Sunday, July 7, 2024
Lead Teacher: Brad Ruggles (he/him), our lead teacher, is a former pastor that deconstructed and later left the faith he was raised in after 18 years in ministry. He and his wife Lisa enjoy adventuring and traveling with their two adult daughters. Brad’s interests are diverse and include backpacking, meditation, breathwork, yoga, sport kiting, and photography.
Musicians: Ruth and Max Bloomquist have played for us often over many years. Ruth and Max have been making music together since they met in 1975 and discovered their shared love not only for each other, but for music and songs made with acoustic instruments and featuring lyrics from the heart. Ruth and Max immersed themselves in folk, bluegrass, country, singer songwriters, and other acoustic music to create a sound and style all their own.
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Music: Ruth and Max Bloomquist
Gathering Host: Valerie Engeltjes
Music: Ruth and Max Bloomquist
Meditation: Karri Absenger
Moment of Silence
Reading/Teaching: Brad Ruggles
“Life rarely unfolds exactly as we want it to. And if we stop and think about it, that makes perfect sense. The scope of life is universal, and the fact that we are not actually in control of life’s events should be self-evident. The universe has been around for 13.8 billion years, and the processes that determine the flow of life around us did not begin when we were born, nor will they end when we die. What manifests in front of us at any given moment is actually something truly extraordinary—it is the end result of all the forces that have been interacting together for billions of years.”
– Michael Singer, The Surrender Experiment
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
– Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
Music: Ruth and Max Bloomquist
Gathering Host: Valerie Engeltjes
Music: Ruth and Max Bloomquist
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