Hello, Friends!
     Here we are, in another week of the “dog days” of summer.  Although it’s no longer exactly true that “the livin’ is easy” (nor has that ever really been so for many folks), I was gratified yesterday evening  to encounter a number of neighborhood gatherings that let me know we still like doing the simple things that help beat the heat, and keep joy alive.
    Some neighbors down the street were on their front porch sipping lemonade and chatting, playing with someone’s tiny new puppy and passing a six-month-old little boy around lap to lap.
     At our neighborhood park and playground, the wading pool was packed with splashing, laughing, happy, soggy little ones and their “grown up” companions.  The swingsets and playscapes around the pool likewise were populated with swimsuited, barefooted kids of all sorts and sizes, doing what kids do.
    Our friends at the dog park were out in force, too, with our four-legged children romping and racing in the shade, then plopping down to drink and pant and roll around on the water-cooled and newly muddy ground around their drinking stations.
      For most of us the day’s work was done, night hadn’t yet come, and though yes, it was hot outside, we had chosen to be outside anyway, and I’m so glad John and Ivin and I were able to be out and about in our neighborhood, just doing the summertime thing.
     Yesterday had its stresses and demands and draining dimensions for our family, and I imagine that could be said by a number of those neighbors we encountered.  I was aware that just being outside with others engaged in some of summer’s simple pleasures was a real and wonderful gift, yesterday, as it is every day.
    The day’s engagements also reinforced my deepening and ever more energized commitment to our church’s growth as a neighborhood presence, a genuine and joyful nesting, hosting, training, welcoming, engaging and empowering locus for Christ’s love right here, right now.
     I look forward to all the summer days and nights, all the seasons to come with you, including this Sunday.

Shalom,
Sarah