Well There Goes November.... And Here's Advent

And so much for frequent posting. Time seems to be my frenemy these days. I enjoy it so much more than I used to when I was burning it madly in an attempt to hide from myself, but on the other hand, it seems to move even faster in some ways than it did then. As I arrived back in the day job office this morning I could hardly believe I'd just had a four-day weekend--it seems like I just left, and yet....when I think of all the things these days have held.....

Wednesday night was our community Thanksgiving service. Those who have been with this blog a while know this service is one of those markers for me by which I sort of measure my life and times here in little town on the prairie. I so clearly remember my first one....sitting alone in the big Catholic church, looking around me wondering if I would ever feel any sense of belonging in this community. The second year and third years I think I may have too. Before I knew it, I was there as part of the clergy, then for the last two years on the planning group. This year as I sat with the other clergy I was able to smile out at R, sitting in the congregation. Another year, another milestone, another gratitude.

Thursday we went to R's sister's for the day. We took his young adult daughter along. She is usually away at college, so it's nice to get to spend time with her. There were a passel of siblings and in-laws, almost grown up kids and a couple little-uns along with his Dad. We stuffed ourselves with the usual fare, teased, laughed and visited. There was a card game and a chance to revisit the past playing My Little Ponies with little great-niece L.

R had to work on Friday, so I spent the day doing some much needed house-foofing, erranding and grocery-getting. It was also the day to put up the garland on the house-front. This was the year to replace lights and generally spruce it up, so when R got home from work we spent some time on that and it looks very festive.

Saturday we celebrated his birthday (which was actually on Thanksgiving) with some friends. I made my first ever scratch cake--carrot, and lasagna. We played wii and a good time was had by all.

And of course Sunday we are suddenly in Advent. Every year it seems to surprise me. Wasn't it just Lent for heaven's sake? But the Advent candle lighting has begun, the Trisagion is being sung, the altar is dressed in blue....all the inescapable clues that indeed it is here. Advent is one of my favorite seasons, and it always seems too short. I'm not sure why, but somehow I want to wait longer, savor the anticipation more. But it too will fly by I think. The schedule for the next weeks is heating up. Things that fill me with both anxiety and joy. The falling shoes event is this Friday as is R's work party. Both coincidentally and conveniently are in the Big City on the same day. So we will be traveling later this week. I am praying that there is no "weather" to further add to my anxiety. As December moves on there is the ECW church womens' Christmas gathering, our annual Lessons and Carols, with its rehearsals and robe mongering for all the "extras" (my particular task), a nursing home service, another round of preaching at St. J's....oh yeah and the day job. All mixed into the usual tumble of craziness that the holidays bring. Its easy to forget in all of this that it's about something, toward something. But I want to slow it down a little, savor it and the reason for it, remember why it is we celebrate this holiday at all. I want to reflect a bit on how absolutely incredible it is that we are loved this much, I want to let the fact of the Incarnation sink in a little more, revel in my belovedness, see the Gift for what it really is. That's my hope for Advent this year. What's yours?

Friday Five: Thanksgiving Thoughts

Jan brings us this poem and an opportunity to reflect on Thanksgiving for our Friday Five......

The Cure
Lying around all day
with some strange new deep blue
weekend funk, I'm not really asleep
when my sister calls
to say she's just hung up
from talking with Aunt Bertha
who is 89 and ill but managing
to take care of Uncle Frank
who is completely bed ridden.
Aunt Bert says
it's snowing there in Arkansas,
on Catfish Lane, and she hasn't been
able to walk out to their mailbox.
She's been suffering
from a bad case of the mulleygrubs.
The cure for the mulleygrubs,
she tells my sister,
is to get up and bake a cake.If that doesn't do it, put on a red dress.
--Ginger Andrews (from Hurricane Sisters)

So this Friday before Thanksgiving, think about Aunt Bert and how she'll celebrate Thanksgiving! And how about YOU?

1. What is your cure for the "mulleygrubs"? Distraction, distraction, distraction! Doesn't really matter what as long as it interrupts that mulleygrubbing cycle. Some of my favorites are music, a good book, a rousing bout of cleaning, a walk with the dog, a talk with a friend, a computer game or some blog reading, or if time permits....a sure cure is always a road trip to just about anywhere in the little red Mini-Cooper!

