art came together in one space and time.

The day…
honoring, remembering, celebrating, connecting, contemplating, being…

It was personally important for me to throw a party I was deliquent in giving. It was a way of marking a year. It was a way for the grinerGUYS to let people know it is okay to come to our house. The house was always meant to be a welcoming, gathering place. But, art was really only a cradle to hold a different kind of legacy. The real magic of the day was the relational linking of people, especially among women. Randi’s greatest art was the deep spiritual bond that she formed between her and so many women. There was a giving and receiving that seemed mystical, joyful, hopeful, and very soulful. I have to say my greatest joy was watching some of these women meet, often knowing of each other but never meeting in person. The chairs on the deck surrounded by the gardens in the midst of a perfect summer day were filled with conversation. I don’t know that the conversation was about Randi, as much as a simple numinous relational life giving spirit shared by mutaual soul mates. Randi’s spiritual bequest is what continues in each of us as new understandings that we all --- ALL --- belong. Randi’s art class continues!