Checked Out

Warning, or at the very least, FYI: This will be a random post, unified by the above words or some conjugation of them.

1. After the stress and the tension surrounding Holy Week (I know, I know, it's over) and a funeral and staff transitions and sad circumstances in the parish, I find myself checking out in the middle of things -- meetings, while driving, meetings that I'm facilitating. I'm thinking a lot about boundaries and how to set them or re-establish them. Discernment questions: How do you know when it's time to leave a call? Is it possible to re-shape congregational culture? If yes, to what extent?

2. Small blessing in the chaos of my: I forgot to pick up a prescription for my Baby Boy before I retrieved him from the Best Daycare Ever. Dear Husband is out of town and I decided it would be a good idea to pick up said script on my way to my meeting tonight, with my child. Thinking it would be a quick in-out deal, I clearly didn't factor in things like: prime-time for shopping at the grocery/pharmacy combo platter and hence a line. Blessings in all of this? The man in front of me in line let me go ahead of him, as my son laughed and giggled and clapped and as I checked out, the pharmacist held the receipt so I could sign my life away in the name of clear skin.

3. Quick romantic read of the week that I checked out from the library? The latest from Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Match Me If You Can. I started and finished it Sunday night and it proved to be the perfect way to wind down after the weekend.

4. I had lunch with another pastor. We know each other in that professional way that comes from being at similar meetings and moving in the same general circles. It was nice -- a good opportunity to get to know her better. Startling moment? On my way out of the restaurant, a guy sitting at the bar checked me out. Steady eye contact, I looked away, looked back, he's still looking, the whole bit -- without the obviously disconcerting up-and-down once-over. Now that was a surprise!