Pilgrims' Home

  They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.   As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them;    but they were kept from recognizing him. Lindsay dragged me to Sunday School last week. If you know me, you can imagine the dragging was mostly bark and no bite..... The topic was race and racism - seemingly an easy topic to cover with perfect strangers in 47 minutes prior to worship. The room was filled with curious faces, and the spirit of the group sought to understand. The facilitators were tender and present allowing the group to engage in conversation. I was distracted most of the time because of my self-reflections on whiteness and by wondering how the conversation would occur in a more multi-cultural group. But mostly I was distracted because of the one person of color sitting at the front corner of the conversation; I knew I had seen him before.  We continued our convers...

          Madeline was feisty and sassy and hilarious as they prepped her for surgery several hours prior. Some familiar friends were part of the pre-op team; we also met a few new ones. It was a joy to see Olivia again (Child and Family Life Specialist) who graciously watched Madeline's TikTok vids. We did need to teach Olivia about Kirk Cousins.       The anesthesiologist was a wise soul, and she entered the room with a tender and honest spirit. She understood Madeline and was able to communicate complicated procedural things in Madeline's language. She knew about. Madeline’s difficult recovery from January and clearly made plans to make this experience better. She was also not afraid to say, "I don't know, but I will find out."       Dr. Troup (Pediatric Neurosurgeon) entered the room around 9:10am and joyfully greeted us in his tie-dye lab coat and Crocs. She asked him her normal battery of questions. She was righ...