Many good things happened this week, inspite of the tough days at work. Tuesday, the discussion with my "sheep" was especially interesting. We are studying prayer, and we DO talk about those things, too, but I listen a lot to her young teen angst. She is such a mimic of her father and his views that it is quite funny. My favorite comment of hers (quoting or misquoting her dad, I'm sure) is that marriage these days "isn't a commitment, it's politics." I asked her what that meant. Her attempt to explain this rather cynical observation was very comical (I kept that view to myself, however). This did lead to a good discussion of relationships that led us back to prayer, somehow!
Boys are becoming part of her life and her fantasies. She is trying out different ways to relate to them. I'm fascinated by her descriptions of how successful her attempts are. She's quite open. All-in-all, she is a good kid with a good head on her shoulders, even if she does spout daddyisms without always knowing what they mean.
We also talked about her Confirmation class visit to a very charismatic church in a nearby state. She explained how our church is very traditional (gothic, she said), but that though she wishes it were a little more contemporary, she was uncomfortable with the uninhibited praising of God that went on in the other church. Her catechist is very wise to expose these children to other forms of worship. They need to know that our way isn't the only way to praise God. The charismatic church is Episcopalian, one of the churches was a very active Methodist church with a great youth program, and the other was "high church" Episcopal. I asked our Rector, back when I was a new Episcopalian, what "high church" meant. "Any church that does something we don't do and does it on a regular basis is high church," he said, with tongue in cheek. ("Smells and bells," says another priest.)
A second highlight was my visit to a Head Start that is part of an agency I had worked for several years ago. I went to present a program on writing family stories to a group of their parents. It was a rewarding trip (one of the 150-mile roundtrips of the week), both because I saw many old and good friends, and because the program was very successful. There were over 60 parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles present, and what seemed like 100 children. Just about every family wrote at least one childhood story, then made it into a book. Several of the families had members that showed drawing talent, and those illustrations were wonderful. Others used magazine pictures, chosen with care and carefully cut out and pasted into their books.
I have Monday off. I plan to use my new birthday present vacuum cleaner. I'm actually looking forward to it!
Life is good, even with the snow falling, AGAIN. Thanks be to God. Amen.
7:10 PM
What a week! I hope I don't have another like this for a while. I've either driven or been driven the 150 + mile round trip to Big City 5 out of the last seven days! And four late nights with work and/or church to boot. It makes getting out of bed at 5:00 a.m. a real challenge.
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