Pentecost

Today is Pentescost. This is the communion we hadin church. I thought I’d share:

“O Eternal Wisdom,
We praise you and give you thanks,
for, as you revealed yourself of old
in fore and storm and precious law,
so you did not leave your followers comfortless,
but cam upon them
in thunder, wind and flame,
filling them with power,
and making them thirst with longing
to utter your incontainable word.

And now, you have poured out your spirit
upon all flesh
that your sons and daughters may prophesy,
that old and young share a vision
and even the slaves find a voice.
Therefor,
with Elizabeth who prophesied your birth,
Mary who sang for the poor,
Martha who confessed you as the Chrsit,
the women who announced you
risen from the dead,
and with every nameless prophet
who heard your call and inspired your people,
we praise you saying
Holy, holy, holy,
God of power and might
heaven and earth are full of your glory
hosanna in the highest

Blessed in our brother Jesus,
who comes behind the doors we have closed,
and breathes on our fear his fearful peace;
who, on the night he was betrayed,
took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and said:
‘This is my body, which is for you.
Do this in rememberance of me.’

In the same way he took the cup, saying:
‘This cup is the new convenant in my blood.
Do this whenever you drink it,
to remember me.’
We remember Christ’s death;
we procalim Christ’s resurrection;
we await Christ’s coming in glory’

Come now, spirit of intergrity,
of tenderness, judgement and dance;
touch our speechlessness,
kindle out longing,
reach into our silence,
and fire our word with your truth;
that each may hear their own language,
the mighty works of God.”

By Janet Morley, from all my desires.

Busy fortnight ends slow.

I have had a pretty busy fortnight at work but today is very slow. It is funny how that happens. I quite like busy but it is good to have a bit of a slower day. I was actually able to take a break and go across the road to my local cafe and have a coffee and sit on the lounge. It was nice. So what have I been doing? The usual sort of stuff really but some big things have been:

I spoke at a support group for carers of people with a mental illness. They were a great group of people; very real people; very exhausted and overwhelmed but kind. There was one lady however who seemed intent on backing me into a corner. I think she is just so used to being told by organisations and professionals that they can not help her that she assumes from the start that, that is going to happen so refuses to hear that you may be able to. So she just keeps pushing and pushing until you are in a place where you can no longer help. I have seen her at other meetings do the same thing to other presenters and I was told by the rest of the group that she always does it too. I think they are at a stage where they are going to ask her not to attend as she is now causing others to not want to come and making it an unsafe place for them. It was quite sad. It was pretty hard for me but a good experience and I am glad it happened in a place where the rest of the audience was very supportive.

I also went along with a volunteer and her friend to Mix 106.5 as they were been interviewed for a project called the Thank you project. It is a project in which people are given the opportunity to thank people in their lives who have really helped them in some way. It is pretty cheesy but kinda nice. Anyway we were asked if someone would like to do that and this pair agreed. It was very moving for me to hear how far this person has come since being with her friend. She talked about how five years ago (before they met) she rarely got out of bed and when she did life was pretty miserable. She was distant from her family and the community. Now she feels excited about life. She and her friend do volunteer work together and she is doing a TAFE course. She has reconnected with her family and last month attended her nephew’s birthday party. She thanked her friend for supporting her and encouraging her but not doing things for her; for believing her. She thanked her for being a true friend. I am sure that all this can not be attributed to this program but it is exciting to think that it was a part of it.

Cake Day!

Yesterday I baked a banana cake. It was really good actually, brown and fluffy and had a good flavour. Makes such a difference having a good gas oven, the electric one at Simmons Street was just awful. I don’t think I ever made anything good in that.

After I made it I cut off a couple of slices and knocked on one of my neighbours doors and offered her the cake. This is the neighbour I have not seen much of (she has three very young children so obviously socialising is hard) so it was good to have a reason to drop by. She asked me in and we played with her babies for a bit, it wasn’t much but really nice.

Then I cut off another couple of slices to give to my other neighbours. They were not home but I have a key to their house which I use to put on and collect my washing which I was doing so I left theirs on their table with a little note.

It all felt so good.

How Brave am I?

Went for a swim tonight even in this weather. I don’t think my mother who swam all through winter would be that impressed but I am. I don’t usually make winter but I’d like to at least make it through autumn.

Off to dinner soon with Jess. Haven’t seen her in ages so should be nice to catch up. I think it might be Vietanamese tonight and some Churros for dessert. I don’t know if I’ll ever tire of living so close to such choice in the way of food and coffee and wine and fun.

No more Wisdoms.

Ever since I was a child of about seven and I saw my dad spitting blood for a couple of days after getting his wisdom teeth taken out I have dreaded getting mine taken out. At that time I remember praying a lot that I would be spared.

Alas, however I was not and last night I went along to the dentist for the removal of teeth. It was perhaps not as bad as I had imagined at that young age and not worth all those years of dread but none the less it was pretty unpleasant. He gave me anaesthetic which was good so I didn’t feel much pain but I sure felt pulling and pushing and yanking. Later in the evening it began to hurt but again some strong pain killers knocked me out pretty nicely. Although they don’t get rid of the yucky taste in your mouth.

