Mi iglesia nueva / my new church

Meet Tania Marquez, whose ministry, like mine, has clearly begun during her seminary years. She is one of those sparkling souls that has probably come to teach more than to learn. At any rate, she is rumored to be in the pipeline to become minister at my new church, what is called the South Bay Campus of a large Unitarian Universalist congregation in San Diego. For me, it was love at first sight on October 4, and I've decided to show you why and introduce many of you to what was a "typical" UU worship service only in that the elements woven together to form the spiritual container were eclectic and skillfully combined, and the music fine to superb.

the young lady has professional aspirations

Less usual to the point of rarity, from my experience of more than 50 years in and around UUland, are the bilingual process, the youth of the musicians and worship leaders, and the actively involved congregation who MOVE WHEN THEY SING! Below are some of them during the other sine qua non of a UU religious experience, Coffee Hour.

Very few of you will be aware of the complexity of my relationship with Unitarian Universalism, beginning at age 12 when my father left an evangelical ministry began in boyhood and found his way to a godless and successful UU ministry. My self-appointed or god-anointed (who the hell knows?) task as a human being seems to be to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted, and that played out around race and issues of racial justice during my ministry. Not a strong area for this group of primarily socially/economically privileged, primarily white folks. I left in a drunken huff twice, then with some degree of grace and humility after a period of sobriety. That was more than 10 years ago, and no one is more shocked than I about what is clearly the beginning of a new phase of my relationship with the holy, UUland, and my ministry. 

celery and peanut butter!

  And you will be hearing a great deal about a woman by the name of Mar Cardenas and her work about the consequences/effects of what I call The Fucking Fence and what she now calls The FF. If I have anything to say about it, helping to bring that obscenity down -- it is an affront to the dignity of the entire human race, including and perhaps especially those who built it and allow it to stand -- will be why God sent me to Playas de Tijuana and sent the Chula Vista UU congregation to me. But here is the ASTOUNDING news of this post: I am open to being entirely mistaken. I am open to having been sent here to learn love and forgiveness not how to have my vengeance. I am open, as I say each morning in prayer "to the pleasure only this day holds for me." Mar, who is a 6-year UU, is involved with dozens of projects and hundreds of people, but right now the primary identification is with Standing On the Side of Love and the program/retreat center she has built with her husband (above are fotos of a last-minute feast at GaryMar that followed a demonstration/program/catholic service at the FF. ).

And I really don't know why I think anyone might be interested, but I am posting below the Order of Service from that fateful Sunday a mere 25 days ago because I think it is waaay cool!

Don't know if I can keep the blog going -- life is getting kinda busy, but I also like telling the stories...

Peace out, friends. 

susan/a

South Bay Order of Service October 4, 2015

Centering Thought:

"To look back from the stony plain along the road, which led one to that place is not at all the same thing as walking on the road; the perspective, to say the least, changes only with the journey."          -- James Baldwin, Go Tell It On the Mountain

Gathering Bell / Gathering Music (Prelude)

Opening Words

Michael: A veces me siento como un niño sin madre…

Megan: Sometimes I feel like a motherless child . . .  

Michael: Que aquí encuentres, un saludo caluroso, una palabra amable,

Megan:     Here may you find a warm greeting, a kind word, a gentle touch

Michael: A veces me siento como que no tengo ningún amigo

Megan: Sometimes I feel like I have no friend . . .  

Michael: Que aquí encuentres una comunidad de apoyo, un pulso de liberación, una

            visión de esperanza.

Megan: Here may you find a community of support, a pulse of liberation,

a vision of hope

Michael: A veces me siento como que casi me he ido…

Megan: Sometimes I feel I am almost gone . . .  

Michael: Que aqui encuentres una canción para cantar, un momento de silencio, una

mano que sostener.

Megan: Here may you find a song to sing, a moment of silence, a hand to hold

Michael: Aunque estés lejos de tu hogar

Megan: Even when you are a long way from home . . . 

Michael: que estas paredes te acojan, que esta comunidad quebrante tu soledad.

Megan: may these walls give you shelter, may this community break through your

            loneliness

Michael: Y que puedas sentir el abrazo del más grande espíritu de vida

Megan: And may you feel the embrace of a larger Spirit of Life

Michael: Ven, veneremos juntos.

Megan: Come, let us worship together.

