Thoughts Like Grapes

Today I am thankful that I am on the Worship Committee at church. We have such fun and laugh so hard during meetings, as we did last night. It is such a joy to be able to be part of the planning of the worship life of Holy Cross and it is a blessing to have this opportunity to serve.

Expanding on this…not sure what it is about this committee but we make each other laugh so easily. We get started talking about something and it appears to be a serious discussion and then someone makes a funny comment and it leads to the next funny comment until we are all laughing.

Making sure that the worship life of the church is uplifting and meaningful is very serious business. But, despite the seriousness of the task at hand, we manage to do it with humor and joy.

So, I am grateful to be serving on the Worship Committee and am thankful for this opportunity!

Today I am thankful for the ocean. It is a beautiful, living thing that has such glorious emotions. Sometimes quiet and calm and other times angry and wild. I could sit and look at it all day and ponder that it has been there since time began and will continue well beyond my time on earth. I also ponder the marvelous creatures within that have no knowledge of us and live their lives in their watery splendor. It is a marvelous thing and I am grateful I live near it and can go look at it any time year round.

Not sure how to expand on this. I just simply love the ocean and take every opportunity I can to sit by it and watch it.

I was going to include a picture from my phone but I can’t seem to find the one I am looking for and some of my more recent ones aren’t there. Stupid phone…because it is the phone’s fault and not the operator of the phone.

Anyway, I am grateful to be living near the ocean and am blessed to be able to appreciate it in all it’s splendor!

I am thankful for all those who have lead me in my faith. Pastors, teachers, my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends. Their guidance and example has shown me that path of faithfulness I am on and for that I am truly grateful.

Today is All Saints Sunday which, at my church, is a big celebration. This year, as we did last  year, we ran a “power point” of those who have gone before us in faith. I put “power point” in quotations because it wasn’t a power point as it had been in previous years. It was an imovie. Which gave it movement and enabled the names to fade out and was better, in my opinion, than a simple power point.

While the imovie ran, the congregation had the opportunity to go up front and light a candle and place it in a box of sand in remembrance of their loved ones. It was a poignant and memorable moment in the service. Full of contemplation. And we needed boxes of tissues…which we hadn’t remembered to put in the pews. (Next year we will).

But getting back to the people I am thankful for today. There have been a number of people who have lead me in the faith. My parents, grandparents, teachers, pastors, siblings, etc. People who have said something that has given me thought and guidance in my faith journey. I wouldn’t have the every growing faith I have today if they hadn’t been there for me.

I am grateful to God for each and every one of them and feel truly blessed by having them in my life.

I am thankful for my sister, Amy, who is funny, beautiful, smart and caring and has always been there for me. Except for the first seven years of my life…she wasn’t there then. But I was always hopeful she would come along and have been very thankful for her ever since.

Some background on that – my younger brother, Dave, was born 3 1/2 years after me. When my parents brought him home from the hospital, I ran up to look at the baby and said, being very excited, “is it a girl?”. No, my parents replied, it is a boy. “Well, never mind then”, I said and walked away sadly.

I had wanted a little sister so badly. Someone I could play dolls with, talk to, share things like clothes, etc. Unfortunately I had another 3 1/2 years to wait until my parents finally brought home my little sister.

I was so happy when she was born. Finally a sister to share things with and play with. Brothers are fine but mine didn’t want to play with dolls and, other than combing my younger brother’s hair when he was a baby, they didn’t want me playing with their hair and fixing it all pretty.

My sister and I shared a bedroom for most of our childhood and I have many memories of giggling and talking in the dark after we went to bed. We also were dressed alike, even though there was a seven year gap. Our mom was big on dressing us in matching dresses which she had made. This continued on into adulthood when she would buy Amy and I matching outfits at Christmas. Sigh…

Anyway, I am thankful for all the happy childhood memories of having a sister. And I am deeply grateful she and I are still close. It is a comfort to know that, despite the fact we live in different states, we are always there for each other. Not to mention having the same sense of humor so we make each other life so easily.

God has blessed me with a wonderful sister and I am grateful!

The title of this posting basically says it all. I am just so very, very, VERY tired.

So why am I sitting at my computer typing rather than sleeping? Because I have to finish the power points for church today.

Normally I could put off doing this project until Saturday but tomorrow is our monthly bean supper and I am going to be at church all day working on that. Thus the power points need to get done today.

Which leads to the question of why am I writing in my blog (very badly I might add since I am having to go back and correct the misspelling of every third word or so) instead of working on the power points. Well, the answer to that is because I want to write about what delayed me today.

You see, I would be done with the power points by now. I left work on time, arrived at church on time (having stopped for an iced coffee), took care of some stuff in the church office on time and then headed over to the church to check to see if the sign needed to be done.

We have two white signs that we can put letters on to announce things to the public. For the summer, one of the signs announced the times of our summer services. Which meant that the two free meals we serve each month had to share one sign. Now that we are back to our regular schedule, we can have one sign for the bean supper and one sign for the free lunch.

There is a third sign at church but that belongs to the community group that serves a free dinner the third Thursday of each month. They have their own sign, their own letters and take care of what to put on the sign themselves.

This leads to why I am late doing the power points today.

Last month was our yearly Blueberry Festival. Someone, don’t know who, used the sign we were using for the meals to announce the festival. They, this mysterious someone, didn’t realize that, even though there are three signs, only two belonged to the church. And there are two sets of letters but only one set belonged to the church. This mysterious someone, in an effort to be helpful, combined all the letters together. ALL of them.

I discovered this when I picked up the stack of B’s from the box and it was huge. WAY more letter B’s than we had before. So I went through the boxes and discovered the mistake.

Then I realized that this mysterious someone not only combined all the letters but put them in the box by size. Not in alphabetical order but BY SIZE! What the***** (expletive deleted)!!!

I understand it looked neater because the letters that were larger (like M and W) were together and the letters that were smaller (like I and T) were together. But when looking for a letter to use on the sign, one tends to go through the alphabet, not by what size the letters happen to be.

A little project that should have taken me about 20 minutes ended up taking me over an hour. Which delayed everything else for the rest of the day. Which means I am still working on the power points at 4:08 in the afternoon, without a nap, having gotten out of bed at 3:00 am to go to work.

In other words, so very, very tired….

(PS: if my grammar, spelling, or general writing is wrong, please excuse me. I am just…..ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ)