new day, new blog

can you believe it? i can't. two days in a row writing. who knew it could happen? anyway, last night we had some excitement at our church. part of the gutter along the side of the burned out roof just collapsed and fell to the ground. glad to report no one was underneath it. so today (i hope) the construction folks will come out and take a peek so we can make sure it's all safe. gotta be safe.

all this happened last night right before we were showing the film Black Gold at the church trailer. Good film. Made me happy that i am NOT a coffee drinker. but alas, i love tea, and the issues of fair trade are the same. see the movie. get fair trade coffee at your home or business. it makes a huge difference. we USA folks consume so much without thinking of who produces it and/or what they get paid and if it's fair. time for a change. our church began using Equal Exchange brand... they have an interfaith program and a coffee called "Fellowship Blend." check them out. they also have fair trade tea and chocolate.

okay. can't go on too long. sets up too much expectation for tomorrow. one step at a time.

yeah, write

well, clearly writing in this blog has not been top priority for me lately. understatement. but i'll try again. it's almost september and my children are about to go 'back' to school. really, my oldest is the only one going 'back.' he starts first grade this year. i can't believe it. "believe it, mommy, believe it." that's what he said to me once when he was two years old and i said i couldn't believe how big he was. he'll be in college soon.

my little guys, aidan and mycah, both four are starting K1 this fall. first year in the big kid school. no more daycare/preschool. they really do get big quick. a friend told me this summer that with kids, the days are long, but the years are short. i think so too.

but enough about my kiddos. what about me? well, i'm a bit mad that summer is already over. while i had a vacation, it wasn't enough...are they ever? and i wanted to do more stuff like ride my bike and swim and sit under a tree and do nothing. need to plan more of those things on a regular basis I guess.

so, i feel a bit weird putting all this out into cyberspace and just letting it be. i mean, what if you read this and think, she's not as "cool" or "smart" as she looks or seems to be. welcome to reality. I read a great quote the other day in a book by the wonderful Barbara Brown Taylor. In Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith she tells of her call to a small church in Georgia and her eventual leaving of that congregation. But at the beginning, at her ordination, a mentor tells her that being ordained is not about serving God perfectly, but about serving God visibly, allowing other people to learn whatever they can from watching you rise and fall. He said, "you probably won't be much worse than other people and you certainly won't be any better, but you will have to let people look at you. You will have to let them see you as you are." perhaps this blog is my attempt at that. putting myself 'out there' even more. being more 'visible' and vulnerable in all my blessed weirdness.

well. enough of that for now anyway.

Keeping Up

Anyone else ever have trouble keeping up. Not with 'the Joneses' but just with yourself. We had a wonderful trip to New Orleans, but still feel like I'm running behind since we returned. The situation in NOLA is still rough. Half the population of the city is gone. Habitat is doing good work building houses in the upper 9th ward, but the neighborhood is just desolate. There is much to be done to rebuild the city and even more to remedy the poverty and racism that exists there and in so many other parts of the world. Our church is planning and hoping to have group go down to New Orleans this summer. Maybe July. Anyone want to join us??

Already late

How can I start blogging and two days later already feel "behind." I'm going to New Orleans tomorrow, really early in the morning. Have I packed? No. Have I finished all my church stuff? No. What am I doing now? Blogging. What is wrong with this picture?? Have I fun week. I plan to. Gotta go now.

Ash Wednesday

I have to admit, I have always had a bit of fondness in my heart for Ash Wednesday. Not because it's the beginning of Lent though- I grew up as a Southern Baptist in the South where Lent was that funky thing that Catholics did. I actually liked Ash Wednesday because, well, it could be construed as MY day. "Ash" after all is the beginning of my name and when you're little that's really cool. Kind of like my husband who used to claim that all of the "Lance" brand crackers were his...much to the dismay of his brother and sister. Anyway, now that I've gotten a little older (ha, a lot older) I still like Ash Wednesday. Not because of the name thing anymore, but because it's a kind of solemn day when we can freely admit how messed up we are and how much we really do need God in our lives. Sometimes we really do need the freedom to say we're confused, confounded or just plain dumb. We do things that hurt each other and the world. We need to confess. And I confess that I don't always do that enough. So today, on Ash Wednesday, we get to be as honest as we can stand. We screw up stuff. All the time. But the thing is, even today, when we know we are just dust in the wind--still, God loves us. Sustains us. Forgives us. Dust is God's raw material for creation. Thank God we can be made new.

giving it a try

hey there. i'm a baptist preacherlady in boston and it's about time i started a blog. why not? i need to write more. i've been a bit blocked lately. this might help. or i'll running screaming in the other direction. only one way to find out i guess. stay tuned.