Small Wonders

My good friend from LTSG has resurrected her blog as RevHarmonica which you can check out HERE. And it inspired me to try to get back to posting. So what have I been doing with my time?

Well, I graduated from Seminary in May and frankly full well expected to have their profile in hand before graduation. But then it took just a little longer (though the Bishop's Office has been amazing!). Then I thought that almost immediately after that I'd be interviewing with the Charming City Parish Not So Far Away. But it took a little longer. But it was a truly Spirit led meeting and I left with lots of positive inclinations for myself and from them. Next stop neutral site preaching! But then, that took more than a little while to find a date and a place, it being summer and people having schedules, etc.

So I found myself now looking at more than eight weeks after graduation just to get to preaching which is next Sunday. But I will be preaching in a familiar place which is good because for a clumsy person like me, learning the furniture is a challenge and just to make it more interesting I am getting trifocals tomorrow. (For this I blame Hebrew but it was worth it!)

Meanwhile, it may be as much as another six weeks til I might have met with their council and preached a call sermon. The good news is that under it all it sounds positive. The hard part is finding myself actually doing less in a church than I have ever done in my adult life while I am trapped between a home synod that will not be my home synod and a new synod that is not really yet my synod.
And no real job of any kind because I thought this was moving and I said no to hours I could have been working.

And we sadly said goodbye to two 80 year old trees so I found myself saying goodbye to old friends and faced with a whole new landscape that a year from now I may not be living in.
So what to do in all this in-betweeness?
Rejoice in small wonders. Literally.

I've been getting to do more reading and have been thoroughly enjoying the series of essays by Barbara Kingsolver called "Small Wonders." She is an exquisite detail writer who can make even the wing of a small insect something to marvel over. I have been able to follow more closely all of our bird friends, and our resident groundhog and rabbits, and recently aid six tiny bats make it outside. Not to mention all of the time for rubbing Toby's belly which he greatly desires.

And I have been puttering in a new container garden patio and rejoice that my pepper and tomatoes are bearing promise. Taking the time to stop at that roadside produce stand and get the most exquisite raspberries ever. (Sorry no pictures- they have been eaten).

Testing out new recipes-maybe more on that later.

Zumba-ing which is an excuse to shake what the good Lord gave me and get away with it and weightlifting in case benchpressing to resolve a council meeting might be
needed (not really).

Cleaning out the attic and basement because the day of moving really will come.

And being more intentional about my time with friends, new and old. Tomorrow I hope to visit a gentleman from my internship parish who will be 96 on Saturday who has been a faithful friend and theological sparring partner.

I've been watching our Lutheran Chicks in their jobs- LC#1 is working locally and LC#2 is working at a Lutheran camp with RevHarmonica's Lutheran Chick.

And getting back to using the Divine Hours which is an amazing way to keep a day in focus. After all, if Jesus could take time apart to pray, surely I can? It often seems to be just the right passages and prayers.

And I have refused to grouse too much when every invite to Party on the Patio has been rained out- the porch worked out great for wine drinking.

All things that I have said I would do "If only I had more time." I have the gift of time and to truly tarry and wait for the Lord. Maybe it will help me remember to tarry when I feel like I can't and to see all of the small wonders I miss when I feel like I have to quickly do the big flyover.

It isn't always easy to wonder about time and inertia, or to refrain from envy as most of my class is now called and/or ordained. But I have a much keener sense of what it means to eagerly rejoice in all things with my friends and await where the Spirit is blowing for me while I capture glimpses of small wonders.