HOLY WEEK or Thursday, April 5, 2012

     I made myself a promise to write in this blog twice a month and I am behind a bit.  This is Holy Week on the Christian calendar, and it used to be the busiest week of my life, but that is not my life anymore.  I had a picture of myself I was going to try to post on the blog today, but I don't have the technological know how to get it from my phone to my blog.  Maybe next time.
     I have been busy this week.  I have been able to lay down the idea that somehow I am not living my life because I don't have a job or work in Pastoral Care.  Sometime around the end of last year and the beginning of this year, I was able to let go and look forward to whatever it is that comes next.
I have also been able to set some boundaries with people.  I am getting better at saying "no" I don't want to do that, or  "I don't feel called to do that right now".  That feels good too.
       On Monday, I helped at Lackawanna State Park, something I have wanted to do almost since I started going out there. I saw a notice in the parking lot that they were looking for volunteers and so I met with the other volunteers in the parking lot, hiked back to a part of the trail that is really muddy when it rains and we "rock armored" that little section of trail. That means we carried rocks as big as we could carry from the stream bed, up the hill and placed them on the trail...hard work!  Which brings up the "what comes next" part of my life.  Since I can remember, I have loved to be outside in the "woods".  Where I grew up we owned some land, and I was never happier than when I was in the woods.  I used to beg my older brother and my sisters to take me on walks out there when I was really little, then later, Janie and I spent many hours playing all kinds of make believe things in the woods.  When Steve and I were dating, my favorite thing was to go to State Parks in Ohio and hike.  All the time my girls were growing up we went to Letchworth State Park and Fort Niagara, we hiked and swam and skipped rocks and watched sunsets....Now I visit LSP several times a week to run or to walk.  This is part of what comes next in my life and I am finding that it brings me a great deal of pleasure.