Notes from the Far Fringe

For weeks now, I have been saying “you need to update your blog – talk about the spring semester, talk about summer plans, explore some of the ideas you haven’t had time to explore.” And I get the browser window open to the “add new post” screen, write a line or two, and then discard it.

I have felt uninspired. Uninspired to dig into the projects I have set for myself, uninspired to get the diet going, uninspired to have fun, see friends, read fiction and write fanciful things because I have time, even work on sermons for the supply preaching I’ll be doing this summer.

Let’s face it: I’m in a slump.

Now I know some of it is worry – my step-nephew has had a major medical crisis (which you can read about here), and which has absorbed a great deal of emotional energy. But there’s more to it… and it may be quite simple, actually. It may be possible that I was going at such a breakneck pace, using so much mental and emotional energy, that I haven’t recovered yet.

And I suppose that’s okay. I would have thought I’d be out of it right now – after all, it’s been nearly a month. Yet I have also never expended so much mental, emotional, and spiritual energy for such a sustained period, so it is no wonder I’m still getting through it. The good news is I am home in Round Lake right now, eating good food, sleeping in my own bed, spending lazy mornings with coffee and the cats. I feel a bit lonely – my sister and the occasional person strolling by doesn’t have the same energy as streets full of people and a couple hundred classmates – but it isn’t terrible.

I think maybe it’s okay that I’m in a slump. Once I get adjusted to this slower pace again and stretch into summer, I suspect I’ll pick up the books, crank out a pile of sermons, make good progress on projects, and write.

—

Meanwhile… just as as way of keeping track, here is what I HOPE to do this summer:

• Read a stack of books:
  • Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life – Karen Armstrong
  • One of Our Thursdays Is Missing – Jasper Fforde
  • Jesus – Marcus Borg
  • Reading Ruth – Judith Kates & Gail Twersky Reimer, eds.
  • Beginner’s Grace – Kate Brastrup
  • Theatre of the Oppressed – Agusto Boal
  • Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time – Marcus Borg
  • Jesus through Pagan Eyes – Mark Townsend
  • This Odd and Wondrous Calling – Lillian Daniel & Martin Copenhaver
  • Heat Rises – Richard Castle
  • Women in Scripture – Carol Meyer, ed.
• Outline and identify stories for my masters project (more to come on that soon)
• Move books and organize them in my storage unit (including the pile I take from Linda Hoddy’s study when she retires next month)
• Do the closet organization thing
• Rework this site (I’m ready for a new layout)
• Come up with ideas for my field ed project
• Organize the cookbooks and recipes
• Develop new spiritual practice (I’m growing bored with the current one)