The plan was to ferry home from Juneau Sunday or Monday. (It’s a minor miracle that there were 7:00am ferries north on both mornings.) After a day with Molly and James, and my daughter and her husband which flew by, I decided to wait until Monday, and so I took James to church Sunday at Holy Trinity. It’s a beautiful church full of nice people. I figured it may not go so well, he may be afraid to play with the children in what they call Godly Play, or too old for the nursery, but not good at sitting still in a pew next to me. (Because he’s three, he has options, and could choose any one of those.) He picked the nursery, and had a great time, and I had the surprise gift of a morning to myself in church.
I am still thinking of the sermon, which was sort of on epiphany, and the lights in our lives, and baptism, and the holy spirit, but really was about love and choices.
The priest said that we hear a lot about repenting this time of year so he explained what that means.
That word can be, well, judge-y. Repenting evil or sin has shame attached to it. I squirmed a little waiting for the fire and brimstone.
But then he said that repent means change of heart.
Change of heart?!
What a good thing for preacher to say, “try a little change of heart” instead of “repent!”
I love that.
I did change my heart, to stay another day, in the short term, and to give myself permission to dig in less, and listen to my heart more closely, and if it whispers (or shouts) “change” not be afraid to try it.
I know, this is kind of Church-y for Tuesday, but I’m back at my desk daily now (another “plan” for the New Year) and working on my next book full time and want to start the year off right, and since this is the beginning of my week, here it is. (The pretty good draft is due in April.)
What I began to say this morning, before I was side tracked, is that Molly, who is now 1 year old, has begun talking. She makes dog sounds and sings Happy Birthday. (There are lot of birthday parties in her family this time of year, and she is paying attention. You can hear her on the baby monitor singing the tune to herself while she wakes up from a nap.) I taught both she and her brother to substitute a day of the week for “Birthday” in the song. (“Happy Sunday to You” or whatever.)
The dog sounds? That’s because her best friend is Jeff:
The Monday ferry, the Columbia, was delayed, for a day, and so I changed plans again and flew home (which always makes my heart clench) but I was fine, just a little whoozey from the windy bumps. The ferry LeConte canceled its run today because of the wind and high seas. Which goes to show you can’t plan for everything, and like it or not, travel delays are good practice in the change of heart department.
This week the newspaper comes back from the holiday, and there are home basketball games Friday and Saturday, and as I said, the assembly meets tonight, and the planning commission meets Thursday, and it’s going to be really cold for a few days (near zero and blowing like crazy) then rain again by Sunday. (Really?)
Now, if you like (and I guarantee you will smile if you do this) sing “Happy Tuesday” to you. (Then do your best to make it so.)
