Five Minute Friday :: Shift

If anyone has the world's goods
and sees his brother in need
yet closes his heart against him
how does God's love abide in him?
1 john 3:17
• Five Minute Friday :: Shift Linkup

My first impulse was shifting from one musical mode or key to another, shifting gears in a vehicle (did you know I loathe, despise, and abhor automatic transmissions?), changing styles, switching activities, changing your mind about something, an attitude shift. Then I read Kate's blog about work shifts! Of course! Although unlike her son, I've never worked third shift, in a past life I knew someone (RIP) who had. He explained a special kind of person loves third shift, often for all their lives.

To continue the employment topic, I can tell you working second shift isn't nearly as bad as I'd imagined. Without a doubt it's partly my gratitude for a job, almost any job, and for the most part I like the job. My fave work schedule is odd irregular days, preferably with a couple of split shifts during the week (unusual, I know). If work needs to be Monday through Friday days, 7 to 3 fits best, though in real life I've worked those hours only two separate summers.

When I was a lot younger I worked five jobs seven days a week and loved it; I'd like to figure out something like that again. Because some of those jobs had fluid hours, I averaged 35 to 40 hours each week, almost never more than 45. That was so good because I had large chunks of time off most days.

Having said that, shifting from one job to another might be on the horizon for some of us. What does a major shift like that entail?

My header art asks how God's love can abide in someone who doesn't love their sister or brother? God's love wants to abide, to make a home – an abode – in us.

We have passed out of death to life because we love the brothers and sisters. Whoever does not love abides in death. 1 John 3:14

The Greek means to pass over, to change, to depart, to move. Death to life is a very big shift! # # #

Five Minute Friday :: Outcome

• Five Minute Friday :: Outcome Linkup

Soccer and the World Cup isn't one of my preoccupations, but I love Major League Baseball (MLB); I've been known to get excited and despondent during the post-season. My first ever MLB game was at the old Tiger Stadium after I'd taken my first solo flight as a passenger. I was in grade 7 or 8. I've noticed parents and kids often make things complicated when a kid or a teen flies unaccompanied, but I went to Boston-Logan, got on the plane, flew to Detroit-Metro, got off the plane. No big deal, but that may have been because I'd been riding city buses and subways alone forever.

Fenway Park by Chris Devers, 2004
Although back then I had next to zero knowledge of the game, in retrospect the Tigers game with an opponent I don't remember was a watershed. A couple years later during high school the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Park started to become part of the narrative of my life. Later on when I served an inner city Boston church, senior pastor was able to get Red Sox tickets almost on a whim, and I went to many games that way. A few times I drove youth group kids to Fenway in the church van; other times we traveled there on the subway. For sure I considered myself On The Clock whenever I took on that responsibility.

Today's word is outcome. "I often remind myself" the best way to predict the future is to create it; that's what I knew I was doing with a series of schools, skills, and experiences. As of now, the outcome is far from the minimum I'd anticipated. But God's promises and God's faithfulness are outside of time as we humans measure time. Can I trust God for the outcome of all those years of preparation and expectation?

There's spring training and there's the fall post-season, but I love that baseball is mostly an icon of summer. Although baseball is country, suburban, and everywhere, there's something particularly urban about it, and cities are my jam. Did I already mention Detroit and Boston?

I love baseball's leisurely pace as if clocks and watches don't exist. I love that baseball is an American invention. I love those memories of Fenway Park. I love watching stellar defense and crazy offense. Baseball majorly qualifies as one of my major Life Stuff topics. As I wonder about hopes, dreams, and disappointments, "I often remind myself" baseball is a perfect model for life.

The outcome? You win some; you lose some. Tomorrow is another day, another game, another outcome.
# # #

Five Minute Friday :: Decision

The breeze at dawn has something to tell you.
Your boundaries are too small. Rumi
• Five Minute Friday :: Decision Linkup

Our days are packed with decisions already made that may include what to have for breakfast, what route to take to work in which conveyance, what time for your lunch break, etc., but Kate's kids especially are deciding about a road that stretches far ahead that's yet a trek they can start any time. To limit today's decision topic, those of us with more chronology already have decided about higher education, a possible profession, career training, a good company to work for. Sometimes when to quit and when to keep on keepin' on.

