When you think about “what comes next” in your life’s work or career, and you picture yourself doing whatever usually “comes next” for people on your particular career trajectory, and that next thing feels interesting to you but you also feel a real No, or Not Now, about it, how do you assess whether that […]

There’s a member of the church that’s really been having a hard time and hasn’t been in church in a long time. I talked to her over the summer and we talked about the possibility of my coming to visit sometime. Nothing was set, and the idea languished on my to-do list for months. Every […]

We have a meet and greet feature on the RevGal homepage, including a questionnaire by Will Smama. I don’t know when my turn will come to be featured, but inthe meantime, here are my answers:
Got blog?
www.reverendmother.org
What gives you joy?
Simple joy: Browsing the drugstore–they have the best stuff there
Profound joy: Finishing a long and difficult […]

Today
I had back-to-back meetings downtown today (WritingRevs, then Presbytery Uber-Committee) which allowed me to take the Metro, which I so vastly prefer to driving. It went without a hitch, except, in my unthinking haste to catch a train whose doors were closing, I stuck my arm and leg out to stop it and remembered too […]

My last post sparked some interesting comments (see previous post and comments) about entertaining… got me thinking about the differences between entertaining and hospitality.
Songbird’s stay-at-home theory (that rates of entertaining have gone down as two-career homes have become more prevalent) is interesting, and there’s probably something to it. It’s an irony though, in that I […]

after i said
what i shouldn’t have said,
after the words settled as dust
on a cluttered kitchen table,
i turned, and tumbled into a photo on the fridge
of you, me and the girl between us.
i got tangled in its grinning trinity
and couldn’t tell whether the hand cradling her back
was yours or mine—
lean, tanned fingers, or mine in shadow?
nails […]

Ten years ago I was living in Houston working for a technical writing, training and consulting firm.
One spring day I was driving home from a client site, and I was feeling surly and restless because I didn’t want to be writing policies and procedures for big petroleum companies anymore.
A song came on the radio that […]

Last year I became a member of a presbytery committee—sort of the uber-committee, if you know anything about presbyterian government. I learned two days ago that I’m also on uber-committee’s leadership team, by virtue of chairing one of the subteams. Confused yet? What it means is that I attend the meeting-before-the-meeting. You can’t make this […]

Bees make me extremely jumpy, whether they are the bumble or the spelling variety. (I’m neutral about quilting bees.)
I was an avid spelling bee competitor in elementary school. I was good at them, but I didn’t enjoy them. They stressed me out. Why didn’t I throw them on purpose? I could have done that, spelled […]

Dear Rosetta,
You don’t know me. I was one of the people trapped in your check-out line the other day. You will remember well that the register went haywire while you were ringing up a $212 order for the Latina family in front of me. Somewhere between the masa harina and the 12-pack of Gatorade, the […]

Some thoughts, still nebulous–would love some feedback:
We were talking with Young Episcopal Memoirist today about full-time writers (she is not one). She commented that often a person will have some success with a first book, and she’ll quit her job to write full time, and the second book won’t be nearly as good because it’s […]

PPB and others were wondering what I submitted for critique. Here is the first piece:
Introduction
It’s happened again.
Another friend of mine from seminary, ordained, installed and practicing ministry for less than two years, has given notice to the church she serves. She will not seek another call—not right now. She will be a stay-at-home mom to […]

First, three milestones to report:
1. Today is my last day home with M before maternity leave ends.
2. C has her first sleepover tonight, at MaDear’s house.
3. I had my first barrage of “But why?” from C yesterday.
Now, from Songbird:
Yesterday, as I drove past Planet Fitness on my way to Planet Dog, and remembering there is […]

…tell me what you think of me.
That’s apparently an alternate ending to the ABC song, as well as an invitation to contribute to my Johari window. Click on this link, then select a few adjectives that describe me.
You’ve seen it at the Ice Floe, Set Free and elsewhere… it’s taking the blogworld by storm!
What’s a […]

for C, little she-who-is
When did I become a mother of two?
Was it six weeks ago, when your baby sister catapulted into the world and spread slender arms into empty air, groping for something to hold onto?
Was it later that day, when my eyes fell on the two of you together for the first time, when […]

A good friend from seminary said the following, sometime after her daughter was born but before mine was:
I never really knew how much my parents loved me until I had one of my own.
I remember hearing her say that and thinking, aw, that is so sweet. The love of a parent.
Then little she-who-is was born. […]

I looked down at my young daughter, who was looking gratefully and hungrily into my eyes, and I knew instinctively that gone were my days of being able to barricade myself in my study for hours on end… it struck panic into me to think that my ability to keep up the pace of my […]

part I
That week of meetings was a whole-family effort. R was amazing: hunching over bathroom sinks to run hot water over bottles of breastmilk in order to thaw them while I met with various and sundry groups; pacing at the back of the presbytery meeting with C on his shoulder; cramming into a tiny women’s […]

I am a member of the presbytery’s committee on ministry, and the other night I took part in a clearance interview for a candidate who has been called to an associate pastor position. Our job was to interview the church committee who called her (called the APNC), the pastor with whom she will work, and […]

Friday Mom has waded in deep over at her place, and her wonderful thoughts about mid-life have really got me thinking further about what I want my life to be. Then I stopped by jo(e)’s place this morning and was totally captivated by this post. What a rich life this person seems to lead, dense […]