Celebrating "all them saints," this morning with the Giotto Madonna from Ognissanti in Florence (I see there is a splendid new book about the Umiliati as patrons of painters...)

And here we go, trying this blogging bit, yet again.  A timed exercise, this morning.

I am still trying to find a schedule that will accomplish the things that MUST be done (and there are more than a few, even among "the retired") and leave as much time -- and energy -- and daylight! -- as possible for the WANT to be done...the reading and writing, the small creativities, the sociable moments.

I'm not there yet!  But partly in aid of that, and in reflection that I am now not just in the second half of my life but in the fourth quarter, in fact -- I've embarked upon the Ignatian Exercises ("in daily life" -- i.e., spread over 8 - 9 months instead of packed into a month).

It has been a long time since I undertook anything at even this modest level of discipline (an hour a day).  It's frustrating, but it seems to be helpful.  Good to be confronted again with the Principle and Foundation, for one thing.

Struggling with Ignatian "indifference" (easy come, easy go?).  There was a moment's insight yesterday when I realized that "greed for" (books, let us say, for example, yes) followed up by "neglect of" does NOT, arithmetically, amount to "indifference."  Or "detachment," if that word is more comfortable for you.

So at present I am doing some work "honorarily" at a parish in town, and doing Sunday duty, remunerated financially, at a parish out of town (with the same patron).  This assignment involves about 90 minutes driving each way.  It's eastward to work and westward home -- squinting into the sun, in other words.  But before long it will be dark both ways, as I know, which will solve that problem definitively.

Yesterday afternoon I began a big cooking binge, with the aim of having meals in the fridge or freezer needing only to be warmed up at mealtimes for the rest of the week.  We shall see.  Still trying to adjust my grocery purchasing to the reality of ONE two-legged occupant and ONE (very small) four-legged occupant in this abode.

Hallowe'en last night was not overwhelming.  I might have had a couple of dozen callers, most of them quite, quite young, and all of them very polite.  Trick'or'treaters in this area are heavily parent-accompanied...usually by shadowy figures out on the sidewalk, calling, "What did you SAY?" to cue the "thank you."  But one Mom appeared on my porch as the Seuss Cat, complete with goldfish in bowl, closely partnering her offspring as Thing Two, with a placard explaining that Thing One was felled by chicken-pox.  All this drama!  

It was mild enough for light jackets, fortunately. And then just before eight o'clock a very light rain began, and that was that -- turned off the porch light, blew out the pumpkin-candles, and firmly returned the left-over sweets to the freezer.  

And time's up.

And so we go on...

Here it is Thursday and there should be an Ask the Matriarch post up already -- and there isn't -- haven't found the exactly right kind of cyber-trowel to spoon it into the RGBP slot.  EVERYBODY BE PATIENT...especially me.

Still dark out -- in another hour we may begin to see some intimations of dawn, and the sun will skulk and scuttle around the Eastern-Southern-Western horizon until between 4 and 5 this afternoon.  Meantime, though, it is MILD -- -3 C for people who do metric, or about 26 F.  We can expect some thawing later on. 

So it might be a day to do an outdoor task -- given that one could, today, stand still for ten minutes or so without freezing solid.

I can shovel the snow off my new deck -- I can clear a bit of a path to the compost bin -- I can even ambitiously dig out access to the SHED.  And retrieve therefrom the emergency shovel, which I'm supposed to have in the trunk of the car (I know, I know, I know). 

And when I've done all those fun gross motor things -- I can figure out how to instal the outdoors component of my fancy tell-all thermometer.  Preferably, on one of the supporting posts in the shade of the new back deck.  Nothing like a little power-tool work to make a person feel competent.

And "competent" would be a good feeling about now.

Heading back into work mid-morning (for "work", read "employment" !!); continuing interim, part-time, on a day-to-day basis -- like a hockey-player on the injured list... (what, by the way, is a "groin-pull," and how exactly does one get... oh, never mind)

There is a noon Eucharist, for which we can anticipate a congregation of six at most.  Today, complicating matters, there is a BIG memorial service at two.  BIG as in Major Civic Philanthropist.  So it will behoove us to "euch" with brisk efficiency, minimizing the pauses for silent reflection, and scoot out from under the chariot wheels of the funeral director's staff.  Our HOS is on vacation.  The memorial service is in the hands of senior diocesan clergy, not including the Rambler, who can come righteously home and get on with the installation of thermometers, etc., before heading out for supper.

birthdays, and so forth

Back at the blog...after a long hiatus.

I'm not sure why -- although I suspect I may have run out of "interesting" some time ago.

Today was a good day. Awake early -- between 3 and 4 a.m. -- and whirled around like Rambler-on-the-rotisserie for some time before I could get back to sleep.