These are decisions regarding where you'll travel to your future, and the road you'll take to get there. It's about whether or not you'll carefully follow a map, or trust a more random intuitive approach. You already know "It's about the journey, and not the destination."

Although a young recent high school, community college, university, or professional school graduate has what looks like an endless road ahead, at any life stage we have the opportunity to decide the next step, a possible change of profession, workplace location, or type of employment setting. I love the quote from Rumi in my header! Although our dreams often start out boundless, they sometimes don't stay that way.

This has been about the road ahead. What about the miles, the highways, the decisions and their outcomes that lie behind us? William Faulkner reminds us the past never is past; it keeps overtaking us minute by minute. How are you, how am I, going to make the journey that's now in the rear view mirror happily affect your decisions today?

# # #

Five Minute Friday :: Schedule

World Communion Sunday Welcome Table Bread and Cup
• Five Minute Friday :: Schedule Linkup

Whether it's skeddule or sheddule, it's an essential for staying organized and productive. Schedules help planes and trains take off and arrive on time. They let employees, suppliers, vendors, customers, and everyone else know what hours they can shop. Etc. Etc. Society necessarily runs on multiple interdependent schedules, as do families. For the tulips in Kate's FMF "schedule" illustration square, experiencing winter is a necessary part of their schedule if they're going to flower in the spring.

Then there's Kate's reminder not to get so engrossed in making a living (overscheduled) that you neglect getting a life.

Aside from daily details for home, work, school, or various appointments, have you noticed how your week eases into a schedule that includes work, play, rest, recreation, and worship? These days I work second shift 2 to 11, Wednesday through Monday, a schedule I never thought I'd like. Although I don't exactly love it, aside from being grateful for a reasonable job in this crazy economy, I've discovered my body, mind, and spirit have achieved a comfortable rhythm, at least for the medium term (if not forever).

The Sunday assembly centers the rest of my week around Word and Sacrament. You might say Word and Sacrament schedule my week with constant awareness of God with me.

There you have my reflective considerations about "schedule." Then there's the schedule I'd choose if I had the choice…

What's your current schedule? And your ideal?

# # #

Five Minute Friday :: Nurture

• Five Minute Friday :: Nurture Linkup

Although our host Kate wrote lovely realities about her nurturing parents, and I can think of many situations and individuals who've helped nurture me, I still had to reflect on the "is it nature or nurture?" question that often pops up when we consider someone's traits and tendencies.

Because… I often tell anyone who's around me, "I'm exactly like my late uncle—everyone's BFF (Best Friend Forever)." Always reaching out. Always for the underdog (the undercat, too). Befriending the bedraggled. Being called a great listener. Hearing yet another person complimenting me on my hospitable presence. Needless to say, not having a shy or reticent bone in my body helps a whole lot.

A couple weeks ago I mentioned to someone I thought my life experiences had mightily contributed to those behaviors: cue long list of not great early influences and experiences, followed by too many struggles to fit in, to make myself heard, to rebuild and reweave. The person replied it still might be mainly nature, something I inherited through that side of the family.

But really? I never knew my uncle well, never spent much time around him or with him. I heard many anecdotes about him from my grandmother (his mother). At the time I considered stories of his rescuing people and rescuing pets, along with his empathy and sympathy simply the way he was. Not to admire or imitate. Plus, a certain subset of the population has that "everyone's BFF" trait or a parallel one.

Then we always can answer, "It's both nurture and nature."

# # #

03 Thanks

What's something I want to thank myself for enduring or growing this year?

Intro

During fall 2024 I attended a workshop with journaling mentor and coach Joelle. You can follow her substack at Reconnect and Befriend; her Instagram is Reconnect and Befriend Coach.

To help conclude this year (that wraps up a quarter of the twenty-first century), Joelle's recent substack offered three questions – with three lively illustrations – to answer as we anticipate a bright 2026. This third reflection is about thanks or thanking.


What's something I want to thank myself for enduring or growing this year?

On the way to Thanksgiving Dinner, each of us shared what we were especially thankful for. What had been. What we anticipated might be. On Thanksgiving Day, everyone was thankful for shelter. For enough food, even when or if it always wasn't elite and deluxe and decadent. We had gratitude for each other, for whatever semblance of community was happening. Thanks for some employment—even jobs that weren't too terrible.

