back to grace...and a brief rant

A holiday's worth of graces:
1: Jamie the Exceptional One and her stuffed animals Baby Bear, Sandy (a crab), Hiam (rhymes with Liam, see #2--a small brown bear), and a small red bear called something like "Box of many toys"-we decided it was an Indian name
2: Jamie has named the new baby. She says she wants a little brother and his name will be Hiam. We don't know where she got it, but it's pretty funny.
3: Hiam turns out to be a unisex name. Jamie says even if she has a little sister, Hiam will be the name.
4: I had a good time with my family, all of them.
5: I found some really good local pecans for a really good price. Only Southern bakers I think can truly appreciate this. I bought all I could get and shared them with my family; I'm going to buy more...like maybe 15 or 20 pounds more. Between me, Dad, and my holiday baking plans, I can use them.

And a rant:
When I worked in retail, which I did for more than 10 years, I always worked with managers who emphasized customer service. In a couple of cases, we were targeting a limited market and had little competition, but that didn't matter-there was never any excuse for being rude, inattentive, or dismissive to a customer. I wish every person who worked with the public had to go through boot camp with the women who trained me.
I went to a major discount department store and listened to the cashier complain to her manager that it was time for her break, despite the long lines at the register. Another closed up her register and announced that it was time for her to leave. I had time to hear all this because no one spoke to me, except to tell me what my total was.
I called a grocery store, a member of a large chain and one which we don't have in my state, and asked if they had a particular project. The very nice person who answered the phone deserves a gold star. The people in the department to which she referred my call need to be retrained: the first time I was on hold for 5 minutes, and the second time for just a couple before the nice woman took my phone number and went herself to find out what I needed to know. Sadly, her company's website makes it very hard to give feedback of any sort...a shame, since I know there's an incentive program there for exceptional customer service, and I want them to know that she was really great.
I'm aggravated with people who don't see treating their customers well as a part of their jobs, who don't quite understand what customer service is. I've been there and done that, and I know that it's largely a failure of management. I also know this: there's a sales associate at the local department store who always treats me well. I make an effort to buy from her when I'm there. I go out of my way every change I get to go to Trader Joe's, partly because they have products I can't get here but largely because they've made it such a pleasant experience.
In this economy, we need to reemphasize good customer service. It's going to make a difference: when we only have so much money to spend, we have 2 choices. We can go to the store with the low prices and the lousy service, or we can go to the store with the low prices and the great service. Ultimately, how we feel about where we shop is going to make a difference, and people will begin to make their feelings known with their wallets and how they spend their money. I already do. I've too little money to waste it on a bad experience.
Okay, rant over. Another grace: I made really great New England clam chowder, and got to share it with friends (crucial, as Ben won't eat it, and I had a really HUGE can of clams, so a really big batch of soup).

I don't feel one bit guilty

So much for NaBloPoMo and the grand plan of blogging daily.
So much for 5 small graces a day.
I took OFF.
I went home, and saw the Exceptional One (and she is truly exceptional), and ate turkey, and set up mom's wireless network.
And now I'm home, and relaxed (the prospectus is within a whisker of being accepted, I think), and life is good.
So I give thanks for all that and more.

Today's graces

I'm not really feeling it, but here goes:
1: Jamie the Exceptional One--I get to see her tomorrow
2: Thanksgiving with my family; I've only once not had Thanksgiving with my mom and sister, my aunt and cousins, and over the years we've added more cousins, a niece, my husband and my brother-in-law
3: my Dad. I get to see him too, and as much as I've worried about him over the last year-plus, I think he's doing great.
4: I made a sugar-free pumpkin cheesecake yesterday for some diabetic friends who will be eating at the church's Thanksgiving meal--and it turned out pretty good.
5: As much as I love buying Christmas gifts, I'm glad I'm almost done with the shopping. Now I can turn to the making...

Anywhere In the World

Today's writing prompt, from the Imagination Prompt Generator:
If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Europe, hands down.
My best friend is there, and we've both had so much going on that we haven't been in touch much lately.
I'd love a chance to use my Spanish, and something "urgent" to encourage me to find time for a conversation class somewhere to polish it back up.
Even though I've been back from vacation only a month, I'm ready for another one. And where better than in the company of my bff?
I'd love to make a Grand Tour, to see Great Britain and Scandiavia, Russia and the Mediterranean countries, all of it really.

And 5 grace notes:
1: I hugged two people who really needed it
2: lunch and laughter with friends
3: getting things done today
4: my classmates. Even when school drives me nuts, they make it better, and bearable.
5: going home at the end of the day. I like it there.

