Five Minute Friday :: Disrupt

Monday at Vacation Bible School 2014
ready to collect backpacks
for Community Christian Service Center's
annual back to school initiative.

• Five Minute Friday :: Disrupt Linkup

Kate's story intrigued me and because it was familiar, I decided to piggyback on it!

Intro:

When I still was in Previous City, the place I was living needed mold remediation. In their process the contractors decided to disrupt my bedroom instead of my landlady/housemate's art studio per her request, which created awkward entry and exit from my room. (Her studio was bedroom 3 in a 3 bedroom house).

Part 1:

For the mold exit week, we found a hotel with a good deal for pets, so we took P's small dog and my two cats there. It meant two humans and three pets in a regular size hotel room. And you know what? That disruption for everyone worked out fine for all of us.

It was August and Vacation Bible School week; with the church some distance away from the hotel because of our pet-related lodging needs, every morning I traveled to VBS during rush hour. That trip was a relatively minor change or disruption from when I lived around the corner from the church and could walk there in less than five minutes, but the less familiar scenery energized me—maybe by disrupting my usual expectations and routines?

Part 2:

Because getting the mold out meant a major structural disruption of ripping out a wall, my friend decided it would be a perfect time to update the second floor bathroom that had some mostly age-related concerns and that – like at Kate's house – was the only full bath.

Back in the Tierrasanta/ Holy Land neighborhood the week after our hotel stay that also was the week after VBS, since the mold people had left, the bathroom contractors were able to start. Did I mention it was August?

Because August is hot in Southern California, one (you, me, any person) had best not skimp on showers. So? We arranged with two different neighbors to shower at their house. Two households so as not to disrupt only one every day.

Outro:

You may be expecting to hear about another disruption, but the new bathroom with a working shower finally happened, so that's the end of this week's Five Minute Friday.

Since then the church's senior pastor has retired, his kids now are adults, and the church has a new fellowship hall. Since then I've moved north to Los Angeles.

I've enjoyed reminiscing because it showed me what might be possible again. And now? It likely will take a few more disruptions before my days are full again. Thanks for reading!

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Five Minute Friday :: Phase

• Five Minute Friday :: Phase Linkup

We go through short phases and longer ones. Kate wrote about being a little kid as a phase in their lives and in a parent's life. Sometimes we decide it's time to phase out a certain behavior or activity. Sometimes we don't know we're in a particular phase until it's over. Does something else take its place? Sometimes. Does its exit leave an empty space? Sometimes. But every time-limited aspect of life isn't necessarily a phase, is it?

Today I'm thinking about the years I spent in the Intermountain West. I lived along the Wasatch front, but with Utah being such a beautiful state, I took day trips and half-day excursions to other locations. But I regret that I took next to zero photographs. How could that be? I was going through a phase of grief and loss but without anyone to admit it to, lacking someone else to acknowledge it, taking pictures didn't even occur to me.

And the times I spent in Boston. Although I was born in the deep south, I grew up in Boston in a family that was Midwestern and Southern. That first phase was long, with friends, schools, many activities, and plans for a future of service and participation.

My second Boston-Cambridge sojourn featured another phase of professional school—some would call it "grad school," but I reserve that expression for high-end academic programs and not so much for something like an MSW, MDiv or others with practical career content, even though they all include some heavy-duty academics.

My third Massachusetts layover was Boston and Cape Cod. Someday I might even write about that important phase.

All of those are long phases defined by a particular geography, and inside that longitude and latitude, defined by what I did and by what happened to me.

What kinds and lengths of phases has your life had?

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Five Minute Friday :: Pivot

North Hollywood California Coffee Shop
• Five Minute Friday :: Pivot Linkup

I love the skateboard illustration!

Kate wrote about her son's summer job not happening, after all. How many of us have had that exact experience? Maybe a related one or two or three? That's the ongoing employment and housing story for too many of us over the past decade. At least for the short term, he's been able to pivot into some other activities while he waits to hear from his other job apps.

