Happy Christmas

I haven't been keeping up with my blog on here, but I am posting on our Cruising Adventures blog. See the latest at: crusing adventures.blogspot.com

Knitting an Afghan

I read a blog about the Great American Aran Afghan and decided to knit it for Missy. So, I'm 6 blocks along, but I've only knitted the easy ones. I have gone to the local knit shop where they are doing a class for this very afghan, so I'll get help there. I have to admit I am much more interested in knitting brainlessly which means I knit socks. I know I can take the afghan along on our trip to Alaska with the big boat, but I'll just leave it and not work on it because I have to concentrate and look at the pattern directions. That's my knitting story for now. More later. V.

Cruising Adventures

For an update on what's happening around here, go to my other blog, Cruising Adventures http://www.crusingadventures.blogspot.com/ Look for my latest July 4th report, coming soon. V.

Oh, So Late!

We've been a little busy! The new boat is renamed from Dragon's Edge to Karen Marie. We didn't go with KM Too, II or KM III because it was getting silly. We really want the name and the extras don't count. We went over to LaConner to do the ceremony with 10 other boats from the Oak Harbor Yacht Club. It was fun, fun, fun. Steppe Williford, our friend, was Poseidon, and did the ceremony with all the proper drinking and toasting. We ate too much, drank too much and had a great time. Jim was really moved because it was silly but serious, and in memory of Karen.

The months have flown by. Where are we? I was sick for three weeks in February-the same bronchitis that got me a year ago. Seemed like it took forever before I was better. Jim has been preoccupied with the boat, prepping for Round Whidbey Race and our trip to Desolation Sound in Late May. We celebrated my birthday for a week and more in April. Last weekend we took the boat to Coronet Bay to be available for a renaming on a friend's boat. That got cancelled and we brought the boat back Saturday in a real blow. We bounced all over before we got back into the dock. Spent the night at the dock and slept like a log! All that excitement got to me.

We have been balancing boat stuff with church stuff. Our new priest has started things moving again. We got the portables refurbished ,and she now has an office, and we have a Sunday School room. The neighbors aren't happy but who cares. We have cleaned up th shrubs around the chapel, and they screamed about that. Now we talk to them through our lawyer. The good things are added classes, great Bible study and great gatherings of the faithful. I can see a wonderful future with so much less stress coming around the corner.

As I said, we leave May 27 for Desolation Sound. We'll be gone 3 1/2 weeks or so, traveling up and back with 4-5 other boats. If we are lucky, we'll have good weather like last year. Right now we are going through some spring storms that really blow and bring lots of rain. Hope that isn't what we can expect for later. We'll go to a few places we've been before, but we will have new adventures in Desolation Sound, a Canadian marine park with lots of anchorages, islands and beautiful scenery. We've stayed on the boat twice now and we love it! It has so much more storage and a great galley for cooking. We still have a few things to get/fix before we leave, but we'll be ready. I'm making lists of food and clothes to put on board, and Jim gets the electrical and other stuff ready. Right now he's working on a leak under the sink in the galley. He hates plumbing, so that's a challenge. Next week end is Round Whidbey Race, so he has to fix the leak now!

Everyone in the family is well. The girls will be here for July 4th, and we'll move on the boat to fit the family into the house. We hope both Wagner cousins will be here, too. We'll just be home a week before they all arrive! Meghan was here for sping break. What a gift! She is so much fun!

Blessings on friends and family. If you are coing over for a visit, let us know so we'll be home. The Whidbey Wagners

A Few Thoughts

The Heather is Blooming! Today is Epiphany and those three wise men are arriving to meet the Baby Jesus. We have a special service at the church and a soup supper. The heather in front of the house, along the driveway, has started to bloom. In these dark winter days, it jumps out as you ride by.

We are also starting our Cruise Planning class tonight. We're looking forward to the class which should give us lots of information about going on long trips in the islands and into Canadian waters. The guy teaching the class has been to Alaska two or three times. I don't want to go to Alaska unless we have a group of boats going, but we will learn lots about the places to stop on the way up there. We plan to have many trips up into Canadian waters, and all the help we can get is better for us.

I am doing Weight Watchers again and have lost 17 lbs so far. Started the day before Thanksgiving, and so far so good. I think about food lots, but I did that anyway.

We leave for SoCal on Sunday to do some work on Grandma Wagner's house. We are only going to be there for four days because I start my EFM Bible Study class again on Friday. This year we do church history. Can't wait.

We are getting ready to select a new Rector for the church. No idea who it will be, but rumors are that we have a few good applicants. That would be great! Hope we find someone who can give us at least 6 years and out of the tangle we are in now. We have a future, but we need a leader.

The best from the Whidbey Wagners on a cold winter day.

Happy New Year!

