A Day Away

I've wanted to visit Longwood Gardens since I lived in Philadelphia, but hadn't yet made the effort. A few weeks ago I purchased a discounted ticket through Groupon and had to use it before the end of this month. I decided yesterday was a good day to do so, and got an early start to my day off to make the drive into southeast PA with my Starbucks travel mug full of coffee. Though none of the outside gardens are blooming yet, there was a lot of land to walk around, and a few cool buildings to visit (the former home of the Du Pont family, who used to own the Gardens, some treehouses built to get elevated views of the grounds, and a chimes tower). And I spent the largest portion of time walking around the seemingly endless rows and rooms of flowers and plants in the Conservatory. The sights and smells filled me with awe for God's amazing creation. The place is a photographer's dream. I'm far from a professional, but I took a ton of pictures and did ok with my little Sony digital camera. It was a successful outing, and I feel like there was plenty to see even though it's still winter, but I would like to go back again in the summer to see the outdoor gardens in bloom and the many fountains running with water. I hit Panera (one of my favorite restaurants) for a late lunch and did a little shopping on the way back. And I came home to a dog who was happy to see me and ready to go for a walk. After that, I spent the evening relaxing with my latest book (The Paris Wife) and a few episodes of Gilmore Girls. It was a good day.

New Kicks

I first heard about TOMS Shoes a few years ago, and learned that their philosophy was to give a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair purchased. They also sponsor "One day without shoes" to grow awareness for those who have to go without shoes and other basic needs that those of us who are privileged often take for granted. I wanted to buy a pair as soon as I learned about them, but I believe I was on my limited seminarian budget at the time, so I had to wait. Well now that I actually have a steady income and I was in need of a new pair of shoes appropriate for spring I decided to get some TOMS. While they've expanded their styles significantly (and even sell sunglasses in addition to shoes) I decided to go with the "classic" style. If you're in the market for a new pair of shoes (or sunglasses) I suggest you check them out!

Prayer Share

There are times when the "every day" stuff of ministry can make a girl crazy. And there are times when the "every day" stuff of ministry is really pretty extraordinary when I take the time to notice. A simple cross-mark of ashes, a simple meal of soup, a simple service of prayer. These are just some of the ways I've experienced God, and seen the extraordinary in the ordinary, in the past few days and weeks. I'm been practicing noticing such things, and expressing my thanks to God for them. (#12)
Last week was the annual ecumenical World Day of Prayer, a movement of Christian women world-wide. Though it always falls on a Friday, which is my day off, I think it's an important effort to support and it's nice to have a service that I can just attend. The theme this year was "Let Justice Prevail" and was prepared by women in Malaysia. I heard a great sermon, emphasizing the importance of justice ministries in addition to outreach. And we joined in prayer for peace and justice to prevail throughout the world. The following is part of a prayer we read, from activist and author Alan Paton.

Let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong
Not afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich.
Show me where love and hope and faith are needed,
And use me to bring them to those places.
And so open my eyes and my ears that
I may this coming day be able to do some work of peace for Thee.

Amen.

5, 6, 7

I've made a little bit of progress on my list in the last few days. I should be adding at least one more finished book very soon. Over this past weekend I tried my first new recipe of the year: Butternut Squash Risotto. I think it sounds really fancy, but it was actually pretty easy to make. And I honestly wasn't sure whether I would like it, but it was really good. (I realize that picture doesn't make it look super appetizing, but trust me.) It doesn't really work for leftovers though, so next time I'll have to make it when it's not just me.


Also over the weekend, I finally spent a few hours with my sewing machine (and old episodes of Bones on Netflix) and completed 8 blocks of my mystery quilt, which also means I can move on to the next "clue" (which is 8 more different-patterned blocks).


And as you can see from this last picture, I finally got over being intimidated by knitting cables! It's not on my list, but it's trying something new. I found a simple pattern to try as a dishcloth, and its not hard at all! Granted, there are other cable-stitch patterns that are more complicated, but now I'm not so afraid to try them.

Blessings and Curses

I've been working my way through a great book for about a month now. It's not a particularly long book, I could read a book of similar length in a week or less. But this book is written as a collection of short stories and reflections, and is so rich with wisdom and word pictures that I'm enjoying taking it a little bit at a time. The book is Cold Tangerines (celebrating the extraordinary nature of everyday life) by Shauna Niequist. I'll probably finish within the next few days and I look forward to more nuggets of wisdom from the book, but I thought I'd share one on here in the meantime. I feel like a combination of time to recover from the challenges of the fall and events like the holidays and baby pastor school have contributed to my improved attitude about my life and work. I have also truly been making an effort to keep things in appropriate perspective. I know more challenges will come my way, but I'm trying to gain what I can from this time and notice the moments of grace where I can. Shauna put it very well in a chapter called "blessings and curses". I wish I could share the whole chapter, but I think this paragraph sums it up pretty well.

"I would never try to tell you that every bad thing is really a good thing, just waiting to be gazed at with pretty new eyes, just waiting to be shined up and -- ta da! -- discovered as fantastic. But what I know is that for me... and for a lot of the people I love, we're discovering that lots of times, not every time, maybe, but more often than not, there is something just past the heartbreak, just past the curse, just past the despair, and that thing is beautiful. You don't want it to be beautfiul, at first. You want to stay in the pain and the blackness because it feels familiar, and because you're not done feeling victimized and smashed up. But one day you'll wake up surprised and humbled, staring at something you thought for sure was a curse and has revealed itself to be a blessing -- a beautiful, delicate blessing."

Not every curse becomes a blessing, but some of them do. And a lot of it is about what you learn and how you grow from these experiences. Its about becoming and being the person God has created you to be. Its about gaining hope for the future by seeing what you've made it through in the past. Today, I'm focusing on the blessings.

Recap

The past week was a pretty good one, overall. It was pretty busy, so it was also a little tiring at times, but it was mostly a good kind of tired. If that makes sense. It's because it came with a sense of accomplishment for what I got done during the day. On the work side, nothing major happened, just got a lot of stuff done. On the personal side, I spent some time with friends, and did a little shopping in Smithville (love that place!), finished my second book of the year (Prince Caspian, which means I'm more than halfway through the Narnia series), and took my first swimming lesson! It turns out I may not need to take a series of lessons. He taught me proper technique for the crawl stroke, breast stroke, and back stroke all in one lesson. So basically I'll just spend some time working on these strokes on my own and building my endurance, and then if I need more help I can schedule another lesson. On the one hand, I felt way more confident in my abilities after that lesson. On the other hand, I was surprised by how much there is to think about with your arms and legs and breathing! I hope to be able to stay motivated enough on my own to get to the pool on a regular basis.

Perspective

I spent Monday-Thursday of this week at a retreat center in PA for a continuing education event that's required for our first three years for all first-call pastors and rostered leaders in the ELCA. Though it's not a totally accurate name, many of us involved affectionately refer to the event as "baby pastor school". It includes worship, large group lectures and small group discussions, and time for informal conversation with other pastors/leaders. As these events are organized by region, and a majority of my seminary graduating class are in the same region I am, it also becomes a sort of seminary reunion. While I really appreciate opportunities for learning, the two things I appreciated most about baby pastor school were the times of worship and reconnecting with seminary friends. Of course, it's always fun to spend time with friends, but discussing our challenges and experiences in ministry was a good way to adjust my perspective. Sometimes I need to be reminded that I am not alone in ministry... that others have challenges as well, and that there are people I can go to for support. And I'm not alone especially because God is with me, and has called me and given me gifts for ministry. Yes, even pastors need to be reminded of God's presence!