OK, Weirdbird-ites, here’s another doozy for you – the OTHER big pastoral situation on my plate right now.
A woman in our parish, in her early 40s, a mother of two elementary-school sons, is dying of leukemia. She was told about a week ago that there was nothing more the doctors can do. She has a couple of months, maybe. (more…)
I invented this three years ago, I guess, when Zag was six months old and I wanted a Nativity set that was baby-safe, yet not cheesy or sentimental. Also cheap – cheap is good. (more…)
Tonight at dinner Zag was singing softly to himself, a line about going into the temple. He said it was from a song I sing sometimes, though I can’t remember/recognize it, and that it’s about God. Tilt inquired, “Which god?” Zag looked at him sternly and said, “The God we love and serve!”
I swear, we don’t coach him to say stuff like that! I guess Sunday school is working.
A couple of days ago, also over dinner, Zag told me, “You know what?” I said, “What?” He said, “I love you!” I said, “I love you too!” A moment passed. He said, “You know what else?” I said, “What?” He said, ”I love you!”
That’s a winner. He should keep that one.
I’m in the middle of a very short week – two days, Tuesday and Wednesday. Sunday is pretty quiet work-wise, so I have nearly five days off ahead. We’re going down to Cambridge to visit Hogwarts friends a little. When not traveling, I’ll probably continue crafting compulsively…
I need to post about the stuff I’ve been making, but I should take some pictures first. Funny thing is, very little of it is actually directly intended as Christmas presents, though a few things will probably find their way into Christmas boxes. I’m just feeling make-y. Felt softies and random paintings, mostly…
OK, now I need to go have some sort of show with Zag before bedtime. I think it will involve dressing up and acting out a story. We shall see.
Thanks, all, for thoughts on the last post. Helpful, and loving.
Any of my blog readers who were popular in junior high can just skip this post. Go flip through your old yearbooks and bask in memories of your glory days instead, or something.
Zag is singing one of his long complicated original songs. It started, “There’s a song on the Master’s radio about less is more… I don’t know that song, but he’s singing it to you…”
That’s a damn good line. Somebody should use that. (more…)
This morning I wore to church: Black Dansko Mary Janes, black tights, pink above-the-knee skirt (that funky fabric that’s coarsely woven of all different kinds of threads, that they’ve been making women’s suits out of recently), pink wool jacket, black collar shirt. I got LOTS of compliments on my appearance/outfit – easily more than I’ve ever gotten before at church, though they did like the embroidered corduroy jacket my mama got me last month.
I have a hypothesis that they liked seeing me look girly. By which I guess I mean, feminine in a relatively youthful way (short-ish skirt, bright colors).
I could dress like this all the time. I could invest in a couple more skirts and a few more pairs of tights, and keep an eye out for more cute little jackets, and go for more of a Sarah Palin look, you know? (Minus the high heels. And the winking.) I could save the sober gray suits for hospital calls and funerals.
But would that, in the long run, diminish my authority? Is it better to mix it up, look girly-professional sometimes and soberly-professional at other times, so they don’t start to think of me as a girl? Or am I projecting enough authority in other ways (they seem to like my preaching…) that I can afford to ease up a little bit on the image stuff?
I like wearing skirts, as it happens…
In other news, I am enjoying that rare and blessed event, a quiet weekend. Nothing scheduled yesterday, nothing this afternoon, nothing tomorrow – my day off. I am bingeing on art projects.
Since recovering from The Election, we’ve been working on increasing our network. We need local friends who aren’t part of the church, with whom we can fully relax. I signed up for the local La Leche League mailing list, and one friendly member directed me to a Natural Attachment Parenting group, too. And I’m trying to follow up on some contacts we’ve already made with cool-seeming folks hereabouts – especially other parents with young kids, just ‘cos our lives seem most compatible. I’m feeling upbeat about it. (more…)
The Shehecheyanu, which I learned from my friend Rabbi Cherie: Blessed are you, O God, ruler of time and space, who has created us, sustained us, and brought us to this moment.
What else is there to say? (more…)
It’s not even 8:30am yet and I’m already bawling. I’m going to go through a lot of Kleenex in the next 24 hours – whatever happens…
Tilt is out being a poll runner. Zag and I are having a slow morning. We’ll go vote in a while, but I figure I’ll let the people who really need to vote first thing in the morning get it over with, since my schedule is flexible. I’ll try to work a little today – but there’s only so much normalcy you try to accomplish in this kind of kairos moment.
Music for the morning: Beautiful Day, of course; Leonard Cohen’s Democracy; and a strange and wonderful album called Future Soundtrack for America, a MoveOn.org project that we bought at a TMBG concert during the Kerry campaign.
Leonard Cohen sings: ”It’s coming to America first, the cradle of the best and the worst… It’s here we’ve got the range and the machinery for change, and it’s here we’ve got the spiritual thirst.”
… along with pretty much everybody else we know.
In the meantime… I spent some entertaining time last night on Etsy (having exhausted the political blogs), looking at Obama-related merchandise. Favorites (I use the term loosely): Obama santo candle, “Bark Obama” dog sweater pattern, Tofu For Obama, and Barack Obacon. I actually quite like the candle… and I love this, though if I had $250 to spend on a piece of art, I’d by a Greg Morneau painting. (I discovered his work recently at the outstanding cafe Jewell and the Beanstalk.)
On a non-(secular-)political note, my godparents sent me this interdenominational dialogue over dog souls. I wish it had really happened, but it’s still hysterical. I needed a good laugh…