Set Free

Friday Five: Time for Palms

As posted by Mother Laura at RevGalBlogPals:

here's a Friday Five about time and transitions....

1. If you could travel to any historical time period, which would it be, and why?

Ah, that's a big question for a retired English and History double major. But at this time of year it would have to be first century Galilee, in a hope of finding out more about what really happened. Would I have the courage to take the walk to Jerusalem?

2. What futuristic/science fiction development would you most like to see?

Anything but time travel.

3. Which do you enjoy more: remembering the past, or dreaming for the future?

Definitely dreaming for the future.

4. What do you find most memorable about this year's Lent?

The factors beyond my control that affected my Lenten practice, and a retooling to learn from them (weather, back problems leading to numb hands, changes in the family schedule among them).

5. How will you spend your time during this upcoming Holy Week?  What part do you look forward to most?

I'll spend a lot of it at church! This will be my last week there (I'll return to pack up on the Tuesday after Easter, but Easter Sunday will be my final real day of work.) I also have a meeting directly pertaining to possible new church locations, so there is an element of looking ahead as well as finishing up.

I'll also try to find time for my incoming husband (due this evening, but I'll feel better when I receive confirmation by phone this afternoon), my homecoming 17-year-old, say goodbye to #1 Son as he returns to school and say my goodbyes at Main Street Church. There will be a lot of emotional transition, and while I don't want to compare myself to Jesus, it will be on my mind that he went through that week with the subtext of oncoming farewells and the new relationship on the horizon.

Friday Five: Signs of Hope, Signs of Spring

(As posted by Sally at RevGalBlogPals)

It has been a difficult week here in Dowham Market, and yet in the sadness there have been signs of real hope, young people, often criticised have shown us how caring and amazing they are. It has also been a strange week; it snowed for almost the first time this winter, and yet many of the spring bulbs are blooming, and the trees are blossoming!

I believe that if we look carefully we can see signs of hope all around us.... as for signs of spring... well you tell me....

Bluebells in my garden, before the snow!

What have you seen/ heard this week that was a :

1. Sign of hope?

Pure Luck has been away for work since February 12th, not all that long but a time filled with storms in need of shoveling and some stress around Molly Dog's lameness and possible medical treatments or lack, thereof. It was a sign of hope to discover I was confused about the length of this job and he will likely be home a week earlier than I had thought.

2. An unexpected word of light in a dark place?

I'm struggling with some of the feelings raised by this life change I'm attempting, and I really appreciated a phone call from my childhood friend (that may have been last week, but I'm still nursing it).

3. A sign of spring?

Not much around here, to be completely frank. I guess there are buds on the forsythia, but there is still so much snow, it's hard to believe in spring. But the boys are coming home on their Spring Breaks, so I guess that would be it.

4. Challenging/ surprising?

We're in the winding down phase of my ministry at Main Street Church, and this brings an odd combination of gratitude/affirmation and anxiety/reactivity from church members, all pretty natural for this point in the process, but at times both challenging and surprising.

5. Share a hope for the coming week/month/year....

Week: happy reunions with Pure Luck and #1 Son (coming in for Spring Break tomorrow), and a week later Snowman.

Month: Enjoying the RevGal's Big Event and then moving on smoothly to my new position

Year: Reaching my weight goals while coming to a deeper understanding of myself

Bonus play... a piece of music/ poem guaranteed to cheer you?

I'm looking forward to the music (and flowers) of Easter Sunday, no matter what the weather is like that day.

Look Before You Leap, It's the Friday Five!

As posted by yours truly at RevGalBlogPals:

Hello from your Fifth Friday Five team, will smama and Songbird~ It's Leap Day!!

Whether you're one of the special few who have a birthday only once every four years, or simply confused by the extra day on the calendar, everyone is welcome to join in and play our Leap Year Friday Five.

Tell us about a time you:

1. Leapt before looked

Ah, that would be in the early post-divorce era, that time my good friend introduced me to a single guy she knew, who we just happened to run into downtown. She had not thought of a fix-up. She knew things I ought to have known. Might should have clarified that with her before dating him.

2. Leapt to a conclusion

Nine years ago (same time frame as above, not surprisingly), discouraged by the difficulty of continuing seminary as the divorced mother of three children, convinced it just would not be possible to finish, I concluded that if it were that hard, God must not really want me to do it. I also had a fear I would never, ever meet anyone if I ended up serving a church as the divorced mother of three; where would I find the time and the opportunity? I withdrew from school and took a short-term job with the local children's theatre.

Oh, boy, was I wrong! The parade of misunderstandings, awkward situations and general humiliation of my year "running away to join the circus," still makes me cringe.

3. Took a Leap of Faith

Realized I was most likely very, very wrong. Picked up the phone and called my seminary. Said, "Hi, I think I made a big mistake." Bless them, they said, "Just write us a letter asking us to convert your status from 'withdrawn' to 'leave of absence' and come back next semester." Which I did in February of 2000. And within six months? I met Pure Luck.

4. Took a literal Leap

Since then, I've taken many leaps, and quite a few of them have been literal leaps up and down mountains. Pure Luck could tell you that my attitude toward these leaps has improved considerably and I now feel reasonably confident about jumping over little streams.

5. And finally, what might you be faced with leaping in the coming year?

In August, I'll be going to the UCC"s new church planters' training in Hotlanta. For now, starting a new church is a notion and a hope, but after that it will become, I imagine, more real. I hope when I get there my sense of call will be confirmed, but I'm going to try not to leap to any more conclusions.

You don't have to be a RevGal to play! Happy Leap Day to all!

Friday Five: The Water and the Word

As posted by revhrod at RevGalBlogPals:

In this Sunday's gospel Nicodemus asks Jesus, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Poor old Nicodemus! He was so confused about the whole "water and Spirit" business of baptism.

For today's five, tell us about your baptismal experiences.

1. When and where were you baptized? Do you remember it? Know any interesting tidbits?

Heretically, I have been baptized twice. When my adoption was finalized, I was about 18 months old, and my parents wanted to mark the occasion in a manner that went beyond the legal. My mother was Southern Baptist, and my father was Methodist, and somehow they came up with the idea of having me christened at the Methodist church where his family had belonged since the 18th century. And somehow the Baptist minister was included in the event. It was a beautiful example, on both sides, of caring pastoral ministry to a family that was not limited by "rules."

At 13, I asked to be baptized in my Baptist church, which still had the same pastor, and no one ever said to me, "It's already been done." I've come to understand that second experience as my Confirmation, the time when I took on for myself the vows made by others on my behalf on that November day in 1962. 

What's the most unexpected thing you've ever witnessed at a baptism?

Hmm. Witnessed? My brother and cousin renouncing the powers of evil at #1 Son's baptism!!!

Does your congregation have any special traditions surrounding baptisms?

Not where I am currently serving.

Are you a godparent or baptismal sponsor? Have a story to tell?

No one has ever asked, which is too bad. I would love to be, although having them is not a requirement in my tradition. I'd like to think I would make an awesome godmother. Just sayin'.

Do you have a favorite baptismal song or hymn?

It's not really a baptismal hymn, but I still think fondly of being asked to pick the closing hymn for the day of my baptism, Mark Two, in 1974. It was "Living for Jesus."

Living for Jesus, a life that is true,
Striving to please Him in all that I do;
Yielding allegiance, glad hearted and free,
This is the pathway of blessing for me.

Living for Jesus Who died in my place,
Bearing on Calvary my sin and disgrace;
Such love constrains me to answer His call,
Follow His leading and give Him my all.

Living for Jesus through earth’s little while,
My dearest treasure, the light of His smile;
Seeking the lost ones He died to redeem,
Bringing the weary to find rest in Him.

Refrain

O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee,
For Thou, in Thy atonement, didst give Thyself for me.
I own no other Master, my heart shall be Thy throne.
My life I give, henceforth to live, O Christ, for Thee alone.

Atonement theology is not my bag. I'm not sure I understood what it meant when I picked the hymn all those years ago. Actually, I'm sure I didn't know. What I did relate to was the sense of committing myself, for life. There are other verses, but I think these were the ones in my childhood hymnal. I can't imagine choosing it to sing in a service now, but I still hold it dear.

Friday Five: What Are You Doing for Lent?

As posted by Mother Laura at RevGalBlogPals:

Ready or not, Lent is upon us! 

1. Did you celebrate Mardi Gras and/or Ash Wednesday this week? How?

I've been answering these all week, but in brief, we had a pancake supper, complete with wearing our Mardi Gras beads, on Tuesday night. Wednesday was disappointing, as the weather caused cancellation of the Ash Wednesday service I was to lead.

2. What was your most memorable Mardi Gras/Ash Wednesday/Lent?

Two years ago I came home from church moved to write this.

Day’s beginning before the dawn:
Hurrying with children to dress and eat,
To feed the dogs and zip the backpacks,
To make the holy journey together.