2. Where will you be for Thanksgiving? We will be up near the Big City at my future SIL's house. Tradition says that R's clan gathers for this holiday for a day of food and family. This will of course be my first time attending (LOTS of those this year) but they are such a welcoming bunch that I already feel pretty much at home.

3. What foods will be served? Which are traditional for your family? It's potluck, and as the new kid I'm not sure if there are any hard and fast "traditions." I'm sure there will be turkey and all its accompaniments. We are charged with dessert. R is a fabulous baker so we will leave that to him! His cakes are already legendary in my workplace (and as of this week, so is his banana bread).

4. How do you feel about Thanksgiving as a holiday? I think it's good to be reminded to stop and be grateful. The historical underpinnings leave me mixed.

5. In this season of Thanksgiving, what are you grateful for?

• First and foremost my sweet, sweet guy! I still have to pinch myself now and again to make sure I did not just dream him up. I never imagined I would find someone who is a such a "fit" for me and with whom I could have so much fun as well as feel so safe and secure. He is such a gift to me and I thank God for him all the time!
• I am also grateful that XDO has found a new beloved and is moving on into a new bright future. That makes more happiness in both of our lives. I am now able to be grateful that XDO and I were. I learned a lot in our twelve years together and I have learned a lot in our almost two years apart. XDO did not pass through my life and leave me unchanged and I am grateful that I can be glad for that now.
• I am grateful for my job....first of all to have one and the way that they have hung in here with me through the last sixteen months of this uncertainty....which I am also grateful will be over soon.
• As always I am grateful for my ministry...for being called, for the congregation I serve, for the ways in which all the funny twists and turns of my life brought me to this place.
• Friends! My soul sisters, C, my virtual friends from RGBP that I have met IRL, and those that I have not yet. It's a wide community that holds me and I am thankful.
• My clients. I am grateful for their trust in me. I am grateful for their tenacity and their courage, their resiliency and their hope. I am grateful for all the things they teach me.

BONUS: Describe Aunt Bert's Thanksgiving. Got an e-mail from Aunt Bert.......she says: "I've been suffering from a case of the mulleygrubs. It's been snowing here and we haven't been able to get out of the house atal. Not sure how we are going to git down to pick up the fixins for the Thanksgiving dinner. Jest looked in the pantry and its purty bare. Gotta a ham in the freezer and some things put up from the garden of course. Theres taters in the celler and onions. So we wont starve. And I can always make a cake. It won't be traditional but we'll eat! And we will have the family if they can get here. Elswise itll be Frank and me. And thatll be ok too. We have spent many a day just the two of us...and if needs be, I guess we can spend one together just being thankful and having us a good meal. So I guess them mulleygrubs is lifting a little now that I think of it, so I best git to cookin! You have yourself a Happy Thanksgiving all y'all!"

The Shoes Are Landing at Last!

Well it did not happen on Friday the thirteenth, but on Monday the sixteenth. And I do not know quite how to feel about it all just yet. Is is a good thing or is it not? Time will be the final judge. What I do know is that as of a few weeks from now those "shoes" that have been hanging from the edge of that shelf in my life, threatening to fall for the last sixteen months will make some sort of landing and It. Will. Be. Resolved. I have been summoned to a meeting. The letter advising me of this, while not exactly friendly in its tone, is fairly non-threatening. It talks of closing and dismissing. These are good words, words I like hearing. It feels like getting on with life. My life, as I think I know it, with little to no major disruptions. And yet, and yet....Life has been disrupted. I have been disrupted at some level. Oh not in the way some people's lives I know have been disrupted in this same timeframe...in irrevocable ways that leave me breathless to even think about. Not with devastating losses of lives or jobs or a sense of self or the world as it was. Not that at ALL! But small wavers in my worldview. I am no longer so sure of my ability to choose the good thing, the right thing for all concerned, no longer so able to trust myself in some areas, and surely not as trusting of some of the systems I interact with. I no longer feel quite so optimistic about the outcomes of things, so sure that if I throw myself in, put myself out there it will all be ok....though now it appears that it will. There were some dicey times, or more accurately some times that felt dicey there for a while. In reality I guess, there was no real danger to me or my little corner of reality. Or at least now I don't really think think there was. I am assuming here that all will actually be well at the end of this, when there is an end to this. Which won't necessarily be right after our little meeting. There will still be fallout, still be stuff. I will still have to, for a period of time after this, say in certain places to certain people, "Yes, I was once accused of being a person who had shoes precariously balanced....shoes that fell on me....shoes that may have hit others....I was not a good minder of my shoes....I did not do as well as perhaps I should have in keeping track of all those shoes, making sure that they were all lined up neatly so they did not touch other shoes, fall off the shelf in a disorderly fashion..." But for the most part I think it will be done. And after over a year of looking up at those teetering shoes, THAT will be something to be thankful for.

