So it’s been too long since I posted. Last post was a pre-Mackenzie-wedding thing. Here it is two days before Advent and I have some catching up to do….

Mackenzie and Wynne’s wedding was amazing. I am so happy for both of them and so proud of how it all went. Mackenzie worked so very hard on decorations, had a wonderful theme and both the rehearsal dinner and reception were amazing.

St. Peter’s-by-the_sea was gorgeous and the place was PACKED. Jennifer was on the coast all week with Mackenzie and I joined them late Wednesday night. You can imagine the flurry of activity the next few days getting it all ready. I am SO grateful for faithful friend and verger, Danny Meadors, who was so helpful for the wedding. And my dear friend and colleague, Fr. Jeff Reich, who assisted with the service and did their pre-marriage counseling.

As for me – I held up way better than I anticipated. I think making sure everything was in place and everyone in place kept me from being a basket case. Mackenzie’s bride’s maids are all really fantastic ladies and I always enjoy being around them. Following Wynne’s “preview photo op” of the wedding dress, Mackenzie staged one for Dad as well. It was very emotional – she was stunningly beautiful. She gave me a gift of a picture of the two of us the night she was engaged, and on the frame itself was a carving of her actual wedding dress! Amazing.

The service is a bit of a blur. My son Joseph was a highlight for me – he did all the music and was so great! Playing “Hallelujah” as the processional got us all going! Chelsea, my oldest and maid of honor, yelled at me to not look at her! She was struggling to not break down so I had to follow her advice myself!

Walking her down the aisle was a joy! She was nervous, as was Wynne. After handing her off, I dashed to the back to put vestments on, and after a panic of not finding my stole, made it back in time to preach. I am attaching an audio of the sermon:  http://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/public/documents/3167759/WeddingMacandWynne.mp3

I did get a tad choked up during the vows, but it was all just wonderful and sweet and special and glorious and still-hard-to-believe-my-girl-is-married.

The reception was at the new Biloxi Visitor’s Center, a gorgeous venue overlooking the gulf on 90 right by the Biloxi Lighthouse. It was a great time. Mackenzie and I had secretly taken dance lessons and had a cute routine to an Elton John song – “Blessed’. “Oh you, you’ll be blessed, you’ll have the best, I promise you that. I’ll pick the stars from the sky, pull your name from a hat – you will be blessed.” It is a song to an unborn, unnamed child. A perfect Daddy-daughter dance song and we ROCKED THE HOUSE!  

An exhausting and fantastic and memory filled week for sure. Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Taylor!

Then last week I was honored to officiate the wedding of Jennifer’s step  mother, Caroline, and her new husband, Bill. The event was in New Orleans and they did it right! We stayed at the Royal Sonesta and had a great time. Many of their friends from Ft. Myer’s came and she was a beautiful bride. Jennifer did a great job toasting the couple at the dinner and everyone had SO MUCH fun! We traveled to Ft. Myers, after two nights in Destin at a dear friend’s condo, and had Thanksgiving there. I won’t talk about the famous person whose dog bit me, but other than that it was a wonderful time.

Soon, I promise, some Advent thoughts!

This Saturday, God willing and the Priest being able to actually perform the ceremony, my middle child shall be married! How did this happen? Isn’t she in pigtails and overalls, braces and Keds, either arguing with her mother over what she will wear to school in the 2nd grade or arguing with her confirmation class teacher about creation and the whole point of Genesis.

More importantly, since every thing in life is really ALL ABOUT ME – how did I get old enough to have children getting married? By choice? Number one daughter will follow in April.

My daughter and LW are on the Coast already, doing that last minute thang. I will join them tomorrow. I’ve gone without a day off now for five weeks, so I am looking forward to a bit of time away, although it will be quite busy. But it’s all good and fun and really exciting. I am looking forward to family and friends for sure.

It’s also a time for remembering. I am now older than my own father was when I got married. THAT IS SO WEIRD! Like all of us that reach whatever age we reach, I sure have moved the needle on what I consider “old”. Isn’t it interesting how that works?

There are days when I am terrified to be 54. 60 is almost here. 70 too. I am well into my last 1/3 of my life. That sucks! I have so much more to do, to say, to see, to live. (**editor’s note – I am not saying any of those ages are OLD. But sometimes the numbers are rather intimidating!**).

But none of that comes close in comparison to walking my two precious girls down the aisle where awaits for them, respectively, two of the coolest guys on the planet. I tell the LW – we done sumthin right, because our girls have found incredible mates to share their lives with.

So Saturday we gain a son, we don’t lose a daughter. And yes there will be tears, especially by dear ole Dad who will pray to God Almighty he can make it through the service and the sermon AND the Father-Daughter dance! But mostly, there will be smiles, and laughter, and real, true, deep, abiding joy. Oh yes, and a great party – band and all! I really can’t wait……St. James folks – see you next week! I will be the guy with the red eyes and the big smile.

