Tara: [00:00:00] Welcome to Holy Shenanigans. I'm your muse, Tara Lamont Eastman, pastor, podcaster, and practitioner of Holy Shenanigans. You might be curious what it means to be a practitioner of holy shenanigans.
Tara: For me, practicing holy shenanigans is paying attention to the sacred happenings in everyday life. I'm so glad to have you along for this adventure that I call Holy Shenanigans podcast. Hi There, friends of Holy Shenanigans Podcast. This is Pastor Tara Lamont Eastman, and it is the fourth week of Advent, which is all about love. And it is also this Strange [00:01:00] intersection that immediately goes from Advent 4 into the evening of Christmas Eve to Christmas. I am here with special guest Carolyn Whitehead and Carolyn is a member here at Jamestown First Presbyterian Church.
Tara: Carolyn, could you just say a little bit about yourself to introduce yourself?
Carolyn: Sure, I taught English and speech and drama at Jamestown High School. For 35 years and loved it. I was advisor to some of the plays Musicals that were put on and I was advisor to student council and class advisor So I really loved the job.
Carolyn: It wasn't really a job for me I I loved I loved all of it and I joined First Presbyterian Church about 20 years ago. Wow.
Tara: Okay Yeah and so when I came and I asked different members of the church to read for Advent We had hope, peace, joy, and love. And you said, Aha! That's the one I want. [00:02:00] Why were you so excited about talking about love ?
Carolyn: Love is everything. Without it, the world is nothing. And it's so important to know that the only way to get love is to give love. And I just think that It's been really important in my life. I've been really fortunate to have mentors, people that have loved me and that I have loved, and so it's just ultimate in my life.
Tara: That's awesome. It reminds me of the song, What the World Needs Now, is love, sweet love. Absolutely. And so, one of the things that you're going to be doing for worship in this coming weekend is reading this poem for Advent called Love, Sweet Love. And I'm going to share this with you and just listen and see what comes up for you as you listen to this hope that love will stick in our lives, [00:03:00] like you've just said.
Tara: The greatest of these four weeks of waiting is love. With all the hope waking, peacemaking, and joy breaking, I need the glue of love to make this stick. Please stick. I don't want these gifts to disappear like grandma's frosted sugar cookies, but in that case, at least they would be eaten, consumed, and used to empower the making of many snow angels building tall Lego towers or playing marathon sessions of Scrabble while sipping tea.
Tara: Please stay, love. I don't want you to melt like snow drifts above 35 degrees, be crumpled like old gift wrapping. Or abandoned on the curb like a used Christmas tree. One candle for hope. Two candles for peace. Three candles for joy. J O [00:04:00] Y. Four candles for love. Please stick, love. Please stick. This advent, I hope for peace and joy emboldened, empowered, and eternally stuck to our hearts by the power of love.
Tara: Love stuck. Light has grown. Four candles are lit, illuminating the way with hope, peace, joy, and the greatest love. You are the superglue we need, love. Please stick.
Tara: So as you heard that plea for love to stick around, what comes up for you in this season of love into Christmas?
Carolyn: Well, there have been a number of experiences with quotations that have been really [00:05:00] important in my life. One was when I was growing up, probably in junior high school, our minister said, God is love.
Carolyn: And another time, which I shared with the congregation, was where Schmidt, who was the former minister here, spoke to baccalaureate, to graduating seniors, and he said to them as he climbed up the many stairs at First Lutheran Church to deliver his message, he looked at the class and said, God, make love your aim.
Carolyn: Make love your aim. Make love your aim. And then he walked down and that was it. And I'm sure, I never forgot it, and I'm sure the graduates never forgot it. And there's another quotation that really means a lot to me and has affected my life. And that is a quotation from Irving Stone's biography about Michelangelo that Bob Whited and I had the quotation engraved, within our wedding rings.
Carolyn: And my parents had it on their tombstone. [00:06:00] And that is, life is for those who love. And I have just felt that as part of my mantra all my life, I think. So that, and then I just yesterday heard a cappella choir at Jamestown, at First Lutheran Church, do their Christmas program, and they sang a song, Ubi Caritas et Amor, and that, of course, translated is, Where love is, there God is also.
Carolyn: And so I have these quotations , or thoughts, that have been a part of my life, and Then I just saw a couple days ago, the movie Love actually. Have you seen it? Oh yeah, I have. Because what a wonderful movie that is. It is, and it's really, the theme is love is actually all around. And I think in my life , this season has been the most tumultuous and sad and challenging of my lifetime because of what's going on in the world.
Carolyn: Mm-Hmm. and I, I just have to keep in [00:07:00] mind these things that have meant. So much to me, and realize that love needs to stick to everything we do. It's all a part of us, it's our lives, and without it we are nothing. I know that even though the world is in a terrible, terrible situation, I have to know that love is actually all around in so many different ways, and that's our salvation.
Carolyn: Yeah,
Tara: I think, , love is calling to us in all sorts of ways and all throughout the season of Advent. I try to write a daily and share those reflections to help model or to help encourage people to look around them, to look and see where these things of, faith, hope peace, joy, love, all of those things.
