Friday 5: Covenants

Friday 5 of the new year and new decade, 01 January 2010, from Sally:

1. I will be happy to leave behind in 2009 my (1) ongoing daily struggles with the compulsive disorder/ behavior that has cost me too much, although history has demonstrated that's unlikely (but of course in the Power of the Spirit it just may happen). (2) I long to leave behind the solitary journey I never anticipated, either. I'll scatter to the winds (3) whatever else God chooses.

2. My biggest challenge for 2010 will be reweaving something like a networked fabric of connections that will lead me to some social, creative and ministry opportunities. I long for the affirmation of people willing to trust me with their lives and interested enough in my story to hear me out, not consider me a threat and be excited about my gifts and encourage my full participation.

3. I need to turn over to God the years of disappointments, of stories starting to be written then erased, the jobs and living situations signed, sealed and delivered then suddenly not there; the living situations and employment signed, sealed and all but delivered then not there, either; dozens of friendships starting to blossom followed by abandonment and isolation; ministry opps I yearned for, prepared for and could taste only to be told, "no!"

4. If I could achieve only one thing in 2010 it would be and it will be... finally finding a community of mutual welcome and mutual embrace.

5. A picture, poem or song that sums up my prayer for the year ahead is...

The Rising

Can't see nothin' in front of me
Can't see nothin' coming up behind
I make my way through this darkness
I can't feel nothing but this chain that binds me
Lost track of how far I've gone
How far I've gone, how high I've climbed
On my back's a sixty pound stone
On my shoulder a half mile line

Come on up for the rising
Come on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight

Left the house this morning
Bells ringing filled the air
Wearin' the cross of my calling
On wheels of fire I come rollin' down here

Come on up for the rising
Come on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight

Spirits above and behind me
Faces gone, black eyes burnin' bright
May their precious blood forever bind me
Lord as I stand before your fiery light

I see you Mary in the garden
In the garden of a thousand sighs
There's holy pictures of our children
Dancin' in a sky filled with light
May I feel your arms around me
May I feel your blood mix with mine
A dream of life comes to me
Like a catfish dancin' on the end of the line

Sky of blackness and sorrow (a dream of life)
Sky of love, sky of tears (a dream of life)
Sky of glory and sadness (a dream of life)
Sky of mercy, sky of fear (a dream of life)
Sky of memory and shadow (a dream of life)
Your burnin' wind fills my arms tonight
Sky of longing and emptiness (a dream of life)
Sky of fullness, sky of blessed life (a dream of life)

Come on up for the rising
Come on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight


© Bruce Springsteen (ASCAP)

autumnal 5

autumnal 5 on the revgals

I love SingingOwl's intro:

There is something so nostalgic about this time of year, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. The nights grow cooler, crops are harvested, for some of us the leaves are beginning to change colors. The scent of smoke is in the air, pumpkins are in the stores (or on wagons, or in roadside stands for those of us in the country). I'm thinking of putting away my summer clothes and pulling out the sweaters. And I have a tub of Fall-themed items that my husband just lugged up from the basement. I'm looking for my scarecrow.

And I have a scarecrow, too! I bought it at one of the Christmas Tree Shops on Cape Cod and it is so cute it stays in a living room corner all year round.

1. So many memories of the falling time of the year, but maybe especially taking a trek to Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts or to Julian, California to buy pumpkins and apples along the way and probably enjoy a hearty lunch or dinner at our destination, too. Remembering and anticipating Autumn smells like apple pies, crisps, and cobblers.

I also truly love going back to school rituals of buying clothes, notebooks, papers, pens, pencils and other supplies and the way it always feels like the new beginning it truly is.

2. I love corduroy pants (typically jean-styled) and skirts, in any and all colors, but especially camel, brown, rust and burgundy. Sweaters, too, ideally bright or intense multicolors. I do not care for the convention of switching to dark, sober, somber hues when the days grow colder and shorter and still for the life of me do not understand why or even when almost everyone started wearing so much black so much of the time, even in high summer and even at weddings. Did they or do they imagine black makes them look thinner and smaller? About favorite fall clothes, in New England and in the Intermountain West I loved knowing I had to have a warm jacket or parka on hand for the cold mornings that inevitably would arrive.

3. Campfire experiences camping out with a tent-trailer, occasionally in a rented cabin with friends or youth groups almost all year round, but in the fall was particularly fun because of the need to be sure we stayed warm enough. There always were plentiful nature trails and places to ride our bicycles along with meals that warmed us up and always were especially delicious and nourishing and filling.