I’ve been debating even writing this for a couple of days. But in some ways it is cathartic (hopefully). First, all you folks on the Coast of Land Mass (also known as Mississippi) please know that almost every ounce of prayer time I have is offered on your behalf.

Why. Because I know….

Of course I have been watching – ever since Isaac was a depression with potential. It’s the Weather Channel 24/7, even if they don’t know the name of my state. By the way, how comical is it to watch them now try to say “Mississippi” every other sentence! Stephanie Abrams “I am showing you some love Mississippi”, and good ole Jim Cantore “we know NOLA suffered from a man-made flood and Katrina wiped out the coast of Mississippi”. I guess 7 years of being virtually ignored can pile up some hard feelings.

But, back to the watch. I just can’t look away. Cones and predictions and models and prophecy, I take it all in. And that’s when the feeling begins.

You know it, if you lived it. That feeling in your gut, your soul, your heart. The wound is there, the scabs peel back, and you have to deal with it all over again. My head hurts JUST LIKE IT DID when the pressure dropped. The nausea has existed for days, the anxiousness, the snappy remarks, the fear. And I am not even on the Coast now, although I still have a house in the Pass. So I lift up my brothers and sisters to the Holy One who never forsook us and never will. And then I watch some more.

And for those who don’t get it  but want to make light of how we are, where we are, who we are in this moment – maybe you should just leave us alone. You cannot possibly comprehend the feeling, the feeling I cannot even define. There are probably moments in your life that are the same for you and we won’t be able to know what that was like, but heaven help us if we mock you on Facebook or roll our eyes behind your back. You see, it’s just different, if you were there. I saw the bodies in the bags, and blessed them. I prayed with search and rescue units whose job really was only to pull out dead people and spray paint the houses, when what they really wanted to do was save someone. And I had the miracle blessing of a house largely undamaged, so my story is far better than most. Maybe for a day or two, you just let us be.

No, this is not Katrina. But neither was any other storm and we just had no clue, no concept, no benchmark for something so horrendous and wide spread and all encompassing. Now we do, and we really, really wish we didn’t.

So I watch, and the memories come. The parishioners’ houses-that-were-gone, their desperate faces, their uncertainty, the overwhelming feeling of what will we do now. Yes, there was much, much to be thankful for in the months and years that followed, especially the people who came by the thousands to help. But those memories are for later – for today, and for the anniversary-of-hell that is tomorrow, we just get that feeling all over again, amplified by Cantore and Abrams and Isaac and projections and surge and preparations and despair and hollow laughter and that feeling.

Tonight and tomorrow and probably Thursday way up here in Jackson we will get wind and lots of rain and maybe tornados (hopefully not). We won’t get the sea whose incomprehensible power we learned the hard way. And as the skies darken and trees fall, I pray for those here who are alone or afraid or desperate as well. And the feeling, THAT FEELING will grow a bit more, I am sure, and if I hear the sound – you know the sound if you were there – then forgive my weeping for all that was and is now lost.

Anniversaries – sometimes we celebrate, sometimes we dread them. Sometimes we want them to just go away.

But they don’t. So tonight and tomorrow, we just pray. Because that feeling is here, for a bit.

May God protect you all.

