Taking time to smell the flowers

If you don't know about

Barbara Crafton's

"Geranium Farm" you should!

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From a couple of recent posts:

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I can deal with an imperfect church: I will not violate the dignity of anyone in order to please anyone else. I won't acquiesce in such a thing, either, without naming it for what it is. I also won't insist that others agree with me as a condition of my continuing to relate to them. I won't absent myself from the table. Those who cannot endure my presence there will have to eject me, because I'm not leaving on my own.

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I can deal with an imperfect Church -- been doing it all my life. And the Church has dealt kindly with all my errors, which go back as far as my baptism. I love its largeness, love its embrace of the world, and want it to remain worldwide. If it does not, I will be waiting for the day in the future when, this present pain in the past, we reunite with those we have lost, and try to explain to our grandchildren just why all this happened.
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The One You Feed: This is what the Church is: the people of God seeing Christ in one another and serving the poor in His Name. The rest is commentary.

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So have another twenty meetings about whether the Church is pure enough for you. Or make it forty -- why not? Make denouncing other peoples' sins your life's work if you want to: most of us have enough of them to keep you busy for years, so knock yourself out. But some of us will not attend.

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An old story, as retold by Jim Gustafson: One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

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One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

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The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

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The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked, "Which wolf wins?"

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The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."