Dear Friends,
People keep asking me how the moving is going, and I generally answer that it is going fine, but it sucks! Moving is such a hassle! We are surrounded by boxes, living with a lot of uncertainty, but worst of all -we have had to clear out all the closets.
Of course, when you’re moving house, you have to clear out the closets. It is one of those things that is obvious, but the difficulty and extent of it is not always evident until you start to do it. All the things that we stashed back there- all the yard sale “deals” that we couldn’t turn down and never used, all the gifts from well-meaning family that I didn’t want but didn’t want to get rid of, all the broken stuff I promised Allie I would fix one day…it’s all still there. And when we weren’t moving, it could stay there, undisturbed. Oh, maybe I’d find it once in a while, if we were doing some spring cleaning, but that wasn’t very often, and it was generally only one closet or cupboard at a time.
Now all the decisions of my life are spread out on the floor, and I have to decide if they’re worth packing, or should be left here, donated or thrown away. There is not much room for me to hide – will I use it, or not? No more pretending that there will be a future where I have time, or interest, or motivation.
It strikes me that while I am the one who’s moving, our church will have some reckoning to do as well. It’s the same sort of idea. As long as you have a stable incumbent in the rector’s office, a lot things can be swept aside, or ignored. There might be policies that haven’t been re-examined in a while, or patterns on a Sunday morning that are regular, but not always helpful. So, this might be the time for our parish to do a little of that kind of work, clearing out our metaphorical cupboards and closets, so that we’re shiny and bright and ready for our new rector!
Have a great week!
Will