Friday Five: Grateful

I know, I know, I have all but disappeared here at the Window...so much going on, internally and externally, and much of it non-bloggable (in the sense of "how could I possibly put this into words" non-bloggable) at least as of yet.  Such a journey I have been on!  Nevertheless, the latest RevGals Friday Five is on gratefulness and since I am full of that these days, it seemed a good time to come sit at the Window again.

Here's the idea:

The Friday Five is very, very late but God is GOOD - ALL THE TIME so you are invited to share with us five things that cause you to be grateful.

So here we go:


1 -- An amazing community of people, including my cielo, my friends, my church, and my spiritual director, who have walked with me so steadfastly on this challenging stage of my journey.


2 -- Goat love.  This is Marshall.  (Don't you love my hat?)

3 -- Good work.  And the lovely people I get to work with.





4 -- A break in the heat and the possibility of rain.  Temps are supposed to drop from mid-90s (after mid-100s last week) this week to low 70s and 80s this weekend and next week, with rain possible the next several days.   Even if you are not in Colorado you have heard about the wildfires here.  Hopefully the break in the heat wave will help.  And, since we live with no AC in the house OR car, it will also be a nice break for us, too.

5 --  One of the Met's summer encore re-broadcasts is Der Rosenkavalier with the divine Ms. Fleming, Susan Graham, and Christine Schafer.  (There is a bass in there too, but really, who cares?).  You know where I will be on July 25, and yes, I will be giggling when the curtain rises, and crying when it falls at the end.

Friday Five: Scattered Edition

The theme for this week's RevGals Friday Five is about being scattered.  Sigh, that's about right for my life these days! 

1.  I lose my keys all of the time.  Even if they are in my hand, I still am looking for them.  Sigh!
What is something you chronically looking for, if anything?



I am chronically ever looking for lots of things:  justice, hope, balance, my next favorite Renée Fleming youtube clip...




2.  What movie are you looking forward to watching sometime in the future?  (me, the new Footloose!)



Movie?  Uh.  I'm not even sure what's playing *now*, much less "sometime in the future."  On the other hand, I do know the Live from the Met HD broadcasts start tomorrow and I am definitely looking forward to those!!  I can't go tomorrow but will go the encore...I have all the broadcasts I want to see on my calendar!

3.  What is one of your favorite comfort foods?  (me, pizza. hands down).

pepperoni pizza

4.  Story time.  Tell us a story of one your favorite people that has touched, blessed your life.

As I am sitting here I am feeling deeply grateful that I have so many stories of so many people to choose from.  Particularly thoughtful today for BlueEyes, who is being ordained on Sunday, thanks be to God; JT, who was at the OccupyDenver protest all night while we vigiled at home, cell phones on all night in case she or another of our peeps needed bailing out of jail (all home safe and sound);  and of course, my beloved cielo, who loves me no matter what, and fills my life with tenderness and joy.  Also she cleans the gutters, because I hate climbing ladders.

5.  What do you do to focus or calm or center yourself?  (please, I need ideas!!!)

Breathe.  Stretch.  Snuggle.  Hug.  Hold hands.  Breathe more.  Helps to remind myself that whatever the moment, I have all I need, thanks to Her.

BONUS:  Share the first thing (or second thing) that comes to your mind after your read this!

Uh...I really want a Coke.  And a nap.

Friday Five: September

The RevGals offer this Friday Five today:

One thing I've learned with blogging and social media is that the where I live is not necessarily where you live. And so I want to know what September means to you, in your place of the world and time in your life.

This week's Friday Five is:

What are 5 things that the beginning of September mean to you?

Bonus: What's one thing you could do without?

So here goes.

1.  A break in the heat.  Already this week has cooled off just a touch, enough that our stay-at-home vacation this week has been quite pleasant, in terms of just hanging out at home.  We don't have AC in the house or car which makes stretches of hot days very difficult.  The sun angle is starting to shift now, and the temp dropping just enough, that comfort is returning.  Thank goodness we figured out how to cool down the bedroom to a comfortable temp so that we can sleep.  We did not have that in our old place.

2.  New possibilities forming for my ministry setting.  As my faith community grows in depth and commitment we look ahead to new opportunities for community building and solidarity.  In addition, our association, the local regional expression of the UCC, is launching a fund to help support "covenant communities" like ours which don't fit "traditional" categories.  That financial support would mean a great deal to our faith community and my vocation, especially if it means I could do my ministry work full-time rather than split between that and another job.

3.  Opera is coming soon.  The first HD broadcast is not until October but we're getting closer!  Fleming, DiDonato, Netrebko, Voigt...what's not to like?

4.  Integration.  This summer has been a time of major spiritual wrestling...being wrestled out of old paths and ways into something new which I do not know what that is yet.  Will autumn be a time of harvest?  I go back to Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, which I posted about here.

O Pain, You piercer of all things,

From you, I have been wrestled!

O Death, You masterer of all things,

Now, are you conquered!

With wings which I have won for myself,

In love’s fierce striving,

I shall soar upwards

To the light which no eye has penetrated!

Its wing that I won is expanded,

and I fly up.

Die shall I in order to live.

Rise again, yes, rise again,

Will you, my heart, in an instant!

That for which you suffered,

To God will it lead you!

5.    The work continues.  I have sure enjoyed this week (8.5 days!) off.  I have got to figure out how to incorporate more rest like this into my/our schedule...there is good stuff coming up, AND if I let myself get this exhausted again, well that won't be so good.

And one thing I could do without:

Hmm.  I've been sitting here thinking about it and can't come up with anything other than over-scheduling myself per #5 above...So I'll go with that!

Friday Five: Year-End Edition

For the final Friday Five of the year, the revgals suggest listing 5 blessings of 2010 and 5 hopes/dreams for the new year.  This seemed like a good spiritual practice, since "blessings" is not the first thing that springs to mind when I think of this year.  This year was rough, and as I read through others' year-end blog posts and status updates, it seems "rough" describes many folks' 2010 journey.  May 2011 be a gentler road for us all.

Blessings:

1 -- Bearing witness to my cielo's continued growth as the most amazing human I have ever known.  Assuming all continues smoothly, she will be ordained in 2011, something I am already looking forward to.

2 -- Rediscovering an old love: opera.  Thanks to this broadcast, which blew my world open and reminded me that there is beauty in the world:



And in rediscovering opera, I discovered the global White Shirt contingent, which has provided much delight.  For an example, here.

3 -- Good friends and mentors who help me feel less lonely during the lonely stretches.

4 -- Goats and hermitages and a flying St. Francis.

5 -- Colleagues in the multi-stranded movement for justice, which only grows stronger.

Hopes/Dreams...and things I'm looking forward to:

1 -- Opera-related, there's the Capriccio HD broadcast in April, the Die Walkure HD broadcast in May, and the HOPE that the Met will release the above-mentioned Rosenkavalier on DVD, as they have done with other HD broadcasts.  Cuz then I'd feel like this:

2 -- I started the "One With the Collar" series (last one here, which has links to all of them) without realizing that it would be a series.  These poems have been helpful ways of thinking about my own experience as a minister, of wrestling with issues of privilege, authority, pain, injustice.  So I want to be more intentional about these reflections moving forward.

3 -- Continued deepening growth of the faith community I pastor.

4 -- Finally being delivered.  All right, maybe not "finally" as in that's the end of that, but finally in the sense of being brought out of whatever-the-hell-I'm-in right now and onto what is next, whatever that is.  Ironically, it's exhausting, even thought there is nothing I can do but be still and let God do Her work.

5 -- Time with my cielo, my friends, "my" hermitage, the goats...

Happy 2011, everyone!

Friday Five: Pie Edition

I haven't done one of these from the revgals in ages, but when I saw the theme -- PIE -- I couldn't resist!

This one's for you, my dear BlueEyes, pie-maker extraordinaire (her apple-pear-cranberry pie we had on Tuesday was scrumptious!).

Please answer these five questions about pie:

1) Are pies an important part of a holiday meal?

I am of the opinion that pie is an important part of ANY meal.  Including picnics and birthday celebrations in the Rocky Mountain National Park (it helps that there is a FANTASTIC pie shop on the way).

2) Men prefer pie; women prefer cake. Discuss.

Really?  All the women in my life prefer pie in general.  Although we all do appreciate a really good chocolate cake.

3) Cherries--do they belong in a pie?

Yes.  Best pie I have ever had was the cherry pie at from the Estes Park Pie Shop (see link above), the tartness was amazing.  The fact that there were deer roaming around just made it better (yes, it was desert for a picnic in the RMNP).

4) Meringue--if you have to choose, is it best on lemon or chocolate?

I think meringue is best when it's by itself in those little meringue cookies, dusted in chocolate.

5) In a chicken pie, what are the most compatible vegetables? Anything you don't like to find in a chicken pie?

Hmm, I have not given this much thought.  I guess I would say carrots, peas, potatoes, onions, maybe celery?  I rarely eat this kind of pie, so am not an expert. 

Friday Five: God Comes Near Edition

From the revgals as usual, a nice Friday Five: "Please share five ways that God has come to you (your family or friends, your church or workplace, our world) in the past year, that God is coming to you right now, and/or that you are longing and looking for God to come."

Here are 5 photos that represent how God has come near to me this year (an important part of my journey this year, knowing that God is near...hence the focus is pretty much just on me...)


There was our trip back to Tucson to visit our Abuelitos (our adopted grandma and grandpa). Gorgeous spring in the desert, and a wonderful visit with them.



Now God, She made it blizzard at the beginning of my retreat, so that I could not get away (from Her). Although eventually I was able to get out to take this photo of my precious little hermitage.



The moment we had all been waiting for: I'm ordained! So full of Spirit I could hardly hold myself up during this moment.



This is a two-for-one: My cielo, and the goats. Divine love, and divine humor.

Another two-for-one: Dear friends (without whom I would have been lost this year), and the wonder of the Rocky Mountains.

Friday Five: Thanksgiving Edition

via the revgals --

1. Did you go elsewhere for the day, or did you have visitors at your place instead? How was it?
We will often share the day with friends but not this time. The only place we went was to the movies in the afternoon (we saw "August Rush" and liked it). We needed a quiet day to ourselves after the craziness of the end of the quarter. I didn't even get out of my jammies until about 2pm.

2. Main course: If it was the turkey, the whole turkey, and nothing but the turkey, was it prepared in an unusual way? Or did you throw tradition to the winds and do something different?
We had turkey on Wednesday, when we were at my cielo's work feeding over 150 day laborer, homeless, and undocumented folks. We had the full complement of traditional food -- turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie. We also had the best flan ever.

Yesterday we had my favorite breakfast (scrambled eggs and fried potatoes) and then later in the afternoon mango and coconut-encrusted tilapia (it comes already encrusted...hardly any work for us).

I have to say, I have a lot of ambiguity about this holiday, since "Thanksgiving" is a trumped-up holiday that is based on a myth. The day is one of mourning for American Indian people. Perhaps the Indians and Puritans shared a meal, once (that they actually did so is utterly unclear...read this, for example...), but that did not stop the whites from slaughtering them shortly after, and ever after up until the present day (poverty being a type of slaughter).

3. Other than the meal, do you have any Thanksgiving customs that you observe every year?
Watching football and movies.

4. The day after Thanksgiving is considered a major Christmas shopping day by most US retailers. Do you go out bargain hunting and shop ‘till you drop, or do you stay indoors with the blinds closed? Or something in between?

I am so NOT a shop-til-you-drop kind of person. But we were going to go grocery shopping and pick up some movies until this question reminded me that today is the high-holy-day of Capitalism. And so, we will wait until tomorrow. As I said to my cielo, when the bean-counters count up today's beans, they will not give a shit that we bought cereal and lightbulbs because we are out of them. They will only care that we BOUGHT. So we are participating in Buy Nothing Day instead.

5. Let the HOLIDAY SEASON commence! When will your Christmas decorations go up?

One of the few strict rules we have is that no Christmas decorations go up until after Advent has started.



Well, this is kind of a bummer friday five...I'm sure it was meant to be more festive but I guess that's kind of where I'm at right now. Certainly I am filled with thankfulness for my life, for old friends and new, for my cielo, for my family, for school, for y'all. But I don't need a special holiday that mythologizes a lie in order to cover up genocide in order to be thankful.

Off soapbox...Peace, y'all.

Friday Five: True Edition

From the revgals, songbird offers up this prompt:

Friends, it's nearly Thanksgiving in the U.S. and it's the time of year when we are pressed to name things for which we are thankful. I want to offer a twist on the usual lists and use Paul's letter to the church at Philippi as a model. Name five things that are true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent or worthy of praise. These could be people, organizations, acts, ideas, works of art, pieces of music--whatever comes to mind for you.

1. See the picture. (If you're new here, see this post, and this one).















2. Another picture: Our kitties! They make me happy. Notice they are both in the smaller of TWO baskets...
















3. Another picture (I guess this is the theme today...): The most holy and sacred mountain, Pedernal, in northern New Mexico.
















4. I've got this song on my mind today...



5. Is it fair to reference my own poetry? Because I am still moved by what I wrote about here.

I'm adding my own bonus: My cielo, because she is all these things: true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise.

Friday Five: Weather Edition

Here's the Five from the revgals --

Here in the UK we are struggling with floods, other parts of the world have similar problems without the infrastructure to cope with it, still others are badly affected by drought.... My son Jon is in Melbourne Australia where apparently it has been snowing ( yes it is winter but still!).... With crazy weather in mind I bring you this week's Friday 5...

1. Have you experienced living through an extreme weather event- what was it and how did you cope?

The (happy happy) day we moved from SE Kansas back to Arkansas, a snowstorm hit. Now, here was the pre-storm moving plan: The moving company had already headed off so the family was caravaning in our three cars: Dad with my littlest brother in the lead car; Me, with the cat, in the middle car; Mom with my other little brother in the last car. The idea was that with dad in the front and mom in the back I shouldn't get lost as we caravaned from Chanute to Tulsa, our stop that night, and then on to Arkansas (ah, home!) the next day.

As I think about this, I don't know why we didn't wait until after the storm to leave. Maybe because we were all so anxious to get out of that town. Anyway, we didn't stay. We left in the middle of the storm.

I was 16. I had been driving all of about 6 months. I hadn't really driven much farther than the next town. And needless to say...I had never, ever driven in snow. I'm not sure I'd even seen so much snow.

Mom and Dad said, just follow your dad. We're stopping in Tulsa, meeting at the Captain D's at Exit XX (we had been there before on vacation, so I was at least familiar). Just stay on this highway, it goes all the way there. Off we went.

We got out of town, got on the highway...and dad took off. I'm sure he didn't mean to...but I lost him. Maybe I was too slow on the snow but I never saw him again that night. And, I don't know how this happened either, but I lost my mom. So I was on the snowy road, alone, with our cat in the backseat unhappy about being in a carrier, and South Pacific in the tape player as an attempt to keep calm.

I was scared but mostly it was ok. I crossed into Oklahoma. At some point I outran the storm and the highway became clear. But then it got dark. And then, the highway did something screwy in a little town and I didn't know which way to go. So I had to stop at a rather sketchy-looking convenience store -- in my memory it's more like a liquor store, and there were only men there -- and ask for directions. Imagine, a 16-year old girl, lost, asking for directions? Yikes.

Well, reader, I made it to Tulsa. I don't know how. Both dad AND mom were there already and I think they were scared. But I made it. The next morning we got up to head to Arkansas. It was rainy but that seemed like nothing after the day before! I enjoyed the trip all the way.

Of course, we never let Daddy forget this little incident.

But the truth is, I've loved road trips ever since.

2. How important is it that we wake up to issues such as global warming?

Vastly, vastly important.

3. The Christian message needs to include stewardship of the earths resources agree/ disagree?

Absolutely agree.

And because it is summer- on a brighter note....

4. What is your favourite season and why?
I'm rather fond of fall, actually, with the turning colors, a relieving break from the heat, baseball pennant races and playoffs, college football kicking up...

Spring, at the peak of daffodils blooming, is also quite lovely.

5. Describe your perfect vacation weather....

Sunny, breezy, just warm enough for shirtsleeves, just cool enough that you can hike all day without worrying about collapsing from the heat.

Friday Five: Look Forward, Look Back Edition

Via the revgals --

1. Share a moment/ time of real encouragement in your journey of faith.
How about all the support I've been getting from all of you, as I've wrestled my way along this year? That has meant a lot.

2. Do you have a current vision / dream for your work/ family/ministry?
Somehow I don't think my work/ministry will be bound to one place and role. I have been called "border crosser" and that resonates...I can imagine "border crossing" in three general ways: being a biblical scholar, pastoring with (notice the preposition) a liberationist base community model church, and traveling with groups to different places in the world for theological reflection on facets of injustice. Each would inform the other. And they give me ways to express and use all the different gifts and skills I have (not to mention temperaments) rather than being locked into only a few. I think I would be very unhappy stuck in one role.

3.Money is no object and so you will.....
Pay off my seminary loans? Travel (after my medieval Spain class the last two weeks, so I am dying to go visit). Build a completely "green," sustainable, eco-friendly house. Donate to places doing great work like Heifer Project.

4. How do you see your way through the disappointments? What keeps you going?
What keeps me going is doxology, and the faith that God didn't bring me this far for nothing.

5. How important are your roots?
My mom has being doing genealogy since I was a child. I have loved learning from her about not only our American roots but going back across the Atlantic as well. She has uncovered stories and ancestors which I find fascinating. I was born in a county in SE Arkansas which my father's ancestors founded...I have visited tiny cemeteries in the middle of cornfields in Illinois where my mother's "great-greats" are buried. In my family there are Union and Confederate soldiers, someone who fought in the Indian Wars with Abe Lincoln, women who passed on gifts and stories, people who testified (for and against) in the Salem witch trials, Mayflower passengers, kings and queens of England and Scotland, survivors of the 100 Years' War, a Visigoth ruler fighting the Moors in Northern Spain in the 9th century, Charlemagne, William the Conqueror and his wife Matilda...

My roots are quite present to me (obviously). The stories inform me in the sense of both wanting to live in to the best of my history, and to atone for the sins of my ancestors.

6. Bonus= what would you like to add ?
Here's a very tight-focused looking forward: two more weeks of school, and it's vacation time! Woohoo!!! I can do it!!

Friday Five: Summertime Edition

(Originally posted June, 2007).

Via the revgals: Hot Town, Summer in the City...or town, or suburb, or hamlet, or burg, or unincorporated zone, or rural area of your choice---pretty much anywhere but the southern hemisphere, it's summer. (Australians and others, consider this an invitation to take a break from winter for a while.)

1. Favorite summer food(s) and beverage(s)
Coke over ice in tall glasses. And BLTs done the way my daddy taught me: lightly toasted white bread, miracle whip (not mayo) on both slices, green leaf lettuce (none of that iceberg), just-right-cooked Petit Jean bacon (not too crispy, not to undone), and big slices of tomatoes fresh from his garden. Too bad I can't get daddy's tomatoes...they wouldn't ship well from Chicago. But TheologyBabe has promised me some from her garden later this summer. YUM! Can't wait!

2. Song that "says" summer to you. (Need not be about summer explicitly.)
Hmm. Whenever I hear Indigo Girls' song "Ghost" I'm taken back to the summer of 1992, when I worked on the summer staff at a church conference center in the Texas Hill Country. (See that dam there across the Guadalupe? Sitting right there on the bank, that's where I kissed a girl for the first time...). "Rites of Passage" had just been released and it played on my tape player all day long while I cleaned rooms and changed beds. "Ghost," in particular, was a song that I sang over and over from inside, that seemed to express all the kinds of pain and confusion I was in at that time. The memory of that time is bittersweet, rather like the song. There was pain, but beauty, too -- amazing worship, that kiss, and some of the most beautiful land I have ever seen, which still shows up in my dreams even though I haven't been back since 1992.

3. A childhood summer memory
Every summer that we lived in Kansas, I played softball in the city league. I. Loved. It. My favorite memory is catching a long fly ball at the fence, off the bat of the best athlete in town, male or female, (and a very popular girl in my class, unlike me) and hearing the crowd cheer. When we drove through the town a few years ago, I made my parents stop at the ballfields so I could go stand in left-center field again. I scooped up a little dirt from home plate and still have it at home.

Yes, I am odd.

4. An adult summer memory
Floating in the Atlantic Ocean just off the beach at Tela, Honduras, bobbing with the gentle waves, telling a friend how I had the feeling something amazing was about to happen in my life. When we got back to our retreat center outside Tegucigalpa the next day, I met my cielo for the very first time. I wouldn't know for a few more months that that first meeting would eventually blossom into the "something amazing," but every time I think about it...wow.

5. Describe a wonderful summer day you'd like to have in the near future. (weather, location, activities)
I've just driven down from Aspen to Denver and there were so many places where I'd love to stop and explore (in fact, I had to force myself to stop stopping to take pictures, otherwise I never would have gotten home!). I'd love to retrace that drive with my cielo, and stop for pictures and picnics along the way.

Optional: Does your place of worship do anything differently in the summer? (Fewer services, casual dress, etc.)
HappyChurch is fairly casual already but I can tell they (some, at least) dress a little more coolly. There's no choir for the summer and I must say it's a little lonely up there all by myself.

Friday Five: Joyful Edition

(Originally posted April, 2007).

From the Revgals --

Jesus said to them, "Children, you have no fish, have you?" They answered him, "No."
He said to them, "Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. (John 21:5-7)

Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. (Psalm 30:5b)

This week I've been watching parents of the young people slain at Virgina Tech trying to make meaning out of the lives of their lost children, and each one seems to begin by focusing on something joyful about that child. It's a gift that most humans have brains wired to respond in that way. For some of us it can be harder to work our way out of dark places, but I believe joy remains the key. It is the spirit of resurrection.

Tell us about five people, places, or things that have brought surprising, healing joy into your life.

--------------------------------------------------

This is a good exercise, since I'm feeling a little anxious right now...remembering joy is a good spiritual practice. I'm going to try to focus on this week.

1a. Wednesday was my birthday, and when I got up to my carrel in the library after my 8am class, I found my cielo had left a beautiful card and roses, and my good friend JT had left a card and chocolate. A great way to start the day! That morning I had to finish a paper on antisemitism and Christian theology-- not really a happy topic -- so it was nice to look up at the roses and re-read the cards and remember that there is love in the world.

1b. And of course, my cielo brings me joy every single day, surprising, healing, beautiful, delightful joy. Which she certainly has this week.

2. Watching the Dodgers-Padres game on Sunday, Jackie Robinson Day. Seeing all the players wearing #42, hearing Rachel Robinson speak and then root for her boys from the press booth...well, the whole thing was moving.

3. Life at Iliff. There are some hard things going on right now, but there are also good buddies who affirm me in how I try to use my voice, and even when I lose my voice (like yesterday when a prof, um, "suggested" I keep quiet...grr) -- thanks, y'all. Never in my life have I been one of the "cool kids" but for some reason I seem to be here. It's the strangest feeling sometimes, just something I'm not used to. But I love these people, and am thankful for them.

4. There were several moments this week with my favorite prof that just exemplify how much joy I find in our relationship, and how thankful I am for it -- the least of which would be her insistence on the class singing me "Happy Birthday" on Wednesday. I don't want to say too much more...just...something about the power of being seen, of connection in the midst of struggling with painful realities, of care, of humor, of humanity...something about friendship, even though I fully expect her to grade me just as tough as always, to push me in my thinking, my interpreting...

5. I start working at a church on Monday, as an interim for the next four months while the pastor is on sabbatical. When I am not totally freaking out about it, I am delighted for the opportunity. They are a warm, friendly, funny little church that wants to reach out into the community, and wants me to help them know how to do that (they're a "white" church in a Latino neighborhood) in ways that are helpful and appropriate -- the pastor and the congregation are going to learn Spanish over the summer as a start. Pretty cool, really. To protect their anonymity (and mine), we'll just call them "HappyChurch" here.

OK, I feel better now!

Friday Five: A Week Enjoyed

(Originally posted September, 2006).

This Friday Five from the revgals is Fairly Simple. Name five things you have enjoyed this week.

1. This slightly stretches the definition of "week," but what the heck. Last Thursday my cielo and met for a walk -- she was coming back from work and so I left the house and met her halfway. We went to get ice-cream cones -- my prize for a difficult phone conversation the day before -- and then took the long way home so that we could pass by the park; the house with the blue door and ripe grapes; the abomination of a new "modern" duplex that would look ok downtown but looks completely out of place in this old neighborhood, so I could show her that someone had neatly spray-painted "butt ugly house 2005" with great care above the mailbox; and the house with the abundant raspberry bushes. There is nothing quite as good as walking with your beloved, eating ice cream topped off by sun-warmed and -ripened grapes and raspberries, watching the setting sun.

2. Finishing the HRC commentaries with my group and realizing that we totally rock. Keep your eyes peeled for these Sundays: The Baptism of Jesus (Jan 7) and Transfiguration Sunday (Feb 18).

3. Hanging out with my buddy LiturgicalBabe for a couple of hours yesterday. We got lunch at the awesome Middle Eastern café (I had the falafel sandwich, YUM) and ate under a tree near one of the ponds on the DU campus (which shares the campus with Iliff). We had a great conversation and a lot of fun, and we both noted that with school starting next week, it will probably be a while before we can hang out like that again.

4. I've been reading the entire letter of Romans almost every day this week, so that I'll be really familiar with it when class starts next week. Yesterday, I read the whole thing out loud to the cats (Dodger was uninterested, Punkinseed began to go nuts about Chapter 7, jumping at shadows and running around like a crazy boy; I'm beginning to think he really does have issues with Paul). Since the letters were transcribed as Paul spoke out loud, and were intended to be read aloud in communities (this is true of the Gospels as well), reading them aloud can bring out things that might otherwise be lost or unappreciated in a silent reading, like humor, frustration, sarcasm. I've loved reading Romans this week, silently as well as out loud, and I don't care that it makes me a big ol' nerd. LiturgicalBabe has started calling me BibleBabe. Towanda the Bible Babe...I like it!

5. Getting in as much snuggling time as possible with my cielo before school starts next week and we both have classes, study schedules, and other activities to deal with. Thank you, God, for the cooler weather so that we can actually stand to be close to each other...!

Other nice things this week:
*A couple of evening thunderstorms, and a gentle rain today.
*More sunflowers and a few cosmos have bloomed, so my gardening wasn't a total failure.
*A very moving meeting with the pastor of the church I/we attend here.
*A phone call from an old friend who makes me laugh from my belly. If anyone knows where I can get a Mother Teresa in a snowdome, please let me know...
*Making lunch for my cielo when she gets home from work. It's the least I can do since I am, as my class mates (jealously) remind me, a kept woman.
*Plenty of baseball watched.

A great last week before the start of school!

Friday Five: Back To School Edition

(Originally posted August, 2006).

Another from the RevGals. I don't start school until Sept. 13th but now that I've been out of school for a month I'm starting to get itchy for it...

1. What is your earliest memory of school?
I can still remember my kindergarden classroom at Drew Central Elementary in Arkansas. The sandbox on a table, the "mat" I used for naptime (my least favorite part), the smell of paste, the bluish wall color, the story time area, the cubbyholes for our things. And Mrs. Newman, the teacher, who made everyone an ornament for Christmas, which I still have and hang on the tree every year. I don't have many specific memories, except for the time when I played with the rat poison behind the bookshelf near my mat during naptime. It was a box of pretty yellow powder, which I did not eat but just emptied on the floor and pushed around. The next day in class we got a lesson about not touching things which you don't know what they are...

2. Who was a favorite teacher in your early education?
I'm not sure what is meant by "early" but I assume grade school (K-6 for me). The truth is I loved all my grade school teachers until the second half of 6th grade, when we moved to Kansas and I had a mean teacher for the first time. Once she actually grabbed my arm and dug her fingernails in; I have no idea what I did, but I ticked her off somehow. But this is supposed to be about favorites! Well, I loved them all. I think I liked Mrs. Dement (4th grade, Austin, TX) the best, though, because in her class for the first time I really felt smart, and she pushed me to do my best.