Hello and Happy New Year! We are looking forward to a wonderful 2010. Our big Chirstmas present, the Karen Marie, our Schock 34 is the most exciting gift we gave ourselves.The interior of our new boat is in the photo; we have lots of room for storage and living space. We've been busy this week as we transfer things from the old boat to the new boat to get the old boat ready to sell. Can't wait for crusing season to start.

We had a great Christmas time with lots of parties, gatherings, fun, laughter, and fellowship to make us even happier to be on this island. We have a few New Years resolutions: 1.clean out and throw away half our junk; 2. cruise lots and enjoy our new boat; 3.share happiness with our friends! You can notice only one of those has any work involved. We are planning our next big cruise to the Canadian waters to Desolation Sound, farther north than we went last year. And, who knows where else.

Happy New Year to all! The Whidbey Wagners

Merry Christmas

From the Whidbey Wagners

We are having a quiet Christmas this year. Libby is with us from West Seattle, but Missy, Scott and Meg are doing their own thing in SoCal. We are having lots of time to visit with friends and share this time of joy. Our big news is that we bought a new-to-us sailboat. We have a Schock 34 now and we are planning our summer cruising already. Jim will love this boat, too, because it should go very fast when he goes out to race. I get lots of storage room and a better organized cabin and galley. Our first big cruise will be to Desolation Sound in Canadian waters, starting in early June. We will probably get out a few times before that so we can "road" test the Karen Marie. Yes, our boat is back to being the Karen Marie. The last boat was the Karen Marie, Too, but we couldn't bring ourselves to have a Karen Marie, Too, II. We figured everybody would call us Tutu for short!

We haven't even recovered from the last cruise on Holland America, but I keep looking for other bargains. I loved having somebody else run the boat! Libby and I are doing Weight Watchers now to get off the extra pounds we have been adding since Jim and I retired and Libby started going on the road so much. I am doing well, and have lost 13 lbs since the day before Thanksgiving. What a time to start a diet! At least we won't gain too much, we hope. The plan is suredifferent from when I became a Lifetime member in 1985. Lots of great cookbooks and helpful tools, like the eTools online.

Libby is doing well with her consulting business. She just got back from a two week trip to Peru with a group from her church. She went to Machu Picchu and did an extra week in the Amazon seeing all the native plants and animals. She even walked up in the canopy for a mile and a half! We got great Peru presents for Christmas. I got jewelry and a beautiful baby Alpaca scarf/shawl. Her photos are amazing.

Missy and Scott are doing well. Missy is still Chair of the English Dept at her community college, and Scott continues his job working as a mechanical engineer for a company in Anaheim. Megan is in high school! She just made the soft ball team, and we are very excited for her. Missy and Scott are off to Vegas for a weekend visit and a chance to see Bebe King, while Meg has flown to Portland, Or to see her Aunt Suzie. We'll be going down to visit them in January.

Our next family gathering is the July 4th Bash, and this year we are expecting Amanda and husband Toby to fly in from Wisconsin. Mandy is Jim's niece. We hope her brother Brett and family come from Hawaii, too. The regular 4th gathering at the Wagner house has turned into a real family reunion, and we enjoy it so much. This year we have to hope for really good weather to accomodate the many sailings we'll have to give to visitors.

The best to everyone for a great New Year from the Whidbey Wagners.

Christmas Is Coming and Memories, too

Christmas was coming so fast I didn't have time to post anything. Christmas was coming and now it is here. We are always a little sad at this time of year, missing Karen, who loved Christmas above all holidays. Her gifts were always perfect, and she was generous to a fault, even if she sometimes shopped in discount stores. We were blessed to have her in the middle of the family. Hug your kids tight, kiss your family, and share with your friends. They leave us too soon. The Whidbey Wagners

Happy Thanksgiving and More

Happy Thanksgiving Yesterday! It has been a busy fall for us. Not enough down time and new challenges for the family. After Jim's mother passed away, we came back to get organized for living a life without her. It was and still is a process: we think about her each time we leave home, expecting the call that she has taken a turn for the worse. That's programmed in after 99 years! Of course, we haven't been checking on her that long, but we feel we have committed many years to that worry. Jim called his mother every night and that leaves a hole in his evening hours. Some times she was OK and sometimes she was dreaming and didnt make much sense, but the contact was there. We usually go to southern California for one, if not both, of the major winter holidays, but this year I begged to stay home. We were home yesterday until we went to friends for a Thanksgiving feast. Wow! More about that later. We are also planning to be home for Christmas. We begin our busy winter schedule this weekend with a Taize service and dinner for my EFM group. For those of you who don't know about EFM, it's my Education For Ministry class, a bible study program. Since we are all called to minister, this class teaches us how we might do that or helps us recognize where we already are doing that. The first year we did the Old Testament. This past year we did New Testament. Next year we do church history and the year after that we study theology. Other busy seasonal activities follow from wreath making at a friend's house to the Commodore's Ball at the Yacht Club to a Christmas pot luck with my new Hospice group.

