Two Months

Here is my explanation.

First there was nothing to write. Just the regular ho-hum of work and life moved into the new weather of summer. A vacation inspired some thoughts on the road, but there was no computer to capture them.

Then, suddenly, there was too much to write. In the course of three weeks, the amazing experience of 37,000 youth serving in New Orleans. Two days after returning, my house was broken into in the middle of the morning during the 2 hours I was gone. The back door busted wide open. Police cars came. The house had been ransacked (my craft room destroyed most of all - were they prowling for the right color card stock?). Two computers gone (read: all my pictures, bank information, garden journal, personal rants and "unsent letters" and every sermon I've ever written). Two cameras gone (read: all the pictures from New Orleans, updated pics of the garden, video of the Indigo Girls warming up for their Ravinia concert, a beautiful series of shots of Jason's nieces and nephews). $100 cash. I can't believe the robbers thought this was worth their time.

One week later, after 2 years of not going to the doctor, I had seven appointments with three different doctors. Tests were done. Medicines prescribed. I was seen on Monday and having surgery by Friday. In the end, it was nothing serious. But there were the waiting and worrying moments until we knew what it all was. There were the wondering moments as the IV was attached and the anaesthesiologist came in and I remembered I'd never had surgery before. It was oddly eye-opening for this pastor to see the inside parts of the hospital she had visited so many times before. I'm recovered...hopefully from my lack of awareness about what really goes on in the mind and hearts of those in the hospital, even those I tend to somewhat dismiss as going in for "nothing serious."

One week after surgery, I boarded a plane to Minneapolis to be present for the ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Surely you heard about it on the news. The debate. The tornado. The decisions to adopt a social statement on human sexuality and to move toward options for congregations that choose to do so to bless same-gender relationships and hold them publicly accountable, as well as to allow the possibility for gays and lesbians in such relationships to serve on the clergy roster of this church. Not on the news were the wonderful (although distressingly mono-cultural) worship, inspired preaching, and running into friends from all over in this small Lutheran world. I was more energized that week than I have been in a long time.

But, really, this is all much too much for one blog post. What do I do? Skim over it all? Take a month to slowly unwrap each event?

Meanwhile, the garden has moved into its peak. Corn on the cob. Zucchini. Tomatoes of every shape (I kid you not, one pound Brandywines). Herbs of every sorts. Vines reaching out into the yard. Butternut squash and carrots and the beans that will be this winter's stew. Feeding the body. Feeding the soul. I wish I had my camera: I'd post a picture. That is the true measure of these two months -- the proof that within it all, life is sprouting, abundant and new and right under our noses.

So, I guess I'm back. Although, I must warn you, my one reader who has been checking back regularly, I still have no computer at home, so don't hold your breath.