Wondering Presbyterian

I saw a picture online recently of a family. In the first panel, the family was scattered in the room, each person on his or her phone, no one looking at each other or interacting with each other (though they might have been texting each other from across the room…I hate to admit it, but my husband and I do that!). The caption for the first panel was, “Normal time.” In the second panel, people were outside. You could see people playing and walking; one couple was roller blading. The caption said, “During quarantine.” I find myself very aware of the reality of the picture. Most days, as an introvert, I cherish my time at home. I love what I do as a pastor, and then the way I recharge my own spiritual batteries is by having some quiet personal time. I journal, I read, I quilt, and I color. Now I’m in forced introvert time and I find myself…wanting to go to the mall.             Eek. Even typing that makes me cringe.  ...

I'm reading Ross Gay's book, "The Book of Delights." He set out to write a book capturing the daily delights he comes across. It's a joyful book that celebrates the little things, and I'm loving it. It's been a kind of devotional practice for me to read one or two of his entries (each mini essay is about a page, a page and a half long) at night before I go to sleep. And I read his essayettes in an actual physical paper copy of the book because holding the paper, for me, is a delight. I like the idea of the practice, of writing about a delight each day. Last year I started the practice of listing ten things each night for which I am grateful. I write them in my journal every night, even if I don't write anything else in the journal that day. The list varies and there are obvious repeats. Some days I struggle to come up with ten, but I always do, even if number ten ends up being, "I'm thankful that I have a bed to sleep in tonight and a husban...