pic of David from Lights Out Ohio news conference

Yesterday I spoke at the news conference sponsored locally by the Sierra Club, City of Akron, and Summit County to introduce "Lights Out Ohio" on Earth Day this year. It was at the new Metro bus center which is lighted by solar energy.

spending time

Catching up with some pictures. Here's Molly from Winter Formal at Firestone HS.

I've been spending a lot of time raking, composting, tilling, trimming, and getting ready to plant. I was so delighted with the rich compost I got both from my rotating barrel and my 3 bin system. I get up early each morning with the first light and go out with the dogs - Maggie and Winston. They run and wrestle with each other while I do my yard work for 45 minutes to an hour.

This has been very spiritually centering for me and I have lost some weight during this time too.

I remember my dad was talking about retiring to a small farm. Then he died of cancer at age 58. Dad was raised on a farm and basically framed until he was 21 and went to college. His gardens of flowers especially were fabulous.

I never spent any time with Dad gardening. Now that I have taken it on for myself, I appreciate the experience he had while doing it.

This year we will have our 10 x @ 20 ft kitchen garden plus a lot of beds of perennials. Plan to get do some more annuals this year. Thinking about adding another apple tree to the back yard and possibly another spruce tree for the birds. Last summer added mock orange and lilacs as some buffers to the patio.

Doing this, hiking and canoeing/camping bring great peace to my life. Just spending time with my family does that. I am very grateful for Martha, Kate and Molly. They are joys to be with. Wonderful conversations and ideas are shared.

Winston, whom we got at the dog pound about 4 weeks ago is very well behaved, smart and quite a character. Can't believe we got him not long before he would have been euthanized. He was picked up off the street. He is Lab, Shar Pei, & Boxer mix.

I will add pictures of the yard and garden as time goes on. Also have plans for an organic garden at the church and inviting neighborhood kids to help with it.


Loar, Akron,

complexity/confusion

First, here's the link for my podcast introducing this week's Vision on the 10 Commandments at Fairlawn West UCC.

Since the 1960's I have tried to enable myself and my family to live a simpler lifestyle. But I grew to believe over the years that living more simply would disconnect us from the predominant culture around us. I thought we could still be part of it and not be compromised by it.

And all around us the sophisticates of the economic and political theory were trying to convince all of us how complex and intricate was our national economy and international economy. We became more and more convinced that only the "experts" could manage the main pieces of our economy.

Then Alan Greenspan, the great priest of US economic thought, admitted that he had misjudged in the decisions and the observations he had been giving us for years as the head of the Federal Reserve Bank. We have seen major corporate ceo and manager after another make decisions that have drastically affected all of our lives. The hubris of our system and what has done to all, great and small, has been deceptive and demeaning.

I am returning to focus more on living more simply. Complexity does not mean wiser or more intelligent. In the matter of money, it appears now to mean simply complexity which bamboozles from the least to the greatest of them...novice to expert. (check out Jeremiah 6 Message version and NIV which has the language of "least ... greatest")

David Loar, UCC, United Church of Christ, Akron, money, economy, simple life

the long journey needs refreshment

The journey this Lent has been deeper than others in recent years. I have been stressing with our congregation that Lent is a tithe (1/10th) of the year to give ourselves fully to God. It is a time to grow more deeply in our practice of the spiritual disciplines. That the journey with Jesus is like crossing a desert. You can start out somewhat easily, but along the way you will need some water. Many of us burn out on this journey. The spiritual disciplines are like the water of the desert journey. Without them, we will not make it. And we will wind up probably being more "churchified" rather than disciples and apostles. Its the refrain of the retirees, "The young people need to take over." But the young people aren't around to take over. And now congregations struggle to let go often of their treasured personal history and their buildings while God is trying to call them out to a new time, a new era, a new creation. But the "canteen" is dry and we are afraid. And the road ahead seems to not even dead-end, but just gradually to peter out.

So, we are seeking to do more listening than talking around Fairlawn West...which is one of our stated bedrock beliefs of our congregation about prayer. Pray to listen more than to chat.

A great voice of God comes from Madeleine L'Engle:

“Have courage and joy. Sometimes our moments of greatest joy come at [the] times of greatest courage,” she says simply. “Our children need to hear over and over again that there is no such thing as redemptive violence,” she adds. “Violence never redeems. And what we do does make a difference!”

Madeleine pauses before reinforcing, softly emphasizing each word, “Be brave! Have courage! Don’t fear!” And echoing the message proclaimed and lived by all prophets, she adds, “Do what you think you ought to do, even if it’s nontraditional. Be open. Be ready to change."

Sacred time and space in an urgent world

Sacred space and sabbath are core places/experiences as a child of God. Right now our country is trying to hurry to fix our economic wows. The urgency is important, but we will create more havoc and chaos if we continue to rush into this without time and space which is focused solely on God. Listening to God. Being with God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Christian martyr of WW II - killed by the Nazis just a few days before the Allies liberated his prison, celebrated the Lord's Supper weekly in his cell using the toilet seat cover as the communion table, with other prisoners and guards receiving it as he officiated. Nothing was more urgent than this, to be at table with our Lord and other brothers and sisters.

David Loar
Fairlawn West United Church of Christ
Akron, Ohio