After Karen's death without Hospice and the death of friend, Marilyn Dickens, and Jim's mother with a Hospice team, I decided I wanted to be trained to be a Hospice Volunteer. I took the three day training after we got back from our cruise. I went into it with some reservations, but after the third day I was sure I want to offer my services to sit with someone or help out with a family as they go through the final walk of a loved one. I know it is a very different thing for me to do, but it feels right and I want to do it. I haven't been on a case yet, and I may not have one for a year or more, but I am trained and will meet with the group to share their experiences as they go out on teams. One day I'll be ready and they'll call me.

The other thing I've recently taken on is Weight Watchers. I found a class and a lecturer I like, and I joined the day before yesterday, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving! Some would think that was odd, but I wanted to be ready when we started into the season of eating. I did have to control myself a little at dinner last night. The dinner menu follows:

Appetizers:

Free Form Onion Tart, Cheese and Parmesan Stuffed Dates,

Fennel Spiced Almonds.

Soup:

Celery Leek Bisque with Stilton Toast.

Entrees:

Turkey with Spicy Sausage Stuffing and Turkey Gravy,

Wild Mushroom Bundles, Braised Brussel Sprouts,

Mashed Potatoes Yukon Gold, Sweet Potato Apple Pancake,

Scorched Corn Puddng, Cranberry Cassis Conserve.

Mango Sorbet.

Dessert:

Pumpkin Creme Brulee with Gingersnaps.

We started with sparking Spanish wine with the appetizers, white wine with the soup( 2 kinds),red wine with the turkey( two kinds) and ended with coffee, port and chocolate covered nuts. So, I was good, taking small servings and not having some things. There were so many choices I didn't have a hard time filling up with the vegies. I skipped the onion tart, but I tasted Jim's and it was wonderful. I had one date and a few almonds before dinner. Then I skipped the potatoes and had only other vegies. I had lots to eat and managed to only use 1/2 my extra points for the week! I had to share the menu with you, since it was exactly as advertised in her menu card on each place setting! The table was beautiful, the company was fun and I didn't do anything all day at my house. I didn't even have to cook anything since we took wine and loaned the hostess a few things for the dinner table. What a relaxing day!!!I did this WW thing once before, so I know I can do it gain; I just have twice as much to lose now.

Libby is in Peru for two weeks on a tour. She called yesterday and said she had struggled with the altitude, but was a little better. She was down to 9000 ft, but they will be doing the high mountains soon so I hope she's OK. Her voice sounded happy and excited about her trip, and it was good to hear from her. We also talked to Missy and Meghan. Everybody in SoCal is doing well. The weather is still warm, but Scott has been away from golf for a couple of weeks with a strained shoulder. Meg loves her high school now and the football team got into the playoffs, and they all go the ball games now.
Oh, BTW, we did get a new boat, a Schock 34. It's a little bigger and goes faster so our cruising next summer should be fun. We'll sell our Hunter 30 when we remove all our stuff. The new boat is in Seattle until we get a good day to bring it up to Oak Harbor. Not much sailing weather right now. Much rain!!! Looks like things are doing well for the Wagners. The best to you as we begin the Advent and holiday season. Jim and Virginia on Whidbey Island.

Panama Canal Here We Come!

Hello from Whidbey Island! Our fall has been eventful, starting with late July and into September. As we were returning from our trip into Canadian waters, we heard that Jim's mom was not doing well. As the days went by, we decided we needed to go to SoCal to check on her condition. When we arrived in Chino Hills, we found her changed, less active and quiet. Eventually, she passed away on Aug 21. We were so saddened, but prepared, too. After all, she lived a great 99 years. We returned to the northwest as soon as possible to recover from the anxiety of the past six weeks. We had scheduled a cruise to Alaska on Holland American lines, and when we returned home, a couple we know contacted us to say the rates for cruising through the Panama Canal were real bargains. After some discussion, we decided we would take that cruise this fall. We leave on Sept 26 and will return on Oct 14. We will be home just in time for the diocesan convention the next weekend! As we go on our cruise, I will be posting thoughts on this blog, as well as sending out emails to everyone to let them know where we are and what we are doing. It should be a great trip. Check back soon for the up dates on things! The Whidbey Wagners

Mothers

I wrote a short piece about my mother to use in the church newsletter, but I can't copy it into here. Some electronic block occurs each time I try to copy and paste. That prompts me to retype the whole thing, but I know in my heart of hearts I wrote it because I was thinking about Jim's mother who is leaving this life soon. We are going to Southern California tomorrow to be there with her as she moves on. It is difficult to lose any parent or anyone who is close family, but we experience it in a variety of ways. Sometimes the difficulty is in wishing the person would die and relieve everyone of the anguish of watching the suffering. Sometimes the difficulty is in trying to be sad when there is an absence of feelings, a numbness, because you don't know how you feel about the loss. Sometimes there is a difficulty because you don't want to be in a place where memories are stirred that might need to be left covered over by years and distance.

