High-Strung Pastors, Let’s Get Unstrung

The CD alarm goes off and soft, New Age healing music begins to play. I wake up, feeling calm and rested for the first time in a week or so. My stomach isn’t in knots, my breathing is slow and deep. The cat is tucked under my right arm, the dog is pressed against my left side. Ermengarde is purring, Max sighs when I gently squinch his ear. It can hear that it is raining out.

I remember an episode of “The Vicar of Dibley” where Dawn French just doesn’t go to church because she’s too depressed after a romantic disappointment. I think, “I wonder what would happen if I just didn’t go to church?” Of course it’s beyond consideration, but oh, I am so so warm and calm.

Maybe I can stay warm and calm all day anyway. Wouldn’t that be a neat trick? Instead of getting all excited and “het up” by the energy of a church day, I could just draw the vitality of the community in like a bee sucks nectar, slow and nourishing, and gently so I don’t get a head-rush?

I will wear snuggly things today. A dress that slips easily over the head. A warm, nubby cardigan. A pair of boots. Warm tights.
No coffee.
No hyper, last-minute flurries of correcting sermon, attending to details that can wait ’til later, no skipping breakfast. Oatmeal.

Classically high-strung pastors, let’s get unstrung today, hey?