Opening Song - #36 Cantando por nuestras vidas”   Megan (soloist)

Welcome

Church Hymn

From all who dwell below the skies, let faith and hope with love arise,

Let beauty, truth and good be sung, through ev’ry land, by ev’ry

De todos bajo el gran sol, surja esperanza fe, amor

Verdad, y belleza cantando, de cada tierra, cada voz.

Church Aspiration& Chalice Lighting

May love be the spirit of this church, may the quest for truth be its sacrament, and service be its prayer. To dwell together in peace, to seek knowledge in freedom, and to help one another in fellowship. This is our.covenant with one another.

El amor es la doctrina de ésta iglesia, la búsqueda de la verdad es su sacramento, y el servicio es su oración. Habitar juntos en paz, buscar la verdad con libertad, y servir a la humanidad juntos, ésto es lo que pactamos unos con otros.

South Bay Welcome

Instrumental Music

Affirmation

We are Unitarian Universalists, A people of Open Minds, Loving Hearts and Welcoming Hands

Somos Unitarios Universalistas, Personas de mentes abiertas, Corazones amorosos, Y manos que dan la bienvenida.

Story for All Ages “One Boy Told Me” a found poem by Naomi Shihab Nye

“One Boy Told Me” is a found poem. A found poems means the poet didn’t make up any of the lines herself. Instead they are all things she overheard a boy say to her and she selected them. About her poem, she said: we all start out as poets, and some just keep up the habit into adulthood. But we can all reconnect to our own lost poets inside when we read everyday encounters like these.

Music lives inside my legs. It’s coming out when I talk.

I’m going to send my valentines To people you don’t even know.

Oatmeal cookies make my throat gallop.

Grown-ups keep their feet on the ground When they swing. I hate that.

Don’t ever say “purpose” again, Let’s throw that word out.

But tomorrow’s in BOLDFACE.

When I grow up my old names Will live in the house Where we live now. I’ll come and visit them.

Is it true that all metal was liquid first? Does that mean if we bought our car earlier they could have served it?

What if the clock said 6:92 instead of 6:30? Would you be scared?

My tongue is the car wash

My toes are dictionaries.

Do you need any words?

From now on I’ll only drink white milk

What does minus mean? I never want to minus you.

Just think—no one has ever seen inside this peanut before!

It is hard being a person.

I do and don’t love you—isn’t that happiness?

Instrumental Music

Offering

Our offering today goes to Project New Village, a non-profit organization that collaborates with organizations and individuals to promote personal, community, and communal wellness in

Southeastern San Diego, particularly among its diverse families. Project New Village connects residents to health resources, and engages youth and adults of diverse backgrounds in wellness activities. Thank-you for your support of this important work. And thank you for supporting this church. The Offering will now be gratefully received.

Offering Music -  “Pequena voz”

Meditation Song - #1012 “When I am frightened”

Meditation

Instrumental Music

Message:   “Faith at Five Thousand Feet”

Closing Song - #1017 “Building a new way”

Closing Words & Extinguish the Chalice

Paul Robeson: Llevaré mi voz dondequiera que estén aquellos quienes deseen escuchar la melodía de la libertad o las palabras que pueden inspirar esperanza y valor en la faz de la

desesperanza y el miedo.

“I shall take my voice wherever there are those who want to hear the melody of freedom or the words that might inspire hope and courage in the face of despair and fear.

Mis armas son de paz, pues es solamente por medio de la paz que se puede lograr la paz.

My weapons are peaceful, for it is only by peace that peace can be achieved.

El canto de la libertad debe de prevalecer. El canto de la libertad debe de prevalecer.” Que construyemos un nuevo camino a esta libertad.

The song of freedom must prevail. The song of freedom must prevail.”

May we build a new way to this freedom.

Closing Music (Postlude) - “Freedom jazz dance”

I HEART LA PAZ

making do: 2day altar

November 2007 I moved to La Paz, and I have loved the place since I was there in a drunken haze with Jamie Bell in 1975. So it was with great pleasure that I accepted the latest surprise gift -- a supposed-to-be-60-hour-turned-to-74-hour jaunt from Bahia Asuncion and back (27 of those hours in the back of a pickup on Carretera Una).

Celso, mi chaufer

And you think there's no legroom on a plane! Oh well, at least I had the back to myself (if you don't count the food bag and 3 very large stuffed toys).

