tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80575211554650860662024-03-13T06:55:36.399-07:00Ceramic EpiscopalianI'm a tribal episcopalian, a costume hobbyist, and an organizer of things. This is the place where I ponder what that means.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger187125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-25408358493941312652022-03-17T00:47:00.004-07:002022-03-17T00:47:31.761-07:00Burden SharedI've struggled in the past when someone I love and for who I am a caretaker for says some variation of: "I don't want to be a burden", with a strong feeling of guilt for what they 'are putting me through'.I have a hard time with what to say in these situations. I have always assured them that they are not a burden. However, I think both they and I know that providing care does take work, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-88785560505608432762019-07-13T06:00:00.000-07:002019-07-12T02:32:53.463-07:00Timely AidRecently I had an appointment with a physical therapist. I had injuries my shoulder in some mysterious way back in February. I gave it the usual 4-6 weeks to get better; and, when it was still nagging at me, went to the doctor. After doing an assessment, she agreed that physical therapy was the next step.
The earliest appointment was several weeks out; so, by the time I was actually seen Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-19428700925677589512019-07-01T18:13:00.000-07:002019-07-01T18:13:04.956-07:00Death in Life
One of the quotes that has stayed with me from Neil Gaiman's fictional work, "The Sandman," is said by the character Death when she is going about her work in the mortal world:
"You get what everyone gets, a lifetime."
Mr. Gaiman's version of death manifests not as the scythe-wielding, cloak-enshrouded apparition common in many movies and books; but as a young woman into the goth scene. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-56055816244301442702019-06-15T06:00:00.000-07:002019-07-01T18:17:16.977-07:00Making Space
This week I worked on making decorative pillow covers for pillows in our den. It was a fairly easy project as all of the cuts and seams were straight, and the fit didn't have to be perfect for them to still look good.
As I was putting the new covers on the pillows, I realized that part of what made this project easy was having the space and equipment ready to go.
I've been sewing my own Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-62760786830436039562019-05-18T06:00:00.000-07:002019-07-01T18:16:48.179-07:00Permission to Rest
This is a fun and busy week for me. Every year 24 local yarn stores band together for a regional tour that runs for 5 days, from Wednesday to Sunday. The shops are open extra hours in the evenings and folks drive around to try and visit as many of them as possible. There are prize drawings at each shop for each day's visitors as well as drawings for folks who visit either 8, 16, or all 24 storesUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-31291446678447067762019-05-13T06:00:00.000-07:002019-05-13T06:00:02.356-07:00Looking for Joy
Love righteousness, you rulers of the earth,think of the Lord in goodnessand seek him with sincerity of heart;
~Wisdom 1:1
My mother passed away in 2018* and her funeral was held this time last year. There have been parts of the last year that have been difficult; however, both my parents taught me excellent lessons about both living in the now and not dwelling on a past I can't change. I'veUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-52218801381769425962019-05-04T01:54:00.000-07:002019-05-12T01:55:18.474-07:00Adventures in Phở
This week I am at the Oregon Coast spending time with my dad. I very much enjoy getting to hang out with him and just be a part of his routine. The big highlight of our day is usually walking into town to get the mail.
When I am visiting, I try to cook a few of the evening meals to give Dad a break from cooking for himself. He's vegetarian, but very easy to cook for, because his favorite foodUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-68687793015038719942019-04-20T06:00:00.000-07:002019-04-20T06:00:03.207-07:00Perspective
I was working in my garden and set a tool down near me and got up to take my bucket of weeds to the compost bin. When I returned, I realized that while the tool was easy to find when I was nearby, it became nearly invisible when looking at the entire garden.
That shift in perspective was dizzying.
As we move from Lent into the events in Holy Week, we enter one of the busiest times in theUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-37672871975857529232019-04-15T06:00:00.000-07:002019-05-12T01:55:51.765-07:00Righteous Anger
Then Jesus entered the templeand drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, “It is written,
‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; &Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-58081621922220793672019-04-06T06:00:00.000-07:002019-04-06T06:00:02.487-07:00Scarves for All Seasons
Seven years ago, my mom, daughter and I went to France. It had been on mom and my list of places we wanted to visit, and mom suggested that my daughter should come with us.
Overall it was a great trip—especially considering we had a 13-year-old, a 43-year-old, and 70-year-old travelling together. We were there in September so Paris was not as crowded as it might have been.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-64968323482605570272019-03-23T01:47:00.000-07:002019-04-06T01:48:12.741-07:00Get on my knees to…
The season of Lent is frequently seen a time of preparation, penitence, fasting, and sacrifice. In my experience as a young Episcopalian it was also a time of more kneeling. This may be, in part, because I was already eleven years old when the new prayer book came out, so I already had several years of experience of the church with the 1928 prayer book which had a more penitential tone, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-15436127943037582622019-03-16T01:45:00.000-07:002019-04-06T01:48:51.850-07:00Shining Grief
Many years ago my housemate* badly broke her ankle. This was in the days before social media, so while folks might have had cell phones or email, there was no easy way to set up a central location to asynchronously share information on demand.
On the day she went into surgery, my husband was the contact point at the hospital. He called me at home with updates so her family and friends Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-30166639222006437722019-03-09T01:45:00.000-08:002019-04-06T01:45:36.550-07:00Ritual Danger
I have always had a fondness for the more quiet and contemplative services of the church year. I often manage to attend Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday services. In part for the practical reason that they are in the evening and thus compatible with my own idiosyncratic schedule, but mostly because they are two liturgies that really speak to me.
