How time flies....

I just noticed I haven't written here for over a week.

I don't have anything much to say of great interest--but since when has that stopped me?--but thought I should write something, even if it is a random selection of stuff....

*Kismet (which is a noun meaning 'fate' or 'destiny'. Comes from the Persian through Turkish...qismah, meaning "division, portion, lot, fate"
Back when I was Rector of St. John's, Waterbury (It's been 10 months: in some ways it feels like yesterday...in others, a different lifetime) Harriet, the Parish Administrator and I used to send each other emails with STUFF in the message line. Always lots of 'stuff' in the day-to-day, season-to-season running of a parish church. Well, Ian, my bishop, recommended me to the Middlesex Cluster Ministry (4 small churches in places with strange sounding names: Killingworth, Higganum, Northford, Westbrook) as the part-time interim since their Missioner has retired. I've been working in the clergy rotation for a couple of months now and was interested. But I wanted it to be something the Cluster churches could 'own' and not be a fiat from the Bishop, so I've met with two of the congregations after church and have two more set up. Plus, I'm meeting with the other three 'presbyters' (what the Cluster calls their priests to make the point that they are primarily 'liturgical functionaries' and not the minister around which a congregation is gathered. The Cluster--30 odd years old now--was modeled on what is called 'Total Common Ministry" which is not 'anti-clerical' by any means, but just asks the ordained to 'know their place'! It's a remarkable model and one I'd like to be a part of for a while. Plus the contrast of church with 20-45 people with St. John's 3 Sunday services that sometimes boardered on 300 total--Easter 700+--is refreshing to me.
So, why this is "kismet"--I got an email the other day from Bea, the Cluster Administrator, titled 'Stuff'.
Fate, I'd suggest....

*Hedgesville which is a small town near Martinsburg, WV, in the eastern panhandle of the state.
(just as an aside, WV is the only state, I believe, that has two panhandles--the Northern one that is further north than Pittsburgh and the Eastern one that is within an hour drive of D.C. and Baltimore. Texas has only one panhandle, so there!)
I was out walking the dog the other day and a woman passed me and then turned back to say, "we vacation in West Virginia". Initially I thought she was a soothsayer, but then realized I was wearing my West Virginia University jacket that someone from the soup kitchen gave me, swearing he bought it for me on sale at Burlington Coat Factory, but I actually believe he stole it, but I don't care. It is the warmest jacket I've ever owned.
She asked me if I knew when Hedgesville was and I told her, as I told you, 'near Martinsburg'.
"That's where we go for groceries," she said.
We talked for a long time about the astonishing natural beauty of the state of my birth--the emptiness of it all, the 'bad rap' it gets.
Example of the bad rap: the joke goes like this, "The first question on the West Virginia Bar Exam is If a man and woman get divorced, are they still cousins?
She and her husband, life-long Nutmegers--really plan to retire to WV. Go figure. When people heard I was retiring they often asked, "Are you going home?" I answered, "Yes, home is Cheshire."
But I would encourage folks to look into retirement possibilities in WV. Lord knows the state needs some new revenue. And property is cheaper than you could imagine. And it is, I promise you, stunningly beautiful....

*Daylight Savings time
I'm not as young as I used to be. It takes me about a week to adjust. One hour doesn't seem like much 1/24th of the day and all, but it wipes me out. I don't have to set the clock's alarm most days, but 9 a.m. now is a lot different that 9 a.m. last Friday. And I'm yawning at 8 p.m. I do like the light being saved...but wouldn't that happen anyway as the earth tips back on it's axis-though I did hear the tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan tilted the earth a bit. Ponder that....