Meaning and Authenticity

I've been thinking recently about what an interesting man I married. Here's why. Recently David.... Performed in a huge musical review. He sang four solos and did the soliloquy from Mutiny on the Bounty. He stole the show. I mean it -- and it was a great show. Read Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East by Rashid Khalidi Built a deck for our backyard. He'd never done anything like this before. Taught himself. Read Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by paleoarcheologist David R. Montgomery. Built a raised garden in our backyard. The tomatoes, onions, and heirloom beans are doing great--soon we'll have "farm fresh" produce to eat! Read After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000-5000 BC by Steven Mithen. Brought me flowers almost every week. Read The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan. Diagnosed the problem with my computer. Turns out it was...

Many people don’t consider themselves to be “spiritual.” We hear it all the time, don't we?— Oh, I’m not a spiritual person. Well, news flash! No one is not spiritual, or to put it in the positive: We all have a spiritual dimension to our existence . The difference is in the use of the word, I think. “Spiritual” conjures up a limited set of images—images of people who dedicate some time each day to prayer, people who can talk about their relationship with God, people who seem to be more aware of God than others, etc. I take a much broader view, especially after reading Ron Rolheiser's book The Holy Longing several years ago. Spirit is the life-force within us—it is that which animates and energizes us. And “spiritual” is simply what we do with that life-force, all that energy and passion within us. We can focus it in healthy (and difficult) ways, ways that help us as Christians move ever more toward the imago Christi , the image of Christ within us. Or we can focus it in unhe...

Hard to believe that Lent is almost over. Having missed a week of it (attending a Five Day Academy), it seems like it just began. All my Lenten activities at church have been good, but attendance has been light. I remarked to our youth minister today that I wasn't sure I'd try anything like this again next year, but her response was to pass along a compliment from one of our parishioners who was telling her how much she appreciated all the emphasis on spiritual formation that I'm bringing to the church. That was nice to hear...the parishioner said she couldn't come to everything I've offered, but she likes it that it's available. And that's true. It's available, and I suppose that counts for something. Tonight I spent a couple of hours shopping for the Lenten activity we're doing tomorrow. After Evening Prayer then a soup supper, we'll be filling 60 "TAAS Survival Bags" for the 3rd graders at the elementary school next door to our chur...

Well, we're watching the final episode of Battlestar Galactica. Believe me, my family is going to miss this television show. David downloads it on Friday from somewhere on the internet (HuLu, I think), then Young Man with Integrity, J and Little M come over on Saturday and watch it with us that evening, although today they are in City to the South celebrating his birthday with his mom and stepdad, and Lovely Passionate Feminist is watching it with us tonight. She goes back to her university tomorrow. It's a terrific show, Battlestar. I remember the first season I was enthralled with the music--those DRUMS! WOW. Then the character development began to grab me. The father/son tension between Adama and Apollo. The sexual tension between Kara and Apollo. The strange behavior of Sharon a.k.a. Boomer a.k.a. Athena a.k.a. Eight. Of course, as the years have gone on, the plot go so complicated that it's been hard to follow. David and the others watch the episodes more than once, s...

It’s wonderful how centered one feels after a retreat like The Five Day Academy for Spiritual Formation. God feels so close. Nothing seems to bother. I’m aware of my desire for the Divine.

I'm back from a wonderful Five-Day Academy for Spiritual Formation (an Upper Room ministry). Although they have all been good, including the Two-Year, I think this might have been the best one I've ever attended. The topic was Spiritual Friendship , and the faculty was Dr. Loyd Allen and Sister Kathleen Floyd. Wow. Both were excellent. The local team that put the week together was excellent. We worship three times a day at Academies, and each time we entered the worship space, the team had created something of exquisite beauty. I just love that. So enriching. Plus I just felt good being there. I was so ready for a break. What made the week so outstanding, though, was how events served as a living testimony to the topic of spiritual friendship! I've been to so many Academies that I know a lot of attendees, and this week I had some special friends there, including The Author. Tuesday morning started out with a bang. I woke up from a terrible dream--the kind that it took a mom...

"Ministers need a well thought-out view of what it means to be human." This simple sentence came to me while I was talking to our youth director and student assistant pastor this week (who also reminded me that assigning 150 pages to read each week is too much! Thank you, M.). Simple, yes, but it gave me a foundation upon which to hang "Spirituality and Psychotherapy," my class in the Fall. Funny how, with something so simple, lots of disparate thoughts can fall into place. At least I think they'll fall into place. I HOPE they'll fall into place. After I finish this post I'm going to work on the Prospectus again and hopefully get it into shape to send to the associate dean. This is such a huge subject--I've had some difficulty winnowing everything down. Another friend who is currntly getting her Ph.D. in this field also gave me some sage advice: Just teach what you know, Katherine. Teach what you know. I'm thinking that a lot of what I know is o...

It's Five-Day Academy time again. Next week I'm off to Prothro Retreat Center near Lake Texoma. Thank goodness! I'm so ready for a change of scenery, to be able to take long walks, naps in the afternoon, sit and look at the lovely lake, walk the labyrinth, be with some dear soul-friends, learn something new about Christian history and Christian spiritual discernment, worship three times a day. Oh, I am ready ! Feeling pretty grateful that we have the money for me to do this. I wish everyone did. This economy just keeps getting worse and worse. Feel like I need to fast from NPR for a while.

I'm trying to do a Lenten study with this book, 40-Day Journey with Parker Palmer. Today's entry began with the Loren Eiseley story called "The Star Thrower." It seems that Eiseley once spent some time in a seaside town. Insomnia drove him in the early morning hours to walk along the beach where he saw townspeople killing starfish that had washed up on the shore overnight. They killed them every day for commercial purposes. One morning, he woke up even earlier than usual, and this time as he walked the beach he noticed a solitary figure. This man was gathering starfish as well, but each time he found one alive, he'd pick it up and throw it as far as he could out beyond the breaking surf, back to the ocean where it could live. Eiseley named this man 'the star thrower.' He realized that the star thrower's predawn work contradicted everything Eiseley had been taught about evolution and the survival of the fittest. Here on the beach the strong rea...