PB On Hiatus!

Darling ones!!

I have SO many good letters from you with great questions and comments and stories that we MUST discuss very soon! But not until I get my big parsonage all squared away and put on a truck and transported to my new home one hour north of where I live now, and then unpacked. And boxes crushed and recycled or sent along to some other re-locating soul.

This is a very happy move so I’m generally in good spirits except for when I’m overwhelmed and want to call Marvin the Torch to set all my possessions ablaze so I never have to think about any of them again. One truly insane thing I have noticed is how we have to get more stuff to manage our stuff. Like shelves to keep our pots and pans organized. Baskets to keep our cosmetics “just so.”
I’m an American and a Weinstein and neither of those two factors lend themselves to sparse furnishings and minimal belongings. I accept what is. In preparation for establishing a new home, I have established a neat little list of categories which helps me know where and how to arrange my new place. I really am aiming for “a place for everything and everything in its place.”

1. Comfort, Refuge and Hospitality: This is the living room, sun room/sleeping porch, kitchen, and dining room. Everything in this category serves to create peace, joy and nourishment of myself and others. Clean, bright, happy. Peaceful. My music collection and little keyboard will have to find a space here.

2. Personal Care: This is the bedroom, bathrooms and dressing room. The organizational concept here is maintaining rest, cleanliness and a calm, serene place to get ready for transition between private and public time. I will have linen closets for the first time in my life! My bedroom is tiny but I am just using it for sleep. The dressing room is something I fantasized about and that my realtor talked me into, so I am turning an entire bedroom into a walk-in closet! I will share photos when it’s done. This is a huge thing for me — a way of integrating my theatre life with my ministry life in a visual and practical way. It means a lot to me emotionally. I have always had a sort of crazy, falling-down jumble of a closet with bags and shoes stacked around and clothes falling off shelves and cat hair all over the floor. In past years I got much more organized, hanging clothes by color and category, for instance — but still had constant clutter. In past years I have noticed how good and happy I always feel getting to the various theatre dressing rooms I have worked in. I love that sense of arriving at the dressing room, sitting in my chair at the mirror and transitioning from workaday life into the creative space of the arts. Chatting with the other gals but quieting myself for the intensity of the next few hours. I have always loved knowing where all my costumes, shoes, hats, accessories and props are. It makes me feel safe; it makes me feel like the world is beautiful. It’s an exciting feeling. “This is my place of transformation.” So I thought it would be amazing to be able to re-create that space in my own home. I’m very excited about it. I will be able to do image consultations in there, with a big three-way mirror and a place to sit while you try things on, and I have a dressmaker’s form that we can dress so we can look at outfit ideas. It will be well-lit for photos and there will be enough space for playing with hair and make-up. (No more make-overs at my dining room table, Becca!). This room feels like a place where my early life in theatre, my love of the arts, my ministry and my PeaceBang image and BTFM work will integrate.

3. Work: I turned the largest bedroom of my house into a study because that is where I spend the most time. Tomorrow we are installing IKEA bookshelves on all the walls. I will have files cabinets. I will have organized, labeled storage. My desk looks out of a large window onto the street. There is lots of light and a big walk-in closet for archives. No more clutter. No more bookshelves dispersed all over the house.

So this is what I will be working on for the next couple of weeks before I begin my new parish ministry position. Creating a nest — my first home since I left home at 18. It is the culmination of many hopes and dreams. Thank you for being patient while I attend to the most physically labor-intensive time of this transition. Blessings and a kiss of peace to all of you.