Thank you Red Lodge!

The Harvest Dinner at Red Lodge Community church was cancelled this year, but members didn’t want to pass up a chance to share Love in Action altogether.  Enough funds were raised to buy 78 gift cards to our Beartooth IGA grocery store. In cooperation with the Red Lodge Area Community Foundation and the Boys and Girls Club we distributed the cards to friends, neighbors, community front line workers, and to some who could use a little financial help.
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Sharing good thoughts and thanks to all our community during these difficult days, there is hope and strength that connects us. Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and we hope to see you next November for a real Harvest Dinner celebration.

Red Lodge Community Church

As I meandered along my morning walk today something bright blue caught my eye. At first I thought I was being joined by another walker and then I realized that it was the plastic covering for a case of bottled water caught in a tree. In my world, there is a lot that is wrong with that last sentence. A plastic covering…case…bottled water…caught in a tree. Of course I retrieved it from the tree, took it home and threw it away since it is not recyclable. I made the assumption, correctly I’m sure, that the wind had carried it there, plunking it in a tree where a human would find it and properly discard it.

My busy brain went to the idea of reciprocity. Had I gotten caught up in the trust of Mother Nature’s reciprocity? A piece of plastic that would surely cause destruction on some level to the birds and animals of the forest, transported there by her winds, to be found by another creature who had the ability to remove it and discard it as best she could? And if it was a reciprocal action, who would ever know? I removed it to carry home because I knew that it was the right thing to do; however it is still plastic and it will still go into the landfill, so where is the continuing reciprocity?

As I left the woods the reciprocity came full circle. I was greeted by a pair of chickadees flitting back and forth across the trail. Their song seemed to say, “Thank you. Thank you.” Their woods were safe, they would not accidently ingest the plastic, it wouldn’t fall along the creek to pollute their water way, all was well with their world. “Thank you, thank you,” sang the chickadees.

Peace,
Pastor Pam

This is your last week to donate for the Virtual Harvest Dinner.  You can find the giving link and more about how this dinner will work here.  Please enjoy listening to a few words from some of those in our church who have helped out so many times with Harvest Dinners in the past and look forward to so many more in the future.