It is Saturday. Nothing is planned. No appointments. No commitments. A sabbath time. I was just reading about time over on Milton's blog. He has some interesting things to say about time, do go over there and read it all the way to the end where you will find this quote: "I can see the transformational possibilities when I can remember the who more than the where. To be friends with time is to choose people over tasks, shared moments over schedules, passion over punctuality." Profound!Time is a precious commodity. And filling it up with busyness seems to be the norm these days. We are in such a hurry to accomplish. I am guilty of enjoying the process while the accomplishment often does not happen. I am looking at that phenomena differently these days. No more guilt about a project left undone. I now look on them as learning experiences. I have a closet full of "learning experiences" that reflect the expenditure of much of my time. When I come across those unfinished projects I fondly remember the joy and satisfaction of the process. Maybe one day when one of these projects surfaces, I will have a renewed interest and pull it out begin anew. Maybe not also.Relaxing in time is fairly new to me. It must have happened gradually because I don't remember making any conscious effort to attain this. Accepting what is immediate is a better way for me to engage life. Deal with the now. Do it the best way I can. Let the future flow into a better now.
RevLois went over the fastings of Lent in her Ash Wednesday homily. Fasting is NOT abstinence, she insisted. Giving up chocolate just isn't fasting. Giving up cigarettes might be fasting. The real fasting she said, and I remember her saying this same thing LAST year, is to eat half the usual amounts for two meals of the day and then a simple third meal -- like bread and soup. The point being that the process of the giving up should be felt in the body as well as in the soul. AND whilst cutting back on our intake we might spend that saved money to buy food for the food banks or feeding the hungry in some way -- locally, nationally, internationally. Or volunteer our time at any number of places.At supper tonight Bill said to me, "What are we doing for Lent?" To which I replied, "What did you have in mind?" He answered, "We could buy some food and take it to the food bank." "Yes, we could, " I said, "And what will we be giving up in order to have the money to do that?"He looked at me with this really got look on his face and said, "Give up?"So much for the fastings of Lent. I'm not doing it. Not this year. Last year we actually gave up dinners out for all of Lent and donated that money to the Sierra Leone Project. It was well worth it. This year I am not inclined to do anything. I fell pretty well loaded up with my current efforts. I need to do some serious taking care of myself. Instead of adding more on to my life to keep track of and evaluate and judge and cause me agita. perhaps I will take stock of what I am already doing. Is it working? Is it worthwhile? REALLY worthwhile? And to whom?Many things to think about this Lent.
Today's big event was the beginning of the mini-blind cleaning challenge. I finished up the inside window pane cleaning challenge that my sister and I were doing and so must move on to the blinds and the woodwork so that I am ready to do the OUTSIDE window panes when the weather turns warm. I don't do curtains or drapes. When I did have drapes they were hung OUTSIDE of the window frame. I want as much of the natural outside light as possible to come into the rooms because light adds so much to one's sense of well being. In a cape it can be dismal; and the winter months are oppressive.When we put on the second floor, I wanted LOTS of windows. And I got them. Three pair across the front and one on each end. The bathroom in the back has ample window space also. Of course these eight windows added six mini-blinds to the count. The light that streams into our open second level is worth the mini-blind cleaning. I guess. This is the first effort and why I am having to face so much dust and grime -- I am really bad about the dust cloth thing.Bill to the rescue. He fashioned a mini-blind tub from two wall paper hanging tubs, cutting off one end of each one and putting them back together as one. Today was the first cleaning endeavor. Works great. As is the case with most projects, this one is entailing more that I had planned. Mini-blinds come long. Too long for most windows. When we put them up we just put them up and let the excess sit on the window sill. Not very attractive. So now that I am into the cleaning, I am also into having them 'right.' Patience and care are required to be able to cut just the right strings to remove the correct number of slats. AND the main cords cannot be cut too short or...... Right! Just made it with this first one.I am happy to be energized. I am happy to have this simple project which is a physical activity that allows my brain to ponder aimlessly on whatever happens to flit through. I love to ponder. And I am happy to be accomplishing something purposeful too. Clean is good.
Frankly, I am not happy about the dust thing. The story just doesn't hold water. If you go to Genesis 2:7 it says, "...then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, ..." No WOman, just man.Then a few verses later God decides to form woman from one of the ribs of the man. This creation story just stinks. It puts woman in the position of being the possession of man aside from being an afterthought when all else had been created.Better is the creation story in Genesis 1:27 which says, "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." Here it is separate and equal -- in the image of God. I eversomuch more like being God's image that dust.And so into Lent we go.
There is a new steering wheel cover on my car. We got it so that the chill of the steering wheel would not penetrate my gloves and render my fingers blue and numb. It works! The steering wheel cover in not all that thick but it is of a fleecy variety that has a definite nap to it. Run my hands clockwise around it and it is wonderfully smooth. Counterclockwise scruffy. SO.. when making right hand turns the wheel slides smoothly back through my hand rendering the cover sleek and silky. Left hand turns -- not so much -- scruffy and not pretty. My routine trips are just that, routine round trips. Out from home and back again. Now one would assume that these routine trips would include an equal number of right turns and left turns. Decidedly not. There are just more left turns in my life than right turns. Or so it would seem.It was only a few days of this smooth/scruffy experience for me to figure out the right turn/left turn thing. And, of course, being me, I pondered on these things. Could I equate this experience to right turn/wrong turn. Wrong is so much more obvious than right. Perhaps it was the obvious that was apparent. This thinking led me further -- are there unequal right turns and wrong turns of life. And further, am I making more wrong ones than right ones? And even further -- how would I know?This kind of thinking happens to me a lot. I seem to turn the simplest of circumstances into broad psychological/theological/ethical reasoning. Sometimes that is a good thing, sometimes not. But it will always be. As I get older, however, I would like to be eliminating the wrong turns in my life.I will continue to ponder on these things.Lent is upon us.
