Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Back from Vacation

Vacation was good. I slept a lot, wore my favorite sweats most of the time, and pretended I don't even own a computer! I spent most of the week either on the couch or in the kitchen. I cooked a turkey and a ham and chili for watching football and split pea soup and even baked a cake! (Mind you, there's just me and The Husband to eat all of this food!) While I find that trying to figure out what to prepare for every-day dinner in 30 minutes or less is crazy-making, spending hours preparing special meals is fun or maybe even therapeutic. And we just won't talk about calories or exercise right now. :-)

I woke up yesterday morning wondering why I was even going back to the office. I really didn't want to! I wanted to call in sick, or manufacture a crisis, or anything but go to work. My secretary had handled pretty much everything - she always does - but there's always something that no one else can deal with. She gave me my messages and mail, and reminded me that we have to set up new files for 2007. The annual report was sitting on my desk waiting for me to fill in all the membership and outreach stats, and there were dozens of church newsletters to read - and how did I get on all those mailing lists anyway?

In the afternoon I spent several hours with our computer guy playing with the computers and talking about some stuff he's going through. I arrived home "for dinner" in time for a phone call from a clergy sister, mostly about finalizing details for the regional Martin Luther King Jr Celebration and partly about just needing someone to share with. Then I went to teach the Bible Study, which ran late because we got so engaged in the text we forgot to check the clock!

Later, as I locked the door behind me on my way home for the day, I remembered why I keep coming back after vacations. I do so love the preaching and teaching and counseling and studying and writing and sacramental parts! And I love my small church, so I guess I'm kind of stuck with the administrative stuff too.

4 comments:

JWD said...

Welcome back from vacation!

I just stopped over after reading your comments on the RevGal 11th Hour Preaching Party. I wanted to tell you how much I appreciated your comparison of MLK's unexpected call and Jesus' getting pushed onto stage before he was quite ready. I'd never seen the story that way before. Never picked up on Jesus' reticence in this way. And to see it in these terms is a gift to me this morning. I'm teaching Sunday school today and hope I'll find a way to weave this in. Thanks!

The Other Gatekeeper said...

we must be neighbors, relatively speaking. i'm in the east san gabriel valley.

-spidey

JWD said...

Hi again, Rev. Maria. Thanks for stopping by today. I'm always glad to help out a sister Procrastinator! :)

I just thought you might be interested to know what came of your inspiration for our Sunday school class. I wrote about it over at my place: Ready or Not!

seethroughfaith said...

:D