NaBloPoMo-Day 5: Collecting Sounds

I learned a mindfulness technique earlier this year, in which one is still and listens for ten distinct sounds. It has become my favorite thing to do while waiting. I walk the dogs and collect sounds. I ride the train and scan for conversation, music, train wheels, babies cooing. I sit in doctor's office waiting rooms and collect the sounds around me.I collected sounds as I walked down Michigan Avenue today. I am calmer because of this practice and I know I am less anxious. I love this practice.

NaBloPoMo- Day 4: Just an ordinary day

Like many, many people, I voted today. Like many, I went to work. Like so many, I got a lot done, but none of it was on my to do list.

I didn't get to the gym. I walked the dogs a couple of times. I exchanged texts with our second born. I got to attend four meetings with really wonderful people and we did some pretty creative work. I have some reading to catch up on, some writing that I've put off. I have a great salmon recipe that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I've managed to blog for four days in a row. My sisters-in-law are meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida this week to celebrate a big birthday one of them recently observed.

This is more of a list than a blog post, but it's getting late, and I'll be more inspired tomorrow.

NaBloPoMo: Day 3- Meet George

Here's a story of a trip that ended differently than it began. George is almost nine months old now. He's part Azorean Cattle Dog and part American bulldog. One winter day earlier this year, our daughter and son-in-law, C and B, went to a Golden Retriever adoption event near their home in suburban Cleveland and a small, black puppy caught their eye.

The rescue group that was sponsoring eight week old George talked to C and B about him, and after playing with him for a while, they went home to prepare to be foster parents, with the option to adopt baby George. Everyone got along famously. Fast forward to August, and life has changed a lot. New jobs in a new state for C and B, and George is living at our house while they get settled. It may be a little while...

George is a very active, large puppy these days. We are walking him, playing with him, working on training ourselves and him, and generally having a great time. He's smart and loving and gets along really well with Lucy, our 5 year old Golden. We're not very popular on neighborhood walks right now, as George's aggressive bark is unappealing to joggers, older adults, people who are trying to sleep, squirrels, other dogs, and children and teenagers. We hope that will change.

We're proud, tired grandparents, and we know that C and B miss him very much. We will be glad when they're back together for keeps, but it will be a much quieter and subdued manse when George is back with his folks. In the meantime, we're throwing a lot of tennis balls, talking lots of walks, and are thankful for the time George is hanging out with us.

NaBloPoMo: Day 2-- Sainted Colleagues

It's All Saints' Day. We read the names of church members who had passed away in the previous year. We chose to include their names in the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving, just prior to celebrating communion. It was a pretty moving list... We also included a new little ritual and made prayer flags from strips of fabric. Folks were invited to write names on the fabric pieces. They were collected and strung on a string and the string of prayer flags was hung outdoors from wall to wall on our porte-cochere. It was colorful and animated by the breeze we have today. I hope we did a decent job in worship today remembering the departed. I kept thinking about my parish colleagues this morning. I've been very blessed, most especially over the last eleven years, to work with talented, creative people who are fun and thoughtful and flexible and deeply committed to their work. I have my grave shortcomings. I don't always pace myself well, and then I'm tired and cranky. I want to learn more about the art of coaching, so that I can help train leaders to be even more effective. I want to be more effective. too. I want to help others set their dreams in motion. I have some dreams as well, as does this terrific congregation. In the meantime, it has been a special joy that I do not take for granted, to work with amazing colleagues, past and present. I thank God for Tom and Ashley-Anne and Matt, for Carolyn and Joyce, for Therese and Chris, Marilyn, Alison, Patti and Stephanie, for Kurt, Elaine and Kristene. Thanks, God, for sainted colleagues.

