Thursday, February 18, 2010
Ash Wednesday
Usually at the end of the imposition of ashes, I ask the last person to mark my forehead with ashes. Last night, as I was in the pantry finding napkins, a boy (I think he's five) rushed in and began to talk about getting ashes. Are we going to get crosses on our foreheads? Yes. Can I help. Of course. So, I had he and his brother come up and marked them first and then I knelt down and let them put ashes on my forehead. Words fail me.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Friday Five
From Sally and RebGalBlogPals
Candlemass is past, and Christmas is well and truly over, here in the UK February looks set to be its usual grey and cold self. Signs of spring are yet to emerge; if like me you long for them perhaps you need ways to get through these long dark days. So lets share a few tips for a cold and rainy/ snowy day....
1. Exercise, what do you do if you can't face getting out into the cold and damp?
I have a bowflex and so I go upstairs and use it as a stationary rowing machine. Yesterday, I just punted. It was raining, cold and I was feeling tired and listless. Today, I'm putting off my run out of sheer procrastination. After this, I'm off.
2. Food; time to comfort eat, or time to prepare your body for the coming spring/summer?
I liked MaryBeth's answer (sorry, it's really hard for me to link on this blog host). Preparing for the rest of my life. I'm dieting right now. Started on Monday. I do feel better. I'm tired of being overweight. Losing a bit will help my running, too. I'm trying to concentrate on eating what is good for me and avoiding the bad. I'm struggling with how to approach the upcoming SuperBowl party I'm invited to. I've got some strategies planned.
3. Brainpower; do you like me need to stave off depression, if so how do you do it?
Ugh, depression. I try to get outside everyday that it is sunny and walk a bit. It's certainly easier in Memphis than in Cleveland. Lots more sun here, lot shorter winter. I'm journaling and meditating regularly and that helps, too.
4. How about a story that lifts your spirits, is there a book or film that you return to to stave off the gloom? Nope.
5. Looking forward, do you have a favourite spring flower/ is there something that says spring is here more than anything else? In Memphis, spring comes about two months earlier than in Cleveland. Forsythia and quince are really pre spring flowers. My camillas are blooming and I love it, but it's winter. The spring flowers I love are tulips, but by the time they bloom, it's been spring for a while. My daffodils are springing up. So, I'd have to say daffodils are the real signs of spring for me.
Bonus; post a poem/ piece of music that points to the coming spring......
I'm not much of a poem, music person.
Candlemass is past, and Christmas is well and truly over, here in the UK February looks set to be its usual grey and cold self. Signs of spring are yet to emerge; if like me you long for them perhaps you need ways to get through these long dark days. So lets share a few tips for a cold and rainy/ snowy day....
1. Exercise, what do you do if you can't face getting out into the cold and damp?
I have a bowflex and so I go upstairs and use it as a stationary rowing machine. Yesterday, I just punted. It was raining, cold and I was feeling tired and listless. Today, I'm putting off my run out of sheer procrastination. After this, I'm off.
2. Food; time to comfort eat, or time to prepare your body for the coming spring/summer?
I liked MaryBeth's answer (sorry, it's really hard for me to link on this blog host). Preparing for the rest of my life. I'm dieting right now. Started on Monday. I do feel better. I'm tired of being overweight. Losing a bit will help my running, too. I'm trying to concentrate on eating what is good for me and avoiding the bad. I'm struggling with how to approach the upcoming SuperBowl party I'm invited to. I've got some strategies planned.
3. Brainpower; do you like me need to stave off depression, if so how do you do it?
Ugh, depression. I try to get outside everyday that it is sunny and walk a bit. It's certainly easier in Memphis than in Cleveland. Lots more sun here, lot shorter winter. I'm journaling and meditating regularly and that helps, too.
4. How about a story that lifts your spirits, is there a book or film that you return to to stave off the gloom? Nope.
5. Looking forward, do you have a favourite spring flower/ is there something that says spring is here more than anything else? In Memphis, spring comes about two months earlier than in Cleveland. Forsythia and quince are really pre spring flowers. My camillas are blooming and I love it, but it's winter. The spring flowers I love are tulips, but by the time they bloom, it's been spring for a while. My daffodils are springing up. So, I'd have to say daffodils are the real signs of spring for me.
