Seeking Authentic Voice

Yesterday was my first Sunday back in the pulpit, so to speak. We have three services in the summer (one being a popular out-door service that is short and lively). The services in the summer are all casual, I don't use the pulpit. It was the first time in awhile that I have preached and presided at all three services, the Curate being on a much needed vacation. Fourteen years of doing this work, and still I was unbelievable tapped out Sunday afternoon. It amazes me to realize, from time to time, just how much energy is spent leading and preaching worship. Following the services I took the dogs for a walk and then went to two hours of yoga. One was a regular yoga class, the other was a "restorative" yoga class. I have done this many times in the past, but yesterday I was particularly struck by how hard it was to move. All I really wanted to do was go to sleep. So I went to bed early and slept for nine hours. My seventeen year old cat seemed to be in distress last week. I ...

This morning dawned bright and sunny, a welcome relief from the seemingly endless rain that is defining this late spring and early summer season in SE Michigan. I do love cloudy, rainy days and take them as an invitation to read, reflect, and do interior work both within me and within my home or the church. However I have a vested interest right now in balancing this rain with sun and warmth: walking to yoga and nurturing my baby vegetable garden. Walking to yoga is one of my CREDO II "Rule of Life" practices. Five times a week, sometimes more, I rise early and walk to an early morning yoga class. Sometimes the first class is at 7am but on Saturday it is 8am and on Monday, my day off, I usually take the 9:30 class. The walk is only fifteen minutes each way, not far. It is a lovely walk through quiet tree-lined neighborhoods. Walking is an intentional decision.  I could ride my bike or drive the car. I do love to ride my bike and on hot summer mornings it is one of my fa...

Here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite animal photos. Some share my home, some lived outside my home....  Bootsie, named by the shelter we adopted her from when she was wee kitteh, is now 13 years old. After being somewhat mean spirited most of her life she has recently decided to be a lap cat. Or, at least, my-lap. If you look closely you will notice the baby bobcats in this photo. They, along with Momma bobcat, lived on the roof of the house across the street from where we lived in Arizona. We would see them out on the roof every night for the better part of a summer.  This photo is of the ground squirrel family that lived behind our house, outside the stone wall, toward the arroyo (Arizona mountain rain run off canyon) - which was part of our backyard.  Oliver (2 years old), our daughter's dog, doing one of his amusing tricks.  Shadow, our 6 year old cat, reclining on the recliner. If you look closely at this photo you may see ...

photo from flickr fotos: Arizona desert museum coyote The sun on its descent to the other side caused deep shadows, sharply angled to fall from the trees and houses across the street and sidewalk My dogs, leashed with anxious noses in the air ears pricked, move in harmony with wagging tails and lively steps prance down the street for a walk The air, still warm though winter, harsh desert sun a gentle breeze hints of the chill that sneaks in when darkness falls turning the bird bath to ice Our walk is brisk, so little day light remains Up the hill turn around and down up another round the curve shadows deepen bush rustles Quail families out for dinner all in a line and then the coyote one, two the entire den wakes and cries their eerie wake-up call Just over there, the coyote family hidden by scrub trees, thickets, cacti Quick, I tell the dogs as the wind carries the cry away (In Arizona one pronounces coyotes in two syllables Ki-otes, not the three syllable, Ki-yo-tee, of the Midwest)