My mother died sudenly at 87 years old. My brother called and with little emotion told me she had passed away only hours after being taken to the hospital. Her funeral was planned in four days and I needed to get to Florida for the events. We had a wake at the funeral home, an Episcopal memorial service and then we flew to Texas for the graveside service. It was too much to do, but that's what my mother wanted. Her friends and family were there, but my oldest brother couldn't stand the funeral home service or the Texas visit, so he opted out. He missed out on the after funeral reception at the local Mexican restaurant where we all drank margaritas and ate nachos. My mother would have loved it all.

She had given away all her belongings as gifts long before her death. As she got older she would give away anything anyone said they liked. Her favorite phrase was, "Take it, Honey, and enjoy it." Her favorite handpainted china, her glass paperweight collection, her paintings, her art work, her antique furniture-everything went. Her life was all contained in a small apartment that took only a few hours and a trip to the Good Will to give away the last items. When I flew home after the funeral, I didn't have a feeling of burden. I felt light because we had done it all and her life was now memories and love gifts.

Don't get me wrong. We had some tremendous disagreements. I left home at 20 or so and never went back to live there or visit often. My father was an alcoholic and difficult and she protected him until the day he left her. I had learned the correct vocabulary by the time I was 30 years old and I knew enabling when I saw it. Her response was that she loved him; she was a nurse for 50 years and I thought she should have known better. She never recovered from his leaving her; he had ruined her dreams of their future together that she had worked so hard to preserve. She never got over feeling betrayed. I wanted her to go on with her life, and she did, working to support herself until the very end, but I thought she was scarred. Now I can see she was a product of her early life on a small ranch in East Texas and an era when women didn't have much position if they didn't have a man. I still resist that internal voice of hers that tells me the same thing: if something happens to Jim, I'll be nothing.

So, we go now to watch as Jim's mom passes on. She is 99 and has had a good life. I know it won't be as tidy in the end because she didn't prepare like my mother. We'll have lots of things to sort out and organize. Maybe that's OK, too. It'll give us something to think about and work on during the immediate weeks after the death. As a family we'll gather and tell each other stories about Grandma and Granddad Wagner. That will keep us busy and dull the sadness at another generation finished with this life. To Alma Laverne Moorman and Mary Elizabeth Wagner-mothers extraordinare. Peace, The WhidbeyWagners

Lessons Learned-Princess Louisa

Soon after we arrived in Oak Harbor, retired from my work schedule and hoping to stay in touch with friends not living right here, I started this blog. It was originally modeled on a few other blogs created by knitters, showing their work and projects and discussing knitting things. Then it changed into a blog about our family. I hoped it would keep people up to date on what we are doing here on Whidbey, sort of an all year Christmas letter. I was lazy at posting until my friend Elaine in Montana sent me an email and asked if I was going to post to my blog again. She checks it out every week or so to read what we are doing. Then she faithfully sends me an email to tell me she loved reading about our lives here on the island. I try very hard to post at least once a month. Elaine reminds me if I forget.

Yesterday I wrote a long article about our boat trip up into Canadian waters to Princess Louisa Inlet. The article was all about the things we learned in a three week long cruise on a sailboat, things like where to get water and fuel and food and how to fix overheated engines. It was a pretty practical accounting, but embedded in the article was a sentence that got me to thinking. "Being in a group gave us security, fellowship in the evenings, and solutions to problems.

When you plan a cruise of two or more boats, someone usually takes the leader role and starts planning the itinerary and making reservations at marinas. Brynn and Gary, our cruise captains, had a few cruise meetings before we left on June 6, but we only knew the other cruisers casually from other short trips together. In the beginning we were only a loosely organized group of boats with 2 or more crewmembers on board, but as soon as we left the dock, things changed.

First, we stayed in touch with each other regularly. Brynn and Gary established a good pattern of checking in often via radio to give us news about the weather,winds and waves, or to find out if we were still underway and sailing along OK. Like little ducklings we followed along, sometimes changing lead boats, but always keeping in touch. It was comforting to look across the water in the middle of the Strait of Georgia, a big expanse of water, and see three or four boats, our boats, all going the same direction. Some of us sailed more than others and would fall behind, but someone would find that speck on the water in his binoculars and announce to all that "Papillion" had been sighted, flying his spinnaker and taking his time to enjoy the day. Anyone in the lead would radio back and tell us there were big logs being towed by a tug, and we needed to avoid that hazard. Sometimes our radio connections were funny. One morning Brynn, taking on the job of radio announcer, called with information, got confused and ended her call with, Over, Out, Over!" We all laughed and responded with various "Overs and Outs" the rest of the trip.

