A buzzy busy week

Sunday, April 6, 2025

After 3 months, it's easy to write 2025 rather than defaulting to last year's date. We talked to our son and my brother in Germany last night, which was a delight.

W delivers the flower arrangement to the hall and returns home to rest as soon as the sound system is set up. His stomach is roiling. Mine is calm.

Strange, how God works. Yesterday I asked W if he would lead the Gathering next week when we have a female speaker. I would take today. We agreed. Apparently God knew he'd be gone ... and my heart was prepared for this morning.

We celebrate April birthdays, share communion, and pray together. Daniel speaks on our core identity as followers of Jesus, with his wife Della translating. The message is sent from the heart to the heart. What a privilege to make room for the next generation and their experiences with God.

I make leftovers for lunch for W, who is feeling more settled. We relax into the afternoon.

Monday

I've had 8 hours of sleep when I wake at 3 AM. No sense in lying around. By 6, my work is on the way and I'm in calls, sitting on the Porch. The cicadas are noisy in the garden. When they're within a few meters, their chirps are overwhelm conversation: it's impossible to hear what anyone is saying. We move further away or inside.

Sam takes us for lunch at Ethnic. When we get back, Josh drops by for prayer. W advises him about his work. It's the perfect foundation for a doctoral project. I connect him to a school in Latin America and encourage him to plunge in sooner, rather than later.

Sam takes Josh home and picks up the IKEA order from Clau, who lives nearby. We send along cookies for the kids, of course. The breadmaker bakes a loaf with "everything but the bagel" seeds. Yummy with melted cheese, later in the day.

Tuesday

Talk about lousy sleep (4 hours)! I get up after lying there without feeling sleepy. Might as well write in the gratitude journal and read a book. The first of 4 calls is at 5:30 AM. After a couple of meetings, W and I walk the neighborhood with the dogs until after 8, when the workers arrive.

Sam and Melvi join us for lunch. Yay, I'm out of the kitchen because the help has returned post-Ramadan. IbuA and IbuS change bedding, dust bookshelves, and wash floors. W and I churn through work - he's finishes our annual tax statement. We're tired and go to sleep early.

Wednesday

Which means I'm up and ready for a new day ... at 2:30 AM. Sigh. I do an hour of exercise, catch up on my journal, and am in meetings by 5 AM. The Mastermind call is particularly helpful, leaving me with a solid list for an upcoming task. An in-person meeting is cancelled. That frees up the rest of the morning.

FB pops up a blog from long ago. I'd forgotten Lisa, the wonderful coach who set up my office and identified my work flow. We ended with this: I gather, percolate, engage, flit, and climb to the next thing. I puttered for 5 months on the first two items before engagement kicked into high gear for 5 months. I wrote my dissertation in 3 months, then crashed into rest before flitting into the next season (prep and downsizing for Indonesia.)

The cicadas are hissing, the birds are quiet with a weed-whacker deafening us all, and the day is off to a flying start.

Read more:

*Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. Psalm 62:5-8

*Bless God in the great congregation. Psalm 68:26

*Day by day, as the [believers] spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. Acts 2:46-47

Moravian Prayer: God of all creation, we bow before you with praise and adoration. May your Holy Spirit work within us to keep our minds and hearts focused on you. As we live in community with others, help us to reflect your goodness and love so that our entire lives can be an offering of thanksgiving. Amen. Be it so.