Random Week

All played out... That's how I feel.

Since posting my random 8 it's been a long and random week:

1. I spent most of last weekend covertly looking at the sealed box that arrived via "Muggle Mail" from Amazon.com on Saturday morning. Why didn't I just rip it open immediately and dive into the wizarding world? Because...

2. I preached on Sunday, and many of you know about last minute revising, tweaking, and even - 11th hour inspiration, right???

3. I had 3 other writing projects to finish by Monday - including a final self-evaluation for my CPE program. By 9pm Sunday, they were done - the box was opened and a couple chapters got read before I fell into bed, exhausted.

4. Monday - I started saying goodbye to staff members and some of the regulars in the clinic to whom I've ministered over the past 6 months. I also sent the DH and R off on a train to New Orleans for a church-youth-group-sponsored service trip.

5. Tuesday - All day final CPE group meeting with a potluck lunch, ending with a goodbye ritual planned by two of us. Chalice lighting and anointing were involved - it was brief and ecumenical - followed by hugs all around. Dear Spirit, I'm going to miss these people. Finished HP #7, late at night.

6. Wednesday - A bit of a random scare with a routine annual test. Further testing showed no reason for concern. Whew! Tried all afternoon to get off the dime on my next writing project - my next sermon. No luck. Could go in about three different directions. Chose a couple of readings and drafted the order of service, though, so I guess there was some progress.

7. Thursday - Awakened at about 3am to the sound of a train wreck! Once I was really aware, I figured out that it was just a VERY LOUD thunderstorm. Of course this happens when I have to get up about 2 hours later, because this is my day to spend with my Mom going to her eye specialist. Same old thing - surgery "sort of" recommended, but nothing is dramatically bad. The glaucoma she's been living with for a looooong time is kind of like a mouse with a huge wheel of cheese. The disease nibbles away at her eyesight, bit by bit, but nothing so dramatic that surgery seems necessary. The risk factors so far outweigh the possible benefit. Mom's in no hurry to go under the knife, so we agree to wait some more. On the way home I stop at the outlet mall. I treated myself to new jammies and a quiet cup of coffee alone.

8. Tomorrow - More hours in the hospital, more goodbyes, then I get to spend the weekend with M*. We have tickets for a concert - other than that, our time is unplanned!

(yawn)

**The cats are (above left) Spot, age 11 and (above right) Minnie, age 9. Yes, they are related. Minnie is Spot's aunt... sort of... I think...

Eight Random Things

So, Ms. Kitty tagged me with this meme – and then she took it in the direction of pivotal events in her life that brought her to where she is today. Well. I was first trying to think of what random facts I haven’t shared about myself already that I’m comfortable sharing now. There are a few, and there are a few pivotal events that I don’t think I’ve talked about here either – so my 8 things will be a mix of events and random facts. First, here are the rules:

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Here goes with my random eight...

1. I’m the second only child in my family. Translation: I have one sibling who is 12 years older. I’m closer in age to his eldest child than to him. I think I have some traits of an only child AND some traits of a youngest child. I’ll let you debate which traits those would be.

2. My elementary school was the last two-room school in our state. Being essentially an only child, then being in a school where my entire grade consisted of (usually) 4 or 5 children, really contributed to my soaking up education like a little sponge from an early age! No wonder I…

3. Graduated from high school early. Then it took me 8 years to finish my BA, in psychology, with a certificate in women’s studies. I worked, went to school part-time, got married and stopped going to school for awhile when we moved from one state to another… but I finished!

4. My parents raised my brother and me without benefit of organized religion. If asked, my mother would say we were Methodist. Why Methodist? No idea. Nobody in either extended family is Methodist. I've never even been in a Methodist church. One of life's great mysteries...

5. I was baptized in a Southern Baptist church as a teen. I attended an independent Christian church, and its Christian coffeehouse for teens, regularly through most of high school. (Why? That's where my friends were. Encourage your UU youth to invite their friends to church!)

6. I knit and crochet, though not well. Mostly I knit cotton dishcloths and knit or crochet baby afghans. Anything more complicated than mittens and simple hats is beyond me at this point, and maybe will be forever. I also make beaded jewelry - but only for myself and a few friends.


7. My DH and I traveled in Eastern Europe before we went anywhere else outside the US. We spent three weeks traveling in what was then Yugoslavia in 1983. Somewhere in our photos we have a picture of me standing on the bridge at Mostar, which was destroyed in the latest war (see photo, courtesy of Google images). Serbian journalist Slavenka Drakulic wrote about it, saying that the destruction of this bridge between two different cultures was a sign of a people who have lost all hope for a future.

8. Several years ago I participated in two weekend retreats at Sinsinawa, the mother house for Dominican nuns. The retreats were led by the Rev. Lauren Artress, on labyrinth walking as a spiritual practice. A couple years later I accompanied my DH on a business trip to Paris. We stayed an extra day to make a pilgrimage to Chartres and walk the labyrinth in the cathedral. It was a great experience.

9. I’m a cancer survivor. It’s been seven years. I’m incredibly thankful to be living at a time when the diagnosis isn’t an automatic death sentence – and thankful for good medicine, good doctors, and (especially) good friends who helped us through it. In the words of King Friday XIII, “Life is good.”

