Weekly Bread #273

What a week! – participating in an ordination/installation last Sunday, two days watching our grandchild, and 2 hikes totaling 13 miles. Our pool is open for the season so I got a few swims in too. Splashing around through this life is quite fun and satisfying.

Giving the charge to our new minister was a particular blessing and honor. Nothing I love more than talking about ministry and telling people what to do. Most kidding aside, it was terrifically moving to do and I really got into it. My inner stand up comic persona also was triggered and at various points I had no idea what I was going to say before I said it.

Below is the text of what I planned on saying, but I went fairly hilariously off script as the Spirit took control so it will be a lot more fun to listen to than to read. The video of the full service is here (all of it is worth watching) and my part comes in at roughly 1:30 and 45 seconds.

Charge to the Minister – May 5 2024 Ordination/Installation of the Rev. Cory Wells Lovell from the Rev. Theresa Novak

“Cory, you asked me to give you a charge today.  (hand over battery)

Just so you know, that this battery is used, and if it isn’t dead, it probably will be soon.  Do not be like this battery.

Ministry, I believe, is about ongoing transformation. Transformation can be dangerous.  Not all caterpillars  become butterflies.  Some are eaten by birds (I won’t call them vultures) and some simply dry up and blow away because they haven’t fed themselves well enough to survive.

Your ordination today into the Unitarian Universalist ministry creates a covenant between you and both the generations gone before and the ones to come.  I charge you to be not only a caretaker of our tradition, but also a creator.  We are a living faith after all and revelation is not sealed.  So stay current with what is happening in our association, so you can help to guide it toward increasing our collective capacity to create more love and justice in our world.  Attend as many general assemblies, regional meetings, trainings, and minister gatherings as you possibly can.  This is part of what your professional expenses are for – so spend them! These wider contacts, with colleagues in particular, will engage and feed your spirit, and help keep your batteries charged. 

Today you are also answering a call to serve as the settled minister of this congregation. This too, like your ordination,

will transform you in ways you can’t predict or even imagine.  This congregation, also yearns to be transformed. Your role as our minister is to share in that journey with us, to lead us and guide us, but also to listen to us to discover what we need, which isn’t always the same as what we want.  You will need to bring us hope and courage when times are tough and all of us, including you, are feeling anxious and afraid.  Hold as steady to your call and to your faith as you can.

Ministry is tough work.  You already know this.  You can’t do it alone.  Ask for help, even if you don’t think you need it.  Acknowledge your mistakes and failings and forgive the mistakes and failings of others. We are all imperfect people in an imperfect world.  Remember that you are Clark Kent and not superman.

You already love this congregation and this congregation loves you.  I know I do.

Building trust, however, is a harder task and trust always takes time.  You will need to learn to trust the collective wisdom of the congregation just as we will need to learn to trust you.  Ministry is not easy.  Most of the flack you will get is not really about you, but about your role, and what people always seem to project onto their ministers. 

Some small of it will be about you, however, and at those times you will need to reach deep inside yourself, and maybe consult with trusted colleagues, in order to figure out if there is something you could or should be doing differently.

Most important, however, remember that you can’t do anything with a dead battery.

Don’t run your battery down to empty.  Keep your tank at least half full, stay ready for a necessary detour, a traffic jam that must be untangled, an accident with casualties that need your tender care.  You should always be aware of your distance to empty but since that is hard to do in the midst of everything that is crying out for your attention, I charge you to do these things:

Take every hour of your study and vacation leave.  Every year.  Stay home if you are sick.

Hold your days off as sacred, as sabbaths.  Take them every single week.  If emergencies come up – and they will- and you have to respond on one of your days off, take another day off instead.

Spend some quality time with your family every single day. Make friends outside of the church and socialize with them. With congregants you are always their minister.  You need places and people where you can set that role aside.  These stoles get heavy sometimes.

Also spend some quiet time alone with yourself every day too, even just staring out the window at the sky for a few minutes or listening to music. Pray. 

Trust me, the congregation will survive without you while you are recharging your battery, but if you run on empty for too long, neither you nor this congregation will thrive.

Most of all, do a lot of what feeds your spirit the most.  Skip or delay some of the things that drain you. You can’t do everything, so do more of the things that recharge your batteries and will give you more energy to tackle the harder things.

I am done, for now.  You know me well enough to know that I will always be generous with my advice and counsel.  I also know you well enough to know that you will listen to me, and then you will do what you feel called to do.  That is how it should be.  You have to be true to yourself and to your own call.

Now, but only if you want, you can give me that dead battery back and I will dispose of it properly.  Do you want a dead battery? 

Blessings on your ordination and on your call to this congregation.”

L’Chaim!