One nice thing was is that after it I was informed that I did not have to pay the bill. I was told that they would be sending that to my grandfather who had been in the week before and informed them that he would fix it up. Sweet. The other nice thing was Martin cooked me Rice Pudding for dinner and it was yum. And there was enough left over for lunch today and dinner. I don’t think I am up for solids yet.

Settling into Glebe.

As I don’t work on Mondays this was an extra long weekend for me and a super fun one, spent mostly in and with the Glebe community. Friday, I cleaned my house and did the washing. As we don’t have a washing machine I take it to Jo and Jeremy’s, next door. It is a bit annoying but good for community cause when I was there Jo asked if I wanted to have a cuppa with her and of course I did and we chatted for a whole wash. It is also better environmently and for our budget. In the afternoon Martin and I went for a run. I have a great run around here. I go up to the end of Glebe Point Road and then run along the harbour for a bit and then across Wentworth Park and wind around the streets back home. In the evening we decided to see a movie. Martin said we should also ask our other neighbour if she wanted to come. She is a single lady in her sixties so she was quite suprised when we asked but said yes. We went for dinner before hand and it was really nice hearing a bit of her story.

Saturday again at home, pottering around the house. Did some work on the liturgies for church and for the nominators. At this stage I am really ejoying being a nominator, it is actually quite interesting. It really is a strange thing the Anglican church and its process for finding a new minister but I think I agree with it. In the evening we had dinner with our friend’s Mal and Nadine who also go to our church and live on Glebe Point Road. They are very fun people.

Sunday, we went to church in the morning and then after a big group of us went and had coffee in a cafe down the road. One of the many nice thigns about going to that church is there is never a shortage of places to go for after church coffee. We sat in a lovely courtyard and enjoyed the absolutely perfect weather. Such a nice change from the 13 days of straight rain. Someone said it was the most days of rain consecutively in 70 years. I guess we have needed but boy o boy was I over it. I continued to enjoy the weather into the afternoon by sitting on my front balcony and reading. I just finished Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende. Now I have finished Harry I am back into her again. Sitting on the front is also very community-ish as people walk by and smile and say hi and comment on the weather. After a day of sitting around i though I should get some exercise so I wandered down to the pool had a swim and then back to church to pray. A group of us meet each Sunday to pray for the church, especially the nominating process. This week there was just two of us and we decided to sit in the front yard. As we were sitting there two older ladies came up to enquire if there was a service. We said there wasn’t but they could join us to pray. One of them was a Christian from out of town and was very pleased to. The other was a local but wasn’t a Christian, she was just showing her friend where the chuch was. Anyway she said she wouldn’t pray but would sit with us, however in the middle of the prayer she said, “well if there is a God I would like to pray for the poor people living in Glebe”. At the end she asked if we would say the Lord’s prayer. So we held hands and prayed. It was very moving really.

And finally today I met with my friend Jenny, who I have known since birth and we went and saw the Archibald. It was very good really although absolutely packed. Afterwards she came back to Glebe to see my house and we had lunch and coffee. I walked her back to the bus stop and walking down I saw 4 people that I knew. How local is that!!!

Holiday

Martin and I have just returned from a very fun holiday. We went to Gerringong, an incredibly beautiful place about 5 mins south of Kiama, for five days. The weather was not great but that was actually okay. I think it gave us permission to do a lot of sleeping, reading, eating, drinking coffees and generally sitting around in our hotel and chatting. This was so what we needed. The highlight was probably spending a couple of hours in front of the fire at the very old Berry Hotel.

We did a couple of walks though. Of course along a couple beaches but we also visited the Minamurra rainforest and Carrington falls and took a wander around Berry. We also went to some wineries and checked out the Kiama Blowhole and some other attractions. Oh yes and we took a dolphin cruise and believe it or not saw dolphins. They were amazing and actually swam along with us for about 20 mins. It was very exciting.

I managed to finish Harry as well. Certainly left me with that sadness one feels when they have gotton quite attached to a book and its characters and then it ends. I certainly was not expecting that.

I am a library member.

I joined Glebe library today. I was mainly joining cause I am now up to the 7th Harry Potter and I just had to get my hands on it but it made me so happy. I was happy cause joining the library reminded me of when I was a child and my mum used to take Gemma and I there most months to borrow books. It was always hard to choose which one I wanted to borrow but fun. It also made me feel really local. I never realised how communityish libraries were. I mean all over the notice boards they had ads for local groups you could join or volunteer work you could do and everyone is welcome. The place seemed filled with people from all classes, language backgrounds etc. And finally I think libraries are cool cause they really fit with the whole compacting thing. I mean I am not officially doing it but I am always trying to not buy new things and so it is good to think one could read their whole life without ever having to buy something. And all this coolness comes at the grand cost of nothing. Yep totally free with a cool card that has my name on it. So yay to libraries I say. I reckon everyone should join one.