Friday the Thirteenth Friday Five

Sophia says: "The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia, a word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή) (meaning Friday), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς) (meaning thirteen), attached to phobía (φοβία) (meaning fear). The term triskaidekaphobia derives from the Greek words "tris", meaning 'three', "kai", meaning 'and', and "deka", meaning 'ten'. the whole word means three and ten. The word was derived in 1911 and first appeared in a mainstream source in 1953. (Wikipedia)With thanks to my dear spouse TechnoGuy for the great suggestion, it's a Friday the 13th Friday Five!"

1. How is this Friday the 13th looking for you? It's just another Friday....work at the day job and then off to R's dad's place tonight. We are going to his brother's to make sausage this weekend. Nothing too spooky about any of that! And I'm not superstitious about my in-laws-to be....yet!

2. Have you ever had anything unlucky happen on Friday the 13th? Not any more than on any other day!

3. Did your family of origin embrace or scorn superstitions? I don't think it ever came up at home. I remember at school going into the dark bathroom to see "Mary White" in the mirror and then running out screaming (must have been in about fourth grade or so).

4. Are there any unique or amusing ones from your family, region, or ethnic background? None...we are pretty boring as these things go....

5. Do you love or hate horror movies like "Friday the 13th"? Hate them. Just like amusement park rides....I never did see the point in courting gratuitous fear....but that's just me.

Soooo...having re-read my answers and feeling pretty darn boring about this whole paraskevidekatriaphobia business....I bring you, coutesy of aol....today's Top Thirteen Bad Events that DID happen on Friday the Thirteenth! Watch out for those black cats under ladders!

1. Friday, October 13, 2006Buffalo, N.Y. experienced an unusually early snow storm which virtually shut down when the metro area was covered in up to two feet of snow. The storm, which began on Thursday the 12th, resulted in the two snowiest days that Buffalo had seen in the 137 years that the National Weather Service had been operating. Schools remained closed for nearly ten days following the snow fall.

2. Friday, August 13, 2004During what proved to be a very busy hurricane season, Hurricane Charley came ashore in Port Charlotte, Florida. The 150 mile per hour winds ransacked the coastal town, uprooting trees, tearing down traffic lights and destroying homes. When the disastrous tempest finally left Florida behind, it also left behind a death toll of ten people and over $15.4 billion in damages throughout the state.

3. Friday, May 13, 2005The Andijan Massacre took place in Adijan, Uzbekistan when troops fired into a crowd of protesters gathered in the central square to voice their anger over growing poverty and other concerns. The final number of deaths is anywhere between 187 to 5,000 depending on who you talk to.
4. Friday, June 13, 1997One of the worst fire tragedies in Indian history occurred on a Friday the 13th when the Uphaar Cinema in New Delhi caught fire during the showing of a patriotic Hindi movie. Upon discovering the fire, those in attendance panicked and caused a stampede which killed 59 people and injured at least 100 more.

5. Friday, September 13, 1996 The death of Tupac Shakur. Shakur, a successful rapper, was shot by a drive-by shooter as he rode in the passenger seat of Suge Knight's car through the streets of Las Vegas on the night of September 7. Six days later, Shakur succumbed to his wounds and passed away.

6. Friday, October 13, 1972This Friday the 13th story has made such an impact that two movies have been inspired by the incident. The Stella Maris College rugby team was supposed to fly to Santiago, Chile on Thursday the 12th but due to poor conditions, the flight was grounded and the trip resumed the next afternoon on Friday the 13th.inspired by the incident.Continuing weather problems forced the pilots to make an educated guess about descent into Chile. They clipped several mountains in the Andes and crashed in the snow covered slopes.Initially, 27 passengers survived the crash. But as food started to run out and the freezing temperatures took their toll, those left struggled to stay alive. A search party, finding no trace of the plane, was called off eight days after the crash and the passengers realized that they needed to escape the mountains on their own. They foraged for warm garments, searched for a way out and eventually had to make the decision to cannibalize their departed companions and classmates to keep from starving.After 72 days in the mountains, two of the survivors found their way to civilization and told people who they were. They then led a rescue team back to their comrades still living in the wreckage of the plane. Only 16 of the original 45 passengers survived the entire ordeal.
7. Friday, March 13, 1992Erzincan, Turkey was rocked on Friday the 13th by an earthquake which measured 6.8 on the richter scale, and took the lives of 500 residents and injured many more. In addition, many of Turkey's citizens were left homeless after this incident.

8. Friday, October 13, 1989After a news report released information about United Airlines' parent company botching a buyout deal for the price of $6.75 million on the morning of Friday the 13th, the stock market plunged to a frightening low for the 1980s. The Dow Jones fell 6.91 percent, the NASDAQ dropped 3.09 percent and the S&P plunged 6.12 percent.

9. Friday, February 13, 1981More than two miles of Louisville, Kentucky roads were destroyed when sewer explosions woke up the entire town at 5:16 AM on Friday the 13th. Since it happened before most sane people were out and about in Old Louisville, no one was hurt or killed in the blasts but witnesses said it looked like a series of bombs exploding.
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10. Friday, June 13, 1930 Sir Henry Segrave was warned not to go out on his boat on Friday the 13th but that didn't keep him from trying to beat the water speed record – an achievement that would cost him his life. He was driving his boat, the Miss England II, in England's largest natural lake, Windermere, when he managed to break the record. But before he could learn how fast he'd gone, the boat hit a log and capsized, immediately killing the on-board mechanic and fatally injuring Segrave. Before he passed away in the hospital, he was informed that he'd broken the record. He died moments later.

11. Friday, January 13, 1939Considered one of the worst natural bush fires in the world, the Black Friday Fires ravaged much of Victoria, Australia on Friday the 13th. Seventy-one people lost their lives and over 1,300 homes were completely destroyed along with entire towns. Some areas are still regrowing after the damage from so many years ago.

12. Friday, December 13, 1867In what appears to have been a grand prison escape attempt, a gunpowder explosion targeted the exercise yard of Clerkenwell Goal, a prison outside of London, on Friday the 13th. The blast killed several bystanders including a few prison officials.

13. Friday, November 13, 1863After what would later be deemed an unfair trial, Josefa "Chipita" Rodriguez became the first and only woman to be legally hanged in Texas when she was executed on Friday the 13th. Convicted on circumstantial evidence, prosecutors never managed to definitively tie Rodriguez, who seemed to be a rather charitable inn keeper, to the axe murder and robbery of a trader named John Savage. In fact, some believe that the woman was really only protecting a man believed to be her illegitimate son.Witnesses to her death claim that she may have even been buried alive. To this day, many believe that Chipita Rodriguez's tortured ghost haunts the region where she was executed and some even suggest that her death resulted in a curse on the entire town which these days only amounts to a little over 300 residents

On the Twelveth Day of November....

Well so much for more blogging! I did pretty well that first week or so, but this one kind of got away from me. The weekend was busy. We had a ministry team meeting Friday night. Saturday night and into the wee hours of Sunday I did a ride-along with a police officer as part of the Citizen's Police Academy I'm attending. Sunday was our Harvest Feast at church, and I squeezed in a visit to L at the jail. In between L and I finished up the last of the fall yard work, put the hoses and lawn furniture away and made some trips to the compost dump. I started out Monday in the throes of already tired and the week has not slowed down enough for catch-up. Dental visits for me and the cat, an oil change, a haircut, Bible study with the Soul Sisters, another meeting at church....oh yeah, and the day job.

I'm trying to beef up my tech savvy. Yesterday I downloaded Skype and last night I bought a webcam. This will have use both in my church and other life I think. Our team mentor lives half way across the state and we have been thinking that it makes more sense sometimes for him to join us virtually, so we've been thinking about how to make that work. And Soul Sister A has moved away...so the SS's too have been "meeting" in a new way. So far we have been including her via IM's as the other three of us gather here, each on a keyboard, madly typing away our thoughts, but that's been less than satisfactory. So we are thinking that Skype and a camera is the way to go there too. And that it would be good for each of us to have visual capability for those inevitable days when we cannot meet in one location for one reason or another. This is all very amusing to me, as I download and link and mutter away to myself about hardware and software and ports and bytes. I clearly remember sitting at this very desk not so many years ago (pre-blog it was) and saying to myself...."I think technology has passed me by." I really thought it was true. It felt like there was too much new stuff! Blogs and MP3s, podcasts and downloads.....I just knew I could never make sense of it, so best just stick to e-mails and a little web-surfing now and then. HA! Old dogs, new tricks....and it really did all start with this blog. I learned a little html, realized I too, could download photos and move text, and we were off and running!