I'm almost always happy to look back in time to discover how far I've come by faith and by grace. Astonished that God goes to my future and waits for me there.

Many individuals end most days with a gratitude list, but Joelle suggests thanks with a different focus. It's about where I've been, what I've been through, how I may have changed as a result.

During 2025, what did I endure or go through? Joelle didn't specify, but those words sound like hardships more than they sound like things working out or a series of unexpected surprises. Most years most people experience at least a few difficulties and disappointments.

I had a few. More than discrete instances I can name, it's more that I didn't find my coveted long term housing. Didn't get more opportunities I wanted and needed. I want to blame myself because I barely reached out or tried to connect, and that's a factor, but hundreds and thousands of attempts to connect already hadn't budded, let alone flowered or borne fruit.

When I was formally studying music performance and later on when I was performing, I'd learn the notes to a new piece of music and practice it to a certain level that wasn't quite public performance ready. Then I'd let it rest for a while before returning to it a few months later.

Is resting what I did with my hopes, dreams, wants, needs, and expectations during the past twelve months? I think it was! For that I'm super thankful. It had to have been Spirit Inspired, because on my own I wouldn't have thought of doing that. I'll call that a time of "enduring." I hope it led to some growing I haven't yet discovered or discerned.

# # #

02 Named Acknowledged

What needs to be named or acknowledged this year?

Intro

During fall 2024 I attended a workshop with journaling mentor and coach Joelle. You can follow her substack at Reconnect and Befriend; her Instagram is Reconnect and Befriend Coach.

To help conclude this year (that wraps up a quarter of the twenty-first century), Joelle's recent substack offered three questions – with three lively illustrations – to answer as we anticipate a bright 2026. My second reflection is about named or acknowledged.


What needs to be named or acknowledged this year?

This is another old one for me because "you can't change what you don't acknowledge." Particularly since Covid was pandemic, I've looked around and seen how many are struggling with finances, housing, career, mental and emotional health, social well-being. What's on your list?

You know the adage about women settling for too little. However you identify, you've probably been so overwhelmed, disappointed, and snowed under that you've truthfully admitted almost everything is pretty bad, not what you expected, far from what you ultimately need, but when you scarcely can breathe or take another step, you still admit "at least" I have a roof. "At least" I have some income. At least I don't quite hate my job(s). I'm "even" doing better in some ways than I was in and when…[name the place and/or name the time].

But it's not only naming the situation that's never objective because it involves living breathing people. It's acknowledging the sorrow, grief, and devastation. Most of us are doing whatever possible to alter our current circumstances, because so few are in anything better than passable. Amidst all that, naming where I am today professionally and residentially is easy and I've been doing it out loud, on paper, and online.

Like almost everyone I know, I'm working on updating my living and career situations. I've been taking action, however sporadically, imperfectly, and otherly. What I want is simple. How to achieve it isn't simple; that I know because I can't count the dead ends and roadblocks.

I need to name and acknowledge the grief, the loss, the shattered minimal expectations. The emotions!

Someone in a past life told me their physiological reactions usually were vascular. Mine are visceral, so my gut takes a whole lot of the impact. For physical health at least as much as for my mental and emotional well-being, I need to name and acknowledge the grief, the loss, the shattered minimal expectations. The emotions! Out loud (on paper, and online) now.

It's hard because we do need to tough things out some extent. Everything cannot become a major crisis, or even a crisis saved for later when I have time for it.

That's my word of acknowledgment today. Because I can't change my reactive gut until I admit to it.

# # #

01 Expectations

What expectations can I quietly let go of?

During fall 2024 I attended a workshop with journaling mentor and coach Joelle. You can follow her substack at Reconnect and Befriend; her Instagram is Reconnect and Befriend Coach.

To help conclude this year (that wraps up a quarter of the twenty-first century), Joelle's recent substack offered three questions – with three lively illustrations – to answer as we anticipate a bright 2026. Today I'll write to expectations because it's alphabetically first.


What expectations can I quietly let go of?

But why? Wouldn't that be quitting my dreams? Is dream and expectation the same, or is a dream more ethereal and sometimes ephemeral? An expectation more concrete and—expected?!

