Knock knock 4 aka no longer ABD

Knock knock

Who’s there?

Sarah

Sarah who?

Sarah (is there) a doctor in the house?

YES THERE IS!!!

RevGalBlogPals: Friday Five: Random Personal Maps

Friday Five: Random Personal Maps! as posted by revkjarla

Happy Friday friends!!
Today, our Friday Five is about YOU….and if your life were a map, well….
1. What is beyond your boundaries? PINK is so far beyond my boundaries! OMG! I can’t stand to wear it! I hate it when random manufacturers add it to some perfectly good item thereby ruining it for my use! I will not!!! use a PINK hammer! What an absurd idea! PINK is beyond the pale! So, of course, my younger daughter adored pink and everything had to be pink for the first years of her life ::sigh:: Thankfully, she outgrew that phase!
2. Where are the cities or neighborhoods that need “redevelopment” or attention? Redevelopment is only available to well qualified buyers … (I married for love the first time).
3.  What are the verdant valleys? I am creating these answers at 2:35 am after (I think) completing my dissertation. My first answer did not have a G rating. Ummmm ………… the next question isn’t helping me either ………. oh the next question only has ONE “s” heh heh heh ……okay, geocaching that’s it, geocaching.
4. Where are the deserts? Reading books I want to just for fun and geocaching a lot more than I have lately
5.  Where is the hidden treasure? With any luck, it’s a dissertation that’s about to be defended and PhD awarded

BONUS!  Where is the coolest place you have been on the globe? Cayman Islands or Grand Bahama Island it’s hard to choose

RevGalBlogPals Friday Five: Lent

Friday Five: Lent

1. Oddly this year, the second day of Lent was Valentine’s Day. How was this for you? Was Valentine’s Day any different being in Lent?

I am so busy trying to get dissertation stuff together that I barely noticed Valentine’s Day. If I didn’t have a kid at home, I would have missed it completely I’m sure. We went and got ice cream to celebrate.

2. Did you celebrate Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday this year? Any memories of memorable celebrations past?

For the first time ever my church celebrated Shrove Tuesday. We partnered with another church and added a Silent Auction to raise money for youth mission trips. It was a blast and we brought in decent money, too!

3. How about Ash Wednesday, past and/or present?

Ash Wednesday was very nice because even though this church is smaller than some other churches I’ve served the choir expects to sing at special services like Ash Wednesday. I had a very moving experience myself as they sang. Precious.

4. Do you have a personal plan of give-ups, take-ons, special ministries, and/or a special focus for your own spiritual growth between now and Easter?

Well, it all started with a message on Twitter from Alaska. And now for the 3rd year, I’m wearing a clergy collar for Lent. The shorter version is: I’m a clergywoman serving in a place where women regularly are told by non-Methodists they can’t be pastors only because they are women. So for the six weeks of Lent I give witness to my ordination instead of taking it for granted like I do the rest of the year. In solidarity and silent witness with sisters who are called and not yet recognized as ministers I wear a collar.

The past two years I have ended up in conversations because of the collar particularly with young people that have been amazing. So, it is worth it, even though by the time I get to Easter I’m usually ready to go back to the Methodist way of no clergy collar!

5. Do you have a book or a website you are reading often during Lent?

Not this year, I think trying to have a dissertation ready for defense by the Monday or Tuesday of HOLY WEEK (yes, you read that correctly) is more than enough.

Bonus:  Song, prayer, picture, etc. that sums up your feelings about this liturgical springtime. The song is Java Jive (I love coffee I love tea) ’cause I’m gonna need it to survive!

a stroke story – in the ER

One of the stories that I continue to think about is when my 15 year old walked into the room where I was lying. I looked at her and couldn’t say anything. I knew who she was. All I could do was point at her. The bed was elevated. She entered at the foot. With my arm straight out, I pointed at her. “You’re the man” style. Being 15 she pointed back as she navigated the crowded space around to my right side. The two nurses were on my left side where there was only room for them. As the 15 year old moved to my side tears poured down my face and she said “You’re going to be alright. It will be alright. Why are you crying?”