Second, we took the time to get to know each other. In the evenings we would share dinners and conversation. We had fish and chips at local restaurants, we had pot lucks, we had campfires at marine parks, and we had a progressive dinner. We weren't together in a large group all the time; sometimes it was one on one, or couples who gathered. It seemed like everyone made an effort to share some time together, telling stories about other sailing adventures or swapping ideas on how to fix things, or why we named our boats Misty Isle or Sweet or Papillion or Karen Marie, Too or Spika or Hasenpfeffer. You'd be amazed at how people come up with names for their boats!

Third, we never left anyone behind. One day we had engine trouble and the entire fleet elected to stay with us while we fixed the engine. They sacrificed a day of sailing and time at a good anchorage because we were a group, and the policy was to never leave anyone behind. We missed the slack water at 9AM and had to wait until 4PM for the next one. Another day, when were were slogging against a current, trying to get to Friday Harbor to check in to immigration, Alan on Misty Isle sighted a boat that needed assistance. He went over and tied up to the small boat and towed the man in his boat for two hours. We all slowed down and lazed along in the wake of this good seaman, helping someone out of a difficult situation. We could have gone on to Friday Harbor and waited for Alan, but we stayed together as a group and he was in the group.

The lessons we learn at any time apply to everything in our lives. Friendships are like cruises. We should always stay in touch with each other, take the time to get to know each other better, and never leave anyone behind. That last one is hard, since we all move now and then, but it can be done. Sometimes we need to be reminded about those three standards. I know I do and I am eternally grateful for my friend Elaine who reminds me when I drop out of sight and forget to post to my blog. It's a gentle and loving reminder, but it lets me know she is thinking of me, cares about me and wants to know about me. Every now and then we need to be reminded to take care of those we love. Thank God for Elaine! Peace, Virginia

Sailing Away

Hello All, that's us in the cockpit of our boat, the Karen Marie, Too. Summer is almost here, and we're getting ready for a long three week cruise into Canada as our first outing this year. We'll be going to Princess Louisa Inlet to see Chatterbox Falls. The photos are amazing, and as one website says, "First you will wind your way along Jervis Inlet. Then through Malibu Rapids (at slack tide) and into the beauty of this breathtaking fabled inlet to roaring Chatterbox Falls, just 3.5 miles from the rapids. It's been described as a "flooded Yosemite Valley" complete with a half-dome mountain!" We'll be going with 7 other boats, all experienced boaters. We probably won't sail very much since the winds will be light, but we may get rain off and on. We call it the June Gloom around here, so the sunny weather we've having now is a reminder of how beautiful it is in the real summer months. We'll have rain gear and layers of clothes to cover all options of sun or showers.

More later as we finish the cruise. The Whidbey Wagners

Knitting Afghans

I just finished an afghan. That isn't so unusual, but this afghan is the first real project afghan I've ever knitted. I've thrown stitches on a needle or crochet hook and looped a big thing together and called it an afghan, but my newly finished afghan is work of art. ( Photo forthcoming.)

My friend Janet started the whole thing by inviting me to attend a class at our local knitting shop. I wanted to do something new so I went along. I've knitted lots of socks, and I've knitted sweathers, even one of those bulky Aran things, and I've knitted shawls with feather weight and cobweb soft yarns. but this afghan was a challenge. Some knitters knit mindlessly, never changing the way they knit or what they knit. It's like mind meditation. Others love a new project because it gives them something new to learn and try out, even to the point of failure. I usually fit into the former category, but I was game and went to the class.

The afghan pattern was a new experience for me. It was 12 different squares, all using difficult and challenging patterns. I learned new methods of casting on ( the very beginning technique for a knitter), new ways of increasing and decreasing stitches, lace patterns, cable patterns, entrelac, Fair Isle, (using different colors in special ways), three different kins of pockets, and the best way to knit things together so they don't look like they have a big old seam running down them. I also learned a better way to block the final project so it was smooth and flat, and not lumpy. I was busy knitting my afghan for months and last night I finished it. It was amazing when I threw it down on the rug, spreading it all out to see what it looked like. It was a rectangle, the edges were finished and it was beautiful. Also, it was interesting to look at with all the colors and different patterns for each square. It was soft to touch, and the wool will be very warm to cover feet or a body for napping. It was a wonder to see what I had made with my very own hands. Don't be confused about my bragging; my afghan is not perfect. It has a funny row where the corners on the squares don't match exactly and a few bumps where I know there are errors in the knitting. But, it is a glorious thing to see!