So last night we sat, six of us, in a hundred and twenty year old church basement talking about the Old Testament. And at the head of the table sat a small laptop with a smiling face peering out. Two hours away sat T in his office, happily participating with us, able to be engaged with our study and also move on to his next thing without using half a day driving back and forth. We were talking about sense of place and being home. An interesting thought when you can "be" somewhere you are not.

The jail is "into" virtual reality too. No more face to face visits for the clergy in a private room. We have been relegated to the new "face phones" with the rest of the visitors. The only face to face visits now are with the attorneys. You see your person on a TV type screen and talk on a phone receiver. There are four such "stations" lined up in a row about a foot apart with a line of chairs behind them for those waiting their turn. The visits are by appointment so theoretically there should not be a lot of people there at once I guess, but still....not very private, not very conducive to prayer time together. On the prisoners end it looks even less private from what I could see through the camera. But we did get a visit, and L is doing "okay" and counting the days until December 10.

So today I am grateful for all those creative minds that develop technology that allows us to be in touch in ways we could not before....to be where we are not able to be physically, to meet and know people we would otherwise never encounter, to expand our world and who give us things with which to stretch ourselves when we think we are done learning.

Friday Five: What's New

Songbird says: "There's a new baby on my street, a double PK whose Mom and Dad are Methodist pastors and church planters. I'm hoping to go over and meet her today. I love new babies, the way they smell and their sweet little fingers and toes. Little K has me thinking about all the new things that please us with their shiny freshness.Please share with us five things you like *especially* when they are new."

• Well of course since my "romance" is still pretty new....that has to go on the list. I mean really...is there anything better and more thrilling than brand new love?
• Crass and material though it may be....there is nothing like the feel of a brand new car. I don't even have to own it! I just like to drive it around.
• New beginnings in general...new school years, New Years, new programs, a new group starting, meeting a new friend, trying something I have not done before, visiting a new place.....well you get the idea
• I recently got a new bed after a very very very long time. It was amazing what a difference it made. So I guess I could say I like new beds!
• And as much as I love my familiar Rite II BCP liturgy, every now and again I love something new with which to celebrate and worship....new language or new music to wake up my senses and move my soul and mind and spirit in a new way.

And the Fourth.....

It's another gray one, blustery....portents of things to come. It's lighter now in the morning, of course, since the time change. But somehow that doesn't seem to make it any easier to get up and out on these chilly mornings when the bed seems like my best friend...and always at its most comfortable just after the alarm goes off.

L was sentenced yesterday. Finally he knows his future, or at least the immediate part of it. I was not able to be there, but I had an e-mail from his PD who tells me that the judge did grant the motion for a downward departure and did not send him to prison. She gave him a 180 day jail sentence, which means, with good time, he would get out of jail on or about December 10th. He is still in the local jail and will be serving the remaining days there until his release, which means it will be easier for me and his other support folks to get to see him. So that is a gratitude today. As I said to his sponsor...kind of good news/bad news....more jail time at all is bad news to L at this point, but good news that it is not more, and also a bit good news that we have time to help him put a plan in place for "what next." In truth had he gotten out yesterday he would have been homeless....again....without a plan. Not a good thing. And this time the CH program is no longer there to catch him, his girlfriend D is a 150 miles away and other options all have their complications. So this is a blessing in its way. We can help him think through how to best set things up, talk to D, see if we can figure out how to help get him to her, which seems to be the best thing at this point.

His isn't the only life I'm observing these days in which things are working themselves out. it seems to be going around. But it's hard to trust sometimes that letting go and letting things be could possibly be an effective strategy. Some of us seem to think that we need to manage things to a fairly high degree to maintain our safety in the world. I've already worn out my label maker in an attempt to create order in at least some spheres of my life! But I'm starting to realize that there are some things that are more important than pristine counters and tidy spaces, and that perhaps house that looks a little "lived-in" is evidence of the life and love therein.

So today's gratitude is for things working out. In L's life, in the lives of others around me, in my own....so many blessings large and small, so many things that fall into place, happen in the better way. Sometimes we notice, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we don't even think it is better at the time. It's that trust thing....and it takes me back again and again to "my" Jeremiah verse: "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you hope and a future." Jer 29:11

And on the third day....