My average weight this week was up 2.4 pounds for a total loss of 134.3

Weekly Bread #272

Got in 3 hikes this week for 15 miles. 2 had some elevation, 813 and 925, so I guess I can say I am back to being a hiking maniac. Busy week though, planning the ordination and installation of our minister. My spouse is chairing the committee so she of course reels me in to help at times. I am also doing the charge to the minister which is a real honor. More about that later most likely, but for now I am just getting ready for a long and exciting day at church!

L’Chaim!

My average weight this week was down 1.2 pounds for a total loss of 136.7 

Weekly Bread #271

It has been a good week. I did 3 hikes for a total of a little more than 16 miles and spent a day caring for my 2 month old grand-daughter. (We are trying to keep her sweet face off of the wider web, but trust me, she is gorgeous and smart and strong – especially for such a tiny human being.) I understand the word “doting” much better now. Also “besotted”.

Taking care of an infant is different of course than going on a difficult hike, but both can be a lot of work. Both are well worth the effort though in order to be a witness to the miracle of life. There truly is much to be thankful for in this sometimes difficult world. A baby’s needs are so simple. Feed me, change me, hold me, play with me, and then let me sleep when I get tired. Aren’t those things we all need? Change doesn’t have to mean just a clean diaper. Instead, maybe something new, maybe even transformation. Miracles abound.

L’Chaim!

My average weight this week was up 1.2 pounds for a total loss of 135.5 

Weekly Bread #270

Weekly Bread #270

I finally got to do two real hikes this week! Not terribly long, 5 miles was the most, but I was out and among the flowers. Spring is here and I was well enough to see and hold my two month old (today) granddaughter. There is joy in this complex and crazy world. New life is always a miracle. Today I will see colleagues at a local installation ceremony. We will robe, wear stoles, and process into the sanctuary to help bless a new ministry for that congregation and to show our support for their new minister. No one can do ministry alone. I am both proud and humbled to be a part of this living tradition. Ritual is important. Covenant is important. Ministers are in covenant with the congregations they serve and also with each other.

A covenant is basically an aspirational promise or a vow. Something you have pledged, to others, to yourself, or to God. It is not easy, and sometimes covenants are bent, stretched, and sometimes even broken. Mostly even broken covenants can be repaired, they can be revised and renewed and even become stronger in the process. Ministries like marriages go through hard times, and some come out of those troubles stronger and deeper. Others fail. Some may even need to fail. Even then, a covenant can be dissolved, if not with joy, then with a calm acceptance than the relationship needs to end.

I made a covenant with myself in 2018 about losing the weight that was contributing to my rapidly declining health. I lost over 180 pounds in two years and have now been slowly gaining some of it back. That is OK, except if my health begins to be affected agin. My A1C going up, just a hair, a tenth of a point, above to normal range, was enough to call me back into that covenant I made with my body and myself. It seems to be working. Covenants can powerful things. They can change lives. They have changed mine.

L’Chaim!

My average weight this week was down 2.3 pounds for a total loss of 136.7 

Weekly Bread #269

There are elders in the redwood forests. Scarred by fire and battered by the wind and rain, they still stand tall. I wonder if the younger trees go to them for advice on how to survive? The world is different now, even in the forest. The fires are hotter, the temperatures more extreme. The old ways may not continue to suffice, the young trees must learn to adapt in ways the old ones can’t imagine.

But still, these ancient trees stand, reaching to the sky, birth new life from their roots so that life will continue when they eventually fall. They understand their place in (Mary Oliver’s} family of things.

I saw my doctor again this week because I am still tired and congested and appalled that I am not completely well after 6 weeks. She ordered blood work, but said (quite kindly) that the older you are the longer it takes to recover from an illness. The blood work came back mostly OK, although my A1C was up a bit, which is something to watch, but I am, as she said, pretty healthy for my age.

Slowly, thoughtfully, and sometimes reluctantly, I am learning the role of elder. My nickname was “Tree” when I was young – the 3 syllables of “Theresa” being too long for some of my young peers I guess – so I have always had an affinity for trees. But am I an oak, a redwood, or an apricot tree? Can I become all three as the need arises? It is necessary to have faith in the possibility of transformation.

L’Chaim!

My average weight this week was down 1.7 pounds for a total loss of 134.4 

Weekly Bread #268

Some things in nature remind us of how small we really are. I was able to do a couple of short hikes this week. The longest was only 5 miles and it wore me out. I don’t recover as quickly as I did when I was younger. We were down in Monterrey and the restaurants and my inability to really hit the trails gave me my highest weekly weight gain since I have been keeping track. Not good, because the extra weight will slow me down even more. Maybe it is past time to reset before I get as old and as large as that massive redwood tree. Although that would be impressive I believe.