Recently I've gotten reflective as I've evaluated my behaviors over the years. When life and expectations have disappointed me, Instead of pivoting into a new direction, I've kept going in the same one, chasing after activities and opportunities related to my sense of call that still won't quit. But honestly? Keepin' on keepin' on often is the name of the game in any case.

My life got smaller and emptier. Not simpler. I'd lost people, routines, reasons to get out of bed every morning. My world had become silent and still. I may have lost (I had lost) the days I expected would continue, but I still kept getting up in the morning and pretending. I kept hoping… you know about living "as if?!" Practicing resurrection?

I've even tried to rebuild the last place, that last time my world made sense. Would that count as pivoting away from the status quo? Paradoxically(?) I don't know the time or date or place.

How can I find life with pulse and rhythm again? "Meaning and purpose keep you sane" isn't simply a truism. I long for, I need messy noisy healing chaotic again. And then?

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Five Minute Friday :: Part

• Five Minute Friday :: Part Linkup

When we (you, me, anyone) uses a word that has multiple meanings, it's important to place it unambiguously in context.

There's part the noun; part the verb; partly the adverb.

Knowing in part, partly finished, part of a laundry or moving load (as in the picture Kate provided); parting a barrier such as the red sea or a midwestern storm to help you get through; parting or separating from a person and leaving them behind; ending a commitment and parting from a job or a relationship. Parting the good part of a fruit or veggie from the part you can't use.

Our host Kate concluded her testimony about God parting the waters for her by asking:

Where have you seen God's goodness and provision this week?


Five Minute Friday :: Part

• God is good. All the time.
• All the time. God is good.

⁹ For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
¹⁰ But when that which is perfect is come,
then that which is in part shall be done away.
¹² For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:
now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
1 Corinthians 13

Where have I seen God's goodness and provision this past week?

"Help me, Jesus. I'm shaking like a leaf.
You've been my king of glory;
won't you be my prince of peace?"

Rich Mullins, Hold Me, Jesus


Last Sunday I had another guest preaching gig. Typically I have some anticipatory excitement beforehand— just enough positive anxiety to make my presentation sing and ring. Last weekend was different. It was the type of anxious that interferes with breathing, thinking, and walking. Some of it was my feeling I hadn't been able to figure out a smooth transition between the scripture text and a possible application.

But as soon as I stood up and looked out at the assembly, I knew it would be fine because God is good, all the time. My high anxiety had simmered down to excitement. And I had prepared! From the feedback I got, I know everything went well, after all. All the time; God is good!

Related to your last Sunday morning or to mine, to the days ahead, to the road each of us will walk, knowing we can't see everything and have little clue – let alone solid knowledge – about where all the moving parts of our life and world are headed is a big comfort. In his famous letter to the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul was both philosophical and practical in his observations about our finite perspective.

The God who parts the waters, the Savior who stills storms with a word wants to quiet our anxieties! Whether you're driving through bad weather, wondering about the job interview or school application or everyday finances and logistics; concerned about your littles, teens, or grands; getting ready to teach or preach God's Word with the responsibility that entails, Jesus wants to be your Prince of Peace. Let him be. God is good—not part of the time. God is good all the time!! Amen? Amen!

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Five Minute Friday :: Sustain

• Five Minute Friday :: Sustain Linkup

What has sustained me all these bleak years?

Getting out of bed a half hour before first light and watching another new day gracefully make its way onto the world. Trying to relocate myself in better illuminated settings from my past. Can I replicate some form of those here and now? Admitting I've still been hitting a few balls out of the park over these many seasons. Despite everything.

Re-membering: bringing back together; again forming a whole from scattered parts. Dreaming. Can the future be an updated version of those parts when they still were whole, before they cracked and scattered?

This is earthquake country. Before I visited the new David Geffen Galleries at LACMA last Tuesday, I read about the project. Probably related to moment skyscraper and high rise construction that bends in an earthquake or a storm so it doesn't crack and break, the entire new museum wing can bend and extend five feet.

