Daily Bread #124
Sometimes a trail turns out to be too hard to travel the way you would like. I experienced that this week and wrote a poem about it:
Perfect Hiker
Sometimes the trail is too steep
Your boots slide
On loose rocks
At every step
Your knees shudder
Barely keeping
You upright
It might be time
To give up
Your perfect techniques
Your way of planting
Your hiking sticks just so
Just sit down and slide
Let gravity do its work
As your butt glides over the rocks
It is a dusty trail
You’ll be covered in grime
Before you are done
But it is the only way
To get down a trail
That is too steep for you
Maybe too steep for anyone
With any sense
The point is always
To make it home
In one piece
Clean doesn’t matter
In the long run.
Perfection is over-rated
I called it the “perfect hiker” partly because I was preaching this Sunday on perfection. I do believe perfection is over-rated and that perfectionism can in fact be hazardous to your well-being. A video of the sermon will be posted here, probably in a few weeks: There is a Crack in Everything
One I did last month got posted today: “It’s Great to be Gay”
I do miss preaching and the deep pastoral relationships a minister can develop with congregants when accompanying them through important life events. I also miss the prophetic social justice work that can be done in religious community. But being retired has its advantages. I don’t miss the stress about budget shortfalls, complicated and sometimes boring administrative issues, endless meetings, and I am glad that the aging buildings are someone else’s problem. I also don’t miss the conflicts that sometimes seemed to come out of nowhere. No matter the issue, a few people always seem to think it is the minister’s fault. Like maybe they created the pandemic just they could work from home via zoom? I have a lot of friends who are still working ministers. This is a very challenging time for most of them. As I said, I am glad I am retired. Be gentle with your pastors, people.
Preaching on zoom stressed me the first time; I really missed the live interaction with a congregation that wasn’t on mute. Today I kept my screen on gallery view so at least I could see some faces while I was talking. They even waved their hands at me once when I asked for a response! I am glad not to preach every Sunday, but it is really fun to do it once in awhile. And zoom worked pretty well for me, and I hope it did for them as well. Fun fact: I wore a nice top and a clerical stole, but I had flip flops on my feet.
It’s another reminder about how adaptable our species can be. We can worship on zoom. We can change a lifetime of less than helpful habits about food and exercise and create new ones that can improve our health –and our ability to work our way down even a horribly difficult trail. It isn’t easy. And, yes, the more planning you do the easier it gets, but slip-ups happened and sometimes you need to just sit down and slide. With any new thing, you need to pay a lot of attention at the beginning. Being compulsive helps. Hover your mouse over the “unmute” mutton. Weigh or measure everything you put in your mouth. I am still a beginner at zoom preaching, but it was much easier the second time around. After two plus years of consciously managing my weight, it feels almost automatic. And I will keep paying attention, but like preaching in person, I’ll plan what I want to do, but also leave some room for the Spirit to do its thing.
L’Chaim! Week 18 of “maintenance”: My average weight this week is the same as last week’s average for a total loss of 181.2
Sermons, Poetry, and Other Musings 
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