L’Chaim!

My average weight this week was up 3.5 pounds for a total loss of 132.7 

Weekly Bread #267

Well, Easter is finally here. Hallelujah! I was stressing about being sick for so long. Three weeks is crazy for a cold and I worried that it had gone into pneumonia. My doctor ordered a chest x-ray to check and my lungs were clear, so it really just was a weird virus, not even COVID. Partly psychological perhaps, but once I had the x-ray results, I started to feel better. Does that make me an advocate of the power of positive thinking? Nope. Attitude can help one feel better, but it doesn’t do anything for a cough or a runny nose. The virus had to run its course. Not much I could do other than the usual fluids, rest, etc.

But for now, I am assuming that I will get healthier every day and will be back to hiking early next week. It is a joy to be reborn and resurrected. Happy Easter!

L’Chaim!

My average weight this week was down 2.2 pounds for a total loss of 136.2 

Weekly Bread #266

Easter is coming. I am ready for the resurrection! Still sick, going on 3 weeks now, better in many ways but not yet healed. Stuffy head remains although the sore throat has departed. Mainly just tired. Reminded me of this old poem of mine. Maybe I will take a nap. Somewhere warm and dark and wait to be reborn. Spring really is coming and I want to hike among the wildflowers that are beginning to bloom.

Easter Poem

What an effort it must have been

To climb down from that cross

So many centuries ago

They thought you were dead forever

It certainly looked like that

You’d prayed your last prayer

Healed your last leper

Driven out your last demon.

They even buried you.

It must have felt so good

To lay your head down

The funeral cloths were soft.

The darkness was comforting

So weary you were

Tired, hurt, bleeding.

You’d seen so much

Suffered so much

Done so much

What harm could it do

To give into rest

For a few days

It must have been hard

To hear the weeping

Of those who had loved you

Of those who had betrayed you

The stone was heavy

But you had to push it aside

Rolling away defeat

Banishing hopelessness

Overcoming fear.

What an effort it must have taken

To come back not knowing

What people would think

How they would respond

Would they think the miracle

Was only about you?

Thank you for letting us know

That we each have the chance

The opportunity, the responsibility

To be reborn

Resurrected.

Again and again.

Like the earth

Each spring

Each morning

Forever and ever

Amen.

L’Chaim!

My average weight this week was up 2.6 pounds for a total loss of 134. 

Weekly Bread #265

Interesting the things you can drag around with you as you travel through your life. When I was in Utah I tried using saline nasal spray. The climate was so arid. It didn’t help that much, so I threw the partially used bottle in a bathroom drawer – along with a hairbrush I used before I cut my long hair. When we packed up to leave Utah, the contents of that drawer went into a bag and then into a box for the movers, and then into a bathroom drawer. Then there was another move and the bag was in a different drawer in a different bathroom.

Fast forward to this week when I found myself in the second week of a mystery virus (not COVID) that has turned me into a snot factory. The advice nurse (who told me I would recover, but it might be another week or two!), suggested a saline nasal spray. I think I have some of that! So into the bag in the bathrrom drawer I go. I noted the hairbrush first as I am thinking about growing my hair out again. Good to know I still have it. Yes the little spray bottle was still there! Expiration date was in 2009, but it is just salt and water right?

I put the tip into my nose and squeezed. My hand got wet as salty water leaked from the cracked side of the bottle. The contents were still fine, I suppose, but the container was brittle with age. There is a metaphor for something in there. I’ll try and figure it out when my brain is in less of a sinus fog. I wonder if the hairbrush is still good.

L’Chaim!

My average weight this week was down .8 pounds for a total loss of 136.6. 

Weekly Bread #264

This is not meant to be a commercial for over the counter cold remedies. None of them work all that well anyway. Generic Nyquil allows me to sleep for 4-5 hours at night but it isn’t a miracle either. Like a lot of things, sometimes you just have to suffer through it. I am negative for COVID so the sore throat, cough, runny nose and congestion is probably just a cold virus, but who really knws these days? After we stopped quarantining I have gotten sick 3 times, and twice it was during the month of March. This is after flu shots, and every vaccine they offer my age group. Not fun, but I don’t want to go back into isolation for months again. I planned to be much better today. My contingency plan was that if I am still sick I will stay home and do zoom church. After 4 days I shouldn’t be contageous, but I am still coughing too much for company. If I am better tonight I will go to a meeting I don’t want to miss, mask up and not get close to anyone.

You know the old saying about feeding a cold and starving a fever? Let’s just say that I haven’t had a fever. That and feeling crummy means I also didn’t get in much exercise this week. There is another line about best laid plans. We all just do what we can.

L’Chaim!

My average weight this week was up 1.1 pounds for a total loss of 135.8.