Barbara Crafton: Praying for Others

Crafton: Praying for Others

“I can compare prayer to a river-strong, clean, swift, carrying everything along in its powerful current. When I pray, I have stepped into the river and allowed it to carry me. When I pray for you, I have taken your hand, and together, we step into the river and let it carry us with power.”

——Barbara Crafton in The AlsoLife (Morehouse 2016), p. 128.

 Episcopal priest and well-known speaker and writer Barbara Crafton taught us a different view of prayer during a Lenten retreat at St. Mark’s based on her book, The Courage to Grow Old.

Hers was a surrender prayer, a prayer of few words, feeling the power of prayer as we pray, bringing others with us into prayer. It is prayer that comes with sitting, swimming, or walking in silence and simply waiting for the Spirit’s lead.

Swimming once was a favorite exercise. I could visualize those in my prayers swimming or walking in the water with me. However, Crafton gives us an even more powerful image of swimming in a river or ocean, where we surrender to let the current or Spirit move us.

Crafton also writes about prayer as a way to connect and align ourselves with the energy of the love of God. Prayer is love, loving God, ourselves, and our neighbor.  

Some people imagine Jesus in prayer, walk with or carry friends to Jesus, and leave the person they pray for in Jesus’ arms. I often used this prayer image when praying for my children and grandchildren.

For some, kneeling at the rail for the Eucharist is an image used in prayer. We can imagine walking with, or bringing our friends in need to, that rail for prayer, and kneeling with and beside them.

This image also helps us pray for enemies or those with whom we are having difficulty. It is hard to keep hate in our hearts when our enemies kneel beside us, waiting as we are for the body and blood of Christ.

You can say daily prayers with Barbara Crafton on her Facebook page and receive daily writings about the saints.

Joanna  https://www.joannaseibert.com/

The Case for "New" Nursery Rhymes

Altering with Intent: The Case for “New” Nursery Rhymes

Guest Writer: Isabel Anders 

“When words and pictures work well together, they form something new, something greater than the sum of its parts.” —Lynne Barasch.

“The teaching of children … is where the story of the transfer of knowledge truly begins.” —Simon Winchester, LitHub (4/25/23).

Winchester goes on to explain that the very earliest means of transmitting knowledge “are primarily oral or pictorial in nature: they tend to involve stories, poetry, performance, rock carving, cave painting, songs, dances, games, designs, rituals, ceremonies, architectural practices, and what the aboriginal peoples of Australia know in their various languages as ‘songlines,’ all passed down through the generations by designated elders or specially skilled custodians of each form of cultural expression.”

Some people feel we shouldn’t mess with iconic nursery rhymes. But in fact, many versions of our children’s classic lullabies and folktales have already been reshaped and shared through the centuries as nighttime comfort and the carriers of new ideas. 

However, some storytelling figures familiar to us that once meant one thing in earlier times can now signify something totally unrelated in a modern, meme-rich context. In light of this realization, another look at nursery rhymes is reasonable.

Often, a new take on a familiar trope starts with a revised caricature.  Political cartoonists frequently draw on the legacy of familiar characters to strengthen their visuals as they make their points. And it usually hits home.

For instance, Humpty-Dumpty sitting on his wall instantly signals vulnerability; George Washington, pictured with a cherry tree, will have something to say about honesty. Biblical themes such as Noah and the Ark (being rescued) or Moses parting the Red Sea (exerting great power) are also shared memes that have retained widespread agreed-on significance.

The reviser of familiar rhymes and their potential messages starts from there. Picturing iconic figures can facilitate a visual “shortcut,” bringing children into a familiar frame or story to convey practical wisdom.

I have turned to writing children’s picture books of “refreshed” nursery rhyme versions to convey values in a culture of sensory overload. I’ve also tried to include some flexibility in the application to show that the child has a choice in how to respond to a situation. 

For instance, the older “morals” or intended teachings attached to folk tales tended to be quite rigid and even scary. And too much emphasis on magic and unlikely rescue leads to unrealistic expectations.

Joel H. Morris perhaps sums it up best: “The best re-imagined stories address what is inconsistent about the original text and make it unmissable. To tell such tales again is to tell them for the first time, to weave a thread in the tapestry of what it means to be human.”

By adding, for a new generation, an underlying awareness from Jesus’ Beatitudes of what goodness is all about—how it might manifest in the choices we make, the people we include, the goals we aim for, and the values that endure—the rhymes in my collection are not “New” so much as, I hope, “Timely.”

Isabel Anders’ Mother Bilbee Legacy Collection of revised nursery rhymes, picture books for children 3 to 8, includes Sing a Song of Six Birds; Mary, Harry, Pete, and Carrie, How Does Your Garden Grow? and Jack Horner’s Christmas Pie.

Isabel Anders

Joanna Seibert. joannaseibert.com

Sports and Bonding

Sports and Bonding

Guest Writer: Ken Fellows

       In their day, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were celebrated Hall of Fame stars on two of the most competitive professional basketball teams, the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers. While giving no quarter across many games, they famously bonded off-court to form a legendary friendship full of mutual admiration. In all sports, there are similar close relationships between fierce competitors, but perhaps none more recognized than the Bird/Johnson comradeship.

    The byline for this recent picture in the Boston Globe was: ”Real Reward: Results Matter in Sports, but Relationships Matter More and Last Longer.” In the piece, sports writer Tara Sullivan described the “power of friendship in sports and how bearing witness to the respect, trust, and loyalty between professional athletes can be as captivating as watching them compete for wins and championships. The example they set in those moments resonates with more potency than anything achieved statistically.”

     In her article, Sullivan points out that “Jesse Owens, who forever changed our conversation on racial equality, said this: Friendships born on the field of athletic

strife are the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, and friends gather no dust.”

     This statement, whose wording is quite eloquent, is nonetheless insightful and has been illustrated many times in other athletic avenues. Sullivan’s article also cites Chris Evert and Martine Navratilova, former competing tennis champions turned best friends, who helped each other through their battles with cancer. And, at the end of Roger Federer’s retirement tennis match with Rafael Nadal, the pair celebrated their respect and loyalty while tearfully holding and raising hands.

     My youth and my adult years were enlivened and enriched by playing individual and team sports. Especially memorable in my senior years are the many teammates, competitors, and games I played over 25 years of retirement playing adult basketball and pond hockey in Kittery Pt, Maine.

     Our basketball games occurred in a local school gym on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 6-8 pm. As memorable as the games were, the camaraderie … the kidding, joking, stories, and laughs … during between-game rest periods produced particularly lasting friendships and durable memories. The night I “retired,” I told the assembled 8-10 players that it was my last game …with regrets that all I ever wanted to hear upon leaving this earth when the time comes was “nice shot.” One of my best friends immediately countered: “That would never happen. The last words you would ever hear are: “That’s another foul.” He, I, and several other longtime player-friends still meet several times annually to reminisce over ‘beers and burgers.’ And there’s always a ‘reunion picnic’ held each spring.

     I’ve also maintained friendships with many of my ice hockey compatriots.

Having retired from playing hockey several years ago, I now stop and wistfully wave at the guys when driving past the Fort McClary pond where we played. But not anymore. Climate change has terminated skating there and at most local ponds. Many of those hockey players, like my basketball buddies, are still chums and peers …. for which I’m grateful.

     It’s refreshing to be reminded that trophies and medals are valued mementos of achievement, but tarnish, fade, and break. Like Larry and Magic, the best rewards in sports are the friendships established … they can last forever.

Ken Fellows

Joanna Seibert joannaseibert.com