Inspirations: Social Justice Work, Hurricane Country, Home Repair

Last night I got home to find my spouse on the front porch, reading Philosophy.  He said that some of our neighbors had walked by and asked where I was.  One of them told my spouse that they loved how much we love our porch, that we seem to always be on the porch looking so happy.

It makes me so happy to know that our neighbors see us that way.  In all but the hottest of the summer months, I do love sitting on the porch.  I love its arches.  I love the seasonal displays that I try to have on the sills of the arches.  I finally found some petunias, my spring display of choice:

Last year's petunias, with leftover elements from other seasons

But I am also looking forward to this week-end, where I hope to continue with the project of restoring order to the inside of the house.  The electrician is supposed to come today; perhaps by day's end, the dishwasher will work and the microwave over the stove will have power.

I have spent parts of this week feeling frustrated with my inability to write.  But I am going to trust that at some point, the poems will come.

After all, it's not like I haven't been creative at all.  I wrote not one, but two sermons for my Sunday preaching opportunity.  I changed direction at the last minute, writing a sermon in the hour before church started, and it went well; this blog post will tell you more if you're interested.

My favorite part of that sermon:  The crucifixion shows us a community in ruins: people run away, people kill themselves because they can't believe that they can be forgiven, people have to witness the horror that happens at a state execution. If you cannot preach like Peter, remember that Peter did not always preach like Peter.

Let me also write down this inspiration that I scribbled on a church bulletin and then couldn't find yesterday when I was trying to remember what had inspired me earlier:  social justice work is like living in hurricane country.  We rebuild and hope for the best, all the while knowing that at some point, forces beyond our control may wreck everything we've done.

Today will be a day of accreditation documents--the not fun part, the reading one last time, when I am so tired of these documents, so ready to be done with this.  But by the end of the day, this too shall pass.