As you can see from the picture, we have had some omens of doom haunting us recently. We are housesitting for some wonderful friends who are gone this summer. They live at the reservoir, and for a couple of days we have been greeted by three buzzards (actually I think they are American Black Vultures see here). We drove up the other day as they were just sitting on the deck. They watched us a while, were not at all spooked by our dog, then flew into a tree nearby. The next day they were there again, perched on the deck. I’ve never seen them actually eating anything, and I haven’t smelled any dead creatures around. Made me wonder if they had advanced warning about something? I threw a stick at them and they flew off, two of them, leaving a 3rd still in the same tree. He / She eventually flew off as well. I haven’t seen them for a few days. If Jennifer hadn’t taken the picture, I might think this was a vision – although I am unsure what has “died” or is near death that would attract them. Insert church comments here….
Most of you (I act as if there is a legion of people reading this!) know of my leg issues. I ruptured my right achilles in Feb of 2009 and the left one in October of 2010. The 2nd one became infected post op, requiring another surgery and 6 weeks of IV antibiotics. Thank God I am married to a nurse! So over about a 2 year period I was on crutches for about 5 months total. UGH. The average recovery time for a top athlete (that’s NOT me, by the way) from such an injury is 12 months. While rehabbing the 2nd leg after the 3rd operation, I tore a tendon in my ankle. We chose not to operate on that.
Alas, the heel and ankle continue to give me fits. It’s difficult to do any exercise and, unfortunately, “church” shoes really bother it. I went back to my ortho last week and he referred me to their new foot/ankle guy. He examined my MRI and me and recommended we just continue to try and live with it. But if that doesn’t work out, he thinks I have a “lot” (that’s a technical medical term, evidently) of diseased tendon that should be cut out, which requires detaching and then re-attaching the tendon (oh, in case you didn’t know, this is the largest and strongest tendon in the human body and it does not detach in a good mood) to the heel.
He did prescribe this weird lotion that has all kinds of numbing stuff and anti-swelling stuff in it, with some pain killer. It is working pretty good so far. And ……
Those of you who have kept up know I bought a recumbent bike to help with the rehab. I’ve been unable to ride it since March, due to both pain and the move to Jackson. So the other day I went for a nice 7.5 mile ride on bike paths (BIKE PATHS! – Take THAT Gulf Coast!) at the reservoir, with minimal pain. YEA and WOOT.
So, that leaves Bibles in my alliteration. I was reflecting the other day how much I appreciate how St. James really emphasizes Bible study and reflection. We have FOUR weekly Bible studies plus some pretty good Bible preaching by your faithful clergy. I do love it and hope our folks do also.
For those interested in some tools, here are a couple. YouVersion.org is a wonderful Bible study resource. Developed by the folks with Lifechurch.tv, you can access this through your web browser. There are also apps for iPad, IPhone, and Android devices and they are excellent. With YouVersion you get many translations of the Bible and also a plethora (I’ve been wanting to use that word) of reading plans. They are year long and shorter, theme based, lectionary based (you can follow the Episcopal lectionary if you desire). A plan for just about anyone and it’s all FREE!
The Bible Challenge is awesome as well. You can access it HERE. The Center for Biblical Studies was established by St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church in Whitemarsh, PA and their Rector, the Reverend Marek Zabriskie. St. James’ is listed as one of the partner churches. I encourage you to check out the vast resources on the Bible challenge website. Bishop Gray’s reading of the Gospels throughout Lent was a program of the Center for Biblical Studies.
Meanwhile, come to one of our Bible studies. Talk to your clergy about ways for you to engage the Scriptures. Consider joining one of our several EFM groups.
The buzzards and I will see you along the way – sometimes even on a bike path!

David+

Yesterday I left the hotel at 6AM to catch my plane home. Although it was a tad late leaving Indy, we arrived in Houston fine. Upon deplaning in Houston, I entered the gate area to see a mass of people, and most of them not looking happy. I had 3 hours until my flight to Jackson, so I wandered up the very  long corridor, which was full of people sitting, sleeping, looking exasperated. This was not a good sign. After finding some lunch, I sat down to catch up on emails. I checked my next flight and it had been delayed about 45 minutes. That’s manageable. If I only knew.

About 90 minutes before I was to leave for Jackson they cancelled the flight. I only discovered this accidentally, as I was in the long-corridor-of-hell, since there were no seats near my gate. I made my way to the customer service desk, where I joined quite a few other folks. While in line, I hear several other flights being cancelled. There were storms in Houston, but the main problem seemed to be planes couldn’t take off wherever they were due to weather, so we had nothing to fly on (or in?). Several folks on the Jackson flight were in line, including one poor woman whose flight had been canceled the night before, had spent the night in a hotel, was on my flight only to have it canceled. She was trying to make her brother’s 70th birthday party. She was not in a good mood. In front of me was a parishioner from St. James, and customer service ended up finding us seats on a Delta flight to Memphis connecting to Jackson, arriving around 8pm (5 hours later than expected). We took it and headed over to another monstrous gate area where hundreds of not-very-happy people were slouching around. Announcement after announcement of more canceled flights followed, our flight was pushed back two hours and then another hour. It was not looking good. Tom checked on Saturday flights and all were overbooked – Sunday was the only option. Other than this – we rented a car and drove 7 hours home.

Thank goodness for Tom and his idea to do this. We shared the drive and had great conversation, mostly about baseball. At the advice of another parishioner, we ate at a truckstop in Jennings, LA that was actually really good. And also….Tom got a call on the way from another parishioner about an article in the Wall Street Journal about the Episcopal Church and General Convention. It was a horrid article, full of outright lies and much sarcasm. I am really surprised the WSJ has lowered itself to allow such pathetic “journalism”, while it was an opinion piece shouldn’t they still be held to a standard of truth?

I have much to say in response to the article, but some people have already done so and done so quite well. So I encourage you to go to http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/media/impromtu_truth_squad_takes_dow.html . In this article you can link to the original WSJ article (please do, but you may want to wear gloves), and three excellent responses that take apart the crude and ridiculous opinion piece. I especially commend to you the blog post (linked in the article) of my friend Scott Gunn. If you have questions or concerns, or have been harassed by folks who read the WSJ article, please start with these responses, and then I would love to discuss any concerns or questions you have. We will set apart some time soon at St. James’ for an open forum on General Convention as well.

We arrived in Jackson at 11pm. I could have driven home from Indy and been back much sooner! It was great to see Jennifer after two whole weeks apart, poor thing had walking pneumonia and was really pitiful. Sleeping in my own (borrowed) bed and (borrowed) home was really great also. I am so glad to be back and look forward to conversations around mission and Jesus!

David