Animal vegetable church

I typed in the 3 required lines and 10 seconds later, I got an email: congratulations you are an ordained minister! And so it was. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, it has come to pass. 

So call me if you want to be wed, baptized, or laid to rest. 

It really is official in seconds with The Universal Life Church. The Universal Life Church claims “we are all children of the same universe.” 

I am now a clergy person, via the internet. This all started because friends asked me to officiate at their wedding. It made me very nervous, but once I got ordained I was motivated! An officiant means “someone such as a priest who officiates at a religious rite.” 

Within this new role, I have the power to start my own church; create good in my community; bless houses, and officiate baby namings, whatever that is. 

I like the idea of house blessings.

I’m excited. I’m ready to serve all the children of the same universe. I’m open to other universes as well.

About a week later, I did my first last rites and burial. How do you ask a hummingbird if it’s dead?

Suddenly it was hanging upside down, toes wrapped around the red footing.
I almost bumped it with my head while watering the garden underneath.

Its eyes were shut, beak closed. Only the wind moved.
It went from blur to stopped.

It passed as fast as it flew. It flew right into the next dimension. 

I waited and then asked quietly, are you ok? No answer. It seemed to be resting in peace.
I gently removed the little bird from the feeder and held it in my palm.
I lightly stroked the shining, flashy feathers on its back

The tiny bird was given a green burial in the compost pile with a single red dahlia. 

I keep being surprised by new discoveries. A few days ago, I walked home, opened the gate onto my porch garden and thought, “looks like an old gardener lives here.” Then it hit me, I’m the old gardener. 

I could start my own church and I have but the only regular attenders are squirrels and blue jays. 

Actually my congregation is growing, there was a pigeon in resting pigeon pose on the grass between the birdbath and the Buddha in the light of the late morning. In the afternoon, I was in the middle of flowers with bumblebees surrounding me. Rather than a congregation, they are technically referred to as a colony. 

Today someone asked me if I knew who my neighbor was and I did and he said he had known him since he was 12. They are both about 60 now. Compliments were shared about this person and he then smiled and said “I just wanted to say his name.”

This had a sense of reverence, divine appreciation, and it showed up and left quickly and noticeably, like a hummingbird.