EXERCISE? -- NOT!

Almost two weeks since I have been on the treadmill. Weights are gathering dust. And me? I am as happy as a moth in wool. I have given myself permission to relax into each day as it unfolds before me. Attempts at the morning crossword; morning pages which have segwayed into mostly autobiographical snippets, decluttering, some picture taking in the garden, perusing my favorite blogs -- and some new found ones too, discovering "being" and not doing.

I am approaching the end of my seventieth year. Exercise is good. I'll pick it up again next week. A healthy food regimen is good too and I seem to have found that in the Sanoma Diet. SOoo, I've got the "body" part together.

As to the mind, I have always been curious about a variety of things. I so deplored the disappearance of the library card catologue system because in looking for a something, I frequently stumbled over something else. I have followed so many branching topics and developed interest in a lot of strange things. Goats, for instance. I remember reading up on the raising of goats, milking, breeding, cheese making -- it went on and on. Never really wanted to DO it, but throughly enjoyed the knowledge of the doing. The Internet has taken the place of my card catalogue perusing. If it exists, its on the Internet in one form or anther and so aside from books I shall always have challenges for my mind.

So, I have pretty much established a body program that I can live with for the next seventy years, and the mind is always working on something. I am never at a loss for an Internet search or figuring out how to build a something from unlikely materials -- styrafoam bookshelves was my latest inspiration. Always something challenging.

That leaves the continuing quest to further develop and nurture the spirit.

CREATING SPACES

Sorting and tossing is creating space, make that prural -- spaces. I am even thinking of them as "sacred' spaces. So sacred that I am filling them in with empty boxes so that another in this household doesn't try to fill them up with his stuff.

The buh-byes are not many. I came upon a box filled with shells, beautiful collected stones, smooth and artistically mishapen pieces of driftwood and, wonder of wonders, ingredients for potting up indoor plants. Now, why in box? How can I appreciate these lovely things in a box hidden on a shelf in the cellar? SO, out they come. The shells and stones are dispatched to corners in the gardens; the driftwood I will use on the dining room table to enhance flower arrangements, The miscellaneous ingredients for potting are beiing gathered from the seven corners of the homestead into one giant Zip-Loc. Ah, space.

And the empty space can now be filled with an empty box and I can move on to the next box, then the next, and then the next. Is the goal here to have shevles full of empty boxes? No, the goal is to be rid of unused, unneeded "stuff." The goal is to organize into like boxes the stuff that needs to be kept -- and I am thinking that there is less and less of that.

A box of yarn, not used for twenty years. My color preferences have drastically changed in that time period. I am now into softer colors, no browns or yellow ochre, no bright reds. Buh-bye. A two foot stack of Cloth Doll magazines. I am never going to make all those dolls -- buh-bye. More space. I am loving this. I am freeing myself from unwanted ties to the past. In fact meaningless ties that have been hanging around. For why? Those rocks and shells were collected over many, many years from a variety of shores. I cannot put a name to any of the shores or even remember the time of wandering and collecting. Let it go. Move on. Go forward unencumbered. Life is good.

GOD DOESN'T CREATE JUNK

This is the message from today's sermon. "God doesn't create junk." I am not junk. Straight Barbara is not junk. My son Jeffri is not junk. Gay Jeffri is not junk. My straight son, Scott, is not junk. My deceased gay husband was not junk. God doesn't do junk.


Taking this to the next level I must accept that ++Peter Akinola of Nigeria who detests and defiles gays, is not junk either. This man, this Anglican Primate, this Christian leader who wants nothing to do with any gay or lesbian person, who would have them disappear; this man is also not junk.


As a Christian, I have a hard time with this. To accept that such a person is created by God in God's own likeness as am I, is almost unacceptable. But accept it I must. BUT I do not have to like him. I do not have to like him and all those that stand with him. And I don't. I don't like any of them. They are an abomination to me. If this is one of my sins, then so be it.

HOB -- HOUSE OF BISHOPS

This afternoon I have read way too much about what is and what is NOT being said during the meeting of the House Of Bishops. For any of you who are interested, Jeffri has a variety of sites referenced so that you can maybe get the gist of what is going on.

Or maybe not. It is such a convoluted, confusing thing. What the bishops say that they are about may be in part what they are about. But are they publicly acknowledging the main issue? I don't feel that they are. The issue is basically will our gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered brothers and sisters be equally and unequivocally accepted as full members of The Episcopal Church (TEC). That's it. Is our brother our brother? Is our sister our sister? We drink from the same cup but we are denied the same rights. We are baptized into the community of Christ but denied full and equal membership. We are baptized into the community of Christ but are denied the equal rights and benefits of that baptism.

I remember the first time I had to explain to my children that life was not fair. That was a very hurtful thing for me to tell them and for them to hear. That some people would judge without thought or reason. That some people would act without thought or reason. My children are grown now and it still is not fair. And that this can happen in the Episcopal Church that I so love is hurtful, painful, agonizing.

Last week Jeffri offered prayers for our bishops. I pray for the church.

BLOGOSPHERE

I was over reading MadPriest this morning, as I do every week or so, and decided that I would count the number of blogs that he has listed as his "Heroes of the Blogosphere." Two hundred six. Yes, I counted them. Some of them are familiar, although very few compared to 2006. When does he have time to check this stuff out? I feel like I am pushing it to follow the ones that I do.

Of course, I took the time to count the heroes, didn't I? Still in all, I feel that I'm pushing it to read the blogs that I do follow regularly plus peruse a couple of new ones now and then and keep up my own blog meanderings. Plus continue the declutter project, plus the other daily stuff and a part time job. Maybe I just don't organize my time very well.

Maybe I just enjoy what I enjoy and take the time to do it and fit all the other stuff in around it.

DECLUTTERING ANGST

This process of decluttering is a continuing struggle with who I am and what I was. True that who I was has a cumulative effect on who I am. But is it necessary to keep all these remembrances of what was? Like college year books. I have four of my husband's and three of my own. I hated college, hated being away from my family, hated being in the college situation, hated dating, hated having roommates. Hated the whole thing. So why keep these remembrances. Is anyone else going to care? NOoooo.

But the angst of actually letting them go is troubling me. It isn't as though it is like throwing away a part of myself. The only part of me that is in there is a class picture. I was not a "belonging" type of person -- no sports teams, no hobby groups, no intellectual organizations. Maybe it is the what might have been that bothers me? Don't see how that could be. I don't do groups very well. In any group situation I feel like an outsider, always on the fringe, not important, not necessary. How this came to be, I don't know. I have felt this way since our move to Chicago in 1949. Never fit in anyplace after that.

SO away with the year books.

DIFFERENCES

As I struggle with my clutter, Bill seems to be struggling with his own issues. I see things differently than he sees them. I see CLUTTER, he sees unfinished chores that need doing. The thing is, my younger son and his family are coming for Thanksgiving. They have not been "home" since Bill and I have been living together, and have not been "home" since we renovated the house.

I am seeing my clutter as a negative reflection of my personal comptence . I finally realize that Bill is seeing certain aspects of the house/home as a reflection upon his capabilities as my partner and soul mate. I want the clutter of my studio area organized, he wants grass growing and the driveway sealed; I want the cellar dejunked and straight and ready for workshop projects, he wants the shingles/shakes cleaned and stained.

It has been really hard for me to understand these differences. My inability to see them has resulted in many an argument. BUT, I'm learning.