4. Favorite thing again has to be the sense of new beginnings that in many ways functions like Easter, a feast of resurrected new life more halfway through the liturgical year though not quite to Advent yet, but I also love the way Advent begins during the season of autumn in the northern hemisphere.

5. What changes am I anticipating at this seasonal and calendrical marker? Something has to change and I cannot do life on my own, though of necessity I've been trying to do so.

Bonus: for an autumn food, it has to be anything apple and/or pumpkin, preferably baked, ideally with a crust.

Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives autumn and spring rains in season, who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest. Jeremiah 5:23b

Thanks SingingOwl and thanks, Jeremiah!

recharged/recharging 5

recharged / recharging 5 on the revgals

today Sally has given us 5 to consider...as she wonders, "what/ who gives you energy?"

1. it has been far too long since any person or community who encourages me and celebrates my presence and gifts has been in my life...I'm in deep waters no human can navigate alone. Although I consistently come out as a moderate E on the Kiersey/Myers Briggs, I believe I'm really an X who sources both in- and externally, but without having confidence people who know me and trust me with their own lives are there for me, I'm finding being alone with my own pain and isolation increasingly intolerable.

2. music from J.S. Bach, the 5th evangelist, as well as Beethoven (I've blogged this lots of times), especially symphonies 1, 2, 4 and 7. And oh, I love playing his piano sonatas, though I'm still stuck at 27 of the 32 total. However, most of the time I turn on the radio to enjoy some oldies and some current songs.

3. regarding scripture, it's not so much stories that bring me hope, refreshment and encouragement, but many of the psalms and Paul, particularly Romans.

4. these days it would have to be a bracing walk, though in times past I used to love passing time with friends, wherever, whenever. But what else? Worship! Many Sundays and most Wednesday evenings I've been worshiping with an ELCA congregation whose style we'd call evangelical catholic. The church's historic liturgy, reflectively performed by an assembly that clearly desires and chooses to be there and when we celebrate eucharist, proclamation of the gospel completely devoid of cute stories and anecdotes has become very healing for me, though I'm well aware of my continuing search for a congregation where I can participate reasonably to the extent of my gifts, education and experience (and no, despite everything, I still have no regrets whatsoever about not continuing in authorized ministry).

5. at this moment I need recharging to such an extreme degree I never would or could have imagined anyone could reach this point, but I am happy to write a prayer "to finish this weeks Friday Five...."

Holy God, You have chosen to come to us in brokenness and You have chosen the brokenness of the cross as Your fullest self-revelation. You created all the universes, yet You know each of us and choose each one of us as the paradoxical vessel of Your continuing Self-revelation. But at the same time You call and draw us into community where we can be honoured and cherished, participate and grow. In these years and hours in which I need to acknowledge the pieces still have not come together and rewoven, more than anything else, I beg, please, entreat and implore You to show me the community of Your current choice for me.

In Jesus' name...amen!

wild animal 5

wild animal 5 on the revgals site

mompriest asks, "For this Friday Five, share with us a wild animal story from your life. Or if you've never had such an encounter share with us your five favorite animals, and why. Bonus for videos and photos!"

and I'm lovin' this one; I've experienced no wild animal encounters that I can recall, but I have a lot of favorite critters, so here's a sampling:

1. big cats beauty, mystery, variety, independence, dignity, a sense of self beholden to no one...

2. little cats beauty, mystery, variety, independence, dignity, a sense of self beholden to no one...

3. giraffes style, quirkiness, speechlessness...

4. elephants intelligence, socialness, expressiveness...

5. horses beauty, heart, loyalty, mystery...

soundtracks of our lives 5

soundtracks of our lives 5 on the RevGals site

Mary Beth brings us today's timely talkin' 'bout topic:

"The sad news of Michael Jackson's untimely death has me thinking about music and its effects on us - individually, as cultures, as generations. Let's think about the soundtracks of our lives..."

1) as a child I mostly heard standard-issue classical and top 40 playing in the background, nothing especially esoteric.

2) no particular song says "high school" when I hear it, but sort of on my own I'd started listening to music that had an edge of social consciousness as well as that era's top 40 and alternative music. by then studio recording was making huge and imaginative advances! it's too early to think of any title at the moment, but you get the idea. in high school I also started serious piano lessons...

3) my favorite music lift me up from a down day tends to be either something profound like a Beethoven Symphony (esp 1, 2, 4 or 7) or an energetic oldie like Dire Straits' "Walk of Life" or Huey Lewis and the News' "Power of Love." The von Karajan Beethoven performances seem to have stayed on YouTube despite the newer policy of shorter videos and due to the way favorites keep disappearing I'm not linking to my current Walk of Life or Power of Love fave, but you get the idea.

4) just one, only a single favorite performer of all time? a few: Tracy Chapman, Jewel Kilcher, Boston Symphony Orchestra...

5) my favorite style of music for worship remains just about everything with the exceptions of most 19th century hymnody and the usually popular tunes of Taizé. For my bonus I'm linking to this vid that has been rocking my world every since I first heard it. The Northwest Missouri State University Tower Choir...

Let Everything that hath Breath, Praise the Lord!

"you and I must make a pact; we must bring salvation back - just call my name and I'll be there..."

5 about moving and changing

moving and changing on the revgals...

This is from Sally, and I'm taking it as being about moving house and I'm writing in pentecostal red for the fire that purifies along with the wind that blows out the old, brings in the new. I love to move! On one Friday 5 one of the questions was how many times we'd moved and I've done it lots.

1. one thing (only one?) I cannot possibly part with is...my stack of academic transcripts and letters of call. But there also are quite a few dishes and decorations I'd absolutely have to take with me, too.

2. for a gladly leave behind I'll choose the bathroom towels that have been washed lots of times and faded too much to look fresh. Also, replacing them is not very expensive, making giving them away to the local vet an excellent choice (they go through lots and lots and bleach them every time they wash them, so they always welcome more).

3. to prepare for a move, my

a.practical tactics include list, list, and more lists. Deciding and acquiring more boxes and packing material than I think I'll need. Label everything carefully, too. When I moved from City of History to the Intermountain West I used a professional mover, but my scheme still was almost the same.
b. and the spiritual emotional lists, lists, and even more lists.

4. in a new place I first try to find locally owned, less-expensive restaurants; the nearest mall, and the library. Go outside and walk randomly; go for a drive and check out the lay of the land, get accustomed to this new to me territory.

5. typically I settle in easily and take a whole lot of time to get acclimated. For an example of this both/and...I love the excitement of acquiring the few things you always seem to need in a new place, rediscovering a few things I'd almost forgotten I had, waking up in a new place and tweaking my morning routine and rearranging new to me spaces. However, I also tend to be almost consumed or at least concerned by memories of the place I recently lived and just left.

bug life 5

a bug's life friday 5 on the RevGals site

everyone knows about timeliness and timelessness, and Sophia introduces today's 5 by recollecting:

As I was walking the beach today, I was surprised and delighted to find it swarming with ladybugs. The sweet little red beetles are one of my favorite insects and also my daughter's blogname...In that spirit, this week's Friday Five is a magical mystery tour through God's garden of creepy crawlies!

Here's my almost insta-play for today:

1. I'm not sure if I use any particular regional terminology, but I was born in the Deep South and essentially grew up in New England with grandparents raised in Michigan and Mississippi, who often referred to farms they'd had in Nebraska and North Carolina, so lately I've been wondering how on earth they got to New England. Therefore, Ladybugs and Pillbugs and this is the first time I've heard about Jesus bugs or water skeeters.
2. spiders I can't peacefully co-exist with get transported outside.
3. butterflies and ladybugs and dragonflies are my favorite insects for today.
4. least favorite? none...ummm...better make that "cockroaches." My grandmother clearly let me know about the complex and essential interrelatedness and interdependence of all creation.
5. good bug stories and anecdotes! For starters, today I'm wearing ladybug earrings. Also, although I last saw my apparently recently-deceased biological father when I was about 5, he had a PhD in entomology and worked as an entomologist for the US Forest Service. My aforementioned grandmother, one of the more curious, knowledgeable and well-informed people I've ever known was 8th grade educated but frequently said she would have become an entomologist if she'd had an opportunity to continue her education. My final vignette is bitter memories of the gorgeous, complex bug project I worked so hard on in HS biology and that the teacher insisted on holding on to almost forever. She refused to return anyone's project, but told us if we came back to visit in 10 years or so she might give them back.

