Sunday, March 30, 2008

My Weekend

This weekend was very nice. We had a relaxing drive up to Austin. Found the seminary without any troubles and went to Toy Joy per murat's suggestion. My daughter had the best time there - oh the possibilities. Toy Joy is chalk full of gizmos from ceiling to floor that either chlinks, klinks, or slinks.

We then went back to the seminary and buzzed our host to let him know we'd arrived. He was very nice and very helpful throughout the weekend. Everybody was super nice. So nice that the wife and I wondered if we're nice enough to be there.

When I first started out in all this walkingabout ETSS was hands down the place I wanted to go. Even after I looked at the others via internet, but then something happened and I just wasn't so sure anymore. I felt my heart struggle between wanting both ETSS and EDS, or really rather a blend of both. But, this weekend put much of that to rest. It is an amazing place, and it will be a good place for myself and my family, assuming the path brings us back this way.

I find it ironic that I have to go all the way to VT only to return to TX. A strange path indeed. But, everytime I've asked or really doubted - God says go to VT. So, I'm going or at least trying to get there.

The weekend brought with it a mix of excitement and sadness. I so very much wanted to be one of the postulants starting up this Fall. And if my bishop was not the bishop he is, it may have been so...

...the weekend brought for both my wife and I a sense of rightness, a sense of this is where we belong - just not yet...you see there's this other journey we both need to complete first.

Our journey of south to north, north to south, south to somewhere but I suspect north. Why the ying-yang, maybe to heal, to come full circle, to form[ation] in my beginning place/space. To represent but not stay, to struggle but heal elsewhere.

I just don't know yet really...just my random thoughts I've been thinking for awhile.

6 comments:

murat11 said...

Glad that you all had a good time in Austin. Toy Joy is clear evidence that there is a heaven on earth: that and 37th Street, just up Guadalupe, during the Christmas season. Not to mention the Greenbelt.

Glad, too, that ETSS felt like THE place. An important benchmark for the journey.

Lee said...

Welcome back, JS. Glad you had such a good time! And that you got some more answers!

The play was awesome! It set me in a thinking, meditative, reflective state. Probably did that to lots of people. Sunday school gave me more questions and tied into what I'd felt during the play. I'll be asking questions for awhile. