Seeking Authentic Voice

The other day I found myself in a conversation with some other women about cooking family meals. It reminded me of a story in a Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor book I read called Traveling with Pomegranates. Ann, a newlywed, describes the complexity of blending two independent lives into a single household and marriage. Cooking for example, and the different ingredients one might use preparing a meal. What kind of seasonings and spices are used that create satisfying meals for people who have grown up with different expectations? How to blend this into a common meal? My family and I have dinner together almost every night. Usually I am the one who makes the meal, mostly from scratch. Over the last 28 years I tend to fall into cooking trends – we will eat a similar series of meals for a length of time until I grow bored with them and come up with something else. Lately we seem to eat a lot of fajitas and tacos. These are really simple to make and usually I make enough to freeze for a ...

I began planning for this weekend a year ago. I do that sometimes, begin planning for the next event just as the current one is ending. I think about what I want to say in a sermon the next week, having just finished preaching in another. Of course it doesn't always work out the way I plan. I might find five other things that need to be said. I might forget what I thought about. Or the entire situation might change, requiring a new perspective. Often, as is the case this weekend, I have to blend the plan from a year ago with new information. Weaving and blending is a big part of my job. The annual Vestry Retreat begins tonight, the end result of a year of work mixing it up with some new stuff - like adding time in tonight's agenda for the delegation's report on their trip to Liberia. The work we began last year is the process of creating Mutual Ministry. The work we need to continue into this year includes creating a Mutual Ministry Review. Last year we embraced th...