Friday Five: Inspiration

  Sally has provided a short and sweet Friday Five on what motivates us.  I have been wondering about that too this morning as I found it hard to get out of bed, not because I was especially sleepy, but because I have been reading and engaging book.  I am  interpreting Sally's queries as what is happening today, right now rather than what has moved me in times past or on a long-term basis.


1.. What has encouraged you?

This week I have been encouraged by some colleagues:  the younger priest in my parish who is in her first year of priestly ministry, by the even younger rector of J's parish who has helped me rethink some things, a woman in the ordination process of our diocese, and the Holy One who has been good enough to let me fail so that I could learn some more about what it means to be Wholly.

2. What has inspired you?

I have been reading Diana Butler Bass's latest, Christianity after Religion.  There is a part of me that says--this isn't right, but I know deep within me that she is.  She has inspired me to do a couple of rants--still in my head but coming.  She is also giving me hope to continue to turn over in my head what is happening in the Church, what is happening in my parish and what is happening in my life and how to address them.  It is easy at my age to see the decline of Church as somehow MY fault--that somehow my generation has failed to communicate what is vital to a new generation.  But Diana's book provides another viewpoint and allows me to be a part of the whole conversation for the future especially in my diocese.

3. What has challenged you?

Inspiration and challenge are often the same thing for me.  At the same time I am being challenged by some personal issues of growing older that demand integration into my faith in the Holy One.  which I have written about below.

4. What has made you smile?

The plaintive meow of our younger kitty who wants in.  Her pitiful cry can motivate me faster than any telephone bell, knock at the door, or internet snipe.   She can get me out of my chair better than even the smell of peanut butter and jelly.

5. What has brought a lump to your throat or a tear to you eye in a good way?

The love I have for J.  She is scheduled for major surgery in a matter of weeks.  Her friendship has meant more than  anything in my life, save my faith in God.  And I find her presence in my life the one thing that makes it all worth while.  She is what inspires me in a very existential way--she has been a witness to 'one person CAN and DOES make a difference in the world' for the last 35 years and I give thanks for her even when I am cross with her.  Because of her connection to Jonathan Daniels, I refer to her as a First-Class Relic, but J. is her own brand of saint--a quiet witness to the message that God means for us to know the hope to which we are called and the joy of living lives based fully in the liberation of the soul.