I was in church for this year's Ash Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-65994681801892725302019-02-18T06:00:00.000-08:002019-02-18T06:00:08.403-08:00Walking the WalkI was watching the Netfilx show Tidying Up based on Marie Kondo's books and saw a section on working with kids to go through toys and it reminded me of lessons I learned from working with my daughter on cleaning her room when she was little.
1. If she went through her toys, books and stuffed animals and wanted to get rid of something that I was attached to, then I had to own that attachment and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-66702344526221147442019-02-09T06:00:00.000-08:002019-02-09T06:00:07.143-08:00Who Gathers the Outcasts
The Old Testament reading for the Friday in week 4 of Epiphany spoke very strongly to me. I am used to thinking of the Old Testament as the historical documents of Christianity. They inform my understanding of the history and tradition that Jesus and his immediate followers would have been exposed to, but they are not the focus of my own faith. That said, the inclusiveness of this passage, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-82086413180728266232019-01-12T19:50:00.000-08:002019-02-07T19:51:25.842-08:00Unpacking from the Journey
In denominations like our own Episcopal Church, each new church season is a chance to set out on a journey. In Advent we journey with Elizabeth, Mary, and Joseph through the season of preparation. From there we set out for the 12 days of Christmas, starting with the birth of Jesus and ending with the arrival of the wise men and the beginning of Epiphany.
So it goes, through Lent and Easter Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-2300615338542394682018-12-29T19:52:00.000-08:002019-02-07T19:52:56.850-08:00Gifting Burdens
As regular readers know, I'm not a regular church go-er even though I have significant connections to it.
Mom used to tell me that I was the reason she got back into the church (a path that lead to national leadership and eventual ordination). I was closing in on my second birthday and she felt the need to get me baptized (or 'done' as her priest-friend said).
Through her I was Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-55995905596170409272018-12-15T06:00:00.000-08:002019-02-07T19:53:08.114-08:00Expectations
We are coming to the end of Week 2 of Advent and as I write this, I'm reflecting on spending this season without my mom.
My experience with Christmas has varied a great deal through my life. There were the early, childhood years where my focus was mostly on the gifts I would receive. However, Christmas also meant snow, the annual children's Christmas pageant, and refurbishing the giant Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-66951571242233202262018-11-17T06:00:00.000-08:002018-11-17T06:00:02.637-08:00Active Waiting
As I wend my way through this year I have seen over and over again the power of waiting. It has not been so much a matter of 'good things come to those who wait' more a series of erratic stoppages in my life.
In the early part of the year it was waiting with, and on, my mom as she entered fully into dying. I had brought several knitting projects with me because I always bring projects down toUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-12606096326087858202018-11-03T06:00:00.000-07:002018-11-03T06:00:03.264-07:00A Road to Guide MeHe drew me up from the desolate pit,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
~Psalm 40:2
This time of year, in the Pacific Northwest the sun sets by 6:00 p.m. and it gets very dark very fast. This is in stark contrast to the late sunset and long lingering twilight of summer, when I can frequently see well enough to work in my Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-39271106682176400972018-10-20T06:00:00.000-07:002018-10-20T06:00:01.673-07:00Eternal Stories
My daughter and I watched a lot of nature TV shows about human evolution. As a species, we seem to have been telling stories through art since the dawn of our time. Cave paintings, jewelry, body art, pigments, stone circles, and carvings are all things that have been left behind by human and proto-human societies.
We have a drive to make art, to tell stories, and to develop rituals that goes Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-32227716603156507722018-10-06T06:00:00.000-07:002018-10-06T06:00:12.813-07:00Why does my garden grow?I have been fortunate enough to live in the same house for over 21 years; enabling me to completely transform our suburban yard into a haven for my family.
I turn 50 this year and have started to think about a two-pronged reality. One, even if I am lucky enough to live the classic four-score and ten, there are some plants that I will never see fully mature. Admittedly at my age, those are Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-77815794240996315182018-09-27T19:43:00.003-07:002018-09-27T19:44:21.480-07:00Change we can start nowWhen abusers violate consent, the burden should fall on them. Women carry a huge burden in that we are expected to restrict our lives in order to 'protect' ourselves in ways that men are not. We need to raise the next generation of women to say no to living in fear and restricting their lives. We need to teach them from day one that anyone who violates their consent is responsible for that Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-6489756879797821442018-09-22T06:00:00.000-07:002018-09-22T06:00:02.573-07:00Whom have I in heaven but you?A friend of mine and I were spending time together working on our knitting and chatting and we got on the topic of the things we do to try to stay healthy. We are both big women and I know I've struggled all of my life with feeling judged when I was out in public, which makes being willing to leave the house for exercise emotionally daunting.
It wasn't until I was in my forties that I realized Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8057521155465086066.post-22022197269715100632018-09-08T06:00:00.000-07:002018-09-08T06:00:03.872-07:00Elevator Pitch
I've been a member of many organizations over the years that have had or developed mission statements. One of the concepts I learned during the process was that the mission statement should be short and pithy. It should be akin to pitching a story idea to a producer in an elevator. You have short elevator ride to get your story idea across and to get the producer interested enough to meet with Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0