Interrupting my whining

So, Schmutzie has ruined my whining binge. I haven't been full-on depressed or anything, just overwhelmed and tired, but I've really been enjoying this little self-indulgent spell. I was all set to tell you about why I should never get a massage again, even though it seems like it would feel really good and since I hurt my back, all the stress has moved into my neck and shoulders, with the end result that my shoulders tend to creep up around my ears unless I make a conscious effort to relax. So now both my upper and lower back hurt.
But Schmutzie's taken on a new project: blogging through 365 Days of Grace in Small Things. And apparently I've decided to join her, at least part time.
So instead of whining about the massage and how I've been sore for more than a week, here are 5 grace notes for today:
1: The WonderMutt. I took him a treat out in the backyard today, and he sat down and looked straight up at me...his little ears flopped back and the loose skin on his head kind of rolled to the back and made his eyes look a little wild. He was so funny looking!
2: My name (Anne) means grace, or full of grace.
3: Homemade chicken vegetable soup.
4: A great worship team practice.
5: Ben and I are home this evening.

Meh

So the word 'meh', popularized in the animated sitcom, "The Simpsons", has made its way into common parlance.
Well Duh!
I mean, Doh!
I remember my fraternity brothers (yes, I said fraternity. It was a coed service fraternity) saying "Doh!" a lot. I mean a lot a lot.
So anyway, meh pretty well fits how I feel right now.
I've done some grocery shopping.
I've done some laundry.
I've revised my DMin project prospectus.
I've played with the dog.
I've cooked a healthy and nutritious meal.
I've talked to mom and got the 411 on what I need to bring to Thanksgiving.
I'm getting ready to put our new down-alternative comforter on the bed...it's cold out there.
It should feel like a productive day, but somehow it's meh.
Think I'm just tired...I'm going to bed early tonight.

F5: Mix and Stir Edition

Songbird offers:

In a minor domestic crisis, my food processor, or more precisely the part you use for almost everything for which I use a food processor, picked the eve of the festive season of the year to give up the ghost. A crack in the lid expanded such that a batch of squash soup had to be liberated via that column shaped thing that sticks up on top.

Can you tell this is not my area of strength?

Next week, I'm hosting Thanksgiving. I need your help. Please answer the following kitchen-related questions:

1) Do you have a food processor? Can you recommend it? Which is to say, do you actually use it?

Nope. I have had, and it's too much trouble to clean. I use a combination of blender, stick blender, and good old-fashioned hand work. Now that I've conned my husband into doing the dishes for me, maybe I should get one...

2) And if so, do you use the fancy things on it? (Mine came with a mini-blender (used a lot and long ago broken) and these scary disks you used to julienne things (used once).)

Nope, never did.

3) Do you use a standing mixer? Or one of the hand-held varieties?

I love my stand mixer. It's not a KitchenAid, but I dream of having an aqua one someday. Mine's boring white. I use it more than any other small appliance in the kitchen, especially now that it's Christmas baking season (see my previous post on this).

(And isn't that color delightfully retro?)

My actual mixer is white. Meh. But the aqua one of my dreams? Most definitely!

4) How about a blender? Do you have one? Use it much?

I don't use it too much, but there's nothing like it when I do. I'm using it more now that my stick mixer is dead. I got the more expensive one with the glass pitcher-compartment thingy and I'm so glad I did. It stands up to very heavy messes and cleaning.

5) Finally, what old-fashioned, non-electric kitchen tool do you enjoy using the most?

Hmmm...so many. Right now it's my AirBake cookie sheet and parchment paper for ease of cookie prep. I also have wonderful Cuisinart pots and pans that I really enjoy.
Oh, wait...old-fashioned...my coffee press?

Bonus: Is there a kitchen appliance or utensil you ONLY use at Thanksgiving or some other holiday? If so, what is it?

The oven? Kidding, mostly. I think the answer here would be my spring-form pans. I love cheesecake too much to make it very often...I'd just eat it! This year, I'm resurrecting my pumpkin cheesecake, which I haven't made since my uncle, who loved it, died.

