Catch up

Image from @mattpopovich on Unsplash

Six months have gone by since I touched this blog.

How the heck are you all?

Let’s catch up!

Our oldest graduated from high school, went to State Championships for track again, survived Senior Week with his buddies at the beach, worked hard all summer on a farm, and moved away to college.

Our youngest ran the track season with her brother, interned at a local bookstore over the summer, read a million books, went to summer camp with a mask on, returned to a school building for her sophomore year, and ran her first varsity cross country meet.

My husband traveled to hang out with friends for some much needed rest & relaxation this summer, got breakthrough COVID, and then felt unrested & unrelaxed about messing up our summer schedules, and then fully recovered in time for our Maine vacation.

My mom turned 80, passed the vision test and got a Maryland driver’s license, began volunteering at a local church thrift store, and continued settling in and making friends in Maryland.

My dad still loves my mom’s cooking, made it up to Maine with us for a few days in August, and maintains a sunny and cheerful disposition even as he labors to recall exactly who we are in relationship to himself.

And how am I?

Well, pretty darn grateful. Up early to write in the quiet before everyone else awakes, I scan my life and see that it is so good.

I am grateful that I had lovely, long visits with dear friends after so much social distance and isolation.

I am grateful that my husband recovered from breakthrough COVID, and that he did not share it with us.

I am grateful that the Master Gardener exam was open book, and that I passed it.

I am grateful for good ministry at St. Andrew’s here in Maryland, the Claggett Center in Buckeystown, St. Timothy’s Outreach Center in Kentucky, St. Martin’s-in-the-Field/St. Philip’s-by-the-Sea in Maine and new partnership adventures with St. Paul’s Poplar Springs.

I am grateful for faithful siblings who labor to bring about transformation in this world through acts of mercy and struggles for justice, especially those working to support evacuees from Afghanistan right now.

I am grateful to receive a Clergy Renewal Grant for a sabbatical next year, which already inspires, delights, and refreshes me!

I’m grateful for my health, the health of my family and friends, and for those dear ones who have shaped my life before they went on to greater glory.

I am grateful for this house that shelters my family, the sycamore tree outside the front door that dazzles me in some orange, deeply moving way with its puzzle pattern bark and fancy leaves, and the grace that permeates daily interactions when I get out of the way.

I am grateful to sit here with you, dear reader, to scan my life with gratitude, and to reconnect with you.