ImprovSpirituality

  I've read that the greatest emotional need for human beings is to truly know and be known by an other person. That is the basis for love, isn't it? Full disclosure and acceptance by the other. I love you because of who you are, not in spite of it.  As humans we are in constant search for our person, our knight in shining armor or the princess in the ivory tower. We want to belong, we are in constant look-out for our tribe. It begins in earnest once we enter school. Sometimes we pick our tribe and sometimes others pick it for us. The jocks, the nerds, the losers, the mean girls, the bullies. It's why we join athletic teams, the marching band, the chess club or the drama club. It's why we join fraternities and sororities. And for some it's why they join gangs, for a sense of identity and camaraderie.  I found my first tribe in high school. It was the drama club, Thespian Troupe #1. It wasn't until many years later I discovered another one of my tribes, the Queer...

I hate the phrase, "Maybe it was for the best." It's always seems like a cop-out at best, or bad theology at worst. I've heard this, or very similar messages, given to people experiencing loss or grief due to tragic accidents, the death of children, broken relationships, or whatever painful loss we experience. Loss is real and grief is natural We want understanding when all we can do is accept.  As it happens, this was the message on my tiny buddha calendar three days before we held the final service for the parish in which I had been serving. A faithful congregation of 119 years closed. Sadness, disappointment, loss, yes all of those. But it was clear that it was time. We can't change it, but as this buddha thought teaches, "if I resist the urge to judge a situation, I can find something good within it." Things don't always happen for the best, but if I act on the resurrected Christ, I can find something good. I can't change the situation, but I...

 Greetings! It's been quite some time since I've added new material to my blog. Life, it seems, has been a long season of living in Improv. I planned on spending my retirement working on my improv workshops, writing, consulting, and blogging. Apparently I failed at retirement because about two years ago I went back to parish work. I became the Priest-in-Charge at a small parish in Louisville. That time has now come to an end. After much discernment and prayer, the parish decided to close its doors. So back to retirement for me and back to spending time writing blogs instead of sermons.  Through my writing I hope to share what I've learned through this last career phase. Life is always improv and the only thing you can count on is the unexpected. Everything is an offer, good or bad, and our only response is to "yes, and."  I look forward to reconnecting to my old readers and maybe gaining some new ones. Let's journey together through this thing called life and ...