Bonus; post a poem/ piece of music that points to the coming spring......
I'm not much of a poem, music person.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Connections
What I like about being a Presbyterian is the connectionalism. I love that there is support out there for us. I like that there is guidance and discipline. I like that there are boundaries. Most of all I like the connections. I'm an introvert and so having a structure for me to make friends in is good for me. And that's what I find missing in my presbytery. It is dysfunction. There are no committees beyond the required ones. I actually am on one of the required committees but the moderator manages not to notify me of meetings. (There is a different excuse each time. Mostly he can't seem to get my email address right, doesn't notice that the email gets bounced back and doesn't care. The fact that it's Bills and Overtures and I'm the only lefty on the committee may be a part of it.) Meetings are dreadful. Boring. In other presbyteries, there was always the carrot of seeing friends, of making new connections, of being involved in creative endeavors. Perhaps that one of the things I miss most: being part of a creative team.
What I like about the web is the connectionalism. I've met people blogging, reconnected with old friends, made new friends. But the web misses the human touch of sitting across the table from someone sharing a meal. It misses having coffee with someone. It misses the long wandering two way conversation. It's cold. Human touch is warm.
What I like about the web is the connectionalism. I've met people blogging, reconnected with old friends, made new friends. But the web misses the human touch of sitting across the table from someone sharing a meal. It misses having coffee with someone. It misses the long wandering two way conversation. It's cold. Human touch is warm.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Thanks for all the suggestions about movies for Lent.
I made it safely home from Nashville and the ACPE. The roads were mostly good. There were patches where there was a lot of uncleared snow. Interestingly, the roads outside of Nashville were really good. From Jackson to Memphis, the roads worsened. Bridges east of Memphis were quite icy and a bit scary.
No church today. I had planned to recycle my neutral pulpit sermon from my first call. (Southern churches apparently call without hearing the person preach in person.) So, I'm thinking I'll save that one and go with the lectionary for next Sunday.
When the worship planning group met, the worship moderator said that she really liked the prayers we use. The custom had been for the liturgist to write the prayers. I use Lavon Baylor's books (which I note in the bulletin). I said that I do give the liturgist the option to write the prayers. I was really surprised. I don't have the gift of writing liturgy; I'm not very poetical and I think one needs to be poetical to write good liturgy. I see it as a waste of my time when there is so much better stuff out there written by people who have those gifts. (I don't always use Baylor; sometimes I use other stuff.) I love finding good liturgy on the web and I so appreciate people who post their services and their liturgical ideas. Thank you.
I'm really excited about our Lenten series. I love movies and I hope people will come and watch them. I'd love to have discussions about them, but this congregations doesn't seem interested in talking about movies (or sermons for that matter), at least among themselves or with me.
I made it safely home from Nashville and the ACPE. The roads were mostly good. There were patches where there was a lot of uncleared snow. Interestingly, the roads outside of Nashville were really good. From Jackson to Memphis, the roads worsened. Bridges east of Memphis were quite icy and a bit scary.
No church today. I had planned to recycle my neutral pulpit sermon from my first call. (Southern churches apparently call without hearing the person preach in person.) So, I'm thinking I'll save that one and go with the lectionary for next Sunday.
When the worship planning group met, the worship moderator said that she really liked the prayers we use. The custom had been for the liturgist to write the prayers. I use Lavon Baylor's books (which I note in the bulletin). I said that I do give the liturgist the option to write the prayers. I was really surprised. I don't have the gift of writing liturgy; I'm not very poetical and I think one needs to be poetical to write good liturgy. I see it as a waste of my time when there is so much better stuff out there written by people who have those gifts. (I don't always use Baylor; sometimes I use other stuff.) I love finding good liturgy on the web and I so appreciate people who post their services and their liturgical ideas. Thank you.