10. Four years ago, I went on a week-long Buddhist retreat (at Green Lake Conference Center, Ms. Kitty!) which was truly a treat – listening to the venerable Thich Nhat Hanh's dharma talks each morning, and participating in small group activities in the afternoon. I’d been meditating regularly for almost 3 years at that point. While on retreat, I formally took refuge and the mindfulness trainings, though I was clear in my own mind that I wasn’t able to live them fully! I still try to recite the trainings each month, even though I haven’t been to sangha for over a year. (Seminary is time consuming.)

Now - There are folks I'd like to tag, but some are busy moving - and some have private blogs. So, I'm tagging the following people with this meme:

Every 7th Day
Lizard Eater
JulieAnn
Bridget Jones Goes to Seminary
CUUMBAYA
beyond assumptions
Rev. Ricky
Trivium

Spirit Speaks, and Moves, and Manifests

Is God Still Speaking?

This is kind of like Carnival without Carnival… Peacebang started the discussion, Lizard Eater and Jamie at Trivium continued it. I go to seminary with a whole bunch of folks who believe God is, and is still speaking – I attend a UCC seminary. And I love the Gracie Allen quote that goes with it, by the way: "One should never place a period where God placed a comma."

I struggle with the concept of God, myself. Anyone who’s read any of this blog before knows that. Religious naturalism, which seems to be the theological position I resonate best with, encompasses both theistic and non-theistic stances. I don’t talk much about God – because I don’t know what God is. I’m more comfortable with Spirit.

If Spirit is what we’re talking about, this is what I understand of Spirit:

Spirit speaks in the hospital hallways and rooms, the clinic treatment areas, the staff meetings. People think Spirit lives in the Meditation Chapel, but Spirit lives in everyone, and speaks in our interactions with each other. Spirit stays close to the Emergency Department, and sustains the staff there who see the bloody aftermath of accidents, fights, all kinds of human misery. Spirit is always in the hospice area – there should be a place to leave one’s shoes when one enters there because it’s truly holy ground.

Spirit speaks in schools where teachers try to teach every child to think, and question; Spirit speaks in our churches when we open our hearts and minds and hands to each other and to the greater community; Spirit moves in our communities when we listen to each other and work for the greater good.

Spirit speaks to us individually in the still, small voice of the Inner Light of the Friend – and the No Mind of the Buddhist. Spirit manifests whenever one of us gently says, “I’d rather not hear an ethnic/a gay/a blonde joke,” or any other sort of joke that plays on mean stereotypes. Spirit manifests when we open up beyond where we thought our limits were, and learn we can be more inclusive, more tolerant, more loving. Spirit also manifests when we know our limits and are able to know when those limits are from fear – and when they are from knowing that something truly wrong or evil lies beyond them. Spirit manifests in the demonstrations for justice, and the voices of young adults who ask for more meaningful worship. Spirit manifests in deep knowing – and in the call to ministry.

Spirit is perverted when people motivated by greed, revenge, tribalism, hatred, patriotism, or plain evil uses sacred scriptures or rituals for their own purposes. Spirit is perverted when sacred scriptures or rituals are used to draw lines to close others out.

Spirit flows through all, Spirit lives in all, Spirit is the ultimate power of creativity.

Rehydration

original photo by M*

Parched ground, dead grass, well’s running dry
Me too, but I keep moving.

I carry with me:
The woman fighting an insatiable disease
Tiny bodies in the morgue
The man moaning in the room down the hall

Chaplains don’t often see the happy people,
the healthy babies,
the people who have been physically healed.

I also carry:
Frustrations with my religious communities
My own private fears
Concern for loved ones

I need to find my “juice,” what some call living water.

I walk into the hospice. There is an old woman in the bed, dying. I chat with her family, and the woman wakes up. I’m startled. She is lovely – her face, shining and happy. She reaches out to take my hand, and I introduce myself. She surprises me by kissing my hand. She puts my hands together, between hers. I ask if she wants to pray, she smiles and nods. We pray together, and she kisses my hands again. She looks out the window, smiles and gestures at the bright blue sky. I tell her it’s a beautiful day. She smiles and gestures again. I ask, “What are you seeing?” She just blinks at me, smiles, and kisses my hand again. She is dying, but full of life. Once again, I want to kick off my shoes.

I may have found the well.
For this, I am grateful.

Random word play

image acquired via Google images

Though I'm certainly not perfect when it comes to grammar, I enjoy words and playing with them. I was pleased to listen to a mystery recently that included a bit of word play. The book is Invisible Prey by John Sandford, if anyone wants to look it up. I don't have the exact quote in front of me - I listened to it, I didn't read it.

It's really just a throwaway line - one police officer observes to another that the three local papers had stories about their current case. One noted that arrests were imminent, another that arrests were eminent, and the third that arrests were immanent. The main character observes that one should never, ever trust a spell-checker...

Literate mysteries make me smile!

Oh, the places I've been...

Counting states I've just driven through, but not those I've just changed planes in...



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

And - counting even the countries I've only stopped in for flight transfers...



create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Yes, I have a ways to go before I hit 100+ countries, as some acquaintances have!

And today my family & I are off to this resort, where this event is happening this week. Upside = seeing friends I only see once a year; downside = it's very close to home and I still have to leave two days to do CPE hours...

Au revoir!