I had all kinds of thoughts in my head, including the realization that my father had died when I was 15 and that someone -ME, I – needed to grab that kid and hold her tight and tell her everything would be okay. Someone needed to reassure her. And I had no ability to get words, real words, out of my mouth, they were are garbled, hard to understand, mush words, at best. I so wanted her to know I loved her and I couldn’t say it. And the tears poured down my face.

I managed to breathe deeply and focus very hard to force out “I don’t know.” She was holding my hand and began to stroke my hair which made me cry more because I knew I should be doing that for her, comforting her instead of her comforting me, and she squeezed my hand 1,2,3 like when she was little “I-Love-You” and I squeezed back 1-2-3-4 “I-Love-You-Too.” Later she told me I had forgotten how to count because I squeezed four times. I had to remind her it meant “I love you, too.”

Before they started the IV with the “clot buster” medicine I had to sign the consent form. There is a brutal speech about how it may kill you. I had the pen in hand and the neurologist stopped me signing the form, made me look him in the eye to make sure I understood what they were saying to me. What real choice did I have? When I signed my usual scrawl was just an up an down squiggle that any 3 year old could have made. It only reinforced the decision to “sign.”

They told me to let them know if I got a headache as the medicine was going in. I did. They stopped the medicine to do another CAT scan. It allowed them to continue but at a slower pace. Later the neurologist told me that the scans allowed him to see the clot that was in the area that controls words dissolve. I would be fine. It would take time but I would be fine.

And he said my 15 year is amazing. We had been in the ER the Saturday evening before the stroke so she knew my medicine list. On the day of my stoke, when I had no words, she explained everything to the doctors who needed the information calmly like she did it everyday. He was knocked over by her grace under pressure.

Much later when I was telling the story to someone in her hearing she said, “Have you met me? I’m a preacher’s kid. I don’t fall apart.”

And I said, “Well, not for that.”

“Yeah, not for that, then.”

I made it!

Look! I made it into the RevGalBlogPals web ring!

I even have the button on my website! But it’s too big. I cannot figure out how to get it the right size so the whole logo shows the way it is supposed to show.

So I am writing this lame entry asking for help.

At least it’s not a knock, knock joke.

Three months

I have made sure to post three consecutive months! Now I can finally request that this blog be included in the webring for RevGalBlogPals, too!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year

knock knock 3

Knock, knock

Who’s there?

Mary

Mary who?

Merry Christmas

knock knock 2

Knock, Knock

Who’s there?

Yule

Yule who?

Yule never know if you don’t open the door!

RevGalBlogPals: Friday Five!

as Posted by revkjarla

Advent blessings to you!
Our Friday Five today is taken from a small lucite box of questions called “Table Topics” that someone gave me.   They are supposed to be discussion starters at all of the dinner parties one gives.   I think some of them are fun, so here they are:

1. In what era would you most like to have grown up, and what would be your occupation?

I am grateful to be in this one!  If I were in an earlier one, I assume I’d preach then, too. God’s not limited by time, right?

2. What fashion trend you followed was very cool then but now looks ridiculous?

parachute pants. thank God there are no pictures because my mother hated them.

3.  If you could work as an assistant to anyone for a year who would you choose?

I finally figured out for whom I could be an assistant: I want to be an Assistant Chaplain with the Seattle Seahawks for a year.

4. What did you get in most trouble for when you were young?

It seems like I was always doing something to make my mom mad. What I didn’t do: break any windows or hurt any animals. I did dress my cat, Miss Muffett, in doll clothes and put her in the doll baby carriage. She avoided me for years after that.

5.  What are the redeeming qualities of the person you most dislike?

The person I most dislike betrayed me, the redeeming qualities are my children.