Cookies make everything better

It's holiday baking time for me. Ben and I give a lot of homemade gifts, especially to people we see on a regular basis. For us, that includes the folks at the bank, the staff at our favorite restaurants, our staffs at our respective churches, my choir, the neighbors, and so on. I love to bake cookies and have even branched out into a couple of different kinds of candies.
While the candies can rarely be made ahead, most of my cookie doughs can. Already I have oatmeal-cranberry-pecan-chocolate chip cookies and Christmas spice cookies from my senior pastor's mother's recipe in the oven. My little "secrets"--which I tell everyone I talk to about making cookies--are parchment paper (no sticking, no burning, no destroying the cookie taking it off the cookie sheet) and my cookie scoop.
If you've never seen one, think ice-cream scoop, only smaller. Once I've made a batch of cookie dough, I line a pan with waxed paper, fill it with evenly-sized scoops of cookie dough, and let them set up in the freezer for an hour or up to overnight. Then I put them into a freezer safe container (sometimes separating layers with waxed paper, when I want to be careful) and they are ready to be baked when I'm ready.
The charm to this is two-fold: first, and most obviously, it's a huge time-saver. I can turn out many dozens of dozens of cookies in an afternoon. Secondly, on a cold afternoon when I'm tired and feeling like doing nothing, and especially on one of these afternoons when I have something I must accomplish, I can preheat the oven, take out just a few little cookie dough balls, and have warm cookies for an afternoon pick-me-up. Mmmm...
In fact, there's the timer. Gotta go! Cookies are calling!

What do I want to be doing a year from now?

Today's blog post is another Imagination Prompt Generator question:
What do I want to be doing a year from now?
About the same, I think.
Living here with Ben, working at the same church, with pretty much the same routine (such as it is).
Exercising more and on better track with meds & stuff.
Writing up my DMin project.
Shopping for Christmas gifts for my family, including the new one on the way (the Exceptional One's getting a sibling...I'll know what flavor in a few weeks).
At some kind of equilibrium, which I don't have now.
With less of a sense of being overwhelmed.

Well, that makes it all sound worse than it is. My plate's a little full right now. Lots of stuff going on, most of it demanding some response from me, and not much I can ignore or defer. But in general, life's still pretty good. I'm tired, and there's plenty of work to do, but we have what we need, and we're okay. And I'm okay. Just not my happiest best this week.

Litany of woes

Last week, our family had 3 working vehicles: my car, Ben's car, and the truck.
Friday, Ben's car was "diagnosed" with more wrong than we can afford to fix (3x the value of the car to do the urgent stuff, with nearly 2x the value of the car in less-urgent repairs).
We can't afford another car. Not to buy a crap one outright, nor a car payment. Not even a little one. There's no room. Part of me is regretting the kayak right now.
Thankfully, we had the truck, so plan B is that I will drive the truck, and Ben will take my car (about 8 months from being paid for). We'll get really aggressive, as much as we can, on paying off my car, and start saving for a new one.
Fine. We'd be a 2 vehicle family.
Except today, the truck wouldn't start. It's the coldest day since maybe January, and it was dead, dead, dead. Today, we're a one vehicle family.
Of course it was also my busiest day of this very busy week.
Ben took me to work, I had a friend drive me home (friends do this kind of thing when you need them, see my last post) after lunch, and another friend jump-started the truck. Yay for friends!
Drove the truck to the auto parts store, and replaced the battery, so that we could test the alternator (can't trust a battery that's failed on so cold a day, it can rarely be resurrected, and I'm not after trying). Good news, the man said. You now had a great charge on your battery. Bad news, he said, your alternator's dead.
Called Ben and told him the deal.
Called mechanic/church friend and told him to expect the truck. He doesn't know when he can work on it, but I can leave it at shop.
Call yet another friend and said, please meet me at mechanic's. So I had a ride back to work, and the promise of a ride to work in the morning. Yay friends!
Late to class, which was not great. Was late last time, too. Online classes are meant to be more convenient, not less! Classmates/friends were kind. Yay friends!
Got a ride to my evening meeting in a small community many miles away. Yay!
Got home way late.
Don't know where I'll squeeze the truck repair payment from, but somewhere.
And I know who at least some of my friends are.
And it snowed today--very cool. I was in a restaurant on the waterfront, at a window seat, when it started...nothing like seeing snow over the docks & water.
It was a fairly sucky day. I practiced saying all the bad words I know in my head. And, like Scarlett O'Hara, I'm left to live in the promise that tomorrow is another day.

How do you know if someone is your friend?

Today's prompt comes from Daydreaming on Paper:

How do you know if someone is your friend?

This one is at once hard and easy. To begin with, I think friendship is an act of faith. To have friends means to make ourselves vulnerable, to trust in someone else. I don't think you really know if someone's your friend until you have to trust them, and they come through when you need them. Conversely, you can go months without talking to someone and still know they'll be there for you...that's a friend.
We make friends in all kinds of ways. I have people I would consider friends, whom I trust, that I have barely met in real life, and others I haven't seen in years. With some people, friendship develops slowly, and in other cases, I begin to believe in friendship "at first sight"--when we have an instant connection with someone. Friendship really is a kind of love...it comes in degrees, it can grow over time or happen instantaneously, it asks us to put someone else above ourselves, at least on some level. We all express friendship in our own individual ways; each friendship has its own language.
I know someone is a friend when they keep the confidences I share, and when they trust me with their own. I know someone is a friend when they go out of their way (even a little bit) to think of me or do something for me, and I enjoy doing that for my friends. We know someone's a friend when we're happy for them to call on us for help, and comfortable calling on them in return.