Things to read were at hand -- a couple of New Yorkers and a TLS and a recent copy or Canadian Living -- also within reach I had the mug of tea I had taken to bed with me.

So eventually I managed what amounted to a night's sleep. And the morning was beautiful. Not a cloud, brilliant sunshine -- not too hot -- a lovely clean-rinsed feeling in the air. "Genu-wine, prairie-fine."

Up -- treated myself to a mug of coffee, and The Meds, and a cherry Danish (setting the tone of Untrammeled Self-Indulgence for the remainder of the day). Fed the cat, who was appreciative. Folded some laundry, and put it away.

Made myself tidy with a decent-ish dress and the New White Blazer, which seems more and more like an intelligent and timely purchase.

Went off and made a happy pastoral visit, returning a very handsome enamelled-cast-iron dutch oven to the kind lady who made chicken stew and rice for the gang who assemble on Sunday nights at St. Curious. She and her husband don't live all that far away. We had coffee and muffins and a couple of hours of good conversation all over the map -- family and work and ailments -- doggone, that tinnitus is a nasty plague...

Lunch had been on the schedule with a good friend from the last 35 years -- but good friend is down with a cold and a barking cough -- so I revamped the plan, and in sequence came home, checked mail and messages, off to the pharmacy and the clinic for the third and last of the Twin-Rix inoculations (keeping BE 5.0 in view!!!), scooted away downtown with a treat in view but the restaurant I had targeted closes in the afternoons ("is this any way to run a railroad?"), so instead of restaurant A + walk around at the fancy conservatory, I had restaurant B + brisk walk from car to meal and back again.

Off to St. Curious to check mail and messages; home; a nice home-made hamburger and a little potato-onion fry and about a bale of spinach salad.

And before dinner...a kind of a martini slushie.

All day long, delightful messages on email, facebook, and answering machine.

And that was birthday #67.

Good night, all. And thank you. Your friendship means more than I can say.

for the time being...

I've come to a kind of temporary decision about this blog; until further notice, I will try to blog daily but I will do so under the rubric of a "free write" exercise. I used to assign these when I was a sessional instructor (lowest form of vertebrate life) at Colourful U. Teaching English to "students with no known native language".

From time to time, though, I would teach a senior-level course in writing non-fiction prose, with a great gamut of students from the already-published, to the "barely passed first year survey, needs to learn more English".

This was NOT an English as a Second Language course, just to be clear about that.

And the best timetable of all was the intersession or summer session one -- 2.5 hours a day, every day, for six weeks. If you do ANYTHING for 2.5 hours per day for six weeks, you are going to get better at it. You flat out cannot help yourself. It's nature.

Used to start those sessions with a "free write" -- I would set an aphorism or a limerick or a definition or a contentious remark of some sort as a starter and say, "GO, just as hard as you can go, for ten minutes. Do not lift pen from paper. If you don't know what to write, write 'I don't know what to write' and repeat until something occurs to you."

There was some resistance to this gambit. Especially from young ladies of East Asian extraction, "No, no, Dr. Rambler, this is not correct, must first make careful outline of thoughts, then organize, then write..." Much minor-key moaning, or maybe keening, when I forbade them to write outlines in advance.

It's not a bad way to start to write a sermon either, I have found, since then. Stream of semi-consciousness, perhaps. At least, it gets the throat cleared. Or the mind snaked.

And this was a 10 minute free-write. I'll find a pic to head it up, and then sign off. See you tomorrow. Keep the faith. Try to behave yourselves.

surprise...

Good news! or gnus! (see above)

I am still alive...and meditating a return to bloggery. I have been many many many miles since the last post on this blog, and the effect of the cross-country to and fro reminds me of a jest of my youth.

For years my mother employed a wonderful Finnish woman as housekeeper. We learned that English as spoken by Finnish people has certain neat features...one was the tendency to drop an initial consonant (especially "T") preceding a liquid ("L" or "R"). Hence for our Aili, people who were moving about geographically were " 'ravelling"...

And I have been much 'ravelled in the last two months.

Isn't it odd that "ravel" and "unravel" mean exactly the same thing... Huh.

So to give you the gist -- in the last eight weeks I've flown to the west coast and back; I've driven into the heart of Central Canada, and back (8,000 kilometres roughly = 5,000 miles), and I've flown into Central Canada and back...

And thought, and thought, and thought...

More, anon.

It's good to be home.

variousness, if not variety

Sunday evening, supper's behind us, Super Bowl's over, high time that I got back to my poor neglected blog.

