Happy New Year! As per usual, the annual year-in-review letter needs to be written. And the humourous quotes list follows. 2011 was a busy year – busier than expected! But good and fun.
WORK:
Life in rural parish ministry has been delightful. I really think I’m serving in the best parish in the country – a fact I’ve shared enough that it seems to have become my by-line with others. I really love it here, and intend to stay for a while. Which keeps many people happy – the bishop, the parishioners, me… it’s fun. We had a rather damp spring; the Manitoba floods affected us here. So crop yields were way down, but folks are amazingly resilient and kept their spirits up even higher than the waterline. I had some folks really surprise me Easter Sunday – they had taken a boat from the house across the flooded wheat field to the highway where friends picked them up to come to church. I don’t think I would have been that determined! Thankfully a hot dry summer helped get things somewhat close to normal again out here. The parish grouping is now down to 5 congregations (from 6); Shoal Lake went to join another parish grouping in late November. It was a sad good-bye.
In the wider Diocese, I’m still doing a few things – Executive Committee, Environmental Stewardship Team, Youth Ministry Task Force. And I write for the Diocesan newspaper regularly. Flying below the radar has never been one of my skills. In the wider church, I’m on the Provincial Synod planning team and still serving on the PWRDF Board of Diredctors (and a bunch of committees for them – Strategic Planning Task Force, Partnership Steering Committee, conversations on how the Anglican Church does mission, 50 Leaders, Youth Council… it’s good stuff!). It’s good work, and energising. And I get to travel a decent amount for meetings… Saskatoon in January, Vancouver in May, Toronto in March, May, September, and November). Church Geek I is!!
TRAVEL:
Aside from the work-related travel, I had a really cool experience this year. I was invited to participate in a Clergy Consultation this summer at St. George’s College, Windsor. (Not the one in Ontario; the one in England. Yup, Windsor Castle. VERY cool.) So off to the UK I went! The consultation was amazing; aside from living on the castle grounds for 2 weeks (what a setting) the conversations were deep and profound. It was a lot of work (our pre-event reading list was 12 books, we each had to prepare a book review and bible study and paper for presentation) but WOW what an experience. I met some great people, was challenged and inspired by our conversations, and in general just soaked up as much as I could.
After the consultation I stayed across the pond for 2 weeks of holidays. So, a girls’ weekend in Paris with Kate and Jean, followed by a week of solo touring in Northern France (Chartres, Renne, St. Malo, Mont. St. Michel, Caen, Calais) before re-connecting with Jean for the Calais-Dover booze cruise weekend. Then another few days in England (London, Oxford) before coming back home and trying to catch up on sleep. Quite the adventure! I think I climbed more stairs than I knew I could – the bell tower in the Chartres cathedral, all over MSM, to the top of the Monument in London, to the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral…) Some of my favourite moments were the private tour of St. George’s, sitting in the darkness of the Chartres Cathedral before the lights were put on, attending mass by the Benedictines at MSM, watching a play in Shakespeare’s Globe, and checking out Oxford (including hitting the bookstore and seeing my publications!!)
SOCIAL LIFE:
It’s been a fun and busy year. I’ve tried to cram in social time when traveling as much as possible. In March instead of sleeping, I got up early for breakfast before a meeting and then after the meeting (before my flight) I popped into Hamilton to celebrate my birthday with the girls. In May a group of us went to a Jays game in TO; it was great to connect with a bunch of friends I haven’t seen in far too long. I spent a bunch of extra time in the city (Winnipeg) over the summer. I had the great fun of attending (and participating) in my friends Bill & Meg’s wedding in London ON over the Thanksgiving weekend (of the multitude of clergy there, I had the best shoes!) I’ve had the great pleasure of re-connecting with some biology; an unexpected pleasure and a connection I intend to maintain! As much as possible I’ve tried to see people, especially the chosen families (and kids) – even though it’s never enough time.
In the rest of my time, I’ve been doing a lot of reading, I met my goal of 100 books this year. 2012 has a loftier goal of 120 books. I also wrote my latest Master’s Thesis (final revisions underway). I’ve been making my own cheese and yogurt from locally-sourced milk, been spending a lot of time outdoors with the dogs, doing crafty stuff, spending time with friends, and generally enjoying life. Health has been good, things are moving along as they should. It’s been a great year to count my blessings.
Alas – that’s about it! I hope 2012 will be a good year for us all, one we can all celebrate in a year’s time.
2011 Quotes:
• (in a bayfront coffee shop) Can I get some PEACE in here? Jeez!
• (meeting a Bp for the first time) Hi, I’m the entertainment.
• “The world is full of closet egalitarians”
• 50. ~ 50 or 15? ~ 50. ~ 1-5 or 5-0? ~ F.O.!
• After the party – DRINKS!
• Air Grimsby (clergy misbehaving at lunch)
• All drunken nights at the pub
• Auntie Gravity. From the Space Ship WHHHRRRRRRR.
• Auntie, can you SING what you eat?
• Coffee? In Paris that means wine.
• Cover me, I’m going in!
• Determinism? Who knew!
• Do you have a car battery?
• Election buddy!
• Harry Potter is fiction. ~ Is it?
• He’s not your type. ~ Wait – then what is? ~ I don’t know, but not him.
• I just get frustrated because you think you’re right
• I love nachos! Just not the green ones…
• If that were true I wouldn’t need batteries!
• I’m ravishing. Ravaged. So starving I’ve apparently lost use of the English language. ~ You mean famished?
• It’s 8:30 in the morning, I’m working on less than 4 hours’ sleep, and I’m wearing a tin-foil covered milk jug on my head. There WILL be coffee.
• It’s Compliment Day!
• It’s like heaven. In grocery form.
• It’s Meat-a-wheat-atarian Day!
• No dancing on tables now! (from the guards at Windsor Castle)
• Oi there Mr. Pink Socks
• Only dogs can hear me now…
• Pass the water
• Pixie Dust
• Prairie Oysters
• Quinoa Crunchies – is that a snack food or a practical joke?
• Superfluidity of naughtiness
• Teens with nothing else to say use the F word… NGO’s use the word ‘capacity’
• The coin slot is not for public viewing.
• The potatoes that kept all of Paris free from vampires
• There’s a lot to be said for dictatorship
• We don’t try to PROMOTE bequests
• We’re going to Paris for the weekend… wanna come?
• We’re the C of E. We’re all about funny-looking grey-haired men, old buildings, and meaningless images, and trying to make symbols look cool.
• We’re on top of the world’s tallest radio tower and I *still* have no cell reception!
• Weepy stress-octopus
• What the hell is a MINK doing in the middle of the road?
• What? WHAT? There’s MONEY in my ears?!
• Will there be Morris Dancing? You know, green men bashing each other with sticks to keep evil away. ~ Are we still speaking English?
• Wine-y scrabble
• You have very expressive eyebrows.
• You’re drunk and disorderly! ~ Always! ~ I’m jealous!
• You’re going to watch the election, I’m going to watch you.
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