just early prep for 'turkey day'

We've had a lot of grateful people down on the green lately. A lot. I hear 'thanks' more and more everyday....and it isn't just a slurred out, quickly and lightly thrown out thanks, it is a sincere, 'this means more than I can put in words' thanks. And we're just giving out breakfast. (well, that isn't all we're doing, I hope, : ) but it's all that it looks like we're doing) And also a lot of 'God bless you's ..... and I guess what I'm thinking right now is, He definitely already has..... And a lot of it is from those same people lately. And also, how differently God's blessing looks than...well, the world's view of it, but I won't get into that (go read the beatitudes)

I just wanted to say thanks. It's hard to be around so many grateful people and not have things to be thankful for. so here goes:

Erin, thanks for all the planning, time, money, driving and effort.....and definitely love that you have put into all this. It has been so amazing to have someone to scheme with. Hopefully we can scheme with each other in separate states as well. : ) (I'm planning on it at least...) You've been amazingly unselfish about all of it, and, yeah, well, it's been a good time. Thanks so much for helping me cook and do dishes too!

Barbara, it's been awesome hanging out with you on the green. We seriously appreciate your well-organized brain (considering that even the we Erin's together quite often forget detailed things....like forks, or plates....or something else that's sorta, well, essential : ) and I think everyone on the green is forever grateful for all the cherries and bananas that you bring(and the collective 'steve' too). You've also been so busy, what with wedding plans and work right after......basically you're amazing too!

And I also feel a huge amount of gratitude toward God.... He has provided food for us, friends for us, words for us, and love for us...... I have learned more than I think I realize from meeting all these people and the words they have spoken to us......and seeing God's heart in yet another place. You just can't get away from it, it would seem.
And I'm okay with that.
Sometimes what we do seems really small.... really, we're just feeding a few people downtown in a city of average size in a world with billions of people.
But Jesus is there.
And maybe everything that involves Jesus is really small in one sense......and also really large in another.
I'm perfectly content with small when I look into someone's eyes in the morning over a plate of pancakes.

I'm really grateful that we all got this chance to try and love people as Jesus would.

(Erin and Barbara, sorry if I embarrassed you, but it is true, you know. : ) also, I'm not really sure if anyone else reads this or not, so, there you have it. )

The taming of the Steve's

Did you know that if you make the appropriate gestures (dangling a cherry from your hand in plain sight) while making this strange noise with your mouth (I can only replicate it in person and upon request), that inevitably a steve (this is the technical and collective name for the squirrels that dwell on the new haven green for those who are uninformed) will perk it’s head up, look in your direction with it’s little paws clenched and the most expectant looking posture? And then it will come skipping toward you as you laugh at the hilarity of the situation, go bounding after the cherry you’ve just thrown in it’s direction, and attack it with only the single-mindedness that a squirrel after a cherry possesses. It’s quite the show. Not to mention they like to play with sticks while being disillusioned that they have no audience. Someday I will have a pet squirrel, and I will have hours of free entertainment.

We only have a couple weeks of breakfast on the green left, and I will be sad to see it go. It feels almost like we’ve been doing this longer than we have, and I found my thoughts scurrying around the last few days to how it was when we first started. It’s funny how things always seem to morph and change, and yet still be what you had in mind…….
I remember when we couldn’t even find people on the green, when all there was to arrive to in the morning was the leftover dew and rain and chill from the night before. Or the first day of ’success’ when we met diana and this other guy who was sleeping. I remember the picnic blankets and how encouraging it was to meet Richard and Billy, and …… the list keeps growing. And I want to call all these people friends, I know they are. But it’s so easy to throw that word ‘friend’ around. I don’t mean to demean what we do at all, I guess I am just thinking a lot. It’s so easy to go home, go to work, and do breakfast on the green. I feel like there’s so much we will never know about our friends, and I have to be ok with that to some extent. On the other end of it all, I want to learn what it is to love like Jesus, and also to trust that I am not God, and it isn’t my job to fix everything or everyone. I’m only to love God, and to learn to love others….and to have peace that there is so much going on that I can’t see, and probably won’t ever be aware of.

Yesterday and today there was an Indian man who came to breakfast, who it turns out, after talking to him, is a missionary….here. Anyway, some good conversation on Indian culture, geography ensued, and me, trying to remember some Hindi. I could remember the song I learned…. And so I sang that today, and felt very happy when afterward he told me that I had a good accent… (it’s been a year and a half….forgive me a little pride : )

And it’s funny, I think I’ve heard more people talk about Jesus and God since starting breakfast on the green than I have most of the time that I’ve lived in New Haven. (I don’t go to a ‘church’ here)

In India complete strangers will address you as ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ or ‘auntie’ or ‘uncle’ (depending on your gender/age in relation to theirs) and I’m being reminded of how true that is, and how people blankly walking down the streets, not talking to each other, avoiding eye contact, each acting as though they are in their own isolated bubble, how false that is……..
Oh how we’ve divorced ourselves from our families….from our neighbors, from our brothers and sisters, and they are all around us………

Just a short note to say we have had a good week, had plenty of food, a lot of good conversation, and also help today and tomorrow. more on thoughts later.

more arms.....

ok. so, I'm just gonna throw this out really quickly: Both Erin and Barbara are going to be gone aug. 11th and 12th, or maybe it's the 12th and 13th, but either way I know the 12th is in there somewhere....and I can get back with exact dates. This means it would be extremely helpful/appreciated if anyone out there felt like coming down to the green at 8, or better yet, my house at 7:45ish to help carry stuff down to the green.... I could use the extra hands, either that or someone give me advice on how I can mutate and grow some branches or extra arms or something. We usually have quite a bit of food to transport....

I lied. I just got dates, it's actually thurs and friday they won't be around- Aug. 13th and 14th. those are the days that could use help. : )

Also any other day you'd like to drop by would be great mon-fri. We've had a lot of people help out this week and it's been great.
so thanks everyone. I know all our breakfast friends on the green really appreciate it!


Oh, and there's also a ten thousand homes house concert on the tues night the 11th, so you guys should check that out as well! all the info is on ten thousand homes facebook page, I think.

So we had a good morning down at the green today, actually, Erin M. isn't here today or tomorrow, so we were kinda hoping to have at least another person help out even though it wasn't a big deal.........

Barbara and I got down to the green, my friend Olivia showed up a few minutes later, and then one of Barbara's friends, and then my other friend Pearce..... so, uh, we had plenty of people this morning, and plenty of food.
We also got to talk to a few people today, since we didn't really get mobbed, and we all just stood around and chatted for awhile.

Not to mention, today's random fact that should be common knowledge:

Squirrels are infatuated with cherries.

...it's true, I swear.

we fed all the steve's in sight.
let me explain, we decided to name all the squirrels on the green steve (just like Erin's gerbils) to alleviate any confusion of which squirrel was the original....

So today while chatting and hanging out with our friends, we also fed the birds(the little ones that hop-skip everywhere are our favorites) but the squirrels are slightly scared of them....

anyway, I went around calling all the steve's and tossing them a cherry (to our great amusement once we found out how much they love them)....

it was great.