Stories, tea, exhaustion

I'm in that place where exhaustion has hit in a major way.

But my insides are speeded up and running in circles, refusing to be still.

The running on adrenaline place.

I had tea with T.'s girlfriend tonight to catch up after a summer in which we've both been incredibly busy.

As we talked, and I listened to my own recounting of the month of August, I was stunned at everything that has gone.

Most days I just sit in the slightly spun awe at the way my world is shaped right now.

At the crazyness of God and life and everything in between. (Though, as I write that, something wonders if there is really a need for any of those distinctions, if God and life and the inbetween aren't really one ineffable, undefinable whole...)

I told God stories and was amazed. I listened to her recountings and was equally empathetic and amazed.

But I am tired.

I told my roommate at dinner that if I had my way, I'd already be on my way to bed. You need to know me to understand that statement. I am definitely a night owl.

It's not yet 9 pm. I'll be in bed by about 9:15, with my lights out by 10, barring anything unforseen.

The plan is to do something quiet and still. To maybe read a little, watch a dvd, or just lay and let music play.

Because I need to still the spinning of my mind. The thousand directions it's going in the midst of this crazy, beautiful, incredibly busy time. If I can still it just a little, I may sleep. And sleep would be lovely.

Training Days

I'm spending my days mostly away from my own desk this week, just popping in to my office every once in a while to check on my emails.

This week I have the priviledge of training my successor in my previous job. After four months, we've finally hired a permanent replacement, and I'm ecstatic!

I'm also BUSY!

But loving every minute of it so far.

Add to that more than usual social and family committments in the hours outside of the office, and I'm already feeling slightly insane. But it's a happy insanity :)

And, with that, I'm back to what I need to accomplish today. It's 3:00 on the first work day of the week, and I'm just now sitting down to create my own "to do" list for the week. Better get on that!

Daily 5 - Day 27

Today's daily 5:

1. Meeting "new" relatives from the extended family
2. a spontaneous trip to Elbow Falls
3. Lighting candles in my bedroom for the first time in our new apartment
4. Finally cleaning my bedroom so that it's a restful haven again
5. Homemade peach pie and laughter with family
   

Striking...

I wish I could say that I didn't understand this particular cartoon from personal experience, but, well, I would be lying. As usual, there is a certain stinging brilliance in the truth protrayed today at the Naked Pastor.

A Stack of Quotations

I've had a whole stack of quotations collecting in my inbox from various sources over the last little while, just waiting for the right moment to be shared. And, since I'm not feeling particularly pithy this morning, and because I've yet to figure out what I'm going to do with the blessing of a holiday Monday, I thought that rather than share about nothing, I'd share the profound thoughts from others that I've been collecting.

"Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain." (Author Unknown)

"Strange how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody." (Samuel Pepys)

Resolve: Generously and with no half-hearted, timorous dread of the opinions of Church and men to manifest my mission ... You have no time to occupy your thoughts with that complacency or consideration of what others will think. Your business is simply, “What will my Father in heaven think?” (St. Katherine Drexel, founder of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament)

In order to hear the voice of God, one has to have silence in one's soul and to keep silence; not a gloomy silence, but an interior silence; that is to say, recollection in God. One can speak a great deal without breaking silence; and, on the contrary, one can speak little and be constantly breaking the silence. (Saint Faustina Kowalska)

Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Perhaps it is not after all so difficult for a man to part with his possessions, but it is certainly most difficult for him to part with himself. To renounce what one has is a minor thing; but to renounce what one is, that is asking a lot. (St. Gregory, Homilies on the Gospels)

"Learn to pray to God in such a way that you are trusting Him as your Physician to do what He knows is best. Confess to Him the disease and let Him choose the remedy. Then hold tight to love, for what He does will cut and sting you." (Augustine of Hippo)

God leaves us free to accept or reject his love, and we make that choice every day, building on the choice we made the day before. (from Love in the Little Things)

We sustain our love by growing older in close company with the object of our love. This is true of marriage, and it's true of our life of faith. (from Love in the Little Things)

The fruits are the last things to appear on a tree, so it will take you time to develop these as you grow in the spiritual life. (St. Thomas Aquinas)

If we pray, we can do twice as much in less time because we are not doing it, God is. (Mother Teresa)

I have committed myself to joy. I have come to realize that those who make space for joy, those who prefer nothing to joy, those who desire the utter reality, will most assuredly have it. We must not be afraid to announce it to refugees, slum dwellers, saddened prisoners, angry prophets, Now and then we must even announce it to ourselves. In this prison of now, in this cynical and sophisticated age, someone must believe in joy. (Richard Rohr, OFM)