I think that response also qualifies for an answer to the Bonus question: share a poem, song, quotation, etc. about insects.

pudding 5

from Songbird we have today's (hasty) pudding 5

1. I really love puddings of almost every kind: chocolate, fudge, vanilla, pistachio, bread, rice, tapioca...

2. in terms of the class blanc mange variety, cooked is way better but instant or a Hunt Club or Kraft's pre-made is fine, too

3. corn pudding or figgy pudding? both, but bread pudding is my most favorite

4. I've never finger painted with pudding

5. what is the matter with A. A. Milne's Mary Jane? she doesn't want pudding at all! she wants her namesake Marijuana!

no bonus from me today, but later on I'll try to retrieve and post my fave bread pudding recipe.

HGTV 5

Will smama brings us today's 5 about my "home past, present or future..." and given my passion for and preoccupation with color, line, pattern, design and related, I figured this would be a great day to play.

1) If you could, what room in the place you are currently living would you redo first?
My kitchen (please see #4) is okay, but that's what I'd change first. Or maybe non-BR, non-LR floors, though they're also within more than acceptable limits (see #5).

2) What is the most hideous feature/color/decor item you have ever seen in a home?
Although I can't cite anything specific, I remember ROTFLOL so many times checking out various living spaces, almost aghast that anyone would imagine renting such a place. Including comments from managers such as, "this is where that girl was murdered—I'm sure you read about it."

3) What feature do you most covet? Do you have it? If not, is it within reach?
A deck and possibly a yard! Those features cannot happen where I am (hey, I don't even have the balcony about half the units in this complex possess!), but if I decided or was able to acquire one of the duplexes that are so popular around here, many of them already have or have the potential for a deck plus really nice landscaping whilst remaining quite urban in sensibility.

4) Your kitchen - love it or hate it? Why?
Inbetween both. It was in moderate condition with newish appliances when I moved in, and many coats of medium golden yellow paint to cover the ultra dark green cabinets helped a lot, as did the sideboard I got very on sale (with free shipping!) at JC Penney, something I totally prefer to all built-ins. But walking around the 3 floors of this complex I notice how lovely many of the upgraded kitchens are, though I don't at all care for the more formal ones with dark wood, etc.

5) Here is $10,000 and you HAVE to spend it on the place you are living now. What do you do?
Having already gotten rid of all the relatively new, medium gray carpet (as well as the high-end electrolux vacuum someone had given me) that was here when I moved in and replaced it with oak laminate in the bedrooms, and wonderful (really!) sheet vinyl in the LR, I'd begin with stone or tile floors to integrate the rest of this about 1400 square feet all on 1 floor from kitchen to DR, through halls into both bathrooms. Although the bathrooms are okay and I detest tub baths, or soaking, I'd also upgrade and modernize the bathrooms, more for appearance than function.

For my own bonus I'll mention I've (re-)painted all the bedrooms and LR non-white and also repainted all the paintable furniture in a huge variety of hues; I LOVE painted furniture! I'm passing on the ugly bathroom tile bonus, since I have no need to cringe again today...thanks, Will smama!

Pancakes Friday 5

RevGals Pancakes Friday 5

Today seemed like a good day to play the 2nd Friday 5 of this new year 2009 and besides, I love the subject, from Sophia. I'm going for both real and ideal examples.

1. Scratch or mix? Buttermilk or plain?
real: Bisquick or any kind of buttermilk mix and
ideal: 1/2 buttermilk, 1/2 buckwheat (both mixes)

2. Pure and simple, or with additions cooked in?
real: pure and simple and
ideal: cultivated or wild blueberries mixed in

3. For breakfast or for dinner?
real: anytime of any day for any meal or snack and
ideal: breakfast or brunch

4. Preferred syrup or other topping? How about the best side dish?
real: Country Kitchen or Eggo or similar syrup and
ideal: Grade B Vermont Maple Syrup (a preference that marks me as an outlander) plus lots of lightly cooked bacon. Whipped cream is a nice addition and a whole lot of sweet cream butter goes without saying in either case

5. Favorite pancake restaurant?
real: any restaurant or eating establishment anywhere and
ideal: we don't have them locally, but I always enjoyed the Village Inn when I lived in Utah and when I visit Arizona

locations 5

location location location...Friday 5 from the RevGals

For today's Friday 5, Singing Owl asks, "Tell us about the five favorite places you have lived in your lifetime. What did you like? What kind of place was it? Anything special happen there?" I'm not quite convinced any of these qualify quite as favorites, and I'd love to write lots about all these and others, but due to time constraints will say just enough to be suggestive, but each one would make a great separate blog topic. I have pics for each point but haven't organized my photobucket account well enough to retrieve them on time, so here's my play for today.

