A Lot

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BY SCOTT CAIRNS
A little loam and topsoil
is a lot.
—Heather McHugh
A vacant lot, maybe, but even such lit vacancy
as interstate motels announce can look, well, pretty
damned inviting after a long day’s drive, especially
if the day has been oppressed by manic truckers, detours,
endless road construction. And this poorly measured, semi-
rectangle, projected and plotted with the familiar
little flags upon a spread of neglected terra firma
also offers brief apprehension, which—let’s face it,
whether pleasing or encumbered by anxiety—dwells
luxuriously in potential. Me? Well, I like
a little space between shopping malls, and while this one may
never come to be much of a garden, once we rip
the old tires from the brambles and bag the trash, we might
just glimpse the lot we meant, the lot we hoped to find.

Active Helpfulness Means…

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“Active helpfulness means, initially, simple assistance in trifling, external matters. There is a multitude of these things wherever people live together. Nobody is too good for the meanest service…

We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps — reading the Bible. When we do that, we pass by the visible sign of the Cross raised athwart our path to show us that not our way, but God’s way must be done.”

– Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Steak Tips

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1.  Quality steak tips (not the stew meat).
2.  Stick of butter
3.  Teaspoon of pepper
4.  Teaspoon of salt
5.  1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
6.  1/4 cup of capers
7.  Teaspoon of Crushed red pepper
8.  1/2 freshly chopped onion
9.  1/2 cup of good white wine
10.  1/8 cup of freshly chopped garlic
11.  1 whole lemon
12.  2 pounds steak tips
13.  Good gorgonzola
14.  Colmans mustard
In a saucepan, fry up the garlic and onions and char them.  Then add the butter and other non-liquid ingredients.  Then add the liquids and cook for 1 minute on high heat.  Put tips in a large bowl and squeeze lemons all over them.  Then pour solution and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Pull out tips and pour marinade back in sauce pan.  Put tips on broiler pan and cook for 10 minutes so that the tips are almost medium rare.  Turn them over and cook for another 3 minutes and pull them out.  While the tips are cooking, heat up the saucepan on high and add 1/2 cup of good red wine to the marinade and create a reduction.
When tips are done, take juices caught in pan and pour into saucepan with remainder of marinade.
Serve tips with thinly sliced gorgonzola on top, then mustard, then gravy.
Enjoy!

We Shouldn’t Seek the Ideal Community…

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We shouldn’t seek the ideal community.  It is a question of loving those whom God has set beside us today.  They are signs of God.  We might have chosen different people, people who were  more cheerful and intelligent. But these are the ones God has given us, the ones  he has chosen for us.  It is with them that we are called to create unity and  live a covenant. We choose our own friends; but in our families, we do not  choose our brothers and sisters; they are given to us.  So it is in community life.

– Jean Vanier (From Community and Growth)

Now it Will Come About

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Now it will come about that instead of sweet perfume there will be putrefaction; Instead of a belt, a rope; Instead of well-set hair, a plucked-out scalp; Instead of fine clothes, a donning of sackcloth; And branding instead of beauty. Your men will fall by the sword, And your mighty ones in battle. And her gates will lament and mourn; And deserted she will sit on the ground.

–Anonymous

Others Went Out on the Sea in Ships

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The Bible is incredibly poetic.  I thought I would show this snippet from Psalm 107, but definitely read the whole chapter:

Others went out on the sea in ships; 
       they were merchants on the mighty waters.

 They saw the works of the LORD, 
       his wonderful deeds in the deep.

 For he spoke and stirred up a tempest 
       that lifted high the waves.

 They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths; 
       in their peril their courage melted away.

 They reeled and staggered like drunken men; 
       they were at their wits’ end.

 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, 
       and he brought them out of their distress.

 He stilled the storm to a whisper; 
       the waves of the sea were hushed.

 They were glad when it grew calm, 
       and he guided them to their desired haven.

 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love 
       and his wonderful deeds for men.

–David, Son of Jesse (from Psalm 107)