Family Connection
Dad and I had the chance to work together finishing a siding job that had begun before I had moved to Phoenix . We passed tools, measurements, and renewing love that we had longed to share … embracing and connecting … overcoming times of separation and loneliness. Big, rough, wind and sun worn hands that cradled, taught, shaped, embraced me with life and love once again were connected to my life force and we both shone.
My mother’s hugs, hospitality and familiar foods filled my heart, stomach and life with joy. Mom gave Nancy and me the opportunity to clean lights, fans, and repair things that require a ladder. Mom opened her home to make us comfortable with projects ... because she knew her little boy needs them to feel at home.
What would make your family residence feel like home? For me and mine … it was the sound of rings clacking off the table as cards are thrown in anticipation of taking another trick…the smell of fresh chocolate cake, brownies, and/or a roast of beef … lilac powder, hugs and kisses … Stanley tape measure, leather belt with hammer hanger, loaded with my fathers straight claw hammer/axe.
Home is where ever Christ is blazing from the hearts of the beloved ... hugs, bracing hands ... temporal ... yet in them ... eternity … one in Christ … playfully and seriously … laughing and crying together ... one Family connected.
Family like this is also connected in Gasport, NY … St. Louis, Mo … Poughkeepsie, NY … Kalamazoo, Mi … Medina, Oh … Phoenix, Az … and Cohocton, NY, and soon Hartford, Connecticut. Like my mother and father … our church … the United Church of Christ has raised me up and brought me home … in Christ and love that is tempered by justice and Peace.
How many of you re-member the Wilmington Ten March in Washington, The mothers of the disappeared for whom we witnessed in the Capital Rotunda and 31 were arrested and jailed … marches and demonstrations for choice … we claim all people to be family connected in Christ’s love … no people are outside the boundaries of our family connection. My mother and father shudder sometimes when I bring my friends home ... but always welcome … seeking to open their hearts ever wider in ways that challenge me to re-member one day I to will have to let go … to embrace with large, weathered hands … with cake … hammer hangers thumping legs … Home!
