16 04 08 - 00:22
Morning Pages
One result of the retreat I took a couple weeks ago, and my chat with the spiritual director there, was that I realized that my schedule has changed quite a bit in the past year. For those who know me well, you may be surprised to learn that I am now getting up in time to get the kids off to school. My husband is out the door to catch a bus at 7:50 am, and someone has to make sure the kids are out around 8:30, so that someone has to be me. This is a big concession for someone who is a sworn enemy to mornings, but it also means that all winter I've had something approaching an hour between when the kids get out the door and when I have to be at the office, a guilt free time that's for me and only me.
When the spiritual director asked me if I kept a journal, I said that I used to, but I didn't any more. There are a bunch of reasons for that. I have always hated any task that has to be done daily; I resent having to clear the table or brush my teeth. ... (more)
08 04 08 - 23:03
Letter to the Editor
I mentioned last week the letter I wrote to the Editor of Maclean's Magazine for their 31 March cover issue. Of course, they didn't print it, I write too long. It's okay, I preached about the topic on Sunday 6 April, and you can find my further thoughts at my sermon site (http://fairview-united-church-halifax.org/about-us-ministers_sermon.htm), just as soon as I get around to sending it in, which should be soon.
I gotta say, I'm delighted by this wider audience that scholarship about Jesus' life is getting these days. (I guess we can thank the Da Vinci Code for making it all seem so cool.) While the more radical positions are being picked up by the press as something fresh and new, the rest of us who hold more moderate positions have a conversation starter, where we can go a lot further into the conversation than if we could if we'd been the radicals who opened the topic in ... (more)
03 04 08 - 00:00
I Need a Vacation from My Vacation
Last week, I had the uncommonly good sense to take a week of vacation following Easter. I had planned to spend a lot of time reading books and playing computer games, but with a whole week ahead of me to do what I wanted to do, I found myself diving into various projects that I usually don't have the time and energy to tackle. I moved three sewing projects from the planning stages to the sewing machine. I wrote a letter to the editor of Maclean's Magazine about their cover article, "The Jesus Problem." (More about that in a couple days.) I finally got around to finding a massage therapist, and spent an hour on the table. I took a day retreat, with spiritual direction and reflexology at a little retreat centre called Windsbreath (http://www.springsofliferetreats.com/). I spent the weekend with our families.
Then on Monday, the day before I was supposed to go back to work, I crashed. ... (more)
