Tuesday Tidbits: Gratitude Edition

I don't have much time to write today.  Soon it will be time to head down the mountain to teach.  Let me record a few tidbits before getting ready.

--We are having spectacular weather, with highs in the 60's.  It seems unusual for February, but I've never lived here in February.  I've enjoyed my afternoon walk later in the day, in the afternoon, when the skies are a glorious blue, and it's almost too warm for long sleeves as my walk progresses.

--I may have bought snow boots prematurely.  It's beginning to feel like it may never snow again.  I'm not complaining, although it would be nice to have the kind of snow that just drifts by the window.

--When I'm out on my walks through the camp, there's always a point where I swell up with gratitude, where I think about how amazed I am to live here, how lucky I feel, yet also how much planning it took to get here, including those years that weren't planning so much as yearning.

--My contract to be a Synod Appointed Minister at Faith Lutheran has been extended until June 1.  That, too, makes me very happy.

--I will begin doing some non-Sunday worship with them:  Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday.  And there will be a fish fry on Feb. 23 where they'd like me to be there so that the community gets to see that they do have a minister.

--I'm leading a 3 week class to get children ready for first communion, and I'm really loving it.  I'm making notes so that I don't have to reinvent this process every time I do it.

--We have just passed the 2 year anniversary of my severing from City College.  But we're also almost at the one year anniversary of my reaching out to the bishop to create a different kind of internship along with the letter that I wrote that eventually led to me being hired to teach in-person English classes again.  Well done, last year Kristin!

--I am also happy to discover that I like having a Tuesday-Thursday onground teaching schedule.  Leaving the house to go to campus is easier knowing that I have other week days where I will be home.  In the past, in my administrator life where I was on campus 45-60 hours, I felt such despair every morning as the time to leave the house got closer.

--I am taking 2 asynchronous seminary classes, and I'm really enjoying them.  Instead of having filmed lectures to watch, we have readings and creative engagements with the readings and each other.  These days, I like that approach just as well as the Zoom lecture meeting in place of the classroom--another reason to feel fortunate!