A Dry Spell in Blog Land

It has been a long winter in Minnesota. And yesterday, in a cruel pre-April-Fool’s-Day joke, we received seven inches of snow! Last week I caught a cold and cough, like so many other people. Viruses and germs multiply like — well, like germs and viruses — during the winter here, because we spend so much time cooped up together, indoors, breathing each others’ air. So I caught a cold and cough and it’s settled in my sinuses, so this week I feel like I’m operating at about half my usual pace.

All this is by way of an apology. It’s been a long winter, and I’ve been in the midst of a dry spell in my writing for this blog. I haven’t known what to write, so I haven’t written anything.

There are blogs I read every day. The blogs I read every day are about knitting. And these women [and one man] write about their kids and their books and their frustrations and joys with their knitting projects and about everything else. I love to check in with them when I get home from the office every day, and I’m always disappointed when several days or a week goes by without a new entry.

So today’s entry is just to say — hello! I’m still here. I’ve been “under the weather,” as well as “under 7 inches of snow,” but I’m still here. The sun is shining, the snow will melt, and Spring will arrive in Minnesota. I’ll get inspired again, and I’ll write again. We DO believe in resurrection, don’t we?

Hello from the southern-most part of the Midwest

It’s warm here! I’m in Dallas, Texas, where the temperature was forty degrees warmer when I arrived than it was in Minneapolis when I left. There is grass that is green instead of brown. The sun is strong and warms the skin. And it’s okay to have exposed skin! No wind chill!!

I’ve been in Dallas for a few days, meeting with people from around the country. All of us serve on a UUA Moderator’s task force called Congregations Come First. It’s an awesome experience to be with these people. We represent several partner groups — two district presidents, three members of the UUA’s Board of Trustees, a parish minister, the chair of the Annual Program Fund committee, the Moderator, two district staff members, and some people from the national staff. Each has years of involvement at the local and district levels, as well as the national level. All are highly committed to the possibilities that our UU faith offers to the world. All are insightful thinkers and great team members. It’s a privilege to serve with this group.

The work we’ve done in the last couple of years has been important, I think. We’ve asked some provocative questions, and we floated a concept that many people didn’t like. The response has not always been kind. But our work has stimulated some new thinking and some new experimentation. Things are moving, and we’re having an impact. It’s always scary to be involved in change. It takes courage to be a change agent. But what a privilege it is to have the opportunity to serve our faith in this way!

Happy Holidays!

It’s sunny and bright here in Minneapolis today. With a temperature in the 30’s [F], we expect to see snow melting into puddles. Later today and into tomorrow, however, the forecaster is telling us to expect a “wintry mix.” Those of you who live in the southern part of Prairie Star District know that a “wintry mix” means rain mixed with sleet mixed with snow, depending on fluxuations of temperature high in the atmosphere and down near the streets and sidewalks. Not fun, if you have places to go and people to see! Time to get out the Ice Melt!

Wherever you may live, and whatever kind of weather you’re expecting, I hope you’ll have some time for relaxation over the next two weeks — and  some time to reflect on your life and your values. We’re encouraged to think about mid-course corrections at this time of year, of course, by the prevalence of hints about making New Years Resolutions. And we don’t need to be limited to doing these assessments at this time of year, necessarily, but the beginning of a new calendar year does give us a good excuse to think about it.

So I’ll be spending some time with family, enjoying the energy of our grandchildren and adult children and their significant others, as well as my parents and my husband’s parents. I’ll also be thinking  and reflecting as I knit and as I walk [wintry mix or not!]. Are there things I want to work on, in the next year? Another spiritual practice to explore, besides the morning “family faces visualization” that I do regularly? The possibilities are out there, just waiting!

Happiness to you in the days ahead, and a good and fulfilling New Year, too!

Creatures of the Bottom of the Sky

I’ve been on the road again in the last few days, skirting the edges of South Dakota and Iowa on my way to Nebraska and back again, driving back through Iowa and southern Minnesota.   As I drive from state to state, I marvel at the prairie scenes I see — rolling hills, river valleys, places where the land is flat, trees planted around home places years ago, vast fields of corn and soybeans, now being harvested. It reminds me of something I read years ago. The writer talked about three kinds of life on earth: creatures that fly and soar in the air; creatures that live in the water; and then the group that we belong to — creatures of the bottom of the sky.

When I get out into the landscape of Prairie Star District, I become aware again that we are indeed creatures of the bottom of the sky. Gazing from horizon to horizon with a huge sky overhead, or looking down a long hill on the highway that goes on for miles ahead of me, I feel very much like a creature of the bottom of the sky. Having grown up in South Dakota, I find the landscape to be familiar and comforting.

I’ll head out again tomorrow to join our ministers at their retreat at Shalom Hill Farm, near Windom, MN. I doubt that I could call driving a spiritual discipline. But I do find nourishment for my soul as I go about the District, driving from place to place and waiting for the view that’s just beyond the hill.

Photos from Shalom Hill Farm

Here are some photos of our weekend at the Farm.    http://www.flickr.com/photos/11551696@N03/sets/72157601857516556/