1. Boston's North End: basic studio with full kitchen, 3/4 bath--a block away from the Prado with the statue of Paul Revere with his horse that was a few yards away from the back end of Old North Church (of Paul Revere fame). I lived there as an undergrad and then for the year I substitute taught in the Boston Public Schools.

2. The Orne-Prince House [1788] in Salem, MA: top level of a 3-story Federal style house, and this Cat's Meow collectible almost exactly matches; the only difference is the windows in our 3rd floor were 6 over 6 like in the 1st and 2nd floors—even the yellow clapboard siding is identical!

3. 3 parsonages: almost mindless living, but bummer in that I couldn't do much of my own decorating style in terms of painting, customizing the interface, etc., but it was great to have yard and exterior regularly maintained.

4. In the Dorchester section of Boston during summer 2000, just before I returned to Paradise, probably for only a year. This is called a Philadelphia style house; I lived on the 1st floor so Nick, my friend and the owner of the house who lived upstairs could have a lot of freedom to come and go while he again was trying to renovate it for again another tenant. Nick had attended the church I'd served not that far away and over the previous couple of years we'd become good friends. Lots more to say, but that's enough for purposes of this blog.

5. Right (technically Left) here in Paradise: again on a 3rd floor, this time a 64-unit complex and this time it's a coastal desert close to the ocean for walks on the beach, not far from the hot desert with its promise of spectacular newness, a short drive from the mountains and not far from the international border. Here we regularly get weather forecasts for 4 different climates: coastal, inland, desert and mountains.

appleseed 5

♪ ♫ ♫ ♪ Oh, the Lord is good to me
and so I thank the Lord
for bringing me the things I need
the sun and the rain and the appleseed
the Lord is good to me
Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen! ♫ ♫ ♪ ♫
this is Johnny Appleseed day, so Singing Owl brings us today's 5 in his honor. part of his bio includes:

September 26, 1774 was his birthday. "Johnny Appleseed" (John Chapman) is one of America's great legends. He was a nurseryman who started out planting trees in western New York and Pennsylvania, but he was among those who were captivated by the movement west across the continent.

As Johnny traveled west (at that time, the "West" was places like Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois) he planted apple trees and sold trees to settlers. With every apple tree that was planted, the legend grew. A devout Christian, he was known to preach during his travels.

1. I'll pick a pair of favorite apple dishes: the harder to make apple dumplings wrapped in flaky piecrust and perfectly seasoned with more nutmeg and less cinnamon and also, easier to make apple cobbler, with either from-scratch biscuit or bisquick topping. I especially love heavy cream on the dumplings, vanilla ice cream on the cobbler, but a shot of whole milk is an okay stand-in.

2. back in the Intermountain West (the real west, by even today's standards!) I participated in a ceremonial tree-planting (one of those events that gave us a spot and a soundbyte on the late evening news), but I don't recall the why of it...

3. roaming around the countryside wouldn't exactly be the first choice of adventure for this city-girl, but if God called me to do so, I could preach and pray a little, display some design and get some commissions as well as play a few piano recitals.

4. two on the historical legend front, as well: Johann Sebastian Bach and Martin Luther. We have a lot of factual info about both of them, but there's a ton of hearsay we can't tease out from their realities.

5. when I'm trying to get cheerful, praise songs such as "Shout to the Lord" and related are wonderful; if I feel really despondent, a symphony by Beethoven brings back perspective in a heartbeat.

autumnal equinox 5

(north of the equator) fall equinox Friday 5 on the revgals

for this September Friday, Songbird suggests, "tell us five favorite things about fall."

1) A fragrance: Thanksgiving dinner baking in the oven with scents of onion, celery, sage and turkey permeating the house

2) A color: I'll pick a palette of 3...

plum
camel
indigo

3) An item of clothing: corduroy anything

4) An activity: walking on a tourist-less beach when the weather is cool but not too chilly or otherwise intemperate

5) A special day: Thanksgiving Day USA

back to school 5

back to school friday 5 on the revgals site

Mother Laura lines out this week's 5:

1. No one in this house is going back to school this year.

2. Until a couple of really good HS teachers (I also had a couple of fine art teachers in elementary school), I was close to indifferent about school in general, but at least I didn't detest it, so when some good teachers and interesting subjects showed up, I was rarin' to go. But I always enjoyed getting a few new clothes for back to school and I always was particularly interested in that season's special colors (styles, too), though I hated the end of warm summer weather.

