Walking on the Edge

I am 11 months away from the mid-Century mark and I still find great delight in walking as a gymnast on a high bar, except that mine is the curb on the street. It's a compulsion that overcomes me at times walking in from a parking lot and I find myself taking the extra few minutes to balance heel to toe, heel to toe on the daring 6-inch wide, 4-inch high balance beam. It has to be a curb where there is dirt on one side and the road on the other - a sidewalk next to the curb, and on the same level is just not worth the effort. There has to be the risk of stepping in the grass or the dangerous drop to the street! Yep, that's me; I'm a risk taker, a high adventurer!! This compulsion is even odder because you can fit my athletic ability into a thimble. I don't know when I'll stop. Maybe when my hair turns completely white, or maybe when I act my age, or maybe when I fall, or maybe when everything is all concrete. But for today, I still have some brown at the ends of my hair, I seriously doubt I'm going to act my age, and thank God everything is not cemented from door to door. My only limitation is to fall, and I could do that walking flat-footed. Yes, I think I'll be edgy today.

My prayer for the congregation?

Dear God, Let us find time to play, to make use of every opportunity to become child-like and experience joy and live with imagination that anything is possible. A curb can be a balance beam, a tea party can be a dinner with the queen, a single person can start a reform, a group of people praying can call for a healing, a church can grow out of its walls and live in the world, a denomination can find accord with troubling issues, and a baby born in a manger can change the world. Let us take walks on the edge, trusting an inner gyroscope that will guide us along to the next adventure. There is no age limit, and all levels of talent and abilities are welcome on the walk. If indeed we fall, we ask to learn from our mis-steps and return to complete our journey, scrapes and all. Amen.