In this primarily bilingual (multicultural, multilingual) megalopolis, I often consider the triple meaning of esperar: expect; hope; wait. Most days it feels as if my life has been an expect – hope – wait marathon. How about yours?

As I've silently obsessed, not infrequently journaled, and occasionally blogged, my current situation, with current encompassing most of the last decade is "so far afield of the minimum I'd anticipated by now," it feels as if "anticipate" sleekly combines hope and expect. Expect because with my careful extensive preparation, I knew it would happen. The best way to predict the future is to create the future. Amirite?

We're late in the season of Advent, that wintry time that overflows with hope.

For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what they already see or have? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Romans 8:24-25

You know the context! Creation waits for us to fully claim our divine natures so the new creation itself will flourish:

Romans 8:18-25

Digression: To nudge my sense of expectation, I hope to present my Theology of the New Creation discussion during Epiphany, but it needs tweaking because I planned the original version for the Season of Creation.

Back on topic: Joelle asked if I can let go of any expectations—plural more than one. How about just one? She asked if we can release them quietly. We're not talking hoping or waiting, although how can they not be factors? Expectations feels more vibrant and alive, as if it's growing wings and ready to fly. In most cases that wouldn't be a quiet event!

What are my primary expectations? A life of participation in and contribution to church and world. Still. That's so generic it feels easy to achieve, but it hasn't happened. Will I let it go? Will I release it? No! I won't give it up because that would be quitting.

# # #

Five Minute Friday :: Sale

• Five Minute Friday :: Sale linkup at Andrew's Place. Andrew hosting while Kate heals has been such fun, especially with Sylvia joining in!


For Sale. Not for Sale. There's the basic you can purchase this item or this service because it's for sale on the retail market; then there's you can get it at a lower price because it's not only for sale—it's on sale.

What are my favorite things for sale and on sale?

I love to shop. Any kind of retail therapy! I love thrift stores. I especially love yard sales / garage sales, though recent ones haven't been as enticing as they were in the BCE (Before Covid Era) olden days. I usually say "yard sale" and I've read about tag sales, but I've never called them that. The terminology must be regional.My plants header is from our church yard sale three years ago in October 2022. For some reason, churches usually talk about their rummage sales. What's rummage? Is it what you find when you're rummaging around?

I enjoy eBay, where I've bought a whole lot of books and a lot of clothes. I often wonder if I'd have discovered it if my cousin hadn't introduced me to eBay on her long ago visit to San Diego.

As much as I like Target with its sometime clean spare mid-century Scandinavian vibe, Dollar Tree is my favorite sale venue of any time, any where. I love its practical everyday items and the many surprise treasures I never planned to buy and couldn't have planned because I never knew such a thing existed.

What for sale and sales have I left out? Given that food is my love language, I need to mention seasonal fruits and veggies. Subway meal of the day. My faves are Chicken Teriyaki on Tuesdays and Tuna on Fridays.

What sale stuff do you hanker after?

# # #

Five Minute Friday :: Chocolate

• Five Minute Friday :: Chocolate Linkup on Andrew's blog

Andrew told us he'd be finding fun quotes to accompany his FMF posts; today he only quoted and didn't write anything himself. Check them out!

My relationship with chocolate is unusual.

1. I don't like candy of any kind at all. My mother used to complain she'd throw away my Halloween candy at Easter and she'd throw away my Easter candy at Halloween.

2. People who haven't known me a long time or who don't know me well frequently assume I don't like sweets, but that's not true. I love high end, rich, decadent sweets, though chocolate isn't often my first choice.

3. Partly because certain chocolates in certain forms at certain times of day are migraine triggers for me.


4. But what do I like? Chocolate chip cookies. Especially home baked chocolate chip cookies. I'm partial to the Nestlé Toll House recipe, but others can be fabulous. I fondly recall one of my design school classmates baking dozens from the Splenda recipe. They were lighter and not as rich as some, but they also were in the "can't eat just one" category.

Another favorite was a neighbor who made the Toll House recipe with half lard and half butter. A real wow!

And I love some hot fudge sundaes. You likely know just as chocolate chips differ and people have different preferences, fudge sauces variy in sweetness, bitterness, richness, and other attributes.

What's your chocolate pleasure?

# # #