We entered church just after seven
And worked together to set the table:
A multi-colored cloth with fishes;
A purple-black candle I made myself;
Some stones from last year;
Dried flowers from last Sunday;

And then the ashes in a tarnished silver dish.

(I liked its look,
Worn and softened by time and hands.)

My children, marked with signs of God,
Went on to school and friends and teachers.
So few understood the mark they wore--
Would I have known, long, long ago?

A Baptist girl who “didn’t do” Lent
Now makes the sign on hands and heads.
She makes the sign and speaks the words:
Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

3. Did you/your church/your family celebrate Lent as a child? If not, when and how did you discover it?

We did not, although I watched my dear friend, Ruby, as she observed it. I was in seminary before it became part of my practice to observe Ash Wednesday, though my awareness of Lent as a season of preparation had already been raised.

4. Are you more in the give-up camp, or the take-on camp, or somewhere in between?

I've done both, not solidly in either camp.

5. How do you plan to keep Lent this year?

Well, I'll spend it trying to make Lent something to choose for my church people, since we Congregationalist UCC-types have to choose everything. Personally, this year I'm giving up mochas and taking on more formal daily writing on the lectionary. I hope the latter will be more lasting than Lent, but look forward to laying down the former!

Day’s beginning before the dawn:
Hurrying with children to dress and eat,
To feed the dogs and zip the backpacks,
To make the holy journey together.

We entered church just after seven
And worked together to set the table:
A multi-colored cloth with fishes;
A purple-black candle I made myself;
Some stones from last year;
Dried flowers from last Sunday;

And then the ashes in a tarnished silver dish.

(I liked its look,
Worn and softened by time and hands.)

My children, marked with signs of God,
Went on to school and friends and teachers.
So few understood the mark they wore--
Would I have known, long, long ago?

A Baptist girl who “didn’t do” Lent
Now makes the sign on hands and heads.
She makes the sign and speaks the words:
Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

It's A Winter Friday Five

As posted at  RevGalBlogPals, where you can see Singing Owl's wintry view:

1. What is the thermometer reading at your house this morning? It was 15 when I drove The Princess to school this morning.

2. Snow—love it or hate it? As one of those people "from away," in my case a Southern state, I have never gotten over thinking snow is gorgeous. That said, we've had a lot this winter, so I am not praying for more, or not much at one time, anyway.

3. What is winter like where you are? It has actually been less snowy here in the past twenty years (my time in the northeast) than it was historically. (Global warming, perhaps?) The winters are pretty manageable for me. If we don't have a couple of big snowstorms, at least, I'm disappointed. It's definitely cold here, with or without snow, although last year we had an unusually mild winter.

4. Do you like winter sports? Any good stories? Nope, not a one. I'm a wimp about exercising where there might be ice, knowing how likely to break myself I am.

5. What is your favorite season, and why? I love fall. I enjoy the cooler but not yet cold weather, and I love to watch the leaves turn.

Bonus: Share a favorite winter pick-me-up. A recipe, an activity, or whatever. My favorite thing is a snow day spent with my kids. That might involve baking (not this winter, too point-y...) or just cuddling up to watch movies together with a fire in the fireplace.

Friday Five: Read Any Good Books Lately?

At RevGalBlogPals, revhrod writes:

The website promoting this piece of art says, "For the first time, the worlds most influential religious texts are brought together and presented on the same level, their coexistence acknowledged and celebrated”. The shelf is made of reclaimed wood that contains seven religious books. The designers have put them – literally – on the same level.

Well, pish posh! I think that some books ARE better than others! How about you?

1. What book have you read in the last six months that has really stayed with you? Why? -- I was probably the last person to read this one, Parker Palmer's "Let Your Life Speak." I read it last summer just as I was beginning my effort to live more healthily, and of course that external quest had an interior impact, too. Palmer came along at the right time, to challenge my negative thinking about myself. I know I will read it again and expect it will have more to say to me when I am in a different space.


2. What is one of your favorite childhood books? -- Only one? That's hard. I lived with my nose in a book. I guess I would go with "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader," by C.S. Lewis. I loved all the Narnia books, but that was my favorite. I related to Lucy and her experiences in that particular book even more than in the others.


3. Do you have a favorite book of the Bible? Do tell! -- I love Mark's gospel. And I actually think I'm consistent when asked this question. I love the humanity of Jesus, the artful weaving of the stories, and the terror of the disciples unremitted by thrilling Resurrection accounts. The whole gospel is a Resurrection story, or so it feels to me. (I also love Ruth and Esther.)


