Leaping

"Life is, after all, a series of leaps of faith." I just read this in the book I'm currently working my way through, and it struck me. As what? Well, I'm not sure how it struck me exactly, just that it did. How often do I leap? Do I ever? I'm sure I must sometimes, but I like the familiar. I like the comfortable, and even though I think I frequently try to expand the boundaries of my comfort zone I wonder if I ever just leap and trust that God will be with me in that leap? Maybe I should do this more often. Maybe I should be more trusting, both of myself and of God.

Flabbergasted

I just went searching for an out of print commentary on Matthew, written by one of my favorite seminary professors. The least expensive copy I found was $45, the most expensive $132. All I can say is Wow. And that I won't be buying a copy any time soon. Sadness.

Friday Five--Fall is Here

As this vivid season begins, tell us five favorite things about fall:

1) A fragrance
It's probably not environmentally friendly, but I like the smell of wood smoke. Not forest fire smoke, just the smell of a campfire or wood stove.

2) A color
The gorgeous fuchsia some of of the leaves turn.

3) An item of clothing
Sweaters! I love the return of sweater season!

4) An activity
"Fun Fall Thing" which in my family really just means roasting hot dogs and marshmallows in the back yard. Oh, and jumping in leaf piles! My parents have 4 huge maples in their yard (and 5 when we were growing up), so we always had plenty of leaves to rake and play in.

5) A special day
This year my youngest niece is being baptized on October 5th, and I'm her godmother, so that's a special Fall day I'm definitely looking forward to.

Funny

aries (Mar. 21st-Apr. 20th)
Secret affairs will lead to disaster if you don't control the situation. Shakespeare wasn't making this s*** up, you know.

Huh. I don't generally read my horoscope (there are so many, how can it all come "true?"), but I read this one while I was reading through something else this morning. Doesn't really say anything, does it? And yet it cracked me up. If only I HAD a secret affair, disaster or no! :-)

Veggie Tales

My sister and youngest niece came to town yesterday. We had lunch and then went to see Veggie Tales Live. It was a lot of fun, the 2 year old clapped and danced and sang along, she was really cute to watch. We were a little worried that the 8 foot tall Larry the Cucumber might freak her out, but she did really well. Mom and auntie clapped and danced and sang along, too. After the events of the last week, I really needed the afternoon away. It was a nice way to spend some time, I got to hang out with 2 of my favorite people, and I got to be away from the church for awhile. Yay for the veggies!

Better

Last night's crying jag was actually really cathartic. Not exactly happy about being called mean and uncaring in a situation that is not my fault, but apparently I was long over due for a release of emotions. Of course, today I had a bit of an emotional hangover, but things were much clearer this morning when I woke up, and I'm feeling much better today. Things will continue to be awkward and uncomfortable at church for awhile, and the drama keeps unfolding on a day-by-day and sometimes minute-by-minute basis, but I things will get better eventually, and there have been positive moments in the whole mess, so that's been something. Now I'm just hoping that the skunk of last night doesn't decide to make another appearance since I spent the majority of the night breathing in that lovely aroma, even after closing all of the windows.

Mean

Apparently I'm not nice. It's been commented on twice in the last couple of days, over things that I thought I was trying really hard to be pastoral about. Having flashbacks to internship where I kept being told I was "cold, stand-offish, and a bitch." Apparently I'm just not nice.

Rally Day

It was a crazy and fun day at church today. SP and I did a puppet show during both services that led into the sermon. It was a dialog between the puppets and SP, and then I kept referring to it in the sermon like the puppets are real people. Which, of course, to me, they are. Hopefully no one thinks I'm too crazy! Between services we kicked off Sunday School, Confirmation, and Adult Forum. Sunday School registration went better than I expected, which was a relief. It was mass chaos, but I'd pretty much figured that would be the case. We had a good group of kids, and we almost, finally, have enough teachers, which is another relief. In the meantime the Confirmation kids were in the narthex playing the knot game, being forced to mingle, but looking like they were having a good time. After 2nd service we had a big picnic with a tent, live music, a big blow up slide, a bounce house and games put on by the Youth Group. I jumped in the bounce house with 3 little girls and had a great time, although now my legs hurt! I also got my face painted. It was a good day, which was nice, because it was a hectic and stressful week for a lot of reasons I can't really go into yet. It was nice to just be outside and chat with people in a casual and fun environment.

Wedding

I did my first wedding today. It was lovely. We were hoping that the rain would hold off, which it did until right as the attendants were coming down the aisle. Then it sprinkled for the entire ceremony. And quit right after the ceremony was over. Ironic. Fortunately it never rained hard, so we were able to do the service outside as planned. Oh, and I forgot the unity candle part of the service even though I had it written down in my hymnal. Just looked right past it. So I felt bad, but the good part was that it cut about 5 minutes out of the ceremony that could have been spent in the rain. They just did the candle later when they were cutting the cake and doing toasts. So, not perfect, but not bad, either. I'm grateful that the first wedding I did was for a couple with whom I have a bit of a connection, and a family that I really like. The bride and groom were both pretty laid back and didn't stress too much over the details of the day, which was nice to experience, especially since I was nervous about the first one. I had really weird anxiety dreams last night, but fortunately the reality was much better than the crazy world of my subconscious.

Turquoise

I got a new cell phone recently. The old one had been dropped a few too many times and was starting to come apart a bit. The new phone is cute. Turquoise. It was sitting on the coffee table the other day along with my ipod and I realized that they're pretty much the same color. The ipod is a little more green-y, but they're both turquoise. Then I started noticing the color all over. Big tapestry in my living room, pillows on the couch, several articles of clothing, one of the colors in the comforter on my bed, etc. I knew all of these things were turquoise, but I guess I'd never stopped to realize how prevalent the color seems to be in my life right now. Blue has always been my favorite color, but it used to be navy blue. Now I seemed to have moved on. This post really has no point other than to say "huh." And to procrastinate on working on the sermon of course. :-)

Sunday School & Confirmation & Youth Group, Oh My!

This Sunday is Rally Day here (and a lot of other places, too, I know), so as the staff person who is "in charge" of these things I've been working on getting things set up. Meetings with teachers and figuring out schedules, meeting with the Senior Pastor, etc. Overall I'd say it's going pretty well. And yet I keep having waves of panic strike at various moments. It's my first year, and I'm not sure what I'm doing a lot of the time, but I have good people that I'm working with, and for the most part I think everything will be fine. Doesn't shut up that voice in the back of my head that keeps whispering about failure, though. So I'll do a puppet show on Sunday and preach about Rally Day and upcoming ministries and register kiddos for Sunday School and Confirmation, and go to a picnic, do what I can to make the day and the education year the best it can be. Wish me luck!