Terrapin Station

Friday Five: Graduation, Commencement, Here We Go!

 As posted by ME at RevGals:

This weekend I am in a West Texas town for the high school graduation of a nephew. I’m looking back over the 18 years and wondering where all that time went, since he was the highly adored first child of my younger sister.

 Little Saxon having a snack

 

 18-year-old Saxon at college commitment day

 

Because I work on a university campus that rents its facilities to dozens of local high schools, graduations have been a daily feature around here and will be for the next month.

So I’m thinking of beginnings and endings (which seem to come in pairs.) These could be graduations, retirements, new jobs, new family, changes of any kind…

Tell us about five notable commencements in your life / the lives of those you love). Pictures would be great if you have them!!

 

 1) Well, you already have one of mine from the above. Rain is forecast, and the graduation is outside, so we have our fingers crossed!

2) There's the time I left Bryan/College Station and Texas A&M and St. Francis Church and struck out on my own to move to Denton. I'd never moved alone before, except to go to college. Mercy. That was almost 20 years ago!

3) When my granddaughter was born a year ago, I got to see my boy become a dad. He is a wonderful one, and I'm very proud of all he is doing for her.

 A year ago...

 

4.

 

And now, she is thirteen months, and is beginning to walk. She still loves playing with daddy.

 

5. Hmm. Well, the only other new thing I can think of to tell you about is that I am going to volunteer for Vacation Bible School this year, since the church is offering it at night. I'm excited!

Friday Five from Marie

One of the things I love about RevGals is the long-term friendships I have with people I have never met, and may never meet. I have known Marie, the writer of this FF, through several seasons in her life, and I'm delighted that she's joining us this way.

Marie says at RevGals: Hello RevGals! I’m thrilled to be hosting my very first Friday Five, as this was the feature that got me started participating in the blog ring back in 2007. This week I’ve been back at my seminary, Episcopal Divinity School, for Alumni Days. There is so much that makes this place special to me: the chapel, the quad, the apartments and rooms where I lived, and the library, where I first encountered the woman who is now my wife.

So for today’s Friday Five, tell us about five of your favorite places. Have fun with it, and make sure to link in the comments if you play at your blog. Pictures always appreciated!

 

Thanks for asking! This is St. Teresa Beach in Florida, looking out at Alligator Point. My family has been going there for generations.

 

Here I am fishing with my Daddy at the same beach. Fishing is what you do.

 

Here is my Aunt Emily and Uncle Oliver's front yard in Lake Jackson, Texas. We went to many picnics there, for birthdays and holidays and just because.

The Old Episcopal Cemetery in Tallahassee. This funeral was for my Aunt Nancy, and my grandparents' graves are just to the left. I don't plan to be buried, but if I were to be, this is where I'd want to go.

Anywhere my sweetie is, is home. Especially if it's at the beach, like in this pic.

 

Bonus: Here's my online home: RevGalBlogPals

 

 

There's a Woman in the Pulpit...and it's not me

I'm delighted to be part of the blog tour for RevGalBlogPals's book There's a Woman in the Pulpit. You can read other entries on our webpage.

 

There’s a Woman in the Pulpit: Christian Clergywomen Share Their Hard Days, Holy Moments & the Healing Power of Humor, ed. by Rev. Martha Spong, Skylight Paths Publishing, Woodstock, VT, 2015, 215 pp. Purchase from Skylight Paths (the publisher) for maximum return to the nonprofit group. Also available from Amazon and many vendors.

 

As a lay member of the group and a Board member and an officer, this project of RevGalBlogPals is near and dear to my heart. My writing is not in it, though, because I'm a woman NOT in the pulpit.

I'm the woman standing next to the women in the pulpit.

And, as such, I declare that this is a book for every person (man or woman) who attends a church, or who knows a pastor or minister or chaplain. For any person who cares about women and their spirituality. And for anyone who might want to understand what it’s like on the other side of the pulpit.

This book addresses the core of what these women experience each day, funny and marvelous and terrible and sad, and will help those of us whose priesthood is the priesthood of all believers (and not an ordained one) to exercise it better, and to better support our clergy, male and female.

I’ve heard several comments from clergywomen on the book’s blog tour and in other places saying, “I wish I had read this book in seminary!” Being a member of the RevGals community for ten years, and reading so many posts that were precursors to this book, is what convinced me NOT to go to seminary. I did years of discernment accompanied by the writing and with the friendship of these wonderful folks. While that may sound like a discouraging word, I believe it to be a tremendous gift. Not only have I determined the true direction in which I believe that God is calling me; I did not spend time and money and encounter heartbreak by heading down a path that was not mine to take.

My call, in the church, is to support my clergy: especially women. To proclaim the good news of their voices and their gifts.

There’s a Woman in the Pulpit is the illustration I’ve wished for all these years. To the people I know in my “other lives” – international educators, parking lot stripers, motorcycle riders – who wonder what it is I am doing with the “lady ministers,” I can now say, “Here’s a book for when you have some time” and know, no matter their beliefs, that they will find something interesting, funny, poignant and true.

 

(Here I am, standing beside a woman who stands in the pulpit: Rev. Amy Peden Haynie)

Pray Hard

Last week I was on a motorcycle trip in rural Arkansas.

You see a lot from a motorcycle that you might miss in a car.

I saw one of those moveable signs out in front of an auto body shop

with just two words on it:

PRAY HARD

"YES!" I thought, "Pray hard! that's what we all need to do."

I have been pondering ever since...

I think that person's neighbors may know what she or he is referring to.

But I do not.

We may believe utterly different things, we may be praying for opposing items

(cancelling each other out like in an election) (if prayer worked that way)

(see this news about a current election issue in Eureka Springs, AR)

But. I'm not sure that matters. I don't think prayer does work that way.

God is not a big ballot box.

I think that what's really important is that we all

PRAY HARD.

And listen for what God has to say back to us.

Rockets Across America X in Arkansas

We're just back from a great trip to northwest Arkansas to ride motorcycles with the Triumph Rockets Owners association.This is the Tenth (X) RAA expedition,. 

The group meets twice a year in places with good riding...like Montrose, Colorado; Maggie Valley, NC, and here at The Hub in Marble Falls, Arkansas. The Hub is part of the former site of Dogpatch USA, the Lil' Abner theme park that ran from the Sixties to the Nineties. Rumor has it that it will reopen soon, but that's been the rumor for a long, long time.

Here's a good article about the place and the people who run it.

Here are some of our friends from the group:

Here's The Hub:

Here is a great story about the Peel's Ferry. It was one of the highlights of the trip for me. And here are Ken and some folks on the ferry:

And here are me and my friend Freda. Both new to riding:

You've heard it said that motorcycle folks are some of the nicest around...and it's true. And one of the things I really appreciate about hanging out with them is that they are from every walk of life, people I would not otherwise meet or get to be friends with. Our lives can be so insular, I think it's a terrific opportunity to spread out and learn more.

Wanna ride?