4. What is one book you could read again and again? -- I am a re-reader, and when I'm in the mood to go back to a familiar place, I go back to Jane Austen, especially "Pride and Prejudice." I foresee many more visits to Charlotte, dances with Wickham, tours that end at Pemberley and eventual happy endings with Darcy. For Elizabeth, I mean. ;-)


5. Is there a book you would suggest for Lenten reading? What is it and why? -- I just received a copy of Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter, which is on the RevGalBookPals list for March. I haven't opened it yet, but it looks like a great Lenten companion. I am going to lead the discussion, so I had better read it!!! It contains short pieces by writers ranging from Lewis to Chesterton to L'Engle to Buechner.

And because we all love bonus questions, if you were going to publish a book what would it be? Who would you want to write the jacket cover blurb expounding on your talent? 

I think I might like to write devotional reflections on the lectionary, not a book for preachers, but for anyone to read. I really like writing about life in conversation with scripture. Most of the people I would like to write words of encouragement and promotion are probably gone on already, so I don't have a clever answer to that one. So that's a weak ending, sorry.

New Year's resolutions Friday Five

Sally wrote at RevGalBlogPals:

Well it had to be didn't it, love them or hate them I bet you've been asked about New Year resolutions. So with no more fuss here is this weeks Friday Five;

1. Do you make New Year resolutions?

I really don't, although I like to begin the New Year with an intention or two. In this case those are to continue with my "Let's Not Call It a Diet" efforts to change my life and also to be open to what is coming next in my life professionally rather than trying to force it. I'm not sure which of those is harder!

2. Is this something you take seriously, or is it a bit of fun?

I take those intentions very seriously.

3. Share one goal for 2008.

To reach my goal weight and continue to lower my blood pressure.

4. Money is no barrier, share one wild/ impossible dream for 2008

I would love to take a trip somewhere wonderful with my husband for a whole week. We haven't done that for years, other than travel with the children, due to the care needed for the dogs.

5. Someone wants to publish a story of your year in 2008, what will the title of that book be?

"Set Free," of course. I hope this is the year I'll get a little further from the birdcage of my own making.

Friday Five: Will Smama Wants to Know Edition

As posted by teh will smama at RevGalBlogPals:

Parishioners pushing for carols before you digested your turkey?

Organist refusing to play Advent hymns because he/she already has them planned for Lessons & Carols?

Find yourself reading Luke and thinking of a variety of ways to tell Linus where to stick it? (Lights please.)

Then this quick and easy Friday Five is for you! And for those of you with a more positive attitude, have no fear. I am sure more sacred and reverent Friday Fives will follow.

Please tell us your least favorite/most annoying seasonal....

1) dessert/cookie/family food -- I'm afraid that in this era of "Don't Let's Call It a Diet," most of the holiday foods sound like a challenge, more because I love them than because I don't. So I guess I'll have to say EVERYTHING!!!

But seriously...fruitcake. Never touched it, never will.

2) beverage (seasonal beer, eggnog w/ way too much egg and not enough nog, etc...) -- Last year I was really enjoying the Eggnog Latte at Star$$$$$. Now I know how many calories and grams of fat it has. I hates it, precious.

Which is all very strange, since I think the real eggnog is gross.

3) tradition (church, family, other) -- At our annual family event, where the kids sing and recite and play instruments, my nephew has been assigned the task of reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas." And although he has been doing it for many years, and he is a senior in high school and a bright boy, there has been no improvement in his delivery. And when it's being read in a monotone, that is one long story.

4) decoration -- Those blow-up Santas and other Christmas-themed decorations in people's yards are awful. They scare me.

Although I did get a kick out of seeing the Abominable in someone's yard last year. But don't tell the Taste Police, okay?

5) gift (received or given) -- A few years ago the kids gave their father a beautiful basket full of posh household items and books and CDs. They felt badly because it was the first year they had spent Christmas morning only with me after spending it only with him the prior year. (We had done it together for many years.) I went all out in helping them gather these charming items, and we spared little expense. Even the basket was useful, a good-looking wicker laundry basket. Among the little items was a little gadget you run across the counter or tablecloth to pick up crumbs.

The next year he gave it to me. I didn't think it was funny.

(The tiny plum pudding we pass back and forth every year? Very, very funny.)

BONUS: SONG/CD that makes you want to tell the elves where to stick it. "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer." Makes my skin crawl every time.

You don't have to be a RevGal to play. If Christmas is already on your last nerve, feel free to join in!