RevGals Friday Five: Good in this World

Deb, over at the RevGals blog offers this timely Friday Five: 

 

 Frodo: I can't do this, Sam. 
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something. 

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam? 

Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

===oOo===

In these last few weeks there's been all kinds of bad news. Tornadoes and a blizzard. Gun violence and a legislative body squabbling like toddlers over budgets, health care and who knows what else. For those of us in the US, it's tax season. Yuck.

We're only in the second week of Lent. Easter's a long way off. And here in the Mid-Atlantic region, the weather can't seem to make up its mind. Is it winter? Is it spring? Will it snow? Will it rain? Are my daffodils doomed if they actually BLOOM next week like they are threatening to?

So this week's Friday Five is courtesy of my good friends Frodo and Sam. Name 5 things that are good in our world. Or your world. Photos are a bonus.

1.  The church community I serve has discerned a call to work with a church in Liberia to build a school. It is very exciting, a bit overwhelming, and somewhat daunting - must be of the Holy Spirit!  This photo is of our delegation on their trip to Liberia in January 2013 to meet the people and learn more about the project.

 

 2. The church community I serve is growing in numbers with young families and children, defying the statistics....

 

 3. We have an organic community garden - I LOVE to plant, tend too, and harvest in this garden. This year I intend to grow: tomatoes, green beans, lots of lettuce, broccoli, brussel sprouts, herbs, cucumbers, zucchini, and probably something else, a new crop...

4.  Our animals - who consistently amuse us and remind us of unconditional love. 

5. Sunrise....and a Mary Oliver poem (somehow, all is right with a day that begins with a sunrise and Mary Oliver...and a cup of coffee).

Sunrise

 

You can

Die for it –

An idea,

Or the world. People

Have done so, brilliantly,

Letting

Their small bodies be bound

To the stake,

Creating

An unforgettable

Fury of light…

I thought

How the sun

Blazes

For everyone just

So joyfully

As it rises

Under the lashes

Of my own eyes, and I thought

I am so many!

What is my name?

What is the name

Of the deep breath I would take

Over and over

For all of us? Call it

Whatever you want, it is

Happiness, it is another one

Of the ways to enter fire.

 

(New and Selected Poems, Volume I by Mary Oliver)