3. No historical rituals for the Autumn New Year. And now? My last really formal educational course of study was design school a few years ago, but we began in January and attended classes 25 hours a week for 9 months until mid-October, making it an interesting back-to school time, since it wasn't exactly a 2^nd semester beginning. I enjoy putting away summer clothes and getting out the ones I wear only in the cooler weather, but that's about the extent of any fall ritual.

4. My answer to (2) about new fall colors and styles works for this one, too.

5. My best year of school...depends...but getting a 2^nd undergrad degree probably was the most exciting time in school because I was old enough to be highly intentional enough about getting a solid background in the social and behavioral sciences in order to be well-prepared for seminary.

Thanks, Laura! I was delighted to find F5 online in time to post before going to bed. I haven't been blogging at all, so I very much appreciate having a ritual way to stay connected with Friday 5, which I almost never miss.

5 about vulnerability

RevGals vulnerability Friday 5

Sally introduces today's Friday 5:

It seems almost crass to post a Friday 5 after Mary-Beth's last post and prayer request for our dear Gannet Girl and her family (many prayers arising from here, needless to say). So I hope that folk will take this in the spirit with which it is offered; that of continuing prayer and concern tempered by the knowledge that we are called both to weep and to rejoice with our communities.

I have recently been reading a book entitled Jesus wept, it is all about vulnerability in leadership. The authors speak of how Jesus shared his earthly frustrations and vulnerabilities with a select group of people. To some he was the charismatic leader and teacher, to others words of wisdom were opened and explained and some frustrations shared, to his "inner circle" of friends: Peter, James and John, he was most fully himself, and in all of these things he was open to God.

So I bring you this weeks Friday 5:

1. Is vulnerability something that comes easily to you, or are you a private person?
Less and less easily every day, though despite being people-seeking and people-craving, I've always been what you refer to as "a private person," for whatever reasons.

2. How important is it to keep up a professional persona in work/ ministry?
In front of any audience (in the chancel, greeting people in the narthex after worship, at council/session/vestry, community meetings) very majorly ultra extremely so. Other, less public settings are on a case-by-case basis.

3. Masks, a form of self protection discuss...
A healthy person does not and will not spill their guts right away to everyone they meet as soon as they meet them, though on the other hand, if someone cannot ever reach a stage of basic trust and openness with anyone, that's not healthy, either. Again, time and place. Masks are essential to healthy functioning, but you gotta know when and where to unmask gradually and what parts to reveal. And I'll say no one (except Jesus) ever did it right all the time.

4. Who knows you warts and all?
No one whatsoever any more.

5. Share a book, a prayer, a piece of music, a poem or a person that touches the deep place in your soul, and calls you to be who you are most authentically.
Dozens and dozens! Here's a quote from one of the most so, Robin Williams' "Don't Let me Come Home a Stranger..."

When the ties no longer bind, Lord save me from this darkest fear
Don't let me come home a stranger
I couldn't stand to be a stranger
In this place so far from home, they know my name but they don't know me
They hear my voice, they see my face; but they can lay no claim on me...
Though I wouldn't exactly say that song calls me to be my most authentic self, too many times I've believed I was returning to a kind of home and discovered otherwise. Last night I finally realized the best strategy for right now is to start acting like I'm brand new in town and to begin introducing myself and reaching out once again.

labor day 5

today Singing Owl brings us a fun 5 on the revgals site; originally I blogged in $$$-green, or maybe it's the green of liturgical ordinary time...

1. worst job: hard to say in any real sense, but I'll mention the production line temp job I worked at for 2 whole days. It was the only job I ever quit in disgust rather than at an appropriate time because another opportunity was waiting or because I was hoping.

2. best job—how many times have I blogged this? two, both food-related: writing restaurant reviews for the local radical rag and working as a line chef.

3. if $$$ and other considerations were no object, for employment I'd design textiles, which was my very original dream as a very young kid. I got the header description for my first design blog, sun country living! from an old ad for illustration boards and professional papers. It reads, "In the beginning a small bell chimed. Creativity! It chimes like a small clear bell at the heart of the human spirit..." Speaking of labor, my earliest memories are of myself drawing at the dining room table, but I tell people a greater Love drew me. Heeding Singing Owl's wise suggestion I can put down the chopping board, the sauté pan, the pen, the commentary, the piano (yes!) and even hang up the alb and the geneva gown (maybe especially since these days I usually preach in street clothes) but color, line, pattern, design, Pantone and Adobe never are far away.

