Tutus and Tortoises

a grab bag post

It’s the end of the month, which means it’s time for a grab bag post! Here’s some stuff that’s been entertaining me, inspiring me, and yes, saving my life lately:

Dumb Thing for a Good Cause: After a postponement last week due to Tropical Storm Ophelia, I’ve got my camping gear, running clothes, and costumes (!) packed to hit the trails for the Pemberton 24—a 5K every hour for 24 hours, or however many one wants to do. My baseline goal is 10 loops for a 50K, but I’d like to do at least 12, one more than the average number of loops completed last year. Event starts today (Friday 9/29) at 7 p.m. EDT, and there should be live tracking here if you want to watch my progress. 

Did someone say costumes? Yes, every hour has a different theme, so I’ve got my Disney ears, tutu, glow sticks, Wonder Woman shirt, etc. I’ll try to get pics.

Races like this are my happy place, but I also try to work in some fundraising as well. I didn’t get a personal donation page set up, but if you’d like to help put some purpose behind these miles, consider a gift to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in these waning days of suicide prevention month.

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Wild and Precious: A Celebration of Mary Oliver is an Audible “book” featuring interviews and reflections about Oliver’s work, including some poems read by the author. I’m about a quarter of the way through and have already discovered some new gems.  

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Other books: Tricia Hersey’s Rest is Resistance is galvanizing. Also finished Michelle Obama’s The Light We Carry, which I quoted recently.

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Trader Joe’s candles are super cheap and have pleasant, mild scents. We had a dreary weather week, which gave me an excuse to light a bunch of them, driving away the gloom but also using up some of the summer-oriented scents (strawberry basil, watermelon mint) before the fall ones arrive (cedar balsam is a favorite, but the citrus green tea burns for 50 hours and has a wooden wick that crackles!).

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Lots of people are hailing Jim Gaffigan’s latest comedy special, Dark Pale, as his best. Other specials of his have made me laugh more, but I see what they’re appreciating. It’s a well-crafted work, with a surprising level of sophistication given the sheer number of poop jokes. And yes, I laughed. 

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Therapist wisdom: Serenity is the ability to feel comfort amid unresolved problems. Boom.

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This batch of Gyeran Bap (egg rice) came together in 10-15 minutes, not counting the work of the rice cooker, and was so simple and comforting. Crack the eggs in the pan, then drizzle a little soy sauce and sesame oil on top. Fry to your preferred level of doneness, top the rice with the eggs, then crumble a package of seaweed snacks on top. Mix it all up and eat. Cozy perfection. (Recipe here, no paywall. We used brown rice) 

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Public Service Announcement that the Barbie movie stands up to repeated watchings. “And the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor goes to Ryan Gosling.” 

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The Morning Show. You enjoy it more once you realize it’s a slightly smarter, higher budget soap opera. Best character: Cory.

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Last Sunday the church I serve had our first-ever blessing of the animals. Despite the rain shifting the festivities inside, we had a couple dozen people with their dogs, plus a few folks who brought pictures of their homebody pets. The day after my colleague blessed pictures of our three cats, plus the adoption application my middle kid submitted for a Russian tortoise, we got word that “Chip” will soon be ours:

Yes, we’re driving to North Carolina for this animal. Parenting is never boring.

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I keep running into Francis Weller’s Five Gates of Grief that all of us must walk through:

• Everything we love, we will lose

• The places that have not known love

• The sorrows of the world 

• What we expected and did not receive

• Ancestral grief

Wondering whether/how our Blue Room community might want to explore these together. Anyone?

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I signed up for Sharon Blackie’s self-guided course on Celtic spirituality. So far so great. 

What’s in your grab bag this week?

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What I’m Up To

• I wrote for supporting subscribers this week about loving life more by loosening one’s grip on it. (20% discount continues for another week or so)

• There’s still space in the Pastor’s Renewal Retreat at Zephyr Point on Lake Tahoe in a couple weeks. See you there, West Coast clergy friends?

• And I’m preaching this Sunday at 10:15 at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Herndon; join us in person or via livestream. (But MaryAnn, won’t you have just finished the Pemberton 24 the day before? Yes, the sermon will be powered by moxie, caffeine, and YOLO.)

Steady on.