Thinking thinks and wandering around online

Somewhere along the way I stumbled onto the Carrot Top Studio blog, and it's become a place I regularly check just to see what's up. I'm always impressed by their work, and their ability to do things with fabrics that I can only imagine, and admire.
Today's post includes a picture of a banner based on the story of the hemorrhaging woman, and on it is a red handprint.
Somehow I find it really striking; even though it's red, it comes off as at once somber and joyful. It's a handprint but doesn't at all evoke fingerpainting, at least not to me. Instead there's a power there that is compelling, at once warm and stark, bold and oddly inviting.
In other internet wandering, I've been conducting my annual trolling of the interwebs for Christmas cookie and candy recipes. It was thanks to the internet (and Martha Stewart) that I made marshmallows a few years ago. Ben loved them, but he couldn't eat them all, and they spoiled quickly, and oh, the smell of softening unflavored gelatin. Eeewww. Today I stumbled on do-it-yourself gummy candies. I'm tempted. Really tempted. But there's no way I can justify doing this...not even (like the marshmallows) just to say I have!

Three wishes

more animals

From the Imagination Prompt Generator:
If you could have three wishes, what would they be?

Hmmm...this one's a toughy

1: world peace, at least in the sense of people understanding one another better. Short of a divine visitation (and precendent suggests even then it won't happen), I don't anticipate we'll ever all agree, but it would be nice if we could communicate better.
2: that everyone had enough to eat. Proper nutrition would alleviate so many global health problems, and I suspect contribute to #1 as well.
3: that there were a little more time in the day, so that no one could use "I'm too busy" as an excuse to do the things they love.

What would your wishes be?

Friday Five: Remembrance

It's Sophia's turn to pose a F5:

Earlier this week the U.S. celebrated Veterans' Day, known in many other countries as Remembrance Day. At this time last year I was commuting to a postdoc in Canada, and I was moved by the many red poppies that showed up there on people's lapels in honor of the observance. Unlike a flag lapel pin, which to me has political connotations and implies approval of our current war, the poppies simply honor the sacrifice and dedication of those who have followed their consciences by serving--sometimes dying--in the military.

This week's Friday Five invites reflection on the theme of remembrance, which is also present in the feasts of All Saints, celebrated in many liturgical churches on November 1, and All Souls--known in Latin@ cultures as the Day of the Dead--celebrated in some the following day.

1. Did your church have any special celebrations for All Saints/All Soul's Day?

Our Sunday morning services included a memorial candle and the reading of the names of those who had died in the past year

.
2. How about Veterans' Day?

Yes and no; it's one of the two Sundays a year we have a "men's choir" and we honor veterans quietly as part of the worship service. We do not have a special worship service, though.

3. Did you and your family have a holiday for Veterans' Day/Remembrance Day? If so, how did you take advantage of the break?

Nope. Worked.

4. Is there a veteran in your life, living or dead, whose dedication you remember and celebrate? Or perhaps a loved one presently serving in the armed forces?

Many. I think of my uncle, a Korean and Vietnam war vet (Navy) who is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Ben's father, who served in the Army in the same conflict, my classmate Dallas, who is in Kuwait, and our friend Wyldth1ng, who is recovering from surgery for a combat injury. And my church is full of veterans of conflicts from WWII to present.

5. Do you have any personal rituals which help you remember and connect with loved ones who have passed on?

I don't really. I'll be interested to hear what others do.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

It's been raining all day (and last night) and for the first time in a while, the weather's got me feeling kind of down. I haven't adjusted well to the time change; I've been waking up early, thinking it's too bright outside and I must have overslept, and then it's hard to go back to sleep.
So here's today's writing exercise:
From the Imagination Prompt Generator:
Where do your feelings come from?
Hmmm...I tend to be pretty intuitive although I can certainly manage to reason things to death, too. I waver on the feeling/thinking part of the Meyers-Briggs, depending on what else is happening in my life. But basically I think this is an unanswerable question! Where do feelings come from? Somewhere inside, I suppose. I won't say "the soul" because I can be pretty mean sometimes, and I'd hate to think of that as a spiritual condition. I don't think in philosophical/psychological terms like ego and id. I think feelings just come, from some mysterious place inside us. They can be shaped by what happens in our lives, they can be appropriate or inappropriate, but in essence, they just are.
Bleah.
I feel the same about this post as I do about the rain.