I had help while I worked on my afghan. I had my friendly neighborhood knit shop where I got instruction, and I had the best teacher, Kathy, who reassured and encouraged me all along the way. Also, I had other knitters learning along with me as we shared and compared our work. I had the best atmosphere in which to learn, sitting at the table in the front window of Kathy's knit shop, Oak Harbor Knits. Before this experience, I had struggled alone to figure out patterns, even going online to view video of how to do some knitting technique. I had never been part of a knitting group, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

As I think about my afghan project, I can't help but draw an analogy to my church. I don't knit in the pews, but I am working on my soul afghan when I am there. I have the same kind of friends and teachers in the church, helping me to make my soul afghan just as beautiful as the wool one. Each time I pray, study, read the Bible, or learn a new idea about salvation, my soul afghan gets a new square, a new place to store happiness and the knowledge of Christ. Just as I give thanks for the wool afghan I knitted, I can give thanks that the "Lamb of God" has given me the wool of friends and a congregation to make my soul just as intricate, as interesting and as beautiful. Thanks be to God for friends, teachers, congregations and knitters who help me make my life the beautiful pattern it can be.

Update: I just finished a wool scarf, but I'm itching to get started on another big project!

April, where did you go?

Notes on Friendship

What a wretched lot of old shriviled creatures we shall be by and by. Never mind the uglier we get in the eyes of others, the lovlier we will be to each other; that has always been my firm faith about friendship. George Elliot

Friendship is essentially a partnership. Aristotle

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is going on, and the tulips are too beautiful.

Mother's Day is coming. To all mothers and friends who mother, blessings on you.

Is Spring Ever Coming?

Hello All:

We know we shouldn't complain about the weather when we have friends in Eastern Washington, Montana and New Hampshire who are covered, literally covered, in snow and sleet and other nasty winter weather, but we are complaining a little bit. Today it is cold, cold, unlike normal March weather, but we do have sunshine. Jim was just told to raise the front window shade because the cat wanted to bask in the unusual sun coming in that window. Welcome Spring! Please come.

Yesterday Jim and I were discussing how busy we are since we retired. It is amazing to me that we find any time to relax since we have so many activities. And, we can't get it all done. I've jokingly said I want to tell people I left town and not go--just stay home and do stuff here that I can't get done otherwise. We were in Seattle yesterday; I had a diocesan meeting and Jim went shopping at the boat store. We had spent the night with Libby, having a great dinner out and looking at her photos of her trip to New Zealand. She brought me four hanks of marino as a present and I plan to make scarves for our treat. She brought Jim this wonderful marino long underwear shirt, softer than cashmere and tiny, tiny threads. Wonderful for sailing in cool weather.

Our new interim preached a sermon about the new "fangled " idea of taking on something for Lent, but I had written the following piece before that. Too bad, I liked the learning that went on!

A Prayer Life

1Thess 5: 16-18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Sometimes I don’t think I’m very good at praying. I pray, but sometimes it seems like a long list of “I wants and I’m sorrys.” And, there is always the order and kind of prayer to be concerned about. Where do you do it? And what form does it take? I worry about doing it right so it will be most effective. You know, if you approach in just the right way, God will be more likely to listen and respond. As Lent begins this year, I am trying again to add something, that sacrifice of adding something spiritual to my life rather than giving up something. This year I am making a commitment to prayer in a different way.

In Phyllis Tickle’s book, The Shaping of a Life-A Spiritual Landscape, she shares her spiritual history from her young days as a newly wed to the beginning of her married life with her first child. As I was reading it for our Book Group, I kept finding places where she led the reader to how and what prayer is in her life. Those examples were imbedded in her story, from finding her mother in prayer each afternoon to being caught praying the Psalms before teaching her classes at her place of employment. Not only did she pray, but she was always on the look out for a process of prayer. In the end she says she found a breviary, a book of the daily office, like our own daily prayers of Morning Prayer, Noontime Prayers, Evening Prayer and Compline. As I read and studied her book, one specific idea about prayer jumped out at me.
Phyllis was having a discussion with her neighbor, Mr.King, an elderly retired missionary.
One day she asks him, “ What do you think really happens when we pray…?
‘Happens’? he repeated. ‘I guess the best answer is ‘What was the Mount of Transfiguration?’
‘You mean we are transformed?’
‘Good heavens, no that’s not at all what I meant!’…’What I mean is that prayer is a place, and Peter and James and John just happened to catch Jesus while he was in it.’…You can’t go there as long as you don’t recognize that the spirit works, because it’s made of spirit.”

That made me stop in my tracks. A prayer place was different than I had imagined. Before I read her book, I would say prayer happened in a quiet, reverential place, like churches and prayer groups and monasteries and synagogues and mosques and convents and all those places where spiritual people gathered. Those were the designated prayer places. And, of course, in my living room every morning when I have my quiet time. It seemed to be in places we set aside or in places of great drama. Hospitals and emergency rooms come to mind.

But that’s not what Mr. King said. He said we are praying because we are in a place where the spirit is. Where is the spirit? Everywhere, right? In me and you and in everyone who wishes to acknowledge the Holy Spirit’s life in them. So, at any given time, I am in prayer. My actions are a prayer, my rest is a prayer, my life being lived is a prayer. Some days my prayers are better than other days, but it is all a prayer.

