floridabtls.org

I am troubled that as I age I seem less flexible, less able to change, and less resilient.  Small changes throw me for a loop as if they really mattered.  For example, today my email server reworked the tool bars and formatting of the home page and it’s just confused me no end.  I think of myself as being ready for anything, and very adaptable, but this is less and less true.  I have become one of those middle aged people who prefers “golden oldies” and likes to talk about how things were forty years ago.  And my gosh, if technology doesn’t slow down just an itty, bitty bit I’ll never catch up!  I still have my Handspring Visor sitting here, even though I can’t sync it with this computer, and I thought my camera was great at two mega-pixels!  It isn’t so much that I mind change, it’s that I mind minding that troubles me.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Sadness Response Strengthens With Age (usnews.com)

I live in the sweetest little neighborhood of twenty houses.  Some of us think we are very much like a neighborhood under someone’s Christmas tree.  I almost expect to look up into pine boughs lit with tiny lights, and to see a train running in circles or a figure eight around us.  We did lose some of our big pine trees, so that has lessned this effect a little bit.  But on the other hand, some of the houses have been freshly painted and redecorated and it is just charming here.  Of course, my dogs are very frightened of some of the new holiday decorations, particularly large inflated snow globes with motion inside them.  But that’s just amusing rather than any sort of a problem.

I would be a person with a different temperament and energy: I really envy people who like to get up early and get going – people who put in 100% every minute of every day.  In my own eyes, I am a slacker, and though I think of many great things to do I run out of steam pretty quickly.  I am a day dreamer, and I just like hanging out, puttering.  And with this temperament and energy, I would like to be a creator and maker – of great books, or more homes for the poor, or leading educational innovations for the poor.  But first I would just want to get done the things I have imagined doing here at home and in my community.

If I could have anything at all, I would like to meet some of my heroes, and I would like to have the assurance that I have made some small but similar differences as they have.  I have already met Desmund Tutu, Jimmy Carter and Elie Wiesel, and I remain in awe of their grace and thoughtful, persuasive power.  There are two men who deeply inspire me as well: One is Patrick Henry Hughes, from Kentucky, and Nick Vujicek, from Australia.  Nick was born without arms or legs, and is an amazing human being.  Patrick was born without eyes and with a muscular-skeletal issue that has kept him from ever walking – yet he is an amazing musician and wondrous person.

I truly love animals very, very much and often feel quite honored to be in their presence.  Sometimes, for example, when I walk the dogs in the morning, the great blue herons are on the pond over near the school.  They are tremendous birds, and it is amazing to see them very close.  There is a flock of ducks that loves to find the puddles in the parking lot at our nearby mall: I spent a good half hour one time taking all their pictures.  One of the loveliest things I ever saw was one night when a family of deer walked between the floodlights on the nearby white New England Church and the building: The moon and stars were out, and there were the deer silhouetted against the building.  It was magical.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Angel animals (beliefnet.com)

Since I am a pastor, I will be rehearsing all the children and a few grown-ups as they re-enact the first Christmas.  Something sacred comes together every year when we do this, even though it’s very, very apt to have some forgotten lines or really, really fidgety shepherds or angels.  The play will be Christmas Eve in the afternoon.  Then I will have a quiet dinner out, very likely Chinese, before opening gifts with family.  Then it is time for so-called, “Midnight Mass” and that is my favorite worship service of the entire year.  Christmas day will be spent with family, although there is likely to be a moment alone to visit the cemetery.  There I will hear the bells on Christmas Day – the entire cemetery is filled with wind chimes, and it brings a gentle peace to the day.

It is such a joy to make people laugh!  When I teach or lead discussions, chair meetings or lead worship, I always love to find the things that will make people smile if not laugh out loud.  Small things will do it, like giving the person in front of me who needs four cents to avoid breaking a $50 bill some pennies.  People love to see the humor, even the ridiculousness, in very ordinary things.  I grew up on Bill Cosby’s early recorded humor, and I guess that is what I try to emulate most.  He’s still very funny, too: I heard him a couple of years ago talking about life from his now elderly vantage point, and he still sees the silliness in so many things.

I love to shop at stores that benefit charities, whether online or in person.  This gives me the great satisfaction of feeling that my money is accomplishing more than one purpose at a time.  One of my favorites is the Habitat for Humanity online shop – I have gotten HFH apparel, desk items, and gifts there.  Another favorite is the Southwest Indian Foundation, which has a great catalog as well as a super web site.  This charity supports Native American outreach in New Mexico.  And a third shop I really like is called Ten Thousand Villages, a fair trade marketer and retailer that seeks to assist people in developing countries around the world.  While I prefer going to their shop in Boston, I see they also now have online shopping.