allie is my friend

hi all

allie is getting me back online....go allie. i hope this works!!!!!
wow. two years to the day!

summertime

why is it that every summer i try to blog again? don't know, but here goes. perhaps if just write here, it will be easier in other areas of my life...like sermons. we'll see. i'm back from vacation and beginning to sermonize this week, so i hope this helps. i'm reading a good book called "Leaders who Last" by Margaret Marcuson. it applies family systems work to church leadership and does a good job of making it accessible. thanks margaret. i recommend it to all pastors. let's see. i think one of the reasons it is hard for me to write here is that when i start, i always feel like i should be doing something else, like writing the way overdue annual report, for example, or the newsletter. hmm. perhaps this is just another way of not using my time productively. ah the protestant work ethic alive and well.

bare necessities

tonight as i sit briefly at the computer, my children are singing along with baloo and mowgli. so what is really necessary in life? if this story has anything to say about it, friends are pretty important. i think i've been feeling a bit isolated from my friends lately. i've got a lot of friends, but folks are so spread out around the world that i don't get to see folks as often as i'd like. even my friends who are close by it seems are far away. i think we all get so busy we think we don't have time to keep up with one another. trouble is, when we realize all our busy-ness is not fulfilling, then we've lost touch with the folks who can remind us who we really are.

life is short. i am so thankful for the friends in my life who remind me that i'm loved and not alone.

she lives

hi all
don't really know if anyone is out there...but here i go again....

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??