4. this past week and next week are sort of breaks from formal labor but I still haven't gotten a break from wondering if I have any sort of real solid future related to my gifts, education, experience and ongoing sense of call.

5. as summer morphs into fall, my "work" will morph into anticipating or dreading...see my response to #4,

bonus: a song, a book, a play that says "workplace" to me...how about a font or even better, a typeface? I'm still lovin' helvetica and cooper...

dates 5

5 about dates on the RevGals site

from Songbird:

1) I track my appointments and parts of my schedule with an analog week-at-a-glance book; for the past 7 years I've used the exact same kind, with different covers (some years).

2) The last time I forgot an important date...well, actually, never! Really!

3) Having been single again for quite a while, I haven't gone on a formal date with a (single) guy for about 5 years now, for whatever reason.

4) Oh, I love vintage clothing...a couple of my favorites are my two cotton (one is lawn, the other a heavier-weight woven fabric) full, floral-print, flowing, lace-trimmed Jessica's Gunnies skirts from the early 1980''s.. I've also quite recently bought new a couple of skirts that look as if they're from that era, and I know the style is back now and I also realize almost anything goes these days, but you know! After an African-American tradition I always wear a single silver bangle bracelet as a baptismal symbol (given that I'm too much of a Calvinist to wear a cross), and despite the fact bangles also are a current trend and easy to find these days, I've received a few comments about their vintage-ness.

5) I love the Fruit known as Dates, and have an absolutely wonderful recipe for date bread (I don't llike to add nuts) made with a cup of strong brewed coffee. I'll try to find and post the recipe later.

(not quite yet fall) transformations 5

today the revgals friday 5 is about fall transformations

Mary Beth reflects,

Here in my neck of the woods, rain is falling...a little uncharacteristic for August, but most welcome! It'll be hot and humid later, but a break in the heat is most welcome.

Also falling (especially into my driveway) are the fruits of the bois d'arc tree (also known as the Osage Orange). We call them "bowdarks" and enjoy bowling them down the driveway to the empty lot across the street. (Yes, I may be a redneck...)

Bois d'arc fruits are used only for: 1) making more trees and 2) eating by squirrels (if you have another use, please let me know!) The wood of the bois d'arc tree, however, is very hard and very beautiful, and makes gorgeous items like the vase above. Such a lovely thing, from such an odd-looking source!

For this Friday's Five, share with us five transformations that the coming fall will bring your way.

Bonus: Give us your favorite activity that is made possible by the arrival of fall.

I've always absolutely loved the start of the fall semester in school with its new notebooks, textbooks, teachers and classmates, along with revitalized hopes and expectations--just like mini-Easters and New Years. I love Mary Beth's intro and especially the beautiful vase, so here's my mostly directly about me play:

1. By the time fall officially arrives I hope to have sufficiently sorted out my print portfolio to be able to choose 4 or 5 differently-themed pages to get my online portfolio and website live, and even get the GoDaddy ad deleted (yep, I'm going to pay for server space), plus welcome/splash and résumé pages.

2. As much as I love hot weather, I always enjoy wearing warmer sweaters and light jackets, as well as corduroy pants, skirts and blazers that never seem quite right during the summer, even on cooler days. Besides, we've been experiencing some very uncomfortable high humidity; hot dry desert weather is one thing, but soaking swampy heat is another.

3. Hot fall days always are great too (in the Northeast we called them Indian Summer, but we get them here in the coastal southwest and also had quite a few in the Intermountain West), and I love the happy surprise of not having packed away all of my hot weather clothes and getting to wear a few favorites again.

4. Most likely I've admitted many times on my blogs that I only practice the piano when I have a gig, but I'm planning, hoping, to return to almost daily piano practice to retrieve and refresh some favorite repertoire and learn the remaining Beethoven Sonatas.

5. Despite everything I just wrote so seemingly optimistically, within the next few weeks I'll need to have made a decision about where I'll be living and if it's not here, I need to find someone to help me pack. At least I've decided not to continue as Queen of Abandoned Property.

bonus: Going north a piece to Julian for apples, apple pies and apple cider.

God (Dog, Cat) Days 5

Summer God Days 5 on the RevGals

Presbyterian Gal opens with::

It’s August. An oppressively hot and humid month where many of us live...I am trying to focus on the blessings apparent around me, past and present, that I might not notice, necessarily. In that spirit, this week’s Friday Five goes thusly:

1. Despite originating from a William Faulknerian-type situation, I still have quite a few wonderfully "best and or/sweetest" memories from my earlier years. As usual I'm playing late, so I'll recollect my first ever major-league baseball game that featured a spectacular Detroit Tigers home win against a team I don't remember.

