A Call to Intimacy – by Henri J M Nouwen

“Jesus describes the intimacy that he offers as the connectedness between the vine and it’s branches. I long to be grafted onto Jesus as a branch onto the vine so that all my life comes from the vine. In communion with Jesus, the vine, my little life can grow and bear fruit. I know it, but I do not live it. Somehow I keep living as if there are other sources of life that I must explore, outside of Jesus. But Jesus keeps saying, “Come back to me, give me all your burdens, all your worries, fears, and anxieties. Trust that with me you will find rest.”

Me too, Father Nouwen, me too!

New Beginning Again?

One of the things I celebrated about my former profession was the fact that i was always able to ‘start over’. Each new school year, I started with a new cast of characters in my classroom.

Once in a while there would be one class out of my five that seemed really challenging, but even then I could wait until the end of the semester when the rosters were re-shuffled and that challenge was usually resolved.

 Since I have left the classroom it seems that all I ever do is start again. These NEW new beginnings are much more challenging than the occasional rowdy classroom. First there was the move from Pinellas to Hernando County. Living with Mom after two years or so living alone was really fun. We had learned to get along very well.

One thing she didn’t like to do was choose a menu. So I got to choose what we were eating for dinner each day, then she would cook it. On the day she died, she even got the chicken we were going to have for dinner out of the freezer before she cooked it. I ended up having to cook it at some point. Then last May, she left me here in this house. I have had to learn to cook dinner in HER kitchen every day. There are a lot of things that I miss now that she isn’t here anymore, but this little job has become the hardest task for me.

Today is January 1, 2011. As I am writing this it is about 7:00 pm. When I was growing up, on New Year’s Day, our family would usually spend the day at one of my grandparent’s homes and get back home near this hour. Back then the Orange Bowl game always came on at about this time. Dad and I would usually watch it together for a while.

I had to learn quite a while ago how to live without this quiet time with Dad, but at least I could always console myself by either talking with or being with Mom. That is not possible today.

Today I spent quite alone and it was a difficult day, but not an impossible one. I made a lunch that I think both my Mom and Mammaw Denmark (Mom’s Mom) would be able to appreciate. See, Mammaw always thought that on the first day of the year, we should eat peas for peace, so I made peas. She also said we should eat rice for riches and jowls for joy. Currently the only thing I can find at the grocery store labeled jowls was jowl bacon, so I used bacon to season the peas and made rice, too. There was cornbread and pork chops, too. It was good.

I also made a cake and it tastes pretty good too!

This coming Wednesday I’ll be making another new beginning. I’ll be moving back to Pinellas County from Hernando County. I am really looking forward to this move and to making dinner each day in my own kitchen.

The first part of my personally developed therapy for today was to make the dinner that I made, so I could have a special day just like always on New Year’s Day.

The second part of this therapy is that I am writing this to add to a blog that I write only once in a while. Comment if you like. Add a funny picture too if you have one, I could use it. Thanks for reading this.

Writing Settings ‹ My World, Welcome to It — WordPress

Writing Settings ‹ My World, Welcome to It — WordPress.

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Talking about YouTube – ARCA DE NÓE (dilúvio) — Noah’s Ark (Flood)

 

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YouTube – ARCA DE NÓE (dilúvio) — Noah’s Ark (Flood)

Moving Along

Well I am enrolled in three (3) classes at Asbury Seminary. 

 

One of them is "United Methodist Polity".  It is required for those who plan to be an Elder in the United Methodist church.  As a part of this class I must read the "Book of Discipline" of the United Methodist church.  I was on the Staff-Parish Relations committee for my church from 2000 – 2003 I think.  I bought the 2000 version of this book so I could be better prepared to do that job.  It is a really difficult read.  The other two books that are required for the course is the "Book of Resolutions" of the UMC and a book called "Polity, Practice, and the Mission of The United Methodist Church". 

 

The Polity book I have already read.  It is the smallest of the three and it gave me a good insight into the two other books.  I am glad that I read it first and now the others don’t seem nearly as intimidating.  The course that these books go with is an online (or is it on line) course.  This will be my first of many I imagine.

 

The second of the three courses is a course called "Spiritual Formation".  It meets for five days in July.  There are four books for this course.  I am following my establishing pattern and reading the books in order by size, starting with the smallest.  I have already read "With Burning Hearts; A Meditation on the Eucharistic Life" by Henri J.M. Nouwen.  This books relates the taking of communion to the travel of the two men on the road to Emmaus.

 

I am a little over half through "Conferences" by John Cassian.  Cassian was a monk that died about 435 AD.  He wrote twenty-four ‘Conferences’, but only nine of them are included in the book for the class.  There is a thirty-six page introduction that I am probably going to have to read again, because I was rushing through it to get to the ‘real’ book.  The first conference discusses the goal of the monk, the second one, discernment, and the third one the three renunciations.  I will write more detail about them when I have finished the book.

 

The third course I am enrolled in is a counseling course that doesn’t meet until August, so I haven’t begun anything about that class yet.  It does have the largest book that I have, though.

 

More to come!

 

 

Slowly getting back on track!

Well, I have been retired now for twelve (12) days now.  I got word through email today that Asbury Seminary has re-instated me so that I can start classes this summer.  I hope there is something that I can take that is online.  Each course lasts only about a month, so whatever I take will mean a lot of work in a very short amount of time.

I emailed the District Superintendent today as well.  I hope to hear from him tomorrow or Friday.

Ok, so now what?

Well I keep trying to do this blogging thing.  I am not very good at it.  I guess I will start again here.

Here is an old picture of me.

And here is a more recent one.A lot more hair and a lot less of me!