This morning I preached and presided for the first time at my retirement/interim parish, St. Curious. The Rambler family worshipped at St. Curious for almost 20 years, but exited 15 years back when Crimson took up a curacy elsewhere. So there are people in St. Curious who have been friends for 35 years. Part of the challenge is not to look past the new members in search of the familiar and beloved faces.

I've heard the question -- how does 1/4 time work? first answer -- "beautifully" -- but I don't think that's the point. I give the parish one day a week = 3 blocks, or 3 units. I'd just as soon NOT take all three on the same day...but I'm careful not to allow them to fall on 3 separate days either, because THAT very quickly = full-time work. In addition to the "one day", there are the Sundays, by negotiation with the Rector; and we've worked it out that I'll preach when she's presiding, preside when she preaches, and take responsibility for both halves when she needs to be elsewhere, as she did this morning. And when there's a fifth Sunday in the month, I'll take it off altogether.

Oh the joy of NOT being in charge...just preaching, presiding, proofreading and pastoral contact; and limited involvement in Christian adult education.

Now St. Curious has been through a grisly, grisly time in the last few years. The rightly trusted and beloved Rector who was in office back in '95 subsequently moved on to another post, and the interim appointment was ... painful. No doubt, for the appointees as well as for the parish. And the leadership that followed on that period was NOT a good fit for the parish either...

so there is reassurance and consolation and encouragement and cheer-leading to be done over the next few months.

Hearts are high at the moment, I think. Pray for us.

Meantime -- Most Holy & Undivided is commemorating St. Arnold tonight, and giving thanks to God for the good creature commonly known as BEER...assisted by the presence of various junior members of the Rambler clan.

But not the matriarch. Sigh.

oh my goodness

Wow -- I've been given a beautiful award by Prairie Light--and I thank her very much indeed for this honour -- I hope I can figure out how to post the illustration and the link...Arte y Pico will explain the origin of the award...

Now, fingers crossed and tongue protruding between clenched teeth, here are the rules governing the award:

This is a traveling award for creative blogging, and the rules stipulate that that honoree picks five new awardees as stipulated in the following rules:

1) Pick five blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, in no matter what language.
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4) The award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte Y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award -- which is here So, though it was difficult to choose just five, there being so much creativity out there (as evidenced by the fact that so many of you are already sporting this lovely lady) I present this award to the following bloggers:

Tandaina
SpookyRach
Pseudopiskie
Jason--WHY ARE YOU NOT READING THIS BLOG??? WHY???
Jan

catching up on Monday

I am claiming the privilege of the 'Ukrainian calendar' here this morning...to do my Friday Five on Monday.

1. So how did you come up with your blogging name? And/or the name of your blog?

Well, I used to think that if I had a CB handle (yes, I go that far back) it would be Crimson Rambler...Crimson for happy "alumnious reasons" and Rambler because of my nomadic childhood and continuing love of travel; and knowing that a Crimson Rambler was a rather attractive rose also helped. I didn't know until told by I'm still me that there is another kind of Crimson Rambler, a variety of morning glory. (Thanks for the seeds, Me! Not yet planted! but greatly appreciated...). The only other "handle" that really appealed was "The Dalai Mama" but to use it would have been to pirate someone else's idea.

2. Are there any code names or secret identities in your blog? Any stories there?

Code name for the parish -- Most Holy and Undivided -- is actually pretty transparent; parishioners and family members aren't identified except by initials (not always theirs) or by "Unit" names...the cat, however, has been "outed" by her real name, which is Taffeta.

3. What are some blog titles that you just love? For their cleverness, drama, or sheer, crazy fun?

I am awed by bloggers' wit and ingenuity in this respect: "Leave it lay where Jesus flang it";Tales from the Shoeless Seminarian; "Where am I going...and why am I in this handbasket?"--and a MYRIAD others!

4. What three blogs are you devoted to? Other than the RevGalBlogPals blog of course!

Familial blogs -- of course -- and a great many RevGal individual blogs. Check the blogroll! (I'll update it one of these days -- carrying a bunch more on bookmarks at the moment.)

5. Who introduced you to the world of blogging and why?

Colleagues and parishioners sent links to individual posts -- I think one of the earliest was to something Cheesehead had posted; and a year ago or more the Daughter Unit, seconded by her brothers, began on me, "MA! you need a blog!" -- so around the end of September '07 I gave in, she set up my template and got me started. (And three months later she had a new tune: "MA! have you applied to RevGals yet?" -- the story of my life!!!)

And I am unceasingly grateful to her/them for the encouragement (aka incessant nagging) -- and to my blogging acquaintances. WHAT a blessing. It's also been fun saying to other women in ministry, including seminarians -- "Take a look at the RevGals..." and hearing their delighted responses!