Oh, it was such a sweet morning and the kids were amazing.

I’ve never spent a lot of time with kids. Don’t have my own, lived across the country from too many of the kids in the family when they were growing up. Always had friends around who had kids they’d share and there was always the neighborhood… But direct kid interface, not so much.

And now, boom, i’m the minister at a small town church and we got kids! 100 members: 50 kids. My colleague Sara who does the education piece is fabulous. No other word. Fabulous. The people who teach with her? Fabulous. So I get all the bennies of watching these kids grow and folding them into my arms now and again. And they’re pretty puppy like, so they love being enfolded. How sweet is that?

So they’re off to learn more about who they are and what their tradition is and how they might grow into it. (I reminded them when they left that in our country, our tradition started here, so they come from the source! or maybe they come from the roots and are off to visit the place where the tree grew… also grew! They’ll make a whole bunch of memories. They’ll create family and community for themselves when they’re stuffed into that big ol’ van. Laughing all the way and learning whatever comes. Oh, may they see the possibility. The Flower Moon is compressing, time to make sense of things!

But the kids. The bright, funny, interested, loving kids and the two great parents who are hauling them along. Those kids. They’re more than okay. And I am at Peace with that and more than a little in Love.