Where I’ve been, what I’m doing

I haven’t posted in a bit and wanted to give folks a sense of what I’ve been up to.

Those vegan cupcakes have kept following me. Last weekend I was in California for a training and wouldn’t you know it, a beautifully iced agave nectar vegan cupcake was waiting for each participant. Then yesterday, Princess left three little cupcakes for me and J. on a flowery china plate, so today I am once again having coffee and cupcakes for breakfast. Tip: definitely always recommend your favorite cookbooks to all your friends.

On Thursday I turned 25. I’m feeling good about that.

Petitpoussin wrote a great post on identity, which I mean to respond to in a post of my own when things slow down.

‘Cause not only has this been a birthday week, highlighted by a visit from my parents, but tomorrow is the installation service for our minister, who we will call Rev. D., who began her service to our church this past fall. For those of you who might not be familiar with the ins and outs of church culture, installation services are a big deal. Exciting and wonderful, but also time consuming and stressful in that, do we have all the details in order, and what will I wear kind of way.

And of course Sunday mornings keep coming around as well. Tomorrow morning I will narrate worship. In costume. As a 18th century illeterate mystic farmer, Thomas Potter, cause nothing starts a Sunday better than some historical cross dressing.

But first, today J. and I are going to a baseball game between the Giants and the Rockies with my parents. (Tucson hosts spring training games – though we seemed to have skipped spring, and moved right into summer – today’s high is 94.) I’m not usually the sports going type, and in the past year it has sometimes seemed like I’m not even the social type. Yet with increasing frequency the need to prioritize my relationships over work becomes very clear. I spent Thursday afternoon having a picnic at an oasis (seriously) hearing what my parents were doing in life when they were 25. And today, the opportunity to watch a game with my dad – I haven’t done that in at least 10 years, and who knows when the opportunity will arise again.

So hello to everyone reading this where ever you might be. May you have happiness and sunshine and the joy of good relationships with friends and family.

In Melting Snow

Last night it snowed. I live in Tucson, Arizona, so snow is a bit of phenomenon. While walking to a restaurant yesterday you could hear people laughing with delight, and see children writing their names in the snow on the ground, next to saguaros and prickly pears sleeping under this most unusual blanket.

Today, of course the snow has been cleared away in a bath of sunlight. Mondays are my day off, and I thought, why not take this most beautiful day to start a blog.

I have been toying with the idea of starting a blog for a while, partly inspired by the writings of an old friend, petitpoussin. My ambivalence about a blog has been much like my ambivalence about a tattoo. What will I get, where will it go, what will it mean?

Like many people I have an old relationship with writing. As a teenager with mental illness writing was in many ways my salvation. And I was good, though of course with that lovely disclaimer of, “for her age.” As I grew up and learned to live with my depression I stopped writing. I didn’t know what to say when the genre of confessional no longer seemed to be my only identity. I became a bit of an intellectual, a bit of an activist, and a bit scared to try to know myself in that intimate fashion that comes from being a writer.

But here I am, starting a blog. There will of course be the requisite posts on my life, politics, feminism, poetry, and that which makes me incredibly angry. I hope to also link to and post about what is new in progressive religion. In my work as a Director of Religious Education with children and youth I see how central spirituality is to the human experience, how important it is for us to explore our faith development, and how hard it is for us to articulate where we are on our own paths, and where those paths fall in relationship to religious tradtion.

And thus my blog title – Ranting and Rejoicing. Cause while there is so much that is painful, hurtful, and just plain wrong in our world, there is also, beauty, love, and those moments of wonder that help us truly feel alive.