Brett's 20th Birthday

Today is Brett's birthday. On Friday the 13th he turned 20. Brett reminded Bryan today that he is no longer a teenager.

We had a good day. We got up slow, went to Walter's Restaurant for breakfast and then took off for the beach. We went to Huntington and parked our beach chairs near the pier. It was a perfect day. It was warm but there was a steady cool breeze. We read, slept and felt the ocean spray on our faces. Our plan was to leave in time to drive to Laguna Beach to see a movie there. We love that little theatre on Pacific Coast Highway. There is nothing special about the theatre, except that when you go outside after the movie you get to see the sunset over the ocean. But we left too late and when it became obvious we weren't going to make our movie we just came home.

Brett made his own cake. He wanted to bake it. I didn't argue. It was a pink cake with pink frosting and it said BRETT IS 20 across the top. I turn 50 in October and my youngest child just turned 20. When my children were little many people said to me, "Enjoy them while you can. They grow up so fast." When they were little it didn't seem like they were growing up that fast. But now I get it. My youngest child leaves next month for a year in England. It will be his senior year of college. Matt is hoping to leave next month for a year in Korea.

I worked pretty hard at raising my children to be independent adventurers. Now they are heading off.....independent and adventurous. I want to say, "Not that independent. Not that adventurous." This process of watching your children grow up is a bittersweet task.

Picking Up From Where We Left Off

My extended family gathered at Silver Falls Conference Center, way back in the woods. So far back I didn't have phone reception. It is an incredible place. I highly recommend it for family reunions. There was plenty of grass for playing lawn games. There was a heated pool and several different gathering locations. The food was good and the best part was someone else cooked it. There are many, many beautiful hikes to walk. One morning I went for a hike with my sister and her family. We hiked to two falls and behind both of them. It was too hard for me but we won't go into that sad tale.

When I am with my extended family I get where I come from. My grandparents cared deeply about the church, service, adventure and relationships. My Uncle Richard loves to talk about movies, relationships, who we are at our core, theology and much more. He likes to talk about the things I like to talk about. Needless to say, I could talk to him for hours!

I have a great niece who was at the reunion. Every other time I have been around her she has been too shy for me to come very close. But she is now three and very self confident. She is exploring her world. She let me pick her up and talk to her a couple times but her real interest was my cousin David. David is 50 years old. He is on disability and he moves slowly and gently. She called David her best friend. Every time she saw him her eyes would light up. She sat by him at meals, family gatherings and car trips. She convinced him that he wanted to play "Go Fish." It was the highlight of my trip to Oregon, watching the connection between generations.

Families are interesting. We are so different from each other and yet there are deep similarities that connect us. When we get together we don't have to start at the beginning. We can pick up from where we stopped last time.

Church in the Park

I began my time in Oregon by attending the Ainsworth UCC. I had studied their website several times and was impressed by how current it is. The items on their site were all about events happening in August. So, I got up early on August 8 and checked the website one last time to make sure that I had the right address and correct time for worship. I arrived at the church at 9:59 a.m. for what I believed was a 10 a.m. worship. There was a young family reading a sign on the locked front door. It said that worship was happening at Pennisula Park. Luckily my phone can do GPS and I found the park. I noticed that the young family never did show up.

When I arrived there were a few people there but nothing was happening. I asked someone when church started and she said 10:30 a.m. I said, "Your website says 10 a.m." She said once a year we have church in the park and once a year we meet at 10:30 a.m. There is absolutely nothing about this on their website. At least I didn't find it. It made me want to make sure that at the La Verne CoB we do a better job of keeping our website up to date....weekly.

Even though I was grumpy by the time worship began I was impressed with this congregation I thought to myself, "If I lived in Portland I could see myself in a church like this one." It is multiracial, multicultural, open and affirming and believes in peace. The people of the congregation definitely cared about each other. Children were welcomed and loved. In fact, the children were given bubbles and invited to dance. Instead of a sermon we answered questions about our understanding of God. People felt safe to express themselves. How is that kind of depth of sharing and love fostered in congregational life?

When Ainsworth UCC has "church in the park" they seem less worried about time. I couldn't stay until the end and still meet my family to travel to the reunion. I bid farewell to the woman I was sitting next to and left before the service was over.

One of the things I learned on my last sabbatical was that visiting churches in the summer months is unsatisfying. Usually, their choir is off and their music staff is on vacation. The question can't just be how do we continue to develop vibrant worship September through the middle of June but how do we also retain vibrancy in June, July and August? After all, visitors do continue to come and check us out in the summer.

This next Sunday I will not be visiting a church. Brett and I are getting up in the middle of the night to begin our road trip to Chicago.

Family and Oregon....what could be better?