That doesn’t mean I can give up on my Lenten commitment, but it does mean I should start to recognize my life is more than just walking through my days without any acknowledgment of that prayer going on. Now if I’m talking to a woman at the pool about her hip surgery and I say, “I hope you feel better soon,” that’s a prayer. And, if I say, “Have a good day,” to the lady in the check out line, that’s another prayer. If I serve a meal to someone, if I remember to do my husband’s laundry, even if I remember to be quiet and think about the beauty of the day, it’s all a prayer. If I accept the Holy Spirit is with me, then it is all a prayer.

My Lenten sacrifice has changed. Now rather than going into a quiet place to read a prayer list or pray prescriptive prayers, I am challenging myself to become aware and tuned in to the many times each day I am given a chance to pray, using the Holy Spirit within me to reach out and for others. I’ll still have my quiet time each day, I’ll still attend services to meet the community with whom I worship, but for Lent I will dedicate special attention to the prayer I can become to the world around me. Maybe it’ll become a habit after six weeks!

Blessings on our friends and neighbors. The Whidbey Wagners

Happy Birthday

Today is Karen's birthday. We miss her smile, her laughter and her spirit. We miss her everything.

All Is Well

by

Rosamunde Pilcher

Death is nothing at all. It does not count.

I have only slipped away into the next room.

Nothing has happened.

Everything remains exactly as it was.

I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.

Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.

Call me by the old familiar name.

Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.

Put no difference into your tone.

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.

Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.

Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.

Life means all that it ever meant.

It is the same as it ever was.

There is absolute and unbroken continuity.

What is this death but a negligible accident?

Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner.

All is well.

Happy New Year! The Wise Men Arrive Today!

Welcome to the New Year. The Whidbey Wagners hope you have a good one! Today is the Feast of Epiphany, so I think I'll fill you in on the situation at our church. I read lots of blogs about the goings on in the world of Anglicanism, but today I read a prayer for bloggers! It says it is from the Prayer Book; it is probably for all writers, but it fits, so here goes:

"Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct, in our time, we pray, those who speak where many listen and write what many read; that they may do their part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous; to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord."

Two years ago, 2007, we started the year off at St Stephen Episcopal with our new priest, Rachel Taber-Hamilton. As we walked through the last two years, we grew in number and in faith. We started out feeling sorry for ourselves, meeting in the chapel next door to the "biggggg" church, and angry at our Bishop for abandoning us, and so happy to have a building of any size because we had outgrown all our homes. We also were very happy to have Rachel who had taken on our problems with great energy and honesty. As the months went on she provided guidance and pastoral care for us, finally bringing us to see the PALS, as she taught us to call them, as the "People Across the Lot" rather than other ugly names. We let go of our fury at being shuffled aside and started talking about what we want to be. I'm not sure we have any better direction for that, but some things have changed to make us shift our vision of ourselves.

We are limited in space by a room that is 19x19. No lying, it is the size of a two car garage, and we have made it our own sanctuary. The whole building was consecrated in the middle 50's and then later All Saint's Chapel was made into a Columbarium some time after the main congregation moved across the way. It was dusty, dirty, and uncared for when we moved in two years ago. Now it is decorated, loved, rearranged and our own special place. We have all the acoutrements of a full sized church. Vestments, altar hangings, banners, prayerbooks, hymnals, chalices, and Sunday School supplies. However, now we don't have a priest. We were saddened when Rachel told us in October that she was moving away to Maine to become a Hospital Chaplain. We accepted it and pulled up our socks and continued to be church. It hasn't been easy. We have had several different priests to supply on Sundays. We are far away from the center of Seattle, so we don't get the vibrant new guys; we get the older, wonderful priests, but it does seem like they are making a huge effort to get here. Some times I worry that one of them will have a heart attack on the way home!

Sometimes I worry no one will want us as a permanent position! After all we are a special problem church. We have grown -almost 4 times in less than two years. That is amazing! We have a great pledge base. Everyone gives to our budget, but we don't have enough to pay a full time priest yet. We think if we can grow a little more, we can manage that. Our problem is space. We are cramped and even going to two services, we can't fit everyone in. You see, we like each other and we want to go to church together. We are accustomed to being physically close because we were in homes for a year and a half. We squeezed into lots of living rooms that could barely hold us. And, still people kept coming. If people would truly spread out and go to both services, we could hold on a little longer, but most everyone wants to go to the 11AM service. Jim and I hold down the 9AM service and we average 8 or so there. The rest of the group, anywhere from 25-35 squish into the space that really only holds 28 comfortably. What to do? A member of our Vestry is a Realtor and he has approached the PALS to ask if they will move their Pastor's Office, their Pastor's library and their Parish Office out of the Chapel and let us have the whole thing. We also want the portable building out back of us, which has two rooms for our office and Sunday School Room. We could really double in size if we had that arrangement.