I'm really excited about our Lenten series. I love movies and I hope people will come and watch them. I'd love to have discussions about them, but this congregations doesn't seem interested in talking about movies (or sermons for that matter), at least among themselves or with me.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Help
I am thinking of doing a movie series for Lent. I'd show a movie and then use it in the sermon.
So, here are the themes I'm thinking of
First Sunday in Lent: Gratitude (Deut 26:1-11)
Second Sunday: Questioning (Genesis 15:1-12; 17-18)
Third Sunday: Feasting (Isaiah 55:1-9)
Fourth Sunday: Forgiveness/Reconciliation Luke 15:11-32 (prodigal sons/gracefilled father)
Fifth Sunday Transformation (Isaiah 43:16-21)
So, I need movies to go with these. It doesn't have to be the entire movie--just something in the movie that relates to the theme. I looked on www.textweek.com but they don't have any recent movies. It looks like people stopped posting ideas for movies in the early aughts.
I would really appreciate any help you can give me.
So, here are the themes I'm thinking of
First Sunday in Lent: Gratitude (Deut 26:1-11)
Second Sunday: Questioning (Genesis 15:1-12; 17-18)
Third Sunday: Feasting (Isaiah 55:1-9)
Fourth Sunday: Forgiveness/Reconciliation Luke 15:11-32 (prodigal sons/gracefilled father)
Fifth Sunday Transformation (Isaiah 43:16-21)
So, I need movies to go with these. It doesn't have to be the entire movie--just something in the movie that relates to the theme. I looked on www.textweek.com but they don't have any recent movies. It looks like people stopped posting ideas for movies in the early aughts.
I would really appreciate any help you can give me.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Travel--The Friday Five made for me
Songbird gives us this Friday Five:
By the time you're reading this, I'll be en route to a Great Big City to see my son in a play. I'll go by car and bus and train and no doubt cab and maybe even subway. Thus, our Friday Five.
1) What was the mode of transit for your last trip?
I'm in Cleveland for my oncology check up. (I expect it to go well). Came by plane.
2) Have you ever traveled by train?
Last summer I took an overnight train from Turpan to Dunhuang in western China. It was a hoot. Fortunately, we didn't have to share our compartment. The train folks would come by, asking for something and we would have no idea what they wanted. The train arrived about an hour earlier than we had been told and so we had to rush around getting dressed and getting our luggage together. Our destination was the last stop, so at least we didn't have to worry about missing the stop. The trip was through desolate (unbelieveably desolate) countryside. We saw military vehicles headed to Xinjiang province (where we had just come from) to suppress the "insurrection" and to make sure everyone knew that the Han Chinese were in charge.
3) Do you live in a place with public transit, and if so, do you use it? Memphis has no public transit to speak of. Just buses. When I was in the Bay area, I occasionally took the ferry or BART, but not often. When I lived in Cleveland, I often commuted to work on the Rapid Transit.
4) What's the most unusual vehicle in which you've ever traveled? Sooner or later on some trip I am pushed to get on some form of animal. I do not ride animals. I've been on an elephant and a camel and took a mule to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Not a vehicle, though. I've ridden in the back of a truck along a dirt track with pigs and chickens in Nicaragua for five hours. I've done several hot air balloon rides. I've flown a plane without throwing up (never soloed, though).
5) What's the next trip you're planning to take? Well, my next trip is to APCE next week. But then I have three trips planned for this year which I'm really excited about. Sometime in the summer, I'm planning to fly to Dubvornik Croatia, rent a car, travel to Montenegro, maybe Sarajevo, up the coast and then drop the car at Ljubjana. In the early fall, I'm planning a trip to Bhutan with a stop over in Bangkok. Then at Thanksgiving, I'm planning to go to Ethiopia. I'm planning to raft the Blue Nile (rafted the White in Jan 08 and survived), and see the rock churches in Lalibelia and the monasteries and other stuff in Axum. I'm hoping to get to one of the national parks to see the animals. I think my next goal is to white water raft on all the continents. I've done North America, Africa and Asia. I suppose white water in Antarctica might be a little difficult. I'm not sure there is white water in Australia either, though there is in New Zealand.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Friday Five: Trains, Planes and Automobiles
1) What was the mode of transit for your last trip?
