"Dear soul-mate and worshiper of life!

Here is another archived email from the queen of Norway to Beowulf.......dated October 1, 2003.

Dear soul-mate and worshiper of life! First of all, I can't tell you how much I would love to have been in Indy celebrating you and Erica's LOVE for each other! Sitting here in Norway reflecting and looking back at our history together, I feel so privileged and alive! I realize how blessed I have been through our friendship which has given me so much fun, joy, laughter, love, anger, thoughts, faith and understanding. To see the beauty in life through your glasses has been exciting, passionate and a big portion with fun!

Remember my first day in Indy, Easter 1999, and you asked if I wanted to join you and Pete (your car) to an Easter party at Judy's. Since I came from YWAM you loved telling me the story about another YWAMer, Lionel ! He cooked food naked in the kitchen at 215! You really loved telling me that story, shame that I never got to see it.

You and Josh dressed in all black at the Patio when Todd was playing.

Your birthday party, when the whole 215 went to the Martini bar in downtown - me, you, Eric, Wes, Marc and Emerson - we all dressed up! That was my first night at the Jazz Kitchen as well, and many stories start there.

I love your passion for European pants, those tight ones, which people in Indy don't use! Keep on wearing your leather pants; I'm sure Erica doesn't mind at all.

Thanks for introducing me to the whole Latin community - Juan, Ruben and those "Mexican's". That was the start to the best international parties at 215!

Sunsets, discussions, gourmet dinners at the backyard, holy time at the grave yard, 215 parties, Juan, Ruben; thanks for sharing them with me!

African dance at 215 when you had a great scene dancing to Johnny Clegg. Your great aunt and nephews in Johannesburg; thanks for inviting me to this great family! Brewpub, swing dance at Babka's place! The black and red dress we bought at East and 38th street. The mini marathon with the banana. Our speed walks at 6am along Washington Street. Your poems. Shoe shopping, together. I am going to stop here, Nolan! Emmanuel is screaming and wants my attention, badly.

My soul is in Indy today blessing this beautiful couple. I am so happy that Erica is the ONE for you, Nolan! I knew it the first time I got to know her, she is a beautiful woman, with a strong sense of self, and an incredible passion and care for those around here! I am at peace.

I and Emmanuel are giving our blessing all the way from Bergen in Norway - and we really hope to see you here, maybe next time you go to Ireland? You are really welcome. Mi casa es tu casa - My home is your home.

All the best!

Cheers, Salute and Skal!

Faith, Hope and Love - Elisabeth and Emmanuel

"I'm smiling with the sun in my face. Could I be Irish?"

I was reading journal #44 this morning and found this simple email message from Rich Starkey. "I'm smiling with the sun in my face. Could I be Irish?" Here was my response:

Hey Rich....If you can answer yes to the following questions I'd say "hell yes" you are Irish!

1. Do you get stoned to the soul by the power of words and music?

2. Do you often drink beers as large as your head?

3. Can you slide across the floor on your knees when dancing?

4. Do you get loud under the influence?

5. Are you under the influence now?

6. Do you practice heroic hospitality?

7. Have you been married to the same woman for more than 20 years?

8. Do you have a son to carry the Starkey name to the next generation?

9. Do you cry easily?

10. Do you have a warped sense of humor -laughing when others wouldn't?

11. Can you swear and not take the Lord's name in vain?

12. Can you hold a paradox until you burst with tension?

13. Can you pick a fight and then be over it the next day?

14. Do you spoil your children?

15. Do you spoil your wife?

16. Are you kind and generous?

17. Do you have a fair complexion?

18. Do you go upstream instead of downstream?

19. Do you like to read, I mean really read?

20. Do you attend church, at least occasionally?

21. Do you drink the blood of the Lamb?

22. Could you kill another with your bare hands if necessary to protect the life of many?

23. Are you deeply connected to your best friends?

24. Is the world your play ground?

25. Have you read C.S. Lewis - alot?

26. Do you like U2?

27. Can you tolerate rain, lots of rain?

28. Can you tolerate pain, lots of pain?

29. Do you get depressed in the dark cold half of the year?

30. Will you spend more money than you actually have?

31. Can you close a deal on a handshake?

32. Have you ever been Chairman of a Board?

I'm pretty sure you are Irish Rich, and I even found the Starkey name on mugs in Dublin to prove it!

Cheers,

O'

Open Hand May Day Anarchists Gathering - Sunday, May 1 - Reynolds home

Open House for Joseph Kaliisa - Uganda country director for Building Tomorrow

Please join us this Tuesday, April 12th from 5:00 - 8:00pm at our home, (3173 N. Delaware Street) to meet and greet Joseph Kaliisa Bagambaki with Building Tomorrow in Uganda. We will provide food and drinks, and everyone can get to know more about their successful approach to building sustainable schools in Uganda.

Driven by a contagious ambition, Joseph has a passion to work for vulnerable women and children and to date has coordinated the opening of seven primary-level academies in Uganda with classroom space for over 2,100 students.

Please stop in between 5:00 and 8:00pm to meet and connect with Joseph!

Cheers,

O'

Tag, you're it.

Did you know that there is a wikipedia page for the game tag? It includes explanations for far more variations of the game than I ever considered as a kid. The large number of variants may be due to the inclination of children playing the game to constantly change the rules. I know I have observed Cole change the rules, mid-game, just because he wanted to skew the odds in his favor. We have all done it.