Everything happens so slowly. I lose patience, and I get depressed about it. We have struggled for so long, and when we confront those in the diocese who seem surprised at our situation, they are astonished that we even exist. No one expected us to be here. No one thought we would stick it out. No one thought they would have to deal with us. So, here we are, beginning a new year and praying and hoping for something to happen that will free us to be what we have been called to be for Oak Harbor. I am challenged every day about what I can do for myself and the church. I am on the Altar Guild, the WebMaster, and I develop special liturgy activities for the church. I am also on the Diocesan Standing Committee. I am getting burn out, I think. A vacation looks better and better all the time. Our core group works hard, but we have been holding on for a long time.

Hitting that brick wall gets down right funny now and then. Last Sunday we had a new visitng priest. We have vestments and stoles for all the seasons, but the last priest always brought his own. So, we go to the early service and the guy shows up without a stole. I am frantically dragging out all the banker boxesin the library under the table to see if one of them was hidden away somewhere. I called the Altar Guild Prez and she has a bad cold and doesn't really care if I find a stole or not and she and her husband overslept! We have things in a garage storage place, but I don't have the keys and in reality, we know the woman who does all the sewing for the Altar Guild has all that stuff at her house and she lives 40 minutes away. So, he did the early service without a stole, and he promised he'd bring his own next time. I was embarassed and horrifed because we really do have beautiful things we have gathered the last two years. But, and it is a big but, we have NO WHERE to store anything where we can get to it. Pray for us as we go through the next year of finding a priest and hopefully finding more room. We need a blessing to happen for us.

Pray for Peace in Israel. Virginia W.

Oh, Joy!

Happy Holidays from The Wagners

The house is decorated, we are getting the gifts ready, and every day is more exciting as we wait for the arrival of the entire family for our Christmas celebration. Libby will be over from West Seattle; Missy, Scott and Meg will be here from SoCal; and Rich and Pam will arrive from Longview. It will be a fun Christmas morning at the Wagner house!

Again, we’ve been busy this year with our regular activities of boating, visitors and church, but we had some highlights. We went on a week long riverboat cruise on the Columbia River, following the Lewis and Clark trip. We went through 8 locks! Missy and Scott came for 4th of July again, but this year it was a double celebration. They bought a house on Whidbey Island with the idea to rent it now and be prepared for when they retire, spending the summers here and the winters down south. That way Scott’ll get in the best golf all year round! We had several trips out in our boat. The most exciting was a trip down the Hood Canal. It was very beautiful scenery and lots of fun with our sailing group going along for support and pot lucks. In September we went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Actually we went all over Israel and parts of Palestine. It was an amazing trip, making us very aware of how much we must pray for peace in the Middle East. We learned about the delicate balance they maintain with so many faiths and different attitudes all claiming the same space. It was a trip of a lifetime.

We came back from the Middle East for knee surgery for Virginia to fix some old torn ligaments and scar tissue from her surgery over ten years ago. She’s doing PT now to prepare for our rigorous trips out in the boat next summer and fall. The surgery was just before Thanksgiving and just in time to be healed enough for Jim to make a trip back east to see his buddies from high school. He missed his 50th reunion while we were in Jerusalem and his oldest guy friends gather each year after Thanksgiving. He flew to Philly and then drove to Allentown and did the tour around and eating real Yocco hotdogs and real Philly cheese steak sandwiches!

Grandma Wagner is 98 and doing well. She lives in a retirement home in Chino Hills, CA very close to Missy. We try to get down as often as we can, but having Missy there gives us reassurance that things are going well. Grandma loves it when Meg goes over and shows her the latest computer movie Meg has directed and filmed. These films usually star Meg’s friends, the dogs, or anyone else who walks by. They show real talent, and we may have another movie maker in the family. By the way, Brett’s film, Chief, went to the Sundance Film Festival and the LA Film Festival where he won first place. That means his film can be nominated for an Oscar! Way Cool!

We wish we had nephew Brett and his wife Katherine with new baby Zoë with us for Christmas, but they are going to New York to celebrate with her mother. Niece Amanda and her husband Toby are busy with Amanda’s residency in vet school, and niece Bridget and her husband Walter are in Germany where Walter has an Air Force assignment.

Our plans for the summer include cruising to the Canadian waters, the Gulf Islands, and up to Desolation Sound. We will have our regular July 4th picnic, but we plan longer cruises and more days on the water than last year. In the spring we plan camping trips with friends, the Liebmans; they bought a new trailer and we bought their old 24 ft trailer. We can go 6 miles and be in great campsites around here; we don’t even have to leave the island. It looks like a great year for us. We hope your New Year will be the best!

Blessings and Cheers from the Whidbey Wagners.

Happy Thanksgiving

may God's blessings be with you today and always.

Psalm 136:26

"O give thanks to the God of heaven,

for his steadfast love endures forever."

Jim and Virginia Wagner