I'm in Cleveland for my oncology check up. (I expect it to go well). Came by plane.
2) Have you ever traveled by train?
Last summer I took an overnight train from Turpan to Dunhuang in western China. It was a hoot. Fortunately, we didn't have to share our compartment. The train folks would come by, asking for something and we would have no idea what they wanted. The train arrived about an hour earlier than we had been told and so we had to rush around getting dressed and getting our luggage together. Our destination was the last stop, so at least we didn't have to worry about missing the stop. The trip was through desolate (unbelieveably desolate) countryside. We saw military vehicles headed to Xinjiang province (where we had just come from) to suppress the "insurrection" and to make sure everyone knew that the Han Chinese were in charge.
3) Do you live in a place with public transit, and if so, do you use it? Memphis has no public transit to speak of. Just buses. When I was in the Bay area, I occasionally took the ferry or BART, but not often. When I lived in Cleveland, I often commuted to work on the Rapid Transit.
4) What's the most unusual vehicle in which you've ever traveled? Sooner or later on some trip I am pushed to get on some form of animal. I do not ride animals. I've been on an elephant and a camel and took a mule to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Not a vehicle, though. I've ridden in the back of a truck along a dirt track with pigs and chickens in Nicaragua for five hours. I've done several hot air balloon rides. I've flown a plane without throwing up (never soloed, though).
5) What's the next trip you're planning to take? Well, my next trip is to APCE next week. But then I have three trips planned for this year which I'm really excited about. Sometime in the summer, I'm planning to fly to Dubvornik Croatia, rent a car, travel to Montenegro, maybe Sarajevo, up the coast and then drop the car at Ljubjana. In the early fall, I'm planning a trip to Bhutan with a stop over in Bangkok. Then at Thanksgiving, I'm planning to go to Ethiopia. I'm planning to raft the Blue Nile (rafted the White in Jan 08 and survived), and see the rock churches in Lalibelia and the monasteries and other stuff in Axum. I'm hoping to get to one of the national parks to see the animals. I think my next goal is to white water raft on all the continents. I've done North America, Africa and Asia. I suppose white water in Antarctica might be a little difficult. I'm not sure there is white water in Australia either, though there is in New Zealand.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Friday Five
In EFM this week, our question was, "If you were a color, what would you be?" So that's where this Friday Five comes from, at least its jumping off place.
1. If you were a color, what would you be? Red, firey, passionate red. Though blue is my favorite color: the color of the sky and water. I love green too: the color of grass and trees. And the inside of my house is bright cheery yellos.
2. If you were a flower (or plant), what would you be? I'm not sure. There are flowers I love: tulips, roses, camillas, jasmine, gardenias. Actually I love all flowers, now that I think about it. But what would I be? I think wisteria: climbing and stubborn and very difficult to get rid of (and it may also be poisonous).
3. If you were an animal, what kind would you be? Probably an elephant: stomping in everywhere and hard to miss.
4. If you were a shoe, what type would you be? I'm a barefoot girl. No shoes at all.
5. If you were a typeface, which font would you be? Old, common, servicable Palatino.
Bonus: Anything connected with metaphors that you'd like to contribu
1. If you were a color, what would you be? Red, firey, passionate red. Though blue is my favorite color: the color of the sky and water. I love green too: the color of grass and trees. And the inside of my house is bright cheery yellos.
2. If you were a flower (or plant), what would you be? I'm not sure. There are flowers I love: tulips, roses, camillas, jasmine, gardenias. Actually I love all flowers, now that I think about it. But what would I be? I think wisteria: climbing and stubborn and very difficult to get rid of (and it may also be poisonous).
3. If you were an animal, what kind would you be? Probably an elephant: stomping in everywhere and hard to miss.
4. If you were a shoe, what type would you be? I'm a barefoot girl. No shoes at all.
5. If you were a typeface, which font would you be? Old, common, servicable Palatino.
Bonus: Anything connected with metaphors that you'd like to contribu
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