Tag is often referred to as 'tiggy' in Australia, which confused me for years because I was too embarrassed to stop the conversation and say "you mean tag, right?" But it is such a universal concept that you could probably refer to it by any name and people would know what you are talking about.

I was watching Cole play tag in his Judo class this morning and was marvelling at how much is packed into this very simple game. There are times I want to step in as a parent and straighten things out. To police the game and make sure it stays true. But that isn't what the game is about.

I think the game is about conflict and about roles and survival and the thrill of testing yourself against another. If you can't beat the situation with strength or agility, then you need to outsmart them by changing the rules and using logic or persuasion. I don't know if there is justice in a game of tag, but I see compassion and cunning.

The whole drama of the game captivates me. In studying the game, I have moved beyond my initial disappointment that things weren't progressing in an orderly fashion and now enjoy how it has let me see another facet of my child's mind.

It takes a village....Thulani Temba Marshall Smith - April 1, 1998

Click on Photo to get full picture.....

Come help us celebrate Thulani Temba Marshall Smith's 13th Birthday, Friday, April 1st at his house - 122 E. 32nd Street - 6:00pm. Food and drinks for all, and as we say, "Cheers and well done Thulani!!!"

I just looked at my Journal Volume 6 - On the cover are these words: Thulani Temba Marshall Smith - The Peace Child & Creator of Hope, welcomed into this world by all of us, April 1, 1998:

Here is my journal entry for Wednesday, April 1, 1998:

"He was born at 4:30pm. We each held the boy and prayed for him in a circle as he was passed around. His mother sang a song....Rod delivered him as the birth coach. What an experience. I imagine we will have lots to talk about with Jenny (who gave birth alone as a teenager) and Laurie who has a daughter. I do believe he will want to adopt the child!!! Wow, saying "YES" more than "NO" has lots of ramifications."

April 2nd, 9:45 am: "Rod called from his cell phone...he is adopting Thulani Temba Marshall Simth, and brining him home to 215 E. 32nd Street. ROD IS A FATHER!!!!! Thulani is a grandchild of Judy Blough and godson of the Reel family. He will be raised to embrace his African heritage and American heritage. To God be the Glory."

Friday April 3rd, 7:30pm: Rod arrived home with Thulani Temba Marshall Smith. Judy had dinner for everyone. We lit the Rhino and Thulani didn't even wake up...he is a good baby. All the kids wanted to take care of the boy. We smoked a cigar and drank some beer, but forgot to open the Champaign."

Saturday April 4th, 9:00am: We went to Rod's this morning and everything went well last night. The baby slept well, waking at 3:00am and 5:00am. He will be getting a passport soon. Yesterday the ________ called and dumped some anxiety on Rod...about adopting the baby. Rod spent some time with Ann trying to get perspective...was he doing the right thing...was his mother being fair, not giving couples the chance of adopting the baby? He talked with her again at the hospital to get her input...she still was firm about Rod adopting Thulani...she explained that few American's have Ubuntu ("I am what I am because of who we all are"-soul, spirit), but Rod has it. They can communicate without words...the mother and Rod. It certainly seems right. "I believe the Lord has his hand in this...the finger prints of God are all over this..." Out of Africa, Amen!

Well done Rod, and Happy Birthday T.....

Next page in the journal: April 1st, 1998 Editorial entitled, "Moral preening on a trip to Africa" by Mona Charen. "....the outlook for most African babies born today is terribly bleak."

Cheers and Blessings on St. Patrick's Day

Esther De Waal reminds us that the Celtic world of faith understood life as a journey rather than merely a destination. Encouraging a deeper, fuller way of being, of living within the whole of themselves and Creation, St. Patrick nurtured a nation of agrarian tribes in the baptism of their collective and fertile imaginations.

With a generous spirit of orthodoxy, the ancient Irish Christians were able to embrace the natural rhythms of Creation, both the light and the dark seasons. These seasons became symbols of the Celtic refusal to avoid pain and suffering, while at the same time rejoicing and celebrating the fullness and goodness of humanity created in the image of God.

Centuries before the Great Schism of early faith communities into Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Catholicism and long before the Reformation, Celtic Christianity was instinctively communal, shunning any separation of praying and living and working. For them faith was inseparable from ordinary life with no notions of sacred/secular divisions. All life including Creation was..."taken up by a Christianity that was not afraid of what it found but felt that it was natural to appropriate it into the fullness of Christian living."

Celtic culture shared much with the traditional and aboriginal peoples around the world who rejected overt individualistic and competitive inward-seeking lifestyles common today. They recognized themselves instead as belonging to one another and embraced life as mutually interdependent beings within the whole web of Creation.

Our quantum world and the new science that describes it today, speaks the same language of mutual holistic entanglement, linking us all together in this unfolding work of Art that we Christians call the Kingdom of God.

"The Celtic world touches all of this but yet remains totally unique, earthly, and mysterious, knowing darkness and pain but equally rejoicing in light, full of poetry and song and celebration, showing us the depths of penitence and the heights of praise, touching us in the secret hidden parts of our own selves and yet connecting us with others. So although each of us is in the end solitary, St. Patrick reminds us that we travel in company with those who have made this journey before us, by the whole company of heaven, the saints and the angels, a "cloud of witness", who surround us and who hold us up as we go."

Cheers, and enjoy the Celtic challenge!

O'

Adapted from The Celtic Way of Prayer - The Recovery of the Religious Imagination by Esther De Waal