Seeking Authentic Voice

3dogmom over at the RevGalsBlog offers the Friday Five meme this week, reflecting on what one hopes to accomplish in 2015. She has a list of projects for herself, but also suggests we consider Parker Palmer's questions posted on Krista Tippets blog for "On Being."  He began with Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet: ....be patient with all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves...do not seek the answers which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you then, gradually without noticing it, live along some distant day, into the answer. Then Palmer offers these questions: What can I let go of in order to find aliveness? What is my next challenge in daring to be human? How can I open myself up to the beauty in nature and in humans? Who or what do I need to learn to love next? What is the new creation that yearns to be born in or throu...

There is a community of the spirit. Join it, and feel the delight of walking in the noisy street, and being the noise. —Rumi I am by nature a quiet person. I need a certain amount of silence and solitude to feel balanced. I feel best when I am able to begin my day with some reading and writing. I like to follow this with some time to exercise - yoga or weight and core strength training, something aerobic like a bike ride or a walk or a cardio YouTube routine. Then I'm ready to start my day of work. Some days the work I need to do is so pressing that I am unable to take the early morning time I need. That is part of being a solo pastor - time presses in and things must be done. Finding balance is my goal for this year. This includes carving out the morning time - but it also includes other practices and disciplines. Daily meditation - usually for 30 minutes in the afternoon, is a must. Meeting regularly with a spiritual director is part of my search for balance. I have found on...

Crisscross applesauce. A three year old said this Sunday morning as I invited the children to sit on the floor and join me for a story during the sermon time. "Crisscross applesauce means story time at my school" she said. Stories, people I know and don't know are writing and sharing stories. Some are political, or religious, cultural, social, emotional, true and  -some not so true. Over the summer and early fall I read a lot of the stories. Links posted on Facebook from Huffpost or blogs, the NY Times or other sources made it easy to read them. Some of the stories were poignant and heartfelt. Some were angry. Some made me angry. Some offered facts - true or at least true-sounding. Many of the stories fueled in me a deep concern for this country. More often than not the stories diminished my sense of hope.  I am by nature hopeful, an optimist, so it is distressing to me to experience a loss of hope. I lived for about 8 years in a suburb that had no sidewalks. People...