Friday Five: blessed rest

Today's Friday Five is by 3dogmom

St. Mary’s Center, Sewanee, TN (photo by Anne Fraley)

I know that a number of our sisters in RevGal land are in need of rest, and would greatly benefit from some time away on retreat, or simply to escape the demands of the usual landscape. For today’s FF, let’s spend a little time considering the subject. Imagine getting away…………

1. Tell us about a place (retreat center or other getaway spot) that offers especially good hospitality. What makes it so for you? My favorite places for hospitality have been cruises! I love getting on a ship and sailing away knowing that everything will be taken care of and I don't even have to make my own bed.
2. Is there a ritual of renewal that you seek, or that you find especially helpful, while on retreat? (naps, reading, knitting, staring out toward a different landscape…) I love to knit or crochet and always bring a project along, but don't always actually work on said project! I love to read and the opportunity rarely presents itself in big enough time chucks in my real life, so I am slightly hermit like when I can get away. 
3. Retreats/getaways often have a way of washing over us with its own gifts, no matter what we may seek from it. Tell us about a time that such a gift made a lasting impression. I recently helped lead a women's retreat for my denomination in Bowling Green, KY. We led the women through many prayer and mission stations throughout the two day experience. But for me the best moment came at the closing worship service. We were offering a renewal of baptism at the end of service. While this was going on a woman came and tapped me on the shoulder and told me that a young girl (10) who had been with us at the retreat wanted to be baptized and wanted me to do the baptism. I have known this girl for years, she is a friend of the family. She does not regularly attend a church and has tenuous connections at best to Christian community. I agreed to do so. I asked her the questions of baptism and then turned to the women present. These women were from all over the USA and I told them that they were her community. Her spiritual raising was in their hands. They covenanted to pray for her, to reach out to her, to check in on her. They promised to be her community even though many miles separate them from her. Hearing those pledges did my heart good!
4. Imagine that a gift bag was waiting for you on your bed when you checked in for your time of sabbath. What would you like to find in it? An eye mask to make everything dark for rest. A new book full of laughter and tears. A pair of fuzzy socks. An assortment of tea bags.
5. Besides a dessert buffet featuring chocolate, what is something you would love to see a retreat/getaway offer that is typically not part of such an experience? Daily massages and easy companionship

Bonus: You’ve been granted a weekend off, and the means of getting away is provided. Where would you like to go? To my parents home, because Adulting is hard!

Friday Five: Graduation edition

Today's Friday Five comes from Marybethbutler Who shared some precious pics of her nephew who is graduating this week in my home turf of West Texas!!

"This weekend I am in a West Texas town for the high school graduation of a nephew. I’m looking back over the 18 years and wondering where all that time went, since he was the highly adored first child of my younger sister.

Because I work on a university campus that rents its facilities to dozens of local high schools, graduations have been a daily feature around here and will be for the next month.

So I’m thinking of beginnings and endings (which seem to come in pairs.) These could be graduations, retirements, new jobs, new family, changes of any kind…

Tell us about five notable commencements in your life / the lives of those you love. Pictures would be great if you have them!!"

I do just so happen to have a few graduation pics at my office this morning and some notable events pictures! Who says cleaning out your bags is not productive work!

This is my High School graduation in 1997. My brother, mother and father are in the back and my maternal grandmother is on the right and my paternal grandmother is on the left. It was a great celebration and a blessing to have this photo!

This is my diploma from Texas Tech University. I worked really hard and did my best after a rocky freshman year. I learned so much at Tech and use much of my Family Studies and Substance abuse knowledge on a daily basis in ministry!

This is my graduation ceremony from Memphis Theological Seminary in 2006. (I actually graduated in December 2005, but they only have one service per year) This is not all of my class, just the Cumberland Presbyterians and the President of the Seminary.

This is the birth announcement we sent out after our little man came home from the NICU. I was not sure we would get a group picture of the three of them, so this one sits on my desk as a daily reminder of just how lucky we were and are!

This is a picture from my first Sunday at my current call, May 19, 2013. It has been my first Solo pastorate and I am loving it, even when I don't!!!

This congregation has offered my husband an opportunity to begin healing from the wounds of other churches. It has allowed my daughters to grow in their gifts and spiritual awareness. It has gifted my son with a safe place to explore and learn about all of God's good blessings.

Life is good! Thanks for the chance to reflect on it today!