Tomorrow I fly to Oregon. I am attending a family reunion on my mother's side. These are fun people with free spirits. About four years ago we had a family reunion on an island in Arizona. "Not possible," you say. I have pictures. How many of you can claim that there was belly dancing at your last family reunion? Well, I can. Needless to say, I am looking forward to time with this wonderfully creative and spirit-filled family. I usually end up feeling a bit predictable and dull but it gives me lots of fodder for storytelling. Plus, I crave being with this side of my family because, now that my mother is deceased, these are the people who truly remember her. They understand what a deep wit she had and just how bright she truly was. Being with them connects me to my mother.

I am in charge of the opening get acquainted games. There will only be about 25 of us, but some of us come from as far away as Canberra, Australia. A couple of the people coming I have not met before. My grandparents taught their children to be independent and to travel the world. Those qualities have lived on in their grandchildren and great grandchildren.

I am going a day early so that I can attend a church in Portland. With help I found the Ainsworth UCC church. It looks wonderfully progressive and vibrant. I will soon know.

....Go

I promise I won't blog every day but since this is the first day of my sabbatical, I couldn't help myself. I went to bed last night with dreams of sleeping in late and then staying in bed to read. Perhaps once I finally got out of bed Brett and I would go to the beach.

At 5:30 a.m. Brett told me he needed to go to urgent care. I found a 24 hour site and took him. The doctor said that Brett may need to go to emergency. But eventually the doctor gave him two shots and two prescriptions and said if Brett doesn't improve soon that he needed to go to the hospital to have his tonsil drained. That is how my sabbatical started.

So while Brett was sleeping I decided to clean out the junk drawer in the kitchen. It actually was on my sabbatical to-do list. I found 10 decks of cards, more rubber bands than I will use in a lifetime, coupons that expired in 2008, and things I couldn't identify. When I had it all cleaned out I let it sit that way for a while. It just seemed wrong to put junk back in it.

It reminded me of when I went in for a colonoscopy. After the several days of cleaning out my system and the procedure I was hungry. The doctor said I should go out for breakfast but that just seemed wrong. I was cleaner than I had ever been before. Why put junk back into my body? So what did I learn on my first day? I learned that when you finish cleaning your junk drawer you still have a junk drawer.

Ready....Set.....

It is 4 p.m. on the eve of my sabbatical. You can see my desk blotter for the first time since I claimed this desk as my own 8 years ago. In the last several weeks, between pastoral duties, I have sifted and sorted and tossed. If nothing else, a sabbatical encourages a pastor to clean out the debris that has collected in one's office.

I expected that I would skip and giggle through this whole day. I am so very excited about the adventures I have planned for the next 11 weeks. But I think pensive would better describe my mood today. I feel like I do right before the Christmas Eve service. My mind is filled with details and I so desperately want everything to go well. I am praying and hoping for sacredness to seep through all the details. Plus, people keep saying "Good-bye" and I am so embedded in the life of the church that it seems awkward and clumsy to disconnect from that, even if just for a short time. It all seems so surreal and strange. I am guessing that it will take me several weeks just to let go, relax and allow my sabbatical to be what it is and to lead me where I need to go.

Besides traveling to wonderful places with wonderful people I now have a stack of books beside my bed. I admit it...I started into the stack early. I already finished a book by Tana French. I think she is my new favorite author....sorry Stephen King. This morning I started a book by Peter Gomes entitled The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus. His premise is that we need to preach what Jesus preached, not preach Jesus. I have jotted down several sermon ideas and written all over the margins of the book and I just finished Chapter 2.

I also have a couple projects planned. I want to create a cookbook of my mother's favorite recipes...a gift for my siblings. I began this book earlier but it amazes me how time consuming it is and what large blocks of time are required for completion. Brett and I have some painting projects to do. That boy brings color into my life! And I want to do another doodle I brazenly call art.

Tonight is Commission night and I still have some work to do but mostly my mind is on tomorrow.....a wide open day. Imagine that!

Sabbatical Dreaming

As I began to plan for an 11- week sabbatical, the Lilly Endowment suggested that anyone applying for grant through them should design their time around what makes his or her heart sing. My problem is that too many things make my heart sing...family, learning new things, traveling, reading, resting, worshiping, friendship, color, watching movies and more.

As of today, I am 17 days away from beginning my sabbatical. I have tried to pack it full of the things that make my heart sing.

• a family reunion in Oregon
  
• an extended road trip with my son that includes visiting my other son and my father
• a week in New York City with my sister
  
• a trip to Greece with my husband
  
• worshiping in vibrant and progressive churches
  
• djembe lessons
  
• a stack of books
  
• naps
  
• trips to the beach
  
• blogging
  

I love to dream and make plans for a trip almost as much as I like to take the trip! I have spent way too many hours researching hotels, reading about places I will visit, studying different routes on Google maps, reading travel books on Greece, and researching churches in Oregon, Chicago, New York City and Southern California. I have forbidden myself to do anymore planning at this point. I still have three sermons to preach, several committee meetings to attend, and details to finish up before my sabbatical begins on August 4.

I hope to write about my sabbatical on this blog. I value the opportunity to process all that I will experience. What gift a sabbatical is!