I may have mentioned a friend's comment that a mutual acquaintance is "very establishment," without adding a negative or a positive interpretation. They simply are. I'm still "very Y2K." That means I've experienced 911, the Great Recession that my economics degree insists qualified as another Great Depression, the Covid pandemic, the January 6 insurrection, and a long series of shipwrecks and disappointments in my own life. Along with the rest of my population cohort, I've survived global and individual assaults, so a return of anything Y2K-ish will present itself differently from the original.

Have I learned to bend in the storms and earthquakes? Yes. More by necessity than by intention. Have I cracked and broken? Or have I bent?

At my church in Previous City, during the offerings of bread, wine, and tithes, as they set the Eucharistic Table we'd sing from Psalm 116:

What shall I render to the Lord
for all his benefits to me?
I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and will call on the name of the Lord.
I will take the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows to the Lord
now in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the Lord's house,
in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.

God invites everyone to the feast! "Jesus Christ, the bread of life; Jesus Christ, the cup of salvation!"

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Five Minute Friday :: Beginning

• Five Minute Friday :: Beginning Linkup

Have you heard the phrase, "every ending also is a beginning?" It would take eons to scroll through the years of your life and show how sometimes that was true, other times it was a loud false because a particular ending marked the conclusion of…? A pain-filled situation you couldn't wait to be rid of, or a glorious phase filled with achievement, support, and wonder. Some endings make space for new beginnings that otherwise couldn't be; other endings mean emptiness and heartbreak.

Like too many in this economy, I tell people I'm "between lives," meaning I consider myself in a transitional time between an established routine of employment, housing, and connections and (ideally) some of the same in the future. Most of us "between lives" people are working at other than our ideal job or the career we thought we were preparing for. Most of us probably are in temporary style housing and not in a place with a mortgage or a long-term lease, unless someone else holds the mortgage or the lease and we're renting from them.

I wrote that introduction because all of us between lives people can't stay there forever, although I'll admit it has a degree of comfort. Unsettled yet comfortable? Mostly because of meeting and commiserating with many many many others who truly get it.

How. Some. Ever. We need to figure out what it will take and how we will get to a serious new beginning. That new start probably will entail ending aspects of between-ness, so in that case, a particular ending is essential for a beginning.

The end of between lives may be a little bit bitter with a touch of sweetness. Have I ever mentioned how much I love the thrill of the chase? That I do, but this one has gotten very old. I'm ready to settle, not for less than I need or deserve—I'm ready to settle down again. The end of "between lives" had better make room for an excellent new beginning.

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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."

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Five Minute Friday :: Snow

My multimedia In Winters Past begins my snow blog
because it features piles of snow.

• Five Minute Friday :: Snow Linkup at Andrew's Place

I've been in southern California since early in this century; now that we've started Q2 of the twenty-first century, I think I'll stay in LA. An intro to admitting we don't get snow at this elevation, but I've experienced a lot of it at different times of my life.

You may have heard how people in regions that get a lot of snow have many many words to describe the different types of snow.

What does "snow" evoke in my imagination?

The hush during and immediately after a snowfall, before life has fully resumed and before the city has many of its snowplows out in motion.

It's a similar feeling when the snow stops falling and the sun decides to shine.

In a previous life I substitute taught for the Boston Public Schools for an academic year. Given that Boston is one of those cities with frequent weather, Boston schools sometimes call snow days when the driving is rough and dangerous and passenger cars, trucks, and buses would interfere with snow removal.

Though we got paid per diem, I still loved a snow day because (1) I could stay home and cozy in my small urban apartment and/or (2) when the snow stopped falling, I could go outside and play in the snow or maybe go to the mall if the roads were clear. Because New England snow tends to be the wet heavy kind that's back breaking and heart attack inducing to shovel, I'm grateful I never had to clear more than digging my vehicle out from any windrows the plows had created.

Later on when I lived in Utah with its many recreational ski resorts and The Greatest Snow on Earth, I managed the apartment building I lived in (and helped out with the owner's other properties). That meant if I woke up to snow I had to go out right away and shovel the sidewalk so it wouldn't ice over. The landlord bought me an ergonomic shovel and even though I'm not exactly big and heavy, clearing the sidewalk was easy because the snow was light and powdery.

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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.

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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.

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