Sunday, March 8, 2009

Fear of Blogging in the Interim Time

I do Interim Ministry.  I love it. Most of the time I'm with a parish for 12 months or so.  This one is taking a bit longer.  I've been here 18 months and although the search is going well, it's been a long and hard slog.  Two winters in a very snowy clime and a parish that has been in decline is hard on my normally optimistic self.  The title for this posting includes the word "fear" because I'm concerned that what I write could be misunderstood and make my work even more difficult.  I've started a couple of blogs over the last few years, but have never put them up on the web.

Even with a bit of trepidation on my part, I see the light at the end of the tunnel.  There is a healthy core of people here and some very caring souls.  My faithful companion Isabelle is generally forgiving (unless I go away for a week and leave her with people) and keeps me laughing.  She loves coffee hour because that's where the cheese is, although we discovered today that she doesn't like American Cheese nor Provolone.  She has a great fondness for Cheddar and will wolf down Monterey Jack with red pepper.  Now that the snow is melting she avoids puddles because she doesn't like to get her feet wet.  She keeps looking for patches of snow to walk in.  Anyway Isabelle keeps me sane and I love the little fuzzy thing.  If I mention "road trip"  her tail wags like crazy and she pops into the car anticipating going someplace new.  Can't imagine a better dog for an interim.

Today's attendance was way down.  Of course we had snow overnight AND it is March.  Those who have gone away for the winter haven't returned and of course the summer people won't come until June, but I wonder if the time change also had an impact.  I got up a half-hour late (thinking it was a half-hour early) and was nearly late.  Of course that was better than last summer when I was enjoying my coffee and reading the news when I was startled by a phone call asking if I were ill.  Izzie isn't much help when it comes to keeping time.

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