roradabi…

I never know what e-mail I’ll be greeted with in the morning when I pop out of bed.  Anymore, I leave my iPod Touch on “push” with an automatic check of e-mail accounts hourly. By 5:45am when the alarm beckons I’ll generally find 5-10 cyber scriblings seeking my attention.

Ah, but this morning held a true surprise:  roradabi!

Facts:

I’m 33.
I’m out of shape.
I used to be a good roller skater.
Today I started training so that someday maybe I can try out for Roller Derby.
I am taking Japanese classes.
I love Japan and Japanese things.
…and food.

This is my first blog and I don’t expect anyone to be interested.

Here’s a Gotham City girl with a purpose.  She’s the dragon… and slaying far more than any competitors on the roller track!

Go BK Broiler!

Any sound tree bears good fruit… redux

Gasoline in Guilford

Back in June 2008 I’d been experimenting with hypermiling.  I mused over the loss of control in our lives:  gasoline was over $4.00 per gallon and as I wrote about it, I posted, “So, hypermiling is about perservering in the face of powerlessness and regaining control of something in life. A very small consolation in a very large stew of challenges facing us now! Are we waking up?” [Any sound tree bears good fruit...]

Since then I’ve been waiting for the time when more sensible, flexible and fuel efficient cars would finally reach the mainstream market in the U.S.  Well,   at least for us in rural Guilford, it’s happened!  We’re driving a small, but nicely equipped vehicle that is yielding 40+ mpg–right from the dealership:  a base Honda Fit.

I left the 2001 Hyundai Accent that had served me well over the past four years at the dealership, and drove home the 5-door black Fit. We’re standing here next to the car with our vintage 19 year-old Olds Custom Cruiser in the background.  With the Fit’s great seating and cargo flexibility, we’ll run the Olds until the end of the summer, and then we’ll be down to a 3-Honda family:  2009 Honda Fit 5-speed, 2006 Accord V6 6-speed, and 2000 Honda Civic 2-door 5-speed.

With a combined fleet fuel efficiency in the mid-30′s…  well, we’re in the driver’s seat for a change!

Pondering the possibilities…

My last post here at Gospel Hill Posts was December 2nd!  Whew…

During the past month and a half, I’ve really been pondering an incredible number of possibilities of with my vocational call to the Permanent Diaconate and using cyberspace to both build community and evangelize.

Deacons USA and it’s sister blog, Permanent Deacons – Diocese of Syracuse, have been taking off as our 60+ deacons gradually discover the collaborative power of the site.  In addition, deacons from around the U.S. and the world have been stopping by, offering comments and encouragement.  I’ve been so busy with this and my “normal” parish ministry, that I’ve had little time for my “home base”, Gospel Hill Posts.

Still, visitors keep stopping by here, gleaning from the dozens of reflections, articles and musings on life that I’ve offered. Please feel free to leave comments and to visit the Deacons’ Blog, too.  In the months ahead, changes are in the wind for this site, too!

The journey begins

Today I’m “officially” launching Men Praying, an Advent program of prayer for men in our Roman Catholic Community in Norwich, New York.  We’ll be gathering tonight to begin praying the Liturgy of the Hours, the sacred prayer of the Church offered every minute, of every hour, everyday 24/7 by ordained ministers, religious and laity worldwide.

As I build resources for the program, please visit A Country Deacon, where the resources I’ve gathered are located.  Join us in “building up the Kingdom” through the spiritual discipline and praise of the Divine Office!

Men Praying!

Building Up the Kingdom

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it takes to build up the Kingdom of God…  we get busy, stressed by the day-to-day demands of life.  Then we forget or make and excuses. We don’t pray enough!

Everytime we turn to God in prayer with reconnect… even if in some small way. Perhaps just for the briefest moment.

And when we are in prayer we are taking time to build up the kingdom… to continue what Jesus began on the Easter morning some 2,000 years ago. The Kingdom isn’t tomorrow–it’s TODAY!  Workers are needed.

Are you one of them?

Through a mother’s eyes

The line of those waiting to pay their respects winds along the porch then down the handicapped ramp well onto the sidewalk. A Town Supervisor, brother, but first… a son.

I only knew John through the eyes of his mother, a coworker and colleague. But what I “saw” through her eyes were these: love, pride… and after the diagnosis – concern blended with a mother’s unshakeable optimism. The news of her son’s sudden passing touched all of us so deeply.