How often have you heard me say "In the Baja, we expect problems, and we expect help"? Celso stopped three times on our drive, altho he could only help twice, and one of those was probably, we all agreed, a scam. But he gave them money just in case we were wrong. And here, they needed only that thing that you loosen/tighten the tire bolts with. And advice/commentary from every male within sight, of course.

I stayed at a friend's b&b, and it was a joy to deepen my connections with her and her son, Arturo Enrique, who was born shortly after I got to La Paz. He does not speak (yet? remains to be seen), but he has fewer communication issues than most people I know! And while ordinarily these sad days I would not post a foto of naked children on the internet, in this case it's integral to the story. When Arturo wandered into the bathroom, he found 3-year-old David in a small washtub. But not too small for new friends, yes? So both mamas, all unphased, simply let the boys be boys and dry off on the bed in front of Jesus! Do you know what it means to me to know Christians not uptight about nudity???

Probably because I dont actually know how to make things go where I want them to with this blogging thing, think of this sentence as "on-hold" music -- it justs fills the space...

Any of you who know the book and/or The One and Only Jeff Chang will be as surprised as he will be when I send him a link to this post. I stopped dead in my tracks when this fella walked in the door of this very large restaurant in a very tiny town on the way to la paz. i asked him if he knew what his shirt said, and then told him it was the name of a famous book about hiphop music, and that I KNOW the very cool guy who wrote it. I was instantly adored by the lad. I promised to bring him the book my next drive down the Baja.

I leave you today with a teaser for two upcoming posts, titled jointly "The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away", which will relate how I have been given a new church home that I didnt even realize I was longing for, and have lost LaRoVReV to her own new future as a second honeymoon cottage...Plus, here is a fairly gorgeous moon over Campo Serena, Bahia Asuncion, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Peace out, my dears.

Bahia Asuncion Otra Vez

 Again, it must begin with an altar. This version was set up on 16 Septiembre (¡viva la independencia!), the day after larovrev and I arrived in Bahía Asunción, Baja California Sur, México.

And while I have decided to come out in this second blog iteration as the flaming Christian that I am, please know that all I hope -- and, I confess, want -- for you is that you strengthen your connection to whatever/whoever brings out the best in you.

The Peace Palace Migrates

.

The stories of the Dynamic Duo (Susan/a and LaRoVReV) leaving Asunción in mid-febrero for Rosarito, Baja California (one peninsula, two states) to live in a four-bedroom house on the beach (one was devoted to prayer and meditation!) and then abandoning same at the end of agosto for a trek to the USA and then returning here to Asunción a week ago must wait for another time. For now, it’s enough to say that the 4-bedroom was dreamed, oh so briefly, to become “The Peace Palace/Palacio de la Paz” – a Mexican retreat space for USAmerican racial justice workers. Turns out, per the foto, peace needs to be portable and cannot have a fixed address.

i cook some GOOD food in RV3

bodega that used to be a toilet/"shower"

After another gorging of contents, a place was made for everything and everything was put in said place. I need an orderly home almost as much as and as soon as I need an altar to keep my swirling life from driving me  to drink (seriously!). 

 As a treat for both newcomers to Asunción and those readers who may have been around for the first LaRoVReV blog series last year, here are some fotos of why I returned…

view from the bed

el pueblo

eastern sky at sunset

moon top leftish

AND it gets better! As of a couple of days ago, I have TWO beach homes!! Of course, neither has a bathroom, but just look at the second-floor space I get to use as bedroom and writing space and den to watch junkietvinenglish on one of my TWO broken laptops!!! I like to think of it as “The Peace Palace East” cuz it be about three football fields in that direction from RV3 (separated by an empty campground complete with “clubhouse” that I clean in exchange for using the toilet, shower, and washing machine).

i only get to use the 2nd floor

view from the bed

preparing to blog

One of the very, very best aspects of my days here this time around is that they are often completely empty of other people. I can walk from one part of home to the other without encountering anyone, just as I can walk the stretch of beach in front totalmente solita. I can walk into mi pacifico until it is deep enough to take off my bathing suit. I can make a lot of noise when circumstances dictate; I can play my rocknroll LOUD and sing along in a voice only I can love.

