Update

November 18, 2010

Since I last posted to the blog, I've accepted a role as a blogger on Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com) and a position as Executive Director of Soulforce (www.soulforce.org). It is interesting to reflect on both in terms of my blogging on this site---I find it much more palatable to blog in behalf of the issues confronting our community in those venues than blogging about my life in general. I have never been particularly faithful to journaling, so perhaps personal blogging is similar. Maybe, if I am truthful, I feel vulnerable as a person who is "out there" when I share too much about my daily life or family.

I have a mantra when I feel afraid about anything (ranging from rattlesnakes in our garage to death threats on our phone). It is simple and it helps me. Faith.Faith.Trust.Trust. Repeat until real. I will go to sleep speaking it tonight.

The work at SoulForce has been very intense and great. I love working with the Equality Riders and our Board has been very supportive.

Sue is well, enjoying her work at the Center, taking good care of her mom (and of me!). Joshua and Hannah are amazing and wonderful and teaching me new things every day. I am blessed to be their mother. Joshua and I were able to do a "joint blog" on Huffington last week about our family and that was really fun and felt great to do. I hope we get to do more. He is a fabulous writer. I like to "tee up" an idea and see him run with it.

I also read something this week that I love. The engineer Buckminster Fuller is often cited for his use of trim tabs as metaphor for leadership and personal empowerment. I love nautical language so this appeals to me. In the February 1972 issue of Playboy, he said, "Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary--the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there's a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called the trim tab. It's a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it is going right by you, that it's left to you altogether. But if you're doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole ship of state is going to go."

Fabulous!

I never returned to blogging after my last post-- so much time has passed. Sue and I are in Abilene, Texas where continue my work as an Advocate for adults living with chronic illnesses, Center, as a part-time volunteer staff pastor at Exodus MCC and managing our most recent investment, the Natural Food Center (www.naturalfoodcenter.net).

Sue is retired from the public schools and working at the Center, going to Fort Worth to care for her mother, Sissy, two days each week. We still live at the lake and the sunrise and sunset continue to fill my heart each day. Our two pups, Timmy-Dog and Lily, are wonderful companions for us. We live in a migratory path for birds so we've seen thousands of geese, sand hill cranes and Great American white pelicans this year. They pass overhead at sunrise each morning as they progress to feeding grounds and back in the evenings. I love the predictability of their path and hearing their "calls" to one another. Our church continues to thrive with so many babies and young children. Their voices enliven our services and they participate in all parts of the service. They remind me of our future as MCC and always encourage me. Last week I got to do something totally out of my realm of experience---a show called "What's Cooking" on a local tv station. I made Ahi Tuna with Wasabi and Avocado. It was so fun to do. I love learning new things every day--it helps me stay alert to all of the possibilities and, I think, helps me feel young. Soulforce will be with us in Abilene in the second week of March and we will help host the Equality Riders as they visit Abilene Christian and Hardin Simmons. In April, I will be blessed to appear on a panel for Equality Texas at the Capitol talking about Pride and Faith. I appreciate these partners in ministry so much and really value the opportunity to stay current on the issues that face our community. A recent attack in Austin on two gay men has heightened awareness of hate crimes here. My 55th birthday was Monday, February 22 and one of the best parts of the day was hearing from so many MCCers and friends via Facebook. I am so grateful for this way that we can connect. Sue and I have also been blessed to join a book club with five heterosexual couples and one single woman. Each week we feel ourselves opening up to them and visa versa in ways that we could not have envisioned. Spirit is just the best arranger!