And so here tonight in the damp coolness of this late October evening we wait to both honor John’s life and support Diane. Our words are small consolation, to be sure. Nineteenth century American Unitarian clergyman, educator and author of a great many religious poems, Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch, answers our need for words in The Mother’s Song:

Sleep, my infant, sweetly smiling,
Rest thee from thy hour of play.
Thy soft breath, my heart beguiling,
Soothes me on life’s toilsome way.
Safely sleep, my arms enfold thee,
Danger, care, thou canst not know,
While a mother’s eyes behold thee,
Safe thy bounding steps may go.

Thou may’st miss my glance to-morrow,
On thy path, my blooming boy!
Soon may come a night of sorrow,
Closing o’er thy day of joy.
But wilt thou be friendless? Never!
While thy Father reigns above.
He will guard thy steps forever,
Friend of innocence and love.

Convocating

Year 2 for the “Priest & Deacon Convocation” here at the Edgewater in Alexandria Bay, NY. A “sell-out crowd” according to one of our veteran diocesan priests.

Gathering here with the vast majority of our ordained clergy affirms our shared community. Morning and evening prayers… our daily eucharistc celebrations… in prayer our dedication to Jesus, church–the people we serve-is stregthened.

Convocating: gathering with purpose, confidence in our shared ministry and mission.

Outside the box…

For a few weeks I’ve been bemoaning the time to sit down at the keyboard and write a post. Oh, Tim! You’re so slow to think “outside the box”!

Thanks, B.A. for the Twitter follow–got me to acting, instead of feeling sorry for time lost because of my own inflexibility… so, a “tweet” since 9:00AM and this brief post.

All on the iPod Touch, on found Wi-Fi. Cool!

“and trucked my freight away under birdsong…”

Scavengers… that’s really all they are.  A sesame seed here, toast crumb tumbling to the ground there–but the tweets!  Ah, if it weren’t for the chirping, tweeting descent by wings so animated and lively;  well, if not for that, perhaps I’d put my foot down.  But how could I?

These sparrows of the street, in hopping clusters around the legs of the cafe table outside, know an easy eat.  And so they scavenge…  no, “clean up”, I guess.  Are they really any different than the lumbering street cleaner polishing the granite curbs along Main Street as I drove into town this morning?

————-

Gospel Hill Road received a fresh coating of oil and stone the other day.  Of course, it’s a way to seal the road, but that “like new” look lasts but just a few days.  I missed the event, since I was at work, but the job certainly was done by far fewer than 6,000 men, unlike the boulevard reconstruction above in San Francisco, circa 1933.

And yet, musing over  R. T. Smith’s poem, Scavenging the Wall, poked a bit at some themes rattling around in the hollow cavity on my shoulders.

So I gathered
what I could, scooped them into the bed

and trucked my freight away under birdsong
in my own life’s autumn.

“Life’s autumn”… yes, that’s it. And the sparrows…  still singing, still scavenging.

Perfection… in simplicity

Oh, how we strive for perfection!  And how we fall short …

Since February, I’ve been snatching an hour here, an hour there…  transforming my “office” into a true study – “A Country Deacon’s Study”.  My vision is one of a space with my books and reference materials close at hand.  The hand written Book of Gospels in a place of honor and of true utility.  A space that also incorporates my tiny Mac Mini hidden away in a twenty-something year-old pine combination typing/file cabinet from Yield House that only surrenders a hint of its technology innards with a modest flat panel display on top.  Firewire external hard drive, Bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse all tucked inside by the mini…

But what a time undoing the old office in which “technology” spilled from every corner of the room!  It’s at times like these that I wonder if it’s all worth it–the technology, I mean.  iPod Touch, HDTV, Blu-Ray, streaming audio through the Squeeze Box… for starters!

And so I gingerly pick through the technology heap:  ancient HP all-in-one to the landfill…  DSL modem and Xincom Dual-WAN IP gateway up to the shelf in the closet…  Mac mini on a card table for now while the Yield House cabinet gets a retro to hold the tech stuff.

If it weren’t for the welcome 20 minute break for vespers… the thought of HIS incredible love for us on this eve of the Solemnity of The Most Sacred Heart… if not for this…  Thank you, Lord, for showing us that while perfection may be our goal, that it is only in loving you that we approach true simplicity, humility and peace.