Church lady outdoors

Not even close

Stones for grinding logs into pulp

     I  admit it; I am probably a church lady.
     I joined the small choir at Atkinson Memorial Church this year. Our director is a former opera singer, a superb teacher of voice, and a great soul.   She is relaxed but exacting in rehearsals.We sing songs from all over the place, geographically, topically,  and musically. (It is a Unitarian Church, after all.)  I like the diversity, except  the practice of  encouraging white people to clap in church.

9 lenses on the world

     I started an Enneagram discussion group at the church last  year, which will continue monthly beginning in October.  Enneababbling is one of my favorite pastimes.   I hope the sessions  will someday take on a life of their own, so I can enjoy them.  In the meantime, running any kind of group is daunting --I am a good guide but not a teacher, and group dynamics feel like a runaway train to me.  This year, my friend Skyler, who is a certified Enneagram teacher, will co-lead with me.  
   I also agreed to help plan some of the services, to choose readings and entrance prayers, to give sermons occasionally, and to write opening words   that will support and blend with the minister's sermon.  For this coming Sunday, the topic of her talk is, "A Foolish Consistency," about the religious values at the root of being able to change our minds.  Now, what am I supposed to do with that?

Whitman

Beautiful Willamette

     For a month, I have been mulling it over.  My new background music is Walt Whitman's line, "Do I contradict myself?  Very well then, I contradict myself.  I am large, I contain multitudes."

Great blue heron

     In February and March I will be glad that I set up these activities that get me out of the house and among people.   Meanwhile, I hate to be inside. All I want to do these bright blue fall days  is to  be outside  soaking up the last of the sunlight.  September and October are the months for short trips around the Northwest, when I greedily look at all the colors before they dim out under the gray sky.

Canby ferry from the water

What kind of bird?

     These days are glorious. I took a boat ride up the Willamette River on Saturday from West Linn to Newberg.  We saw great blue herons and a bald eagle, and groups of geese just beginning to rise from the water to  form their Vs .  We had geologist  aboard, who talked about how the Missoula floods created the Willamette Valley.   We saw the Willamette Falls from the river, and the locks from the upstream, and the sites of log ponds and grinding stones that served the now-closed paper mill at the falls.
     Next week I will go  to Texas to see my little granddaughters.  At Halloween, I will be in Evanston with my grandsons.  Beats the open road, I think.

Forward