It is Tuesday....a little overcast, more than a little chilly....November. I am waiting for a subpoena to arrive that may or may not result in my spending the afternoon in court. The attorney called yesterday to let me know I may be called. She is not my client's attorney but represents someone who is fighting with him about things that are very painful for him. I tried to explain that going to court and saying the things that I would have to say there might not be the best for my therapeutic relationship with him. My sense was that she didn't care so much. And I guess that it's her job....to care more for her client than for mine....to fight for her client's "side" in the courtroom...just as I advocate for the mental health of mine, and the chance that we might get to still work together towards that. I hope if I have to testify he understands that I am not a volunteer.

Gratitude....yep, some days it's a stretch. To be grateful that I do not find myself in some of the life predicaments of others seems, to say the least....a bit unfeeling...and yet, to be perfectly honest....I am. "There but for the grace of God," I do think sometimes. The mistakes, the missteps that get people in some of the most horrible messes....they are sometimes really not that egregious.... but rather simply thoughtless, human. A lapse in judgement, a loss of awareness, a start down the wrong path....and one thing leads to another. And it seems that some people start out in the wrong spot before they ever begin. I am constantly amazed by the vast amounts of simple things that people don't know, don't understand. Not facts necessarily, but knowledge and understanding about the way people function, cope and manage the "how to's" of life at some pretty basic levels. So I'm grateful that while I didn't have the greatest of beginnings, I got the basics. And for whatever reason, I was fortunate enough to have people and events come into my life to provide the advanced course when I was ready. And while I make my share and more of mistakes, blunder along and mess things up along the way in the usual ways, I think I can safely predict at this point that I won't be doing any jail time, having any OFPs against me, or seeing my name in the paper for a DUI or a disorderly conduct charge. Perhaps it's a strange thing to be grateful for, but that's where my head is today.

Just a little update....and a gratitude: I don't have to testify....they settled! Thanks be to God for people who can find it in their hearts to do whatever they did...compromise, forgive, let go. We all need to do that a little bit somehow, somewhere, everyday. A good reminder....for them it was a big thing, in my life usually it's little bits and pieces....but I'm just as attached to them. My prayer for today is to help me to be grateful for all that I have been given and at the same time to hold it all very lightly, remembering how truly little there is that is really worth fighting over.

November....Already!

Already we are a day into it. My "excuse" for yesterday was being on the the road. Though I did have my laptop it was one of those kind of here and there days. The ultimate destination was home after a weekend away, but there were things to do along the way that were just as important....the journey was as important as the destination.

This was a momentous weekend. Our Diocese met in annual convention. Once again, the church and the Spirit at work. We met for two days, Friday to do our "regular" convention work of budgets and resolutions, and then Saturday we focused solely on the election, which we accomplished after five votes on Saturday afternoon. We laughed and prayed and sang and cried together. For all those who gathered, for those who were considered as candidates, for our new Bishop Brian Prior, for our Bishop who will retire, and for his staff....so many feelings running high and deep....it was exciting, emotional, exhausting and enlightening. As always, we were so who we are as the people of God....human and fallible, yet wonderful and dear. I get irritated and frustrated with my church sometimes, yet I do love her in all her messiness. When we gather, there is always this something....this palpable sense for me that we are more than simply a group of folks hanging out together...despite our differences, despite our sometimes down and out wrangling about stuff (yes we do that too!)...when it comes right down to it....there is more to us than us....we are the body....the one body and here and now in this place....God is with us.

It was momentous in other ways, too. Intersections and conversations. Reflections and thoughts. Bumping into and up against things we know and think we know about others. Finding unexpected hurt and tender places and also unexpected courage in the face of them. And in this too, we seek and find the love of God as we find we are bigger than we can be alone.

So the intention for this month of Thanksgiving is more posts...gratitude the focus, giving thanks for life as I find it in my little corner of the world.

Today I am thankful for those who take risks in the name of love. Those who put themselves out there....whether it's in a big way....like allowing your name to be put forth as a candidate for Bishop of a Diocese...risking losing....or being chosen! Or in a smaller but just as important way....like opening yourself to let someone into your heart again, when to do so in the past has meant sure and certain pain. The world is a better place because you make these choices to love and I am grateful. S0 risk on.