Love in this place

I see love, loving people and ways to participate in love, all around me. Grateful for the sweet, sweet moments in this place this week:

• Alex's public words, Dad, the man he models himself after, Mom, whose loving words effect him and he wants to emulate, Adam and me, and his "successful failure" of melding our personalities
• Cousins Keith and Heather as they dote on their daughters, Amy and Alex, Mark and Sarah, arms around swollen bellies as they excitedly ready, grow in pre-love
• Walking with Les and Steve through the intoxicating spring gardens with a sunny Sunday breeze
• Mrs. William's laugh and Mrs. Fox's ernestness with their troubled, drifting, joking, seeking, insecure, emotional, tough adolescent boys and girls at Oyler
• Donald, Diamond and I laugh like old buddies shooting pool at the coner BLOC House. Donald, back for more during cafe hours on Thursday, they come and they know they are loved. Farie, Drew, Marcetta... speaking and living out truth in love.
• Dialogue with Robert about seeds dying to become a plant, about purpose and place, about reality and truth
• The many surrounding the body of their beloved Dick Brown, recalling his love, the ways he served his family, the community, his neighbors and the Church
• The sharing of beauty and creativity amoung the "family of artists", as CJ put it, at Rohs Street's 6th anniversary gathering
• Ted and Gabriel delight in Amira's joy and trust as they tickle and play- and she in them
• Troy's passion for standing up for justice in this town and globally, the spark in his words as he describes things he beleives in, things that bring him pain, the drive beyond moment energy or emotion that brings him to the tedious and enduring tasks of collaboration, relationship building, research, travel, and building up others
• My parents joy in baking, cleaning, hosting, making, helping for a warm, welcoming, and genuine celebration of love, life, and marriage for Alex, Amy and their community of friends and family
• Megan, after hours of work, driving a friend to the hospital
• Dot, Judy, Henry and Charles in their long dedication and gentle patience ordering, organizing and giving away food at Manna in Price Hill. Their smiles. Their tremendous task of meeting growing community needs, by faith in the One who provides.
  

I'm moving to New York City on May 15- just bought the train ticket this morning! A lot of people have been asking how I feel about moving to New York. I wrote in an email to a friend this week, specifically speaking about my the people of the church I've been with, but largely applicaple to people at Oyler School, BLOC, Rohs Street, Manna food pantry and other pockets of loving people I've been privelged to dance with, " I am growing to love the people there and the more I find out about who they are and what they do here, in Clifton, [in Price Hill,] in Cincinnati, the more appreciative and fond of them I become. I really have to remember how tied in we all are to be okay with moving away from them. I'm so grateful we are."