i.saw.Jesus.tossing.water.balloons.

yes, throwing and welcoming the splash of water balloons on a steamy day. and doing the Hokey Pokey and the Chicken Dance and the Electric Slide. and sipping orange soda. and jumping in puddles. and sitting on the steps or the curb, watching the fun, too tired or strung out to jump in. and standing under a tent roof surrounded by sound equipment and speakers. and running down the street trying to fly a flimsy kite for the first time ever.

all at the same time, you ask?! oh yes, there was a lot of Jesus to go around at the St. Francis Inn's annual block party on Sunday.

if you looked closely, you might have seen Jesus watching over a little one in a stroller, with a beautiful bulging belly indicating another one on the way.

you might have seen Jesus running around, threading through the legs of the grown-ups, popping all the balloons he can get his hands on and wading in the kiddie pool fully-clothed.

you might have seen Jesus wearing tight jeans and an undershirt, or perhaps a sundress, or a sweatsuit, each pulling off a near-perfect zombie impersonation to Michael Jackson's THRILLER.

you might have seen Jesus wearing an outrageous clown hat and a brown habit, spinning records to keep the party funky.

you might have heard Jesus telling the saga of his real life science fiction fantasy powers and self-proclaimed guardianship of the party and genuine pleasure to meet you in snatches of intelligible speech to anyone who will listen.

you might have even taken the hand of a 3-foot-tall Jesus in a flowery lavender dress and danced in a ring with her and her grandma, and twirled her around a couple of times.

maybe next year you'll be there to see Jesus with a camera around her neck, snapping hundreds of pictures of the precious and crazy and ordinary moments that burst open and splashed us all with life that afternoon.

(photos by Katie Sullivan :)

skating.in.sync.

on the River Rink!

[that was our FVM fun night a few weeks ago]

[you should go]

nativity.creativity.

the other night, after a time of prayer together, my housemates and i got our creative hats and economical slippers on and cut shapes out of paint color-chips to craft some cards for the people we are connected to here in camden, and here is a glimpse of a few of them. some of them express something about our personal connection with that person, and some of them express my prayer for all of you and all of the world: PEACE.

franciscan.home.makeover.

as part of our commitment to living in community for this year, we are jointly responsible for the general upkeep of the house we have been given. we have a monthly budget that we can divide however we need, to pay for food, gas, some community activities, and necessities for the car and house. one of my housemates in particular has a passion for tackling home improvement projects - and this house needs a lot of them! another housemate has a keen eye for aesthetics, so with those forces combined, using some of our free days and hours, we've been able to accomplish a lot. so far, we have:

- soaked and wiped down all the window blinds and fan blades from around the house to remove years of dust build-up

- stripped the grimy flowered wallpaper off the top half of the kitchen walls

- spackled, sanded, and painted those walls a beautiful, bright, clean white

- peeled the multiple-patterned adhesive layers off of the chlorine-blue faux-tile that is tacked all over the bottom half of the kitchen walls [we have yet to clean those and paint a deep, dusky purple over them]

- spackled and primed the scuffed-up, off-white walls of the dining room

- painted the dining room walls a warm, delicious pumpkiny color called 'falling leaves'

- stuffed steel wool into gaps around the lower edge of the house so that mice can't get in

- spackled the back bedroom and painted over its former shade of 'suave mauve' to a rich, dark-chocolaty hue called 'moroccan henna'

- repeatedly dumped Dran-o down the shower drain to solve our water-staying-in-the-tub problems [currently trying 'El Diablo', some professional drain-unclogging concoction i was handed from the back room of Cartun's, our local hardware store]

- patched up some places in the living room where the wallpaper with the creamy buttery yellow paint over it was peeling away from the wall

- rearranged the living room into a much more inviting setup, and mounted some lovely artwork on the walls

next up:

- cleaning and painting the bottom half of the kitchen

- converting our current storage/recycling room into a nice reading/prayer room

- painting the middle bedroom so that its occupant doesn't have to stare up at neon green all night and look around at uneven white walls all the time

- who knows what we'll come up with after that!

bird.friends.

be.the.art.in.me.

here's a taste of the Camden FVMs' most recent homemade community fun night:

- choose your own recipe: take your choice group of adventurers, and sit them down with their computers for 15 minutes to visit www.muralfarm.org and each choose one mural from Philadelphia's 1,500-count-and-growing roster of impressive community art projects

- gather your ingredients: ensure that each adventurer has a working camera, that at least one has a driver's license with them, and that someone has the addresses and directions to the chosen locations

- grease the pan: add gas to car [or, if in Jersey, let the gas station attendant do so]

- turn up the cooking-heat: park and turn adventurers loose at each destination to take pictures of the part or parts of the mural that are somehow personally meaningful or artistically attractive

- stir in some reverence for the 'healing power of music' and other art forms

- shake it up by striving to become part of the muralscape if possible

- let it rise: go home, share some kind of food and a time of silent prayer together, and then share the pictures and the thoughts evoked by them.

- enjoy :)

waterfalls.and.falling.leaves.

Ricketts Glen State Park:

- site of our community fun outing yesterday

- about a 3-hour drive each way, which i drove, marveling at Pennsylvania's epic rolling landscape and luscious autumn colors

- home of 22 waterfalls along a 7-mile hiking trail, which we hiked at our own unique pace in the midst of many other individuals making their way through the rain-showery day

- a much-needed immersion in the glorious spirit-nourishing wilderness: the eye-dazzling sculpture of rocks and boulders; the rich red-orange-yellow-brown brushstrokes of the leaves on trees, on the ground, and swirling in the air; and the surround-sound joy-bursting music of water, wind, and birds!

- i miss it already :)

camden.gets.funky.

last night, for our 'community fun night', we headed over to the Camden waterfront area, which has been developed in recent years with an Aquarium and a Children's Garden and a boardwalk along the Delaware River. browsing for local events online, we stumbled onto this and decided to check it out.

Courier Post online photo

delighted to find free parking just across the street from what promised to be a fantastic free concert, we weren't too fazed by the numerous smashed beer bottles and cases strewn about the lot; we encounter these every day just walking the four blocks between our house and the church. so we made our way down to the crowd at the foot of the Wiggins Park stage, set with a perfect view of the Philadelphia nighttime skyline (pictured above during daylight and below at night). and were pleasantly surprised by the high-energy, wholesome blend of soul/funk/rock/gospel music streaming live from the speakers and infusing the audience with some in-your-face hope-in-spite-of-everything, with the audacity to dance their hearts out or the freedom to lay out on the grass and let the soundwaves wash over them. thanks to the Robert Randolph Family Band, the "most-often-stuck-in-my-head" award these days goes a little like this... "you're a shining star, no matter who you are, shining bright to see what you could truly be..."

just across the water, at the Penn's Landing riverfront area of Philadelphia, free festivals like this are common all summer long. in fact, probably a good portion of the people milling around last night came over via the Ben Franklin Bridge to enjoy one more end-of-summer bash, with a little change of scenery. but in Camden, it is a significant and triumphant step to put on such an event and hope, por favor, that it will happen again next year. and it doesn't solve any of the massive headaches Camden faces, doesn't exactly alleviate poverty or improve education or reduce violence or any of those urgently necessary things, but i do think the presence of events like this is important sometimes. to create space and an environment where people can celebrate the good and the possibilities in life together, or at least escape from some of its stresses and pressures. to rain down a little joy-burst on the dust and busyness of our lives. to remind us of the starlight within...