Rainy Day Yearnings

It's the kind of rainy morning that makes me want to stay home and bake and write and stitch and think about larger projects. But this time, I won't. The registrar at my campus is out today (so I will be more needed), as is the campus Executive Director, plus I need to do observe a faculty member teach in the late afternoon. For the last 2 weeks, I've taken Thursday and Friday off, so this week I won't. I am going in a smidge later because I stayed late last night to do a different observation.

It's the kind of rainy day that makes me want to make pumpkin butter. At the retreat, I got a recipe that doesn't require processing a fresh pumpkin. And I bought lots of cans on clearance a year or so ago. But I probably won't do that either.

Thinking about pumpkin butter makes me think about my experience making mint jelly a few weeks ago--or mint jell-o really, since I used a packet of gelatin, not pectin to thicken it. But it was strangely refreshing on its own, and very tasty with lamb. I loved the feeling of improvising and homesteading.

This morning, I've made the beginnings of a seafood chowder--perfect for a rainy day. I'll complete it later today--something to look forward to.

I've had a chance to look at the catalog of Luther Seminary, the school that's offering students a way to have a seminary education without incurring debt.  Part-time students can take 8 years to finish the degree I'm interested in. It does require going to campus for 2 week intensive sessions (2 weeks in January in Minnesota--brr and 2 weeks in June--would I have to do both in a given year? Could I just go every year in June?). I love most of the classes I would take, but the degree requires a course in New Testament Greek and Ancient Hebrew--those requirements scare me a little, although I've always been good with languages (but always languages that come from Latin--I've never tried others).

And I say "go to seminary," but I'd be doing much of it online--it's very attractive to think about doing it from a distance, which is not how I felt 10 years ago. Interesting how I've changed. And interesting to see how many of the seminaries and schools that once interested me are still not doing an online variation.

Here is one of the best compliments I got this week. When I wrote to my sister about this seminary possibility, she said that she'd come to church if I was the pastor. I'm not sure I want to be a pastor that way, but it's a big compliment.

I know what you might be thinking: if you don't want to be a pastor, what's the point of seminary? That's another question I should think about. I think of working in a retreat center. Being ordained might make me more attractive to a retreat center, although it might not. Or I might want to be a different kind of pastor, one who is working as part of a church staff, and my role would be to create meaningful creative experiences that point people to the Divine.

Now it's off to my other job, which intersects with my dreams of seminary in ways that one might not expect.  I have had my own teaching observation on the brain--that day in 2002 when my new boss at the Art Institute came to watch me teach.  Afterward, she praised me in glowing terms and said how lucky the school was to have me.

I said, "I'm yours until I run away to seminary."  She smiled.  I was surprised--at that point, I had no plans, inclinations, or yearnings to go to seminary--or so I thought.