Mishegas: Craziness
Definition from the on-line article The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know (Daily Writing Tips)

    Mishegas is from this week's reading: Help. Thanks. Wow. Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott.
    This book can be seen as Anne Lamott's personal essay about prayer. She has been able to whittle down all the prayers that she offers to God to three forms: help, thanks, and wow. In the first section(Help) she talks about surrendering control and asking God for help. Lamott uses mishegas to name the general daily craziness of life. She acknowledges that many of her prayers (and ours) are offered up in coping with that.

    After looking up mishegas, it made me think of other Yiddish words I use more than occasionally. Just this week in an email to a friend I used the word schmaltzy in describing a certain kind of spiritual writing. (Excessively sentimental, over-the-top, corny.) I also have been known to utter klutz, nosh, and schmooze. It is interesting how words from another language and culture can make their way into a different dominate culture, so much so that they become a natural way for many people to express themselves.

    I think I will start using mishegas more. I like it. I think it has a more playful feel to the busy madness of our
lives than the word crazy. And I like feeling playful instead of crazy!

Until next Wednesday ~
Shalom!
Pam

This summer my blog will feature a new or newly appreciated word from what I am reading. Sometimes words hit me upside the head and then linger for a while in my brain. Each Wednesday will bring a new word for us to ponder together.

Vulnerable
Definition according to Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary
1. capable of being physically or emotionally wounded
2. open to [verbal or physical] attack or damage

    When I hear the word vulnerable, it may feel a bit scary but I ultimately see it as a positive word. I was taken back when I found this definition. Opening ourselves up to others and situations is good, but being vulnerable also can open up the possibility of being attacked or wounded. I recently listened to an interview of Brené Brown from NPR's On Being. Her definition of vulnerability is different. She defines vulnerability as being "whole-hearted"; having the ability to feel with our whole heart. That aligns with my personal definition even though it is just as scary!

    This week our church is trying something new for Vacation Bible School. It has all the makings of VBS on the surface. If you search deeper, it will feel more like a Worship and Arts camp. It is an idea that originated at a meeting with leaders in our congregation. This week is hitting all the points we hoped for.  Through story, song, art and active learning, the children are listening to each other and to God more than any other year. So why am I feeling vulnerable?

    Instead of the normal tweaking we do each year to a purchased curriculum, I have written many of the  lessons and adapted liturgical art ideas to the interest and abilities of elementary age children. Now that the planning is finished and the week is here, I feel open and exposed about the plans, ideas and lessons. Will they work? Will others find the ideas silly? Will everything build and grow as the week progresses? Most importantly, will the children and leaders know that God loves them and is alive and active in their lives today?

    It is only Wednesday. I am trying to live into the vulnerability. I am trying to embrace this week with my whole heart; with an open heart that doesn't have an armed guard standing watch. What I've seen so far is that God is at work. God is loving and  breathing into the children, leaders and moments of Vacation Bible School. And I also feel the Spirit breathing into me; into my open, vulnerable, whole  heart.

    While the word may not be new, the attempt at being comfortable in my own "whole-heartedness" is!
Does this sound familiar? How often are you able to engage in life with your whole heart?

~Pam

Here are my pictures from my hike in Ferne Clyffe State Park in Southern Illinois.

I heard this little frog but it took me a long time to find him!

    Today is a vacation day for me. I am in Carbondale, Illinois helping my daughter Katie pack for her summer internship. Even though I have a busy few weeks ahead, I decided not to rush home after sending her this morning. I sat down with my visual prayer journal. I appreciated the coincidence that this morning's Old Testament lesson is also a story that will be told at VBS next week. I thought it would be wise to sit with that story for a while.
    I took a picture to let you see what I heard. Even as Elijah was telling the widow to trust God that her jug of meal would not be emptied...I also heard that I need to trust God and that I would not be emptied. Emptied of spirit? Emptied in work? Maybe. Yes. Maybe. No. Maybe.
I am trying not to get stuck on the "answers" but be more comfortable sitting with the questions.

    Later I plan to take a hike in an area state park: to surround myself with the songs of birds and the sound of rushing water.
Tomorrow will come in its own time. For now, it is Sunday morning.

~ Pam

This summer my blog will feature a new or newly appreciated word from what I am reading. Sometimes words hit me upside the head and then linger for a while in my brain. Each Wednesday will bring a new word for us to ponder together.

Prolegomena: recently read in a quote from Protestant theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968)
"There can be no completed work. All human achievements are mere prolegomena."
Definition: beforehand, an introduction;  a preliminary
discussion or introduction to a lengthy text

     Hmmmm...... All human work is just a preliminary discussion to the actual work of God: the lengthy text of God's on-going creation. It doesn't mean our work is unnecessary. Our work is important in that it participates in the work of God. God uses us as agents of grace and justice in the world. We need to remember that and not think too grand of our own contribution. As my Lutheran denomination puts it, "God's work. Our hands."

     As I think about that quote in the context of life, it reflects another way of thinking I am trying to adopt: The Little Way by St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Every work of our hands and heart is important. We like to emphasize the big accomplishments. We tend to think they are the noteworthy parts of our lives. But as St. Thérèse reminds us it is in the small moments that we connect with the sacred in our lives. It is in those moments that we play our part in the introduction of the long text of God's work. 

     And what does that mean for me? It means I need to reframe how I think about my life and the work I do.
Not just my paid work at church but also the many quiet but important sacred moments that fill my day. They will not be finished. They will not be perfect. But they will be filled with love and inspired by God’s lengthy, never-ending, creative task in the world.

How does this word speak to you?

~Pam