 

 All that said, there are people here I cherish because they have welcomed me back with such warmth and support. And probably because they, as anyone who wishes to befriend me eventually must, accept with great grace and good humor that I was born to preach (to hear my parents tell it, I was born preaching!). Mis amigos Berta y Tomás have a loncheria, where we recently discussed lord knows what, and lord knows why I felt a need to go on about whatever that may have been. ¡En español, no less!

And for entertainment, we have The Stuck Truck. It happened a few days ago a few feet from larovrev, and it was the BEST men-being-men event I have witnessed in quite some time. You fellas can be hella entertaining in your natural habitat…

Though I only have a video file of their success (and for the life of me I cannot find a way to insert it), the process took 5 men 5 hours and included about 20 wheelbarrows of sand being packed into the sinkhole, topped with BUNCHA rocks, and even then the huge tow vehicle could not help because there was not enough room to get in front of the stuck truck. In the end, the trusty tractor pulled her out, and she has been coming back every night to park, but not next to that wall! jajajajajaja...

I leave you this time with the unremarkable and yet delightful birds of Asunción. Clearly my amateurish brokentostadotidbits are acceptable only if Señor Stuck Truck isn’t cleaning his catch…peace out, my dears.

WE (royal, editorial, gemini, human and re-creational vehicle -- take your pick) Are BAAAAAAACK!

FIRST THINGS FIRST: There must be an altar

To start smack dab in the middle, Susan/a and La RoVing ReV (reverend, revolutionary – take your pick) were reunited in Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico on 20 Agosto (yes, we will continue to sneak in simple Spanish lessons) and are, as we speak on 2 September, in a state park near Oakland CA USA hanging out with buncha redwoods, a few fellow RVers within sight but not, thank goodness, sound, and a few turkeys of the nonhuman variety.

SECOND THINGS SECOND: Best view from a toilet I’ve seen personally

How did this happen, you ask? What’s next, you wonder? Is that strange child of God being called by the holy or driven by demons, you fret?

Well, join the crowd, cuz three is one, and there’s you, RV3.1, and yours truly in the same state of amused bemusement (when my soul is on solid ground no matter how shifting the sands beneath my feet/wheels), or anxious brooding (in moments of faithlessness).

ATTACK OF THE GIANT MUSHROOM!!!

 NOT QUITE SO SCARY FROM THIS PERSPECTIVE

 After many, many hours spent trying to find a format for the renewed blog – chronological was the first to be nixed – I have settled on at least attempting to move in the direction of letting the fotos have center stage. Because I’ve realized that I cannot possibly tell you very much at all about my life since this reunion (I write now on 20 Septiembre, not quite three weeks later, the rollercoaster ride since March having turned into a mini-tsunami carrying me headlong into my new(est) life.)

 

HELLA
BUNGIECORDING!

TO BE ORGANIZED

POST-TREK from
Rosarito to Oakland

ONE OF THE HOME REPAIRS

(affix wires under valance, make 

*!#QWV&& curtain rod stay up)

I spent my 36 hours at the park taking everything out of larovrev, sorting into 3 piles – need before mexico, need wherever I land in mexico, will need when I have a new home that is not mobile. This is what I got, plus some clothes. And it's a little more (a LOT more in some cases that will remain nameless but how many handbags can even a girlygirl --see below -- use, especially one who goes nowhere special?) than when I bought the RV two eventful years ago!

homemade breakfast

silver stuff

In case it has escaped your attention, I am a true Gemini – split right down the middle in most areas. Female/male; joyous/enraged; sacred/profane…my very own yin and yang all in one package – and thus created spaces for each of my twins in this iteration of larovrev’s bed/sit space…

SUSAN’S SIDE is burntorangechocolatewithfieryeyes; I thought I decorated to the valence, but turns out I was drawn to the valance in the first place because it belonged with this part of my life. 

SUSAN/A is cool, not blazing; greens and golds, but just as true to my nature, though it took a few years in the Baja for me to realize that. I like to remark that Mexico has done what more than 50 years of social pressure/expectation in the USA could not – make me a girl! (Partly I like to say it because it pleases Mexicans, but here is another confession: I enjoy being contrary, and it upsets some of my feminist wannabe friends.)

OK, this really DID start in the middle, and I may post a prequel about the drive from Rosarito, Baja, Mexico to Oakland USA in Agosto…but dont count on it. 

we leave you in the peace of the park with wishes for your own retreat moments asap.