• The toilets in the bathroom are old and in need of replacement. The bid we got was $700 plus per toilet. We decided we would purchase and install them ourselves, which will save us about $2000.
• The reentry team is working to get us back into the church to resume our worship services. I know that many including myself have been waiting for that to occur and are excited that it is finally looking to be reality.
• Jessica and the labyrinth guild have been working diligently to put together something truly magnificent and we approved the landscaping for it. Over the coming years it will become a central focal point of our campus and one we can be proud of.
• We elected a new clerk of the vestry and wish to thank Jill Vaughn for taking on that task
• We were sad to see Maria Eswine and her family leave, but knew it was coming and celebrate that they are moving on to new opportunities
• We have at least one and possibly two openings on the vestry and Karen will be reaching out to some people about fulfilling those rolls moving forward.

We finished the landscaping plan for the labyrinth 

this week, most of the cost covered by our grant 

from St Andrews Saratoga; in the coming days and 

weeks, Susan and Janet and Robin will lay out the 

stencil on the concrete pad and paint it a deep, 

lovely, warm, walkable brown. Next December, we'll 

plant the mostly California native plants around it.

We'll have arcing Palo Verdes and fragrant White Sages, 

like those used by the children who survived 

the unexcavated Sherman Indian School 

in Perris, California (1892 - 1948); blue elderberries, 

like those used by the children who survived 

the unexcavated Fort Bidwell Indian School 

in Fort Bidwell, California (1898 - 1930) and the 

Greenville School & Agency, in the Sierra Nevadas

in Greenville, California (1890 - 1923). One of the

joys of planting California native plants is that they

connect us to the world around us: the history, the 

people who grew and managed them for more than

13,000 years, and who still use the in their daily lives.

They also connect us to the animals, the birds and bugs,

the lizards and varmints who use them as well. These

plants provide us beauty for low water costs, and a 

chance to help our ecosystem in our own small ways.

On months like this, where over a thousand children's

bodies have been excavated from residential Indian

Schools in Canada, what is hard for me about planting

California native plants, is that feeling of connection: to 

the worst parts of our history. These plants' ancestors

were there when parents camped outside of the Fort Bidwell

Indian School, to be closer to their children, trapped inside.

We're planting a Jacaranda, a tall Brazillian tree, with wide,

purple flowers. No Jacarandas were at the schools in

Perris or Greenville, though the grandchildren of the people

who survived those forced boarding schools may grow them

in their yards and gardens; they come with their own histories

and stories, unrelated to this specific earth we share. I don't

know if, when they are excavated, these three California

Indian Boarding Schools will have mass graves on their grounds.

I hope not, for the sake of those who survived them, and their

families. But, at least for me, I find it easier not to look away,

not to ignore the truths about our history in California, about

why our churches have the land and wealth we do, the leisure

I enjoy to write these Friday afternoon poems, I find it easier

to critically understand our shared history on this unceded land,

when I get my hands into the soil, planting useful plants, plants

with local histories, plants who remind me to keep digging, keep

growing, and keep reaching as high as children's dreams can reach.