Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Sometimes Life Catches You By Surprise

Sometimes Life Catches Us By Surprise......

Today is the last day of the school year (finally, in this virus extended season), and I have been reflecting on how the year has felt, how it feels to be approaching semi-retirement, and how I have reached this place in my life.  

So, yesterday, I thought I would try writing a blog again as part of this process.  I really would like it to be another place that I keep track of what I am reading and thinking, since the virus season has been a deeply successful reading time for me--I know that has not been true for everyone. I decided to reactivate Blogger and take a look at my past blogs and then decide what to do.  This necessitated a long detour into how to find my blogs again, but I am so glad I went through that process because I found such interesting things.

First, my CPC blog about Johannesburg is in there--one of the defining experiences of my life and one of the sustained writing experiences of which I am most proud.  Sometimes I will admit that I don't look back at it because I miss the mountain-top-ness of that experience so much.  Then, I found this blog, which I had somewhat forgotten,  It is from two years ago, and, as I looked at it again, it truly caught me by surprise.

I started writing at that time because I was struggling with finding a sprititual home after coming back to Wisconsin, and I was also struggling to find fulfilling work and happiness.  In many ways I was unmoored.  We were also going through another painful spasm of the never-ending agony of racial pain.  I was so struck by the two enries I wrote and by the title of the blog as a whole.  Life has done such odd things in the meantime.

The first post from the blog has a picture of Tamarack High School, most recently Clara Mohammed High School, and I actually mention CMS in the post.  I did not remember that at all.  Who would know that CMS would be the true community I have found and would have helped to give me a deeper appreciation and understanding of all God's strength and glory.  

I was also struck by the title of the blog--Today I Worship.  I can not quibble with that at all--in fact, finding my Methodist/Muslim community has made me more aware than ever that every day is suffused with worship and the glory of God.  That is why Muslims pray five times a day--we are always conected and reminded of our place with God.

So, I have made a decision that I will not start a new blog.  I am going to build off of what I  started.  I am feeling very good about that decision.