The blogness

In faithfulness to my NaBloPoMo commitment (click on the graphic in the sidebar for more info; I'm too lazy today to link), here's another prompted post. This one's from The One Minute Writer:
If you had to write as a career, what would you write about?
That's not even funny.
I don't even intend to make writing a career, but parts of me have always wanted to write as a supplement to what I do. My real problem is exactly this: I haven't quite settled on what to write about. That is, in fact, what started me blogging: I knew if I liked it, I'd write more often. I thought (and sometimes still do) of it as an exercise to develop the habit and desire to write.
(my minute is up)
And I do produce text more often. Since I started blogging, I've been published on Relevant's website and in a denominational magazine (not my tradition, of course). I even set a goal for this year of being published again--but I haven't written anything worth submitting, at least I don't think so.
Of course, there's also the schoolwork to consider. I will essentially have written a very well researched book (that's what I tell my faculty advisor) by the end of my D.Min. program. I'll also have a good start on a book collaboratively produced by all the members of my cohort, one that we hope will have general appeal. It's not that I'm not busy enough. It's just that part of me has always wanted to write a book, and I've never settled on what exactly I wanted to write. My D.Min. compels me to write about my project, and I think I could develop it into something publishable.
But I want to do it now.
Geez, I'm a spoiled brat.
For now, I blog. And when I blog, I'm writing. And one day, I'll figure out what the book is that's been struggling to be written all these years, and I'll write it. And finally I'll have a socially-acceptable source of extra income (a topic for another post!). In the meantime, I'm trying to be patient, and to do what I do: preach, research, write endless prospectus drafts and hope one gets approved. And go home for puppy kisses and squalling cats, my recliner and a much-deserved rest. And I'll be back again tomorrow.

Already rushing toward Christmas

I’m already Christmas shopping…in fact, I’m about halfway finished. Some of the shopping is fun (toys for my niece) and some is a challenge (what to get Dad this year). But it makes me a little sad that we seem to skip over this time of year in our hurry to get ready for Christmas. And the church is as guilty as the retail industry.
Don’t get me wrong here—I love Christmas. I love the decorations, not that you could tell at my house—I like other people’s decorations that I don’t have to take down! Ben and I ride around and look at people’s Christmas lights, and I love baking and making candy and other treats for gifts. I even love buying gifts and picking out special things for the people I care about. I'm already thinking about making cookie dough...and it's only November 11!
Unfortunately, it seems like we pass right by Thanksgiving. A brief nod to cooler temperatures and changing leaves, and we're off and running, and fail to appreciate the opportunity to spend some time thinking about what we are grateful for. Thanksgiving for Christians should be more than just a day; it should be an attitude of the spirit that we cultivate. in fact, given the misguided way we celebrate (Pilgrim hats and Indian headdresses, anyone?), perhaps it's time for the church to claim Thanksgiving for itelf, not as a special day or season, but as a spiritual discipline, a means of shaping our souls to more closely resemble Christ.
So I’m grateful for lots of things: for my family and friends, that my father seems to be doing well after all the losses of the past year, that I get dog kisses every morning, for our church and the friendships we have here, that I have a kitchen to cook in (and I even use it on occasion!), for the blue skies outside my office window and the coffee shop down the street…what are you thankful for?

Yay! I'm back for a Poetry Party!

It's been a long time since I've done one of these...
Christine at Abbey of the Arts posts an about every other week, based on an image & theme she selects. It's been months for me, but I'm back for another attempt at (bad) poetry!


It's easy to feel tossed about
by gentle waves or raging winds
It's easy to feel cut loose,
anchorless, adrift.

It's tempting to think of life
with no ties, no bonds, no restraints...

but in my heart I long
for rock-solid confidence
for sure and certain knowledge
to remember that your name
is written indelibly on my heart

Can't. Stop. Laughing

more animals

I do heart i can has cheezburger waaay too much...but this was just the funny I needed today!

A recipe instead of a meme

By request: The Best-Ever Overnight French Toast
warning: this is not good for you. It's just good.

1 1 lb loaf french bread (not pre-sliced; I also use the "french sticks" packaged 2-to-a-bag at my local grocery store bakery section)
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup cream or half & half
1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 cup brown sugar
1/c cup butter
2 tablespoons maple syrup (I use pancake syrup and give it a couple of good squirts)
1 cup chopped pecans (I guess you could use walnuts, or you could leave the nuts out--but why???)

