Quiet time

It turned out that Betsey did not go with Rob to the event at the college last evening. She slept. She slept from about 4p.m. until 9p.m., woke up enough to eat a bit of oatmeal and take her evening meds, and slept again through the night. She didn't go to work this a.m., but slept in till 9 or so, and then got ready for an 11a.m. energy healing session with Lyria. Rob went off to work at about 8 a.m., and took the Kia (Betsey's car) to a service appointment. Caroline Hopewell went with us when we took Betsey to her appointment, then we dropped her at the Boulder Transit Center where she would get the shuttle bus to the Denver airport. She is flying on to Salt Lake City to attend her daughter, Louisa's, graduation from the Univ. of Utah dance program. Louisa is a ballet dancer. We did some errands - I made a cover at Office Depot for a CD I'm giving Betsey of five of her mother's sermons from the Guilford Church (see below); Ellen went to Trader Joe's - then we picked up Betsey and came home. Lyria told Betsey that "sleeping is what you need to be doing right now," so Betsey is in bed now, alternating between reading and sleeping. She's reading Paula Hawkins' The Girl on the Train. Ellen and I just had a lovely lunch She is reading an Atul Gawande article in the most recent New Yorker, and I'm blogging and then am about to prepare a few more letters for Katie in the "Dear Folks..." project of Shirley letters home (except that now it also includes letters between Shirley and myself. I'm pretty much opening the closet for Katie, dirty laundry and all, though it isn't all that dirty!). Rob will be home in about 2 1/2 hours, Ellen will be fixing supper, so this is a bit of quiet time for which I am grateful. It's a perfect day to sit in bed - which is where I am - because it is lightly drizzling outside, and very foggy and misty, one of the few such days in Boulder (which boasts 300 days of sunshine annually).

Ellen was reading the blog last evening and commented that I hadn't said anything about church at YMCA of the Rockies last Sunday. That's true. I need to put that experience into context, and will try to do that in a future post.

Here's the CD cover:


 

Five Sermons by Shirley Harris Crockett

1. The Spirit Helps Us in Our Weakness

April 6, 1997

2. Trust in God

April 16, 1989

3. Using our "Image-ination"

April 23, 1989

4. Healing Touch

May 8, 1994

5. "Angels Provide a Place…"

December 12, 1990

Notes on the Sermons

1. Biblically understood, weakness is a human reality which God works through, based on Romans 8: "The Spirit helps us in our weakness with sighs too deep for words."

2. A very heart-felt sermon given just a few days after a young man in the community had taken his life, and his family was asking "How could God do this to us?" Shirley deals with the most basic questions of faith in the face of tragedy, and gives her response to the question of how we can trust God even in such times.

3. What is your image of God? The sermon explores several biblical images of God and encourages each person to go more deeply into this question.

4. Touching and being touched has become problematic in our culture. The sermon explores a biblical understanding of healing touch.

5. May Sarton's poem, which affirms that "Angels provide a place, a climate, where the soul can meet its creator at last," provides the basis for an understanding of angels in our lives.