Tara: But even if they're coming from a different perspective what is something that they can hold onto that's a source of encouragement for whatever their faith tradition or their [00:08:00] religious tradition is or isn't. Because I feel like these are the, These are the things that help us to stick together as people, as humans.
Carolyn: Certainly, community is everything. I know at First Pres, I love coming to church on Sunday because I feel so loved. And it's a wonderful connection with the people around me. Whether it's greeting or your sermons or the music David provides, I feel loved. And it's very important to my My life. And without it I would be
Tara: lost.
Tara: There's another writer that I love a lot. Rumi. And there's a statement that's part of one of his bigger pieces. It says, Love is the whole thing. We are the pieces. Oh, that's great. Isn't it? Mm hmm. Yeah, because, you know, however you look at the circumstances of the [00:09:00] world. I think.
Tara: That's, the way that I have to process them and live into them. , I think of like the work of Fred Rogers, you know, said to look for the helpers. Of course there are terrible things happening, but what is the opportunity in that for us to, speak up for love to try to stick things back together with love.
Tara: Sure. And so I wonder, do you have a particular practice? Cause I just shared my practice writing something and sharing it. Do you have a particular practice during the advent season or the Christmas season?
Carolyn: Just things that I read or see or watch on television or watch around me. I can't say is this any different to Christmas for me as it is any other time of the year.
Carolyn: I just love and Love to be loved.
Tara: Yeah, well, and I think that's a beautiful thing, [00:10:00] that it is not just a seasonal focus for you. Which it reminds me of this piece by Howard Thurman that I plan to share as part of the message on Christmas Eve, and it is a piece called The Work of Christmas, and it is about this intersection of Love, and Christmas, and action, and Thurman is encouraging the listener to not segment those things , but to say, the work of Christmas is something that happens all year.
Tara: Every day is an opportunity and for those that don't know Howard Thurman, he is an African American theologian, educator, and was a civil rights leader but an incredible writer. And so I share this with you, the work of Christmas. When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with [00:11:00] their flocks, the work of Christmas begins to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner.
Tara: To rebuild the nations, peace among the people, to make music in the heart. And again, that's The Work of Christmas by Howard Thurman from The Mood of Christmas and other celebrations. That's lovely.
Carolyn: Isn't it? It says it
Tara: all. It does. And I think Thurman for me has been a means of connecting love and Christmas.
Tara: beyond the season of Christmas. Yeah. Do you have any other inspirations? I know that music is a big deal in your life. Mm. Mm hmm. And since Thurman talks about making music of the heart, that made me think of you, actually, Carolyn. [00:12:00]
Carolyn: Well, music has been everything for me, certainly vocal music. I've been a part of Chautauqua Chamber Singers for 45 years, and Serendipity for nine years, and the music that we sing quite often is sacred, is spiritual, and it's, been so much a part of my life.
Carolyn: And the groups that I sing with, again, the sense of community, of being one with a group has made my life really meaningful.
Tara: As we think about Christmas and we think about love today, is there any particular hymn or song that you've been thinking about and maybe singing as you walk around every day?
Carolyn: I can't think of any one because my, head is always full. , of songs. And somebody says one word, and it triggers a song, and so I sing it. I know I drive people crazy, because I'm [00:13:00] always singing. A friend of mine calls it two nets, instead of two rats. Two nets, because something triggers a song, and it's annoying, I'm sure to others, but it's just so much a part of my life.
Carolyn: But anyway, , it's fun for me. I'm sure it's not fun for
Tara: others. Well, I think that's lovely because
Tara: just like you said that, you know, love isn't just for one particular season. And music is that source of inspiration for you all of the time.
Carolyn: Yes, it is.
Tara: So I wonder, Carolyn, is there a message of love or music or word of encouragement you would like to share with our listeners?
Carolyn: Just to be as loving and forgiving and kind as we possibly can.
Carolyn: To all we meet, to reach out to those who have less in any way we can. To love and be loved. Yeah.
Carolyn: Those messages kind of ring in [00:14:00] my heart and mind,
Tara: And so, in this coming season of Christmas wherever this podcast finds you, it's our hope that as you look for the sacred in the everyday, that you would hear these words and know that you are loved.
Tara: That love is with you, and flows through you, and the world needs the love that you have to share. May you be well, may you be at peace, may you know that you are loved, Miss Carolyn, I hope that you know that as well. I do, thank you. And, Merry Christmas to all. And to all, a very good holiday season, full of hope, peace, joy, and love.
. I'm your Holy Shenanigans muse, Tara Lamont Eastman. Thank you for joining us this week for Holy Shenanigans [00:15:00] that surprise, encourage, redirect, and turn life upside down, all in the name of love. This is an unpredictable spiritual adventure that is always sacred, but never stuffy.
Tara: Thanks to Ian Eastman for sound production and editing. Also, thanks to you, HSP listeners for supporting our work with this podcast by way of www. buymeacoffee. com backslash Tara L Eastman