**You don't have to do this, but it helps: Slice bread into about 1 inch slices and lightly toast both sides in a 400 degree oven, just to dry them out a little, then allow them to cool slightly.
Liberally grease a 9x13 baking dish.
Lightly beat eggs, add milk, cream, and vanilla and mix well.
Dunk each piece of bread in the egg mix and make sure you get both sides covered with egg mixture, then place each slice in the baking dish. Pack them in closely.
Pour remaining egg mixture over soaked bread, cover, and chill overnight.
In the morning:
Preheat oven to 350.
Melt butter and then mix in brown sugar, syrup, and nuts.
Remove baking dish from fridge. Pour off any remaining egg mixture (I've never had much; it all gets soaked up). If you are truly dedicated, turn each piece of bread over, so its eggiest side is up.
Spoon brown sugar mixture onto the top of each slice.
Bake for 40 minutes. It will rise in the oven and fall as it cools, and make its own wonderful syrupy sauce as it cooks.
I make this for a group of 6 or so, and we rarely have leftovers. I usually serve it warm, as I cook it at home and then bring it to our meeting.

Friday Five Funnies Edition

From Presbyterian Gal:
1. What was your favorite comic strip as a child?

Peanuts, hands down. At one time or another, I identified with almost all the characters. And that dog...who could not love Snoopy and the happy dance?

2. Which comic strip today most consistently tickles your funny bone?

Non Sequitur. If I could only read one, that would be it. Sarcastic, timely, always fun.

3. Which Peanuts character is closest to being you?

Sometimes I think I'm Charlie Brown, other times I fear I'm Lucy. Haven't hung out a shingle yet, though.

4. Some say that comic strips have replaced philosophy as a paying job, so to speak. Does this ring true with you?

Yep. I'd rather read comics than news, too, but I love that comics have "grown up" and are relevant to adults, too. Sort of like the "Animaniacs". I miss them.

5. What do you think the appeal is for the really long running comic strips like Blondie, Family Circus, Dennis the Menace as some examples?

We get to connect to a story that is at least in some way our own. Why else would I be reading "For Better or For Worse", now that the story has started over? I want to see if anything comes out different. Plus, I never knew (until this week!) how they got Farley. Love that dog, too!

Bonus question: Which discontinued comic strip would you like to see back in print?

It's a tie: Bloom County and the Far Side. Or maybe Calvin and Hobbes...

I think I may be an idiot

Whatever possessed me to think I could blog every day, along with everything else I have to do this time of year? I must have lost my mind.
That said, here's today's writing exercise, from the Imagination prompt generator:
"Do you think you are really different from other people?"
No, and yes.
I think we all tend to have more in common than not, but how could I not be different from someone from another country and culture?
Not everyone is like me. We haven't had the same experiences, the same issues, the same opportunities. How could we not be different? But I think the differences are less important that the ways in which we are the same.
We live
we breathe
we love
we work
we rest
we laugh
we cry
That's enough to build a relationship on, right there.

Tomorrow is another day...

Some further thoughts on the election:
I think we've elected a compassionate Christian who is intelligent, articulate, and clearly has great skill in organizing people. He had the wisdom to choose a running mate with the years of Washington experience he lacks. And regardless of who you (or I) did or did not vote for, he's the president we have to work with today. Depsite the fact that we will now have both a Democrat in the White House and a Democratic majority in Congress, it's not quite the mandate they hoped for, and I think that's okay. Our system is built for multiple party governance, and I believe that having balance in it is better for all of us in the long run.
That said, I think John McCain's speech was brilliant, thoughtful, humble, and reflected his character as an American statesman far better than his campaign had mananged to do. It's clear he remains deeply committed to this country, and I trust his service will continue in one way or another.
Obama's speech was pretty great as well. If he can retain his humility and remember that he serves all the people...including those who did not vote for him, nearly half of those who voted...then I think we've got some interesting days ahead. In my own state, there still has not been a call made. On Wednesday morning at 11:30ish, long hours after the polls have closed, the margin is barely 2000 votes, .005% of the total, if my math is correct. While the electoral vote is with him, the popular vote is more deeply divided, something any president should keep in mind.
So what's a Christian response? There are Christians all over the place celebrating, and Christians all over the place grieving, or worse, wasting time on anger. God is still God, regardless of who is the president. And we were fortunate to have two deeply committed Christian candidates--even if they didn't agree on some things. The cast for the next several years is set. What we can, and should, do now is to let God be God. Pray for all our leaders, that they would sense God's presence and guidance. And drop the rhetoric of hate and division. It's been a bitter campaign, with negative ads from both sides and each candidate trying to distinguish himself as the only right choice. Truth be told, either one could have been the right one...and now we will count on Obama to do his best for us, to listen to God and honor his convictions. Even if we don't always agree with them, and we won't.

random thoughts

I'm watching election coverage. I'm curious to see who wins. I have mixed feelings about the candidates; I was hoping for a strong moderate candidate to support and really didn't get it. Obama isn't. McCain might have been, but the choice of Palin for VP means that the Republican ticket isn't either.
And so I was left without a clear choice, but I voted anyway. And tomorrow (maybe) we'll see what our collective choice was.