2. Oh, there have been and still are so many favorite summer clothes, but seems as if the clothes that best "insure a cooler, more excellent day" are 100% cotton, with the best of those soft, absorbent, colorful cotton from East India or Pakistan. I'm always in a quandary as to whether very pale, icy cool pastel colors or sizzling hot ones better capture the spirit of summer heat. I especially enjoy wearing short cotton skirts.

3. For delightful, flavorful summer food, I'll take any freshly-assembled salad, though my dressings of choice are highly-caloric Roquefort, blue cheese and other ultra-creamy ones. However, The Very Best summer food has another cool memory attached: sandwiches made from fresh home-baked white bread, thick-sliced, sun-warmed beefsteak tomatoes and mayonnaise.

4. One of my best, if not sweetest summer vacation memories is from my teen years, the week I spent in a beachhouse in the lower Cape Cod town of Truro, Massachusetts with a classmate's family. I've previously Friday 5'd about how we'd walk out the door onto the sand and how we went into nearby Provincetown most evenings. Of course, "Truro" now makes me think of the hymntune Truro.

5. This summer has been the 6^th in a row I've been anxious to get over and through, yet this year the HS has acted mightily in my life by enabling me to walk away from more than one less-than-okay setting and I've been assembling an extensive print portfolio in preparation for getting my professional design site really live (currently it's technically live, but with a single lone image and the GoDaddy ad at the top). I'm also composing a background track for the site :D Right now I'm feeling a stronger, healthier sense of my own worth...not very natural-wonderish, but it's grace-filled for me, nonetheless.

I'll answer the "hot, humid and uncomfortable" bonus question by noting how it's been all 3 here in Paradise for the past week, so its feels exactly like the inner-city Northeast or ultra-urban Midwest. To refresh and renew body and spirit, I'm proud of myself for heeding the plethora of water is a precious, diminishing resource warnings on TV besides formally signing our local 20-gallon challenge so I haven't been enjoying extra showers, but I've still been wearing fairly loose cotton clothes, drinking lots of cool water and other low-cal drinks, keeping windows and home doors open. In addition, for summer I always make sure my hair is long enough to put up off my neck (I've had very short hair only twice in my life, and it looks really terrible).

Thanks, PG!

lock in, lock out 5

Today's Friday 5 from the RevGals is lock me out; lock me in and this one's from Songbird, whose intro includes:

For some reason, Blogger declared this blog possible SPAM and locked us down yesterday. This morning, we're free to post again, but there was a fair amount of excitement last night among our contributors, who found a dire notice on their Blogger dashboards threatening that this blog might be deleted in 20 days!

We requested a blog review, and I posted a request at the Blogger Help group, where I found we were not alone. Many other perfectly nourishing and cromulent blogs got the same notice last night...

For my intro I need to mention how excited I was when I realized this group of Jesus People had been flagged--I hoped just maybe it meant we're being appropriately subversive and counter-cultural?! Now, my responses to Songbird's 5...

1) In cases of road construction blocks, if they've let traffic go that far it's generally a simple Go Slow or otherwise not a long wait, so with resignation I trust I've not lost too much time and the dust and debris won't cause too much dirt or destruction.

2) Have I locked myself out of my house? Yes. Back in City of History when I was living in the parsonage (supposedly for 2 or 3 months while they got it ready for sale, but it turned out to be 18 months...) it was late at night and a neighbor helped me get in a window, though surprisingly, I don't recall how I happened to get locked out. Currently I'm in a condo complex, and my next-door neighbors have a key; I also carry an extra in my wallet.

3) Clearing a material or metaphorical hurdle...currently I'm amidst a huge one, as a long series of hopeful possibilities have started to open up and then shut down. Despite someone saying to me, "not a single door has been permanently closed," none have opened wider than a crack of space or longer than a fleeting slice of time and these days I wonder, truly I do.

4) When I get a mental block, if at all possible I'll switch to another task or take a short break, but when time and schedules loom, I just tough it out and hope the results won't be too terrible. Then again, I can't count the times I've told myself I'm tired and tomorrow will be different after I've had some sleep, but "tomorrow" has duplicated all of the near-fruitless yesterdays.

5) My caption for this picture: "Just walk away, Renée; we can't let you pass by here again."