My Visit with annie

I met my good friend annie on the Wider Universalist yahoo group about two years or so ago. She is the co-owner of our little group of heretics…..Emerging Universalist. In spite of the fact that she lives in St. Louis and I live in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, we have managed to get together three times for a visit. Her husband’s job has taken him to Philadelphia. Whether it is a permanent thing or not remains to be seen so she has not actually moved there with him. They have been living apart for nine months. When she comes to Philadelphia to spend a few weeks with him we get together. Twice she and Jim have come here to my home (a four hour drive for them) because of commitments I had with the kids etc. This time we met about half way at a state park in a little town called White Haven…..a little “don’t blink or you’ll miss it” town somewhere in the Poconos. It took 3 tries to find a park with a shaded picnic area. There were three parks in a ten or fifteen mile radius. We found one called Hickory something or other. Small lake….shade….not really crowed….picnic tables. We got settled at one of them and then it started to rain….into the car we went until the rain stopped….then back out again and not long after we got settled with a light lunch of Sam’s Buffalo Chicken and grapes, it started to storm. Off in the distance at first so we sat there till the lightening started to seem really threatening. We ended up stopping for coffee and dessert in this little “honkey tonk” inn right outside of town. Our waitress/bartender was very nice….made two pots of fresh coffee (regular and decaf) and the desserts were homemade and very good.

I am exceedingly grateful for annie on this spiritual journey I am on. Although she has been a Christian for years and years….and was raised a universalist, this path (Girard, nonviolent atonement, nonviolence) is new to her too….and actually is leading her in a totally opposite direction on some issues than what she has believed for a long, long time. She is a compass for me….since I came to Christianity late in life and do not have as thorough an understanding of scripture etc. I fell into some of these doctrines and beliefs (like UR) simply because I was too ignorant about verses that supossedly disprove it (but which on closer examination really do not…..like The Rich Man and Lazarus parable and some of the warnings of Jesus etc.) I have ferreted out some of these things on the internet ….but she has added her insights (which are always profound) and the things I am learning and reading and pondering go from two dimensional to three many times because of what she has said. We see many things the same way…which is a great blessing since this is not a well traveled path…and fellow travelers are rare :)