Whew!

First I'll add a picture here promised from Pat and Paula's trip. I didn't actually take many.Okey-dokey, now for some new content...

The last two weeks my Tuesday night class has been on the universe story and eco-feminism. This past weekend I went to the Soul Conference on Ecology and Religion. We had two excellent presenters as well as a wonderful mix of ritual. Those of you who were at the Congregational Chapter this summer might remember the huge Joseph puppet that accompanied us in prayer. The puppets this time represented different cultures as well as different elements of earth. Beautiful puppets.

So much to think about in terms of earth, our sacred connection with earth, what I/we are doing both in communion with and in destruction of. The amount of information from class, presentations, and reading I am doing that is floating around in my head right now is getting to be a little much. I might have to write it out just to see where it all goes. Most times my thinking feels a little like a geometric proof. I actually hated those when I first started them in high school, but learned to enjoy the logical proving involved. The only problem I encounter is when I get to a place where I can't see the next point of the proof. I think maybe that's why I feel so full of information right now; it's at one of those sticking points. I'll let you know if I figure out what comes next.

Yesterday, Liz sang in a choral concert, so I spent much of the afternoon at St. Kate's at the theater. Quite a production. I don't know that we'll know what to do with each other come December when I don't have class on Tuesday nights and Liz doesn't have choir on Thursdays. It's a good thing we like each other at home.

I am headed to what is most commonly known as the School of the Americas this weekend. For those who are not familiar it is a U.S. training base where they train persons from other countries in fighting and war. Some of the persons who have been trained have been responsible for some awful killings in Latin America. The protests at SOA have been going on for years, and, little-by-little, progress is being made. A number of countries have stopped sending persons and hopefully more will decide to do the same. (There is lots of information at SOAwatch.org if anyone is interested in reading more.)

I will be in St. Louis for Thanksgiving, which will be nice since I have a cousin getting married and my mom's side of the family will be celebrating Christmas as well as Thanksgiving. What is crazy is that when I get back here to St. Paul I will have less than a month here before heading back to St. Louis for Christmas and the next leg of the journey. But, I'm thoroughly enjoying the moments (especially the slightly warmer weather here for the next couple of days). May the enjoyable moments continue.

--Sarah