MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

Happiness is a frozen Margarita and peanuts at Texas Roadhouse -- compliments of a Christmas gift card.  This is a semi-annual treat.  Seldom enough that I forget that the first sip is BRAIN FREEZE.  I thought my temples would touch the inside corners of my eyes and the bridge of my nose would reach through to the base of my skull.  I was so numb that my focus wasn't and my breathing almost stopped.  I didn't think I would be able to move -- ever again.

After a few minutes the freeze began to thaw, focus came back and head parts went back into their normal places.  Whew!  Six months from now I'll probably do it again.  I am not one to learn from experience.  I sort of just make it up as I go along and don't make the realistic adjustments that are necessary in life.  I fumble a lot.  Get hurt a lot -- feelings that is.  And in general just don't pay attention to life.
 

LEFT OVER PIZZA

 

My new favorite pizza -- Hawaiian.  Pineapple, ham, and BACON.

Even better warmed up again the next day.

 

IT'S FRIDAY

 

The Week In Review

Two snows this week -- Monday and Thursday.  Really remarkable for this late in March.  Enjoyable though.  Beauty and easy driving is always a plus.  And I do love the snow.  Plus on Monday the awakening of a new venture with the idea of reviving the Pastoral Care Team with the inclusion of Betania folk.  It just keeps getting better and better.

Wednesday was a nuts day this week with a lot of stuff sandwiched all in the after of noon -- Spiritual Avisor, always a plus; couples therapy, usually a plus; and then Lenten Soup Supper and a program on Judas.  Hmmmm, was Judas really a bad guy?  Maybe not.  So I have pulled The Gospel of Judas off the Internet and will look through it.

Then the furnace saga.  We have been smelling oil fumes for ages.  Even after the annual cleaning and still after the "tweaking."  But yesterday we finally had a knoweldgeable person who really worked hard to get it right.  And he did. 

My week begins on Monday and ends on Friday.  Those two sandwiched days in between are where I recover from the prior week and gear up for the next.  AND, of course, do fun stuff.  But I don't count Saturday and Sunday as any part of my "week."  It seems like sort of a no man's land, I guess.  But all the days are my life.  Sundays are ALWAYS church.  Does that begin the week or end the week?  Neither.  Sundays are just right there.  Always the high point.  Tomnorrow, though, a baseball game as our Sam begins playing the season.  should be fun to be with the family and out of doors.  Could be nippy though.  I'll dress warmly.
 

SNOW COVERED BUDS

 

And so snow once again.  Just enough to make the world beautiful.  It isn't going to stay around very long because the temps are running up into the low forties today.  So this is probably the last of this season's snow.  I relish every moment of today and look forward to what is coming.
 

SPRING COMETH ....

Well, maybe.  Right now it is very gray and very wet and very cold.  There is even some snow now and then.  Depite all of this the buds on the maple tree are swelling in praparation for flowering.  I can wait.  I can enjoy seeing them in their beginning redness.  They will get more red before they burst open and fall.  They will be so red that they will once again stain the front steps and porch.  And that's okay because last summer's sun and winter's snows have bleached last spring's red stains away. 

I am so lucky to have this tree in the front yard.  I have been watching it and enjoying its every season for forty seven years.  I love this tree.  This fall we had the tree guy come in and trim it out and put in bracing cables.  There are four cables to enable the tree to withstand the severe winds that we have had.  Cannot imagine what would have happened had the cables not been in place.  This tree is perhaps the most consistent thing in my life.  Part of God's creation.  I love this tree.
 

PASTORAL CARE

Pastoral Care has been a passion of mine for several years.  I have attended many seminars and symposiums in an attempt to be all that I can be in this area.  The more I learn, the more I realize that I still need to learn.  And I will continue to learn more.

God visited me Monday evening as I was driving up I95 to Spanish class.  And God said:  A joint Betania/Grace Pastoral Care Team is what needs to happen.  That was it.  When God speaks, I don't ask a lot of questions.  In fact, usually NONE.  I just run with what I am given.

RevLois was as excited about this call as I.  We dreamed months down the road.  We mapped out what our first four gatherings might look like.  A union of a Spanish speaking congregation with an English speaking congregation is HUGE.  But what a basic way to bring the two together -- pastoral care is pretty universal.  We love one another.  We care for one another.  And we can learn to do it well -- TOGETHER.

And God being God, today I received an e-mail from Lois passing on an offering from Norwalk Hospital for Pastoral Care Groups -- a course named "No One Dies Alone."  Whoah!  O.K. God, we hear you.  Loud and Clear.
 

SPRING SURPRISE

 

Imagine my delight to see the snow coming down so thick and white. There is just something so special about snow. It's clean. And pure. And I need that hope of newness in my life right now. The chance to have all the wrongness cleansed away. To begin again and try to get it right.