Connection, A Sense Of in Everyday Ramblings

His Nibs, Carlo in the sun. Awww.

So yesterday I wanted to write specifically about the response on the pushup challenge. After I wrote the post I went to church where I allowed myself to feel pretty emotional.

We all adore our summer minister. First he was our intern during the regular church year and now our summer minister. He clearly loves being a minister. He used to be an attorney. And I hear tell he is very gifted musically, he started out with a degree in music. (Unitarians are often, ummm, overeducated.) He loves interacting with the congregation and his sermons are funny and oddly moving. He is white and gay and that also is a good match for our congregation.

His sermon was about the idea and practice of rest.

It is weird because there was not anything particular in the content of the sermon that was moving. It was something in the subtle range. I noticed at the end that the man with his wife next to me was also wiping his eyes discreetly. I think church is one place we can go during the week where it is okay to be emotional.

I had been thinking about this whole idea of community and connection that the church is trying to foster that I struggle with on so many levels.

And I was also dealing with feeling hurt, even though I know it wasn’t personal, that after all that, no one, not one single person, showed up for the stress reduction workshop I offered as an auction donation to raise funds to refurbish our social hall.

I spent months prepping for this workshop and I will use all the material in other ways and my regular students will benefit for sure but I have a great deal of enthusiasm for the material and by not coming (even though I think most of them paid) they deprived me (and themselves, sadly) of the joy of being introduced and experiencing it.

It was also a marketing opportunity for me to show my stuff.

Part of the problem was that the auction team kept asking me to move the date and only offered a few options and it turns out this one was in conflict with our big Women’s Retreat. And it was a beautiful summer Saturday. And the winning bid was only $15 for a 3-hour workshop.

So I am sure everybody thought, well it is just me; the $15 will go to the church anyway and I really just don’t want to go even though I said I would.

If, and I mean if, I offer this next year I am charging a base of $45 per person.

I get all that. But it hurt. Ow. I had a funny conversation when I was leaving with my favorite sexton about the whole thing and that cheered me up a bit.

Our summer minister has received and accepted an offer to be the assistant minister at the Unitarian church in… Honolulu. Wow. We will miss him and hope he comes back to guest preach in the glare filled often gloomy Pacific Northwest.

The allergies are a bit better. Did you know that men have bigger noses because it takes more oxygen to build lean muscle mass? Not fair!

I have one neighbor that I am very fond of. She is about my age, and politically on the same page as me, a well-connected recovering alcoholic lesbian that works part time with folks struggling with recovery and she goes to the same gym as I do.

Yesterday I ran into her and we were talking about crows and ravens and raptors and I told her about my push up challenge. She responded with questions, engagement and humor.

My faith is redeemed. :)

Last updated July 17, 2017