The Craziest Month Ever

Seriously, this month has been out of control.  I have been moving, launching a major church program that involves moving and settling in four young adults, preparing for fall programming, officiating about a zillion weddings, covering for colleagues on vacation, spending a week as camp chaplain, and doing, you know, the normal things that make up my job.  By far the most stressful part of this has been the new program (although moving isn't really topping my list of fun things at the moment).  The people moving to town to do this program are...young.  They don't have much experience.  At the moment they need a LOT of direction.  I haven't had as much time as giving that direction well would take.  I'm sure I'm giving them a headache much like the one they're giving me.  At present I am a very hard person to work for, as I don't have a lot of understanding or patience for people who move slowly and don't get things done without being pushed.  I'm sure it will come as a shock to you who know me to find out that I'm bossy, critical, sarcastic, and demanding.  These are not people who even know how to come close to meeting the expectations that I am learning that I have, even the ones that are fairly basic in my opinion.  I'm hoping things will get better.

Apparently we're supposed to get hit with a hurricane this weekend.  I don't know how bad it will really get around here, but I bought flashlights, candles, batteries, and water.  Batten down the hatches!

I wish I had profound things to say, but mostly I have a head full of moving mania.  Today is Move the Washer and Dryer Day, or it will be if I can ever get out of the office.  Fortunately I had a wedding cancelled tomorrow and therefore have a bit more free time than I anticipated.  It's probably bad that I am happy about a wedding being cancelled, but we take what we can get.  

Camp Bubble

This week I'm at the camp where I volunteer as a chaplain for a week every summer.  I do love this camp.  Unlike some other church camps, our goal is not to manipulate children into "making a decision for Jesus."  We don't do altar calls or scare our kids into sexual abstinence or threaten them with eternal torment, as I've seen happen elsewhere.  We tend a bit toward the "God smiles when you compost" camp philosophy.  We teach kids about community, simplicity, care for creation, and other good stuff.  We emphasize love, grace, acceptance, and justice.  We talk about Jesus, although we don't assume everyone believes the same things about him or wants to.  We have morning yoga sessions, which is apparently controversial.  Whatever.

Anyway, I'm having a pretty great time so far, up here beside a lake in the Adirondacks, hiking, kayaking, and talking to teenagers about God.  It's not a bad gig.  One thing I will say is that the schedule is killing me.  Mornings come early around here.  I am not a morning person.  I'm also not someone who shuts down the minute the campers go to bed.  I need some time to decompress, and then suddenly it's 1:30am and I've cut my sleep time down to five hours.  Aging is not helping with this problem; unfortunately, I can't skimp on sleep the way I used to and still be functional.  I'm hoping to get my worship planning done in time to take a nap today, so offline I go.

In Which I Lose My Mind

Do you ever look at your schedule and task list and think, "Yeah, I'm not really sure how that's going to happen?"  That's where I am today...so of course, I am blogging.  In my defense, I am being interrupted with such frequency that it took me forty-five minutes to write those two sentences.

Anyway, my brain is completely fried, what with trying to furnish a 4-bedroom apartment for a bunch of 20-somethings, finalize their service placements for the year, move myself, prepare for a week at camp, and officiate at my usual plethora of weddings.  Add to the mix the fact that this week, all of these people with whom I have very surface-y, light, I-only-know-you-because-we-all-hang-out-at-the-same-bar sorts of acquaintances have decided that it's a good time to break out the profound conversations.  So, Mr. Fun All the Time who avoids deep thought at all cost wanted to talk about parenthood and passing values onto children (because I'm such an expert), and Miss Party-Party wanted to talk about how to find the right spiritual path for her after moving away from her Catholic upbringing, and Mr. Everything's A Joke wanted to discuss how to help a self-destructive friend.  This is part of my vocation.  It's one of the parts that I love.  And yet, it's such a strange thing when the people who are usually part of my fun and relaxation, and who don't often want to deal with the minister factor in me, suddenly need me to be my whole self.  It's not bad, just odd.

The to-do list is not going away of its own volition, so I suppose I should stop procrastinating and start chipping away at it.