Extension, Strength and Beauty = Hope and Future

I sent off some information yesterday, an optimistic email with the appropriate forms attached, to a church looking to call someone to an associate position, someone who does the things I do well.  Education.  Spiritual formation.  Organization.  Communication.  Pastoral care. Nurturance of  leaders. Support of volunteers.  Everything in the letter and attachments is true.  At least most of it is true most of the time.

(One always has to wonder, when sending off an email in which one lays claim to being an effective communicator, just how many words one has omitted and how many typos one has inserted.)

But if you were to ask me about what I have seen and heard and wondered in the past two-and-one-half years, about what might be molding me into a minister to the people of God, which is everyone, perhaps I would say . . . this:

In an email written some months after my son died, his girlfriend, who is a ballet dancer and teacher of ballet, said, "I'm told that my dancing has changed.  It's  not my technique."

I hope she doesn't mind my use of her quote and image.

What she said is the truest thing of all.

The most graceful of survivors.