Day: April 15, 2021

April Fool’s Pranks

April 15, 2021 /

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Last week we asked you to share a favorite April Fool’s Day prank. Here are your responses:

  • Conspiring with my son’s coworkers at Avo’s to prank him on our dinner take out order last week.
  • Convinced my brother I won $1000.
  • I used plastic food models at work. I brought them home and set the breakfast table with the fake food. The models were really realistic and fooled the kids.
  • “Not my own but memorable: NPR interviewed gardening maven Barbara Damrosh about her recipe for compost lasagna! They did it totally straight, discussing the luscious flavors and fragrances and then ended. It was left to us listeners to remember what day it was.”
  • My daughter went into display settings on her brother’s computer and flipped the screen sideways. We said maybe he clicked on an April Fool’s virus. He was convinced she had broken his computer!
  • My husband was looking out the window toward the public bathroom in Remington lot and said to me” that guy came out of the bathroom without any clothes. I got up to look and….
  • Oh the worst was about 10 years ago my husband wakes me up first thing in the morning. He tells me he had forgotten, but we had a big potluck dinner event for Larimer County that night (he was working with the county courts at the time) and we needed to bring a casserole! I was freaking out and running to the kitchen to see what we had to make and he let me know it was April 1st. I was sure mad at him at the time for freaking me out but it really was funny nonetheless😂
  • On a hot day I would not mind if someone taped the sink sprayer.
  • Our son would rubber band the trigger on the kitchen sink nozzle so it sprayed in your chest when you turned on the water. We never learned. Got us every year!
  • Putting googly eyes on things at the grocery store.
  • The Rapture happened and no one qualified.
  • When riding my horse, being told by stable mates to go find a ” left-handed bit stretcher”!!! (I know better now!!😁)

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Prayers for the Trees: A Letter from Rev. Gretchen

April 15, 2021 /

Dear ones,
 
It is the time of year when I worry about trees. 
 
It started just before talk of the last storm started up – and my worry proved warranted! Even weeks later, limbs lie forlorn at the base of trees all across the city, taken out by the heavy springtime snow. Or worse, the ones hanging half attached where they once reached for the sky.  
 
This week, I’ve tried turning the worry into prayer. I’ve been praying for the green buds beginning on my cherry blossom, the small shows on the peach tree, and the emerging leaves on the lilac. And by prayer, I actually mean I go out and whisper words of encouragement. Come on babies, you can do it! 
 
Anyone who has lived in Colorado for any number of years knows these worries/prayers. Too many years, the snow comes just as the flowering starts, or heaving snow sours the new leaves just as they find their voices. 
 
Trees in Colorado spring remind us every day of life’s possibility and fragility, how quickly starts can become endings, and the thin line between life and death.  
 
This week, as news broke of another death of an unarmed Black man by a police officer, just a few blocks from the trial of the police officer who murdered George Floyd, sparking last summer’s racial uprisings and awakenings; a year into the pandemic where, despite the good news of the vaccines, infections are rising rapidly, and still too many people are grieving loved ones lost too soon.
 
Like the trees, we know what it is to live on the thin line that straddles life and death, praying that we’ll all hold out a little longer, push through, survive.  
 
This Sunday, we will be kicking off a week of Earth Day-related opportunities with a service connecting us with the wisdom of trees (with inspiration from the 2018 novel The Overstory). In the swirl of life, as we straddle both possibility and fragility, it’s so good to be able to check in with ourselves and with each other, and remind ourselves of what really matters. I hope to see you this Sunday at 9 on zoom, or in the comments on Facebook at 11! 
 
With love, and in partnership,

Gretchen  

Join us this Sunday at 9:00 am using Zoom – link here. 
Or at 11:00 am using the usual livestream on Facebook or the website.

This Sunday’s Earth Day Service is multigenerational  – there will be elements for all ages! We’ll have:

  • Kid-friendly songs led by our Children’s Music Leader Kara Shobe
  • An all-ages meditation guided by our Family Ministry Team
  • An online activity packet for kids to engage with during the parts of the service that are more geared toward adults.

Parents – Please remember that it’s okay if your kids don’t sit attentively for the whole service! If your child(ren) wants to come in and out, eat, or move about during the service, that’s okay! Church is about showing up as you are, and we embrace the beautiful chaos of family.

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