Hi, lovelies!
Forgive me. I have not been very Muse-inspired to blog lately.
I am taking advantage of a weird little warm spell to get outside and soak up some Vitamin D when I’m not working.
I am trying not to get caught up too much in the news. Trump, Cruz, Clinton, Sanders. All the bickering about them among friends. Aiieee.
I am preparing for Lent. LENT? Already! What are your thoughts, pigeons? How are you preparing to prepare?
I am thinking a lot about death, because that seems to be a thing that’s happening as a result of turning 50. I preached a fairly devastating personal sermon this past Sunday about the complicated legacies of fathers — both the Father God whom we inherited (or rejected) from Western Jewish and Christian theological tradition — and my own father, who was an atheist who died in 1983 when he was fifty and taught me that if there was a God, that God was strictly within me.
I did not believe my dad, because I had no real sense of that inner divine (just ego, which I instinctively knew was something different), but I worshiped him in place of that God he rejected. I found God myself when I let my father die a second time as an object of veneration.
Anyway, I don’t usually preach such personal material and it left me fairly crushed and quiet both in the preparation and the aftermath. The delivery itself was fine and forthright, as I do not believe in bleeding all over the congregation or using preaching as proxy therapy. Yuck! Work it out with your shrink or Spiritual Director! But sharing my story in an entirely composed way took a lot of discipline and I’m feeling depleted as a result.
This old lady wants to know how many of you are using bifocal contact lenses and do ya like ’em?
I’ve kind of made a fashion thing out of having fun and quirky reading glasses (magnifying power just +1.0) but the blindness without them, and the constant sliding either actual spectacles or readers up and down my nose, to the top of my head and in and out of bags and cases is driving me cray-cray.
Another thought I’m grappling with lately is that everything that is possible to say has BEEN SAID. I may feel this way because I read too much.
Aren’t I a barrel of laughs? Just a shipping container full of monkeys, am I.
Do check in. Your dreary correspondent longs to hear about your image, leadership and hair challenges and triumphs.
Look after yourself, dear PeaceBang. It sounds as though that was a powerful sermon that you preached and you maybe need some time to “recover yourself”.
I’m being “re commissioned” as Lay Minister on Sunday. I am wearing robes (floor length!) so don’t really need to worry about what I’m wearing, save for the shoes! Of course, once I’ve taken them off I’ll need to look appropriately dressed for the finger buffet that is going to follow. I have recently bucked up my working image a little, and hope that I’m not letting PB down!
And I forgot to say that for my Lent “discipline” I’m going to follow 40 Acts again (http://www.40acts.org.uk/) It is challenging and exciting and I’m looking forward to it. I recommend it – and there are resources for churches & small groups who want to get involved.
If your vision isn’t too bad, I wonder if you could correct your nearsightedness with contacts, and use the readers just to read…of course, this won’t help the problem of dealing with the readers.
I have really bad nearsightedness and have no idea what I will do when I start to need help for reading, etc. Am hoping that my suggestion above will work for myself.
I tried the multi-focal contact lenses and they didn’t work for me – everything was fuzzy at every focal length.
Will your optometrist give you some to try for free? Mine did.
So I have to wear glasses, which hate my face and give me headaches. Specs always have, which is why I used contacts instead.
Good luck to you!
I don’t use bifocals but I did just get my first pairs of glasses (yes 2) one for computer/reading and the other for not walking into walls and being able to see oncoming cars…
I learned a valuable lesson, if you want to be given more choices than little old lady shades- don’t tell ’em what you do for a living. Same holds for hair dressers- this is a lesson I seem to need to learn over and over. But now I am outfitted with appropriate modern glasses that make me feel good wearing them- improved visibility not withstanding. ..and hair…
I felt I had too much face especially at the bottom so I got a rebalancing hair cut which also cleared the cobwebs in time for annual general meeting prep. So I am feeling put together for Lent- at least until I have to handle ashes…..
I have had monovision contact lenses for a while – one eye close, one eye far, and they have worked fine. DO go back for an adjustment if you are finding you need it! I got a new script and went for too long without midrange – I could not read the computer screen and used old glasses at work for about a year. A trip to a new optometrist corrected this. Test your most used reading lengths – holding your own tablet with your own fonts and docs – at the optometrist office.
They have worked for me. Good luck and take care of yourself! XX
I bit of brightness from a so Cal pigeon: I found a new hair stylist. After you posted “but, what’s your hair plan?” I realized I needed to do something. As part of a quest to see beauty each day, I am posting a floral or other pic on Instagram each morning. And … a local hair salon liked one of my photos. They had great Yelp reviews and are walking distance to my church. I made an appointment and am so happy with the results and with my new person, Yuzu – my hair has intention again! [How fun!! Let’s see photos! – PB]
Hello! Lent is planned well enough not to cause panic on my part and I thought of you the other day as I went and got a manicure on the Monday of a big week. (Light pink, almost clear polish, because chipping nails are worse than plain nails.)
And, for a random thought, my husband said my outfit the other day reminded him of a clergified Amy Farrah-Fowler (of the Big Bang Theory). It was almost true, but at least my hair has a plan!
The slightly annoying but best solution I found was to buy a pair of glasses just for the computer – not bi-focal, but adjusted just for the distance between my eyes and my computer. If you pay close attention you’ll see that to look through the near part of your bi-focals your neck bones are compressed in the back. Since you are in a profession requiring a lot of computer work, you might find using bi-focals will ultimately result in neck and shoulder problems. Multi-focal lens work for me now that I’m retired and now that my eyes don’t change often. But during the decade of my 50’s my eyes changed often and so the extra pair was a better solution. [Interesting idea, thank you! – PB]
Nothing helpful to say about contacts. But just want to say ‘good work’ on your father sermon. I bet a lot of people in your congregation found it useful. Our personal father issues can get all subterranean and schmuck up our ability to engage with the Holy. Blessings to you and your blog! [Thank you, April!! I appreciate that. I wound up really liking the sermon even though my hair was terrible that morning. Oh, well. – PB]
Please be gentle with yourself, Beloved PB. Try to follow the advice you would give all us adoring pigeons.
I’ve moved across the country and began a new ministry. My first Sunday was the 7th of February and it was Transfiguration. Lenten preparation has snuck up on me and I find myself breathing deeply while researching resources for a Gospel of John Lenten Contextual Bible Study. All shall be well.
I’m making my first “public” appearance tonight at the local United Church for Shrove Tuesday. I’ve double and triple-checked my outfit, that it is the proper balance of professional and comfortable. Clergy collar has been hand laundered. Accessories chosen with care. Deep breath and I’m ready for this!
Remember the immortal words of the Bard. “To thine own self be true, and it shall follow as the night; the day. Thou can’st not then be false to any(one).”