3. What do you remember about school “back then” that is different from what you know about schools now?
Well, the technology is the obvious answer. My oh my, I can't quite get over folks taking notes on laptops, cellphones going off in class, and people sitting through class with bluetooth headsets in their ears. I also notice people IM-ing and surfing the web AND finishing the paper for their next class during class as well, and this to me is disrespectful (and a waste of their student loan money...but I guess that is their choice...).

I do have a laptop but I still take notes the old-fashioned way, with paper and pen. I find it easier to focus that way.

The other thing I would note is that I distinctly remember kids getting paddled IN FRONT OF THE CLASS by the teacher of the principal. That would never fly now.

4. Did you have to memorize in school? If so, share a poem or song you learned.
I know I had to learn songs for school programs but I don't really remember them; I don't remember having to memorize anything else except the list of helping verbs: "amisarewaswerebebeingbeenhashavehaddodoesdidmaymightmustcancouldshallshouldwillwould"
Most of the memorizing I had to do was piano music for the yearly festivals. By high school I was memorizing concerto movements, Mendelsohn and Mozart.

For my intro to poetry class in college, I had to memorize two poems, one which I don't remember, the other of which was all the verses of Isaac Watts' "Oh God Our Help In Ages Past." Yes that's a hymn, but it was actually in the poetry book, so it counted!

5. Did you ever get in trouble at school? Were there any embarrassing moments you can share?
Surprise surprise, I was pretty much a good kid. I remember getting detention a few times but for what must have been minor infractions because I don't remember what they were. The most trouble I ever got in at school was for getting caught blowing spitballs at the band director in 7th (maybe 8th) grade. The entire brass section (all boys except me) were going at it, and I was just trying to fit in...so of course who got caught on her first try? ME. My parents were FURIOUS -- preacher's kids don't do such things, I guess, and adding to their fury was the fact that they had both been band directors at previous times in their lives. That was not one of my better days!

Friday Five: Juicy Fruity Goodness Edition

(Originally posted August, 2006).

From RevGalPals, who say:

Well, those of us in the United States are on high alert for air travel. Thank heaven, it appears that a huge disaster has been averted. Meanwhile, dreadful conflicts continue in the Middle East and around the world. We here at RGBP certainly hope and pray for safety, peace and fullness of life for all the peoples of the world.

Galatians 5 describes the fruit of the Spirit. With all the sadness and despair out there, we certainly need it! So, the Friday Five is simple. Pick any five of the following attributes and go wherever the Spirit leads you... your choice! Suggestions: When have you experienced this attribute? When have you struggled with it? Or who embodies it for you?

Or if you're feeling light-hearted--just assign a fruit to each one. I think Generosity is a Banana, don't you?

Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Generosity
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-control

OK, so I wonder if it's just a coincidence that as I start writing about a fruits of the SPIRIT, a huge wind has just kicked up. From my spot in the coffee shop here downtown, I can see the trees bending, rain spitting, and women trying in vain to to hold their skirts down. Maybe this means a break in the heat? I'm tired of waking up with sheets drenched in sweat, and the cats are making such pathetic faces at us it's hard not to grab them up and go spend the rest of the summer at the Holiday Inn.

Umm. Grumpiness is not on that list is it? Too bad, I'm best at that one. OK, down to work.

Berry-flavored semi-goodness:

Joy: The first taste of the sun-warmed blackberry you've just picked from the bush on a morning hike.
Generosity: A blackberry bush full of ripe berries.
Patience: What it takes to root up the blackberry bushes that have overtaken your backyard.
Gentleness: The doctor's touch trying to remove the blackberry thorn points that had worked their way through my leather gloves and into my fingertips.
Self-Control: What blackberry bushes lack in their attempt to take over the world.

For those of you who don't know, I spent most of Lent 2004 digging blackberry bushes out of my backyard in Portland, OR. I never completely won that battle, as the little thorny roots kept shooting up in my flower beds for the next year and a half. I wonder if the folks who live there now are having the same problem? At any rate, that experience left me, umm, shall we say scarred, and with a great appreciation for the metaphor or rooting out our own thorniness.