So, changing the subject: another meme-type thing. This one's from the Imagination Prompt Generator at Creativity Portal.
Before I go to bed tonight...
I'm going to make overnight french toast for tomorrow morning's clergy meeting.
I'm going to do some picking up around the house.
I'm going to put away clean laundry.
I'm going to watch election coverage.
I'm going to play with the WonderMutt.
I'm going to find out who our new president will be.

update: Obama wins it. So now I know, and now we can move forward...but am I the only one who finds shots of Jesse Jackson crying tears of joy a little incongruous? He had some unlovely things to say about Obama when he thought no one was listening, as I recall.

I'm meme-ing

In an effort to blog my way thru November, here's a meme from Daydreaming on Paper's random prompt generator:
List ten words I'd like to hear everyday:
Good
thanks
love
share
news
Jamie
vacation
give
smile
fun

Three days in a row...must be a record

Here's today's sermon, on the Beatitudes and All Saints' Day.
Matt. 5:1-12
"Where Is God?"
Today we celebrate All Saint’s Day, when we honor those who have gone before us in the faith. We have lifted up the names of our “honored dead,” both those of this church family as we lit the candle in their memory, and in our hearts as we remembered other loved ones in our own lives. Today is a day to remember how we have been shaped by others in our lives…an aunt, a Sunday School teacher, a special friend or relative that changed how we think about God, how we behave, helping us to grow closer to Jesus Christ and to live a life of love and grace.
Light has special meaning to us today, as we think about Jesus Christ, the light of the world, symbolized by our candles on the altar. Worship begins with the acolyte bringing in the light of Christ and leaving it before us. At the end of our time together this morning, the acolyte will come and carry Christ’s light out into the world before us, as a reminder that even “out there,” God is with us. Our memorial candle reminds us of the light of God’s love shown to us by the saints of God whom we remember today, the light which lives on in us, which we bear to the world. That’s a lot of symbolism for such little one-syllable words: light. world. candle. Christ. love. saint. blessed.
I can’t read today’s scripture passages without thinking of a couple of things: first, I remember the poster of the Beatitudes handing on the wall in the room where I went to Vacation Bible School at First United Methodist Church in Milan TN. It was the same poster, every year, and showed a shepherd on a hillside. I don’t know what the picture had to do with the text, but that’s what I remember. The other thing I think of is the benediction in Matthew, in the 25th chapter, given to the good stewards of the Master’s talents: “well done, good and faithful servant.”
In that blessing, I hear an echo of the Beatitudes, which are themselves a kind of benediction. In a sense, Matthew puts what could have been Jesus’ last words right here at the beginning of this teaching discourse: Blessed are you. How honorable. Well done. These are less words for how God’s people were right that minute (or how we are, right this minute) than a preview of what we might hope God’s words would be when we meet him…they tell us almost more about who God is, than about who we are…and they tell us who we are meant to be becoming—a people set apart, yet still living in this world, with different values, different ideals, and a different end in mind than what we might hear from our culture. We use some particular language to describe our differentness: we are Christians, we are called to be saints, we are all children of God. Today we celebrate both the people and the God that set us apart in this way.
All Saints has a particular resonance for me this year. My paternal grandmother died in March this year. My two grandmothers, even though they lived in the same small town in Tennessee, were very different. My mother’s mother was looked up to by all the Methodist women in town. She helped with the Mustard Seed thrift store, could be counted on to cook whenever needed, and faithfully attended the Methodist church in town. She was the one who made sure we got to Vacation Bible School every summer. On All Saints Day, I remember her as the one who taught my mother, and taught me, about doing things for other people, and not just for ourselves. She could be hard, but Frances Mathis was a saint in our lives, and in the lives of many others. People looked up to her. Her descendants still do. She was an example to us, not a perfect one, but a good one, of what it means to be a saint: she taught us right and wrong, to reach out to others in generosity and kindness, to love God, to attend church. All excellent lessons.
Mary Kathryn Walker, however, was a more unlikely saint. While she loved God her entire life, she also struggled emotionally and physically. My father’s mother suffered from depression that was sometimes poorly controlled. She was an addict in recovery most of my life, and I remember going to AA meetings with her (back in the basement of the Methodist church, although she was a Baptist). She was a faithful attender of church, but I have very few memories of going to the Baptist church with her. She was often frightened and sad, worried about almost everything, and taught me an awful lot about love, and grace, and where God is, even when we think he isn’t. There were days when she locked herself in the bathroom and cried for hours. There were times we went to Shoney’s for hot fudge cake, because there she could smoke the cigarette she wouldn’t smoke at home. Life for her was sometimes precarious…she rarely felt like she had a sense of balance, that everything was going well, that she was in control of her life. And yet she loved with an open heart. From my mother’s mother, I learned what sin was, what I needed to avoid, what would get me in trouble. From my father’s mother, I learned that even in sin, sickness, and weakness, God is gracious to love us, sustain us, and forgive us.
That’s really what I think the Beatitudes and All Saints Day have to tell us: where God is, and who God is, even in the grittiest reality of our lives. They teach us the qualities of God by example, in their stories and their responses to the challenges of life. A pastor and poet I know puts it this way:

In a world that is often cruel
I find myself on the outs
Not making the buck
(Blessed are you)
not having the things
I am told I must have
To be me
(Blessed are you)
and in the fast flowing lanes of this world
I am often in the slow lane
Stopping occasionally to smell the flowers
And see the creation
God had made
(Blessed are you)
and when the bus stops
and I never get the good seat
because I am helping someone who is having trouble
with old age
or weak limbs
I wonder at those who do
(Blessed are you)
---- and Christ said
---- let the little children come unto me
---- and forbid them not
---- for to such belongs the Kingdom of God
(Blessed are you)*

Where is God? Who is God in our lives? Who are we? When we are feeling poor in spirit, when we mourn, when we are meek, when we seek righteousness…God is there. For those who are merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, God is there. When life is at its hardest, when things are at their toughest, when we suffer poverty and loss like my mother’s mother or sickness and struggle like my father’s mother, God is there. When we are at our best, being the most grace-filled and loving children of God, God is there with us. And when we are at our worst, most in need of blessing, tired and worn and afraid and ill, God is there. And these women who taught me first and foremost that God is always there in whatever they went through in their lives are among the saints I look up to, who I remember today, who have made me who I am and given me the confidence that God is with me, in my strength and in my brokenness.
That’s the meaning of a saint, and that’s the nature of God. Not that we can’t come up with God-like qualities like perfect, loving, kind, although those are good and right and true. But there is more to a saint, and more to God, than just the easy stuff. God is bigger and better than just the easy stuff. The Beatitudes remind us too that God is there when we are persecuted, when life wears us down and wears us out, when our retirement fund is wiped out or we’re worried about who the next president is going to be, when orders come through to send a loved one to a war zone or the doctor brings bad news, when the car breaks down or the stock market breaks down, when a child is killed senselessly…God is always there. These are lessons we learn from those people who have been saints in our lives, not only what not to do, but what faith really means: believing in what we often cannot see, but know to be true: that God’s love is constant, that God’s mercy is infinite, that God’s grace is ever present, that we can never go so far as to get away from God.
To go back to that pastor-poet I know,
Blessed are we
Blessed in the midst of God’s love
Blessed in the midst of our world
Blessed in what we feel
See
Do
Blessed
Even in the times we find it hard
To see
The blessing
Even then
We can know ourselves
As the children of God
Especially then
We can know
See
Feel
God’s presence in our lives
Blessed
God’s love in our lives
Given by the One
Who came to save
Blessed are you
In the name of Christ*

If the goal of the Christian life is to take our places as saints in the lives of others, then we can hope to hear the words of the Beatitudes as our own benediction.
Blessed are we, for we have found strength in our faith when the world made us weak.
Blessed are we, for we have brought joy and hope to others.
Blessed are we, for we hold to our faith in the face of all the fear, pain, doubt, and shame that life can bring us.
Blessed are we, when we seek to do God’s will before our own, to let God’s perfect love replace our imperfect striving.
Blessed are we, for we share our relationship with God with others, in words, in actions, and in love.
For ours is the kingdom of heaven, the presence of God, the reality of grace and mercy in a world that is rarely gracious and merciful, but where God is always with us.





*Thanks to Pastor Dan of coslcgrace.blogspot.com

So I'm a glutton for punishment

I tried to do NaBloPoMo last year, and couldn't pull it off, so this year, with work, school, and apparently my mother-in-law coming to live in the area, I decided to do it this year.

Because I am an idiot.

Or something like it.

Not my best decision, as it is now 10:50 pm and the best I can do for the first post is to post about posting.

I'll do better, I hope.

Blogging is an outlet for me, sometimes a creative one, sometimes a place to vent, often a place to share something fun. I do it for me, not for readers, which is good, because I can't figure out how to tell how many hits I get, so I can't get BlogHer ads, and the Google AdSense ads I tried just advertised obnoxious Christian sites that I don't agree with. I think I left them up about 37 seconds. So I write to try to keep myself sane, one way or another. I think telling stories are the best way to do that, hence the title of my blog, "Telling Stories and Learning Faith."

What else better do I have to do with my time?

(Don't answer that!)