CAROLYN LESSER

      All my life I have struggled with some church things......like committees.....I am terrible at committees.....first I am bursting with so many ideas and solutions that I become a pain in telling them.   Then impatience settles around me, when another committee has to be formed to think over just one idea when in my mind it seemed settled.....
 

     One Sunday, during coffee hour at my church, my priest came to me and said, "Thank you for teaching that quilt class for the women's group.  They seem to be loving it.  So I was wondering.....don't you think a banner for a church could be a lot like a quilt?"

     "Brilliant," I said.  "Yes.....it certainly could be like a quilt."

     "Great," he said, "because Lent begins in two weeks, and we'll need two, one for each side of the altar,  and when can you have them here?"

     "Two weeks?  Two weeks?" I said.  "Are you kidding?"  He stood silent......smiling.  I took a deep breath and asked, "Is there a theme?"

     "Wilderness" he said...."We live in wilderness much of our lives..and...."  he turned from me as another question pulled him away.  I was left alone in the crowd.... standing....with cold coffee......with that word......."Wilderness"........

     Suddenly I saw my aunt's farm, and the woods, and that fallen broken tree, tangled with weeds and brambles, mosses, lichens, in the midst of the beautiful spare forest perfect for exploring.

     All my life I have asked, like The Clown of God....... What can I give?  

      

The answers follow...
   

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