Category: Uncategorized
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Some MLK Merigold Discussion Questions
Some Introductory Discussion Questions Questions about Nonviolence Questions About Marigolds and Spreading the Message of Nonviolence
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MLK and Marigolds’ Message of Hope
Each autumn brings a season of change. The fall of leaves and events is mixed with shadows long forgotten but soon to return. This year I flirted with particular unease over the coming winter because its winds already hint that it might be long and deep. That unease shifted one evening as I readied to…
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A Season for Hope
African Marigolds are a metaphor for life. The red accents the yellow in the same way harder times often make the brighter ones richer. The warmth of a steaming shower feels more blessed to bones fresh escaped from the chill of winter. The solace of friendship is magnified by the knowledge that a smile is…
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Holy Ground
Over the years, I have given plenty of thought to the idea of holy ground. Mostly, I have considered how people’s behavior changes when they perceive they are about to stand on holy ground. If before there was bickering, it quickly gives way to peace. The isolation of electronics shifts toward attentiveness to each other…
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Planting a Garden with Your Sunday-Schoolers
Presently, I teach Sunday School for fourth through six graders. The lessons for this current year are a direct response to the dissatisfaction I felt with the outcome of last year’s lesson emphasis on love. Spending the year teaching that God is love and that we are put on this earth to help spread that…
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What Do Plants and People Need to Grow?
The first question in this discussion is, what does a garden and its plants need to flourish? As part of the ongoing theme of all these exercises, the related and equally important question is: what do people and the communities they live in need to flourish. If possible, this lesson works best as a “traveling”…
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Planting Zones
At each stage of teaching students how to plant a garden, the process should always be viewed in stereo. Every lesson that pertains to a garden will have a matching, broader, and more important lesson for life because properly planting and tending a garden is so parallel to planting and tending to a dream, a…
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Epiphany and Irony (Or, Where is God)
I heard a sermon this morning. Part of the message pointed out how important it is to ask in all things, where is God in this? The preacher’s point was so well taken that I was on the edge of not thinking about the idea beyond what he said so well. However, I had also…