Rogue Reverend

Cultivating Gratitude: Friendship

Friendship, friendship, how I love thee.

I truly have the best friends in the world. I have brilliant, funny, loving friends. There’s the friend I call when I really need counseling (T), the friend I  talk to for hours, never running out of things to talk about (A), the friend I drink coffee with and eat vegan food (even if she’s no longer a vegan!) (R), the friend who challenges me to broaden my vision (also an R), the new friend who I like to hang with (E), and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

There’s the friend who has known me longest (T), and who always knows the right thing to say and do in life. Don’t forget the friend who is my best girl, the mother of my godchildren (K). There’s (D) who gives me hell when I fall off the right path, and loves me enough to tell me I’m wrong. There’s my friend (A) who is very busy right now, with new challenges (school, moving, new business), who has always been a better friend to me, and inspires me.

There are so many more, but I can’t write about them all.

I am so grateful. I found this cheesy poem that really says what I’d like to, but much cheesier:

Some people come into our lives and quickly go.
Some people move our souls to dance. They awaken us to
new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom.
Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon.
They stay in our lives for awhile, leave footprints
on our hearts, and we are never ever the same.
~ Flavia Weedn

Happy Thanksgiving, friends. I love you.

Cultivating Gratitude: Creativity

Today was one of THOSE days. A Monday of the First Order. Everything I touched, broke. Everything I tried to complete took 15 steps more than it should.

Case in point, I went to print labels from the post office web site, which required me to create an account, which I didn’t really need because we already had one, but when I went to reset the password (which we couldn’t remember) on the old account, I accidentally reset the password on the new account, which meant I had to go to another email account to figure out how, and anyway, it took me an hour to figure out the labels, and I finally got them. Then guess what? I ran out of printer ink.

So a trip to Staples, and I put in the black ink. Reprint.

You thought it was going to be easy? Wrong! Color ink out, too, so it didn’t work. Luckily, I had gotten a color cartridge.

Yep, that kind of day.

When everything you do requires a little creativity.

And I’ve got it. And I’m grateful.

Now, if I can just actually get something done tomorrow…

Cultivating Gratitude: Money

One of my favorite assignments to give my pastoral counseling and spiritual direction clients, and even some of my coaching clients, is to keep a gratitude journal. I ask them to write down three things about which they are grateful, especially pertaining to their situations. So, if you’re frustrated with your spouse, write down three things each day that you are grateful for around them. Or, if you’re frustrated with you job, same thing: three things about your job that make you thankful.

Given that I love my job. And I love my home. And my friends and special people. What am I most unsatisfied with in my life?

You guessed it. Money.

So here’s my grateful list for this Sunday, and the topic is money.

I have never gone hungry, and always seem to have enough.

Waiting for luxury items makes me more appreciative when I get them.

I have a new pair of tennis shoes in my very near future!

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Holy Wednesday

Today is the first day of Passover in Judaism. Many Jews get together with family and friends on the first and second night of Passover for the Passover meal, called the Seder (meaning order, because there is an order to the meal). The family follows an order determined by the Haggadah, a book that has the order and commentary.

The story is told of the Hebrew people’s exodus from slavery. There are props. During the meal, wine is poured and consumed four times. Everyone tilts to the side at certain times of the meal. At my friends’, the Rabbis’, home, dinner begins about 7:00 p.m., and I usually drive out at midnight, forgoing the final prayers in lieu of safe driving and sleep.

Frankly, it’s my favorite meal of the year (not just because of the wine!). Really.

Only this year, my Jewish friends have moved away. And I find myself really missing Passover.

I’ve only celebrated Passover with my friends three times, and yet, spring, Holy Week, and my birthday month don’t seem right without it. So I can imagine what it is like for the celebrants of the Passover during Jesus’ time. Skipping it would be like skipping Thanksgiving. Can you imagine the month of November passing without Thanksgiving? It would throw the whole holiday season off! And that’s precisely what missing Passover would do.

Passover meets some intense desire inside of me for ritual and for community.

I imagine Jesus following a Haggadah, reclining as he eats, drinking his four glasses of wine, and being with his friends and family for the Passover meal in Jerusalem, the final Passover of his life. I see him altering the Haggadah a bit, to reinterpret the wine into the martyrdom of his death. I feel him absorbing the energy of the ritual and community around him.

The final words of the Seder are “Next year in Jerusalem.” That intense longing for ritual and community resonate in those words for me today. And so I say to you, “Next year in Jerusalem.”