Last Hug – Thank You OD!!!!!!

It’s the holiday season, which brings up so many emotions for many of us.

That is what I wanted to start this post about, but I have been annoyed by uninvited AI to “help” me say what I have to say.  So now I am annoyed. I cannot figure out how to get AI out of my Word composition (where I had hoped to use OG AI to spell check me a little), so I guess I will now go straight into typing into the OD site.  Well, that seems a bit more pure anyway. 😊 … ugg, that was supposed to be the colon plus a right parenthesis.

Continuing my thoughts:

I have recently decided to attend a weekly Bible “study” group that I was a regular at when my kids were small. I put that in quotes only because the current form of this group is for various volunteers to share their insights; so although we do read Bible scriptures, it is completely unstructured.  In fact, I led the group one wednesday in November before we all left to gather with our families because the scheduled leader was unavailable.

I shared the scripture references that I looked up that involved relationships, since we were all heading into the holiday season.  I endend the sharing/lesson with my favorite scripture for my personal journey:  Ephsians 4:29

So this morning at that “study” group, we actually had a retired minister.  His message was about Peace.

As an aside, he has already agreed to preside at my Mom’s memorial service — whenever that is needed, even thought he has never met my dementia Mom — because he is a retired Methodist minister, and her funeral should be held in the church where I grew up, and where she and my Dad had so many connections, and both me and my oldest daughter had our weddings there … but … that particular church took the wrong choice about the homosextual divide (they left the United Methodist Church, who accepts LBGTQ+, in case you are wondering).

So my new friend retired Methodist pastor, who left his church in north Houston area because of the LBGTQ+ thing, now attends our ELCA lutheran church in The Woodlands, TX, partly because our church has supported that community for many years.

Amazing coincidence: This retired pastor was the head pastor at my uncle and cousin’s Methodist church before he retired.  He knew my Dad’s brother! That is actually how we connected on a volunteering project.  He connected my maiden name with my uncle. 🙂  look! no correction to my smile!

OD: You provided a safe and fun place for me to vent and express.  I found you because my high school daughter found you first. I looked up who she was following through you, and I hated that content, so I looked up users on your site that were the same age as me, and I met some amazing friends!  Thank you!

I am so so so so so so sorry to see OD go away, but I understand.