NaBloPoMo- Day One: Of Saints and Sojourners

It's All Saints' Day and it's also the start of National Blog Post Month, and I care about both. November 1 is one of my favorite holidays because I have long loved the notion that "we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses." We are all the sum of our experiences, our genetics, and our relationships. I am so very grateful for the people who have shaped all of those for me. Tomorrow morning in worship we'll attempt to create some space for remembering those we've loved who are part of the Church Triumphant by offering people strips of fabric in autumn colors on which they can write the name or names of those who have died. We'll collect them, and tie the strips to the branches of a shapely, bare tree in the church yard. It'll be a prayer tree. I hope it's well received. There is no shortage of names to write down. I'll likely write down Betsy's name tomorrow. Not a day goes by that I do not recall her smile and zest for living or quote her, recalling her tenacious hold upon recounting that which is of good report. I met Betsy in 2003. She was the clerk of Session at the church I currently serve, and was deeply involved in almost every part of the life of the congregation. She was a dream of a church member and a person who loved deeply. When she passed away, so many women claimed her as their best friend. She made everyone she encountered feel loved. She packed so much living into sixty short years.

There's a hymn that sings of living saints, and I have a slideshow in my head of those folks, too. There's my spouse, who plays with pain every day and works so hard at not letting it interfere with living. There's the woman in Indianapolis who is changing lives every day simply by living out her vow to the rule of St. Benedict. There's my colleague in ministry in New York who has lived the last 40+ years with an abiding concern for the poor and disenfranchised that has transformed thousands of lives. I am so grateful for the journey, and grateful for those whose paths have crossed my own.

Quilt image found here. Path image found here.

Scanning for Goodness

I remember a conversation I had a few years ago with a colleague who is an oncology and neo-natal chaplain. "How do you navigate through such challenging cases?" I asked her. "I try to be a sieve rather than a sponge." What wisdom. Yesterday's sad news from Canada and the ongoing wound that is Ferguson and so many other places remind us that the world is filled with sorrow and pain. Many days I feel like a magnet for the hard news and the sadness that seems to engulf people. I'm trying to be a sieve. I'm heading to the gym today to meet with a trainer and figure out a routine that will kick up (kick in) some mighty fine endorphins. I'm watching those cute panda videos, and I'm making sure to watch Jimmy Fallon's opening monologue (at least). He makes me laugh. I'm taking chances, and listening and engaging with people who might want to tell me something good. It happened last night. My friend and mentor was discussing the cosmos with his godson on Facebook, and I read a line of their conversation that made me smile. The godson referred to a galaxy as a "wallop of stars" and I jumped in and commented. A lovely conversation ensued, and now I'm thinking good thoughts all morning about amazing minds and some of the wonderful uses of technology and social media that allow a deaf young man and two inquisitive pastors to discuss that which amazes. I'm taking to heart paragraphs like this one from the book I'm using as a devotional: "We live in a both/and world. We meditate on the teaching of YHWH, yet we also experience the way of the world upon us... We are at all times the righteous as well as the wicked. We are all sinners seeking righteousness-- that is, seeking to be in right relationship with God, self, and neighbor." (Jann Cather Weaver-p.509) In Mr. Rogers' words, I'm "looking for the helpers." I'm scanning the news for reports of goodness, rather than just the ways we fail one another and cause one another suffering, or the litany of lament that we know by heart. Image from Wikipedia- dwarf galaxy: "a flock of stars"

Habit Forming

Those  who know me well know that I'm trying hard to get back in the habit of blogging. I would welcome any and all suggestions as I try to make this habit stick. Over the years I've written "Morning Pages" a la Julia Cameron, and I've gotten in  the groove with 750words.com, but I'm not doing either of those right now. For me there's a bit of a hurdle to overcome with blogging, because it's so much more public than the Morning Pages or 750words.com. It's that "for public consumption" part that's tripping me up. It feels self-conscious. I wonder how to get over that?

I have some good habits. I have some poor ones. I've broken some poor habits and I've let some good habits slide, too. Several articles on the Web suggest that blogging can help reduce stress. Perhaps that is my hook. I'm walking to reduce stress. I'm paying really close attention to nutrition as another avenue toward alleviating it. I'm watching panda videos, since Good Morning America's health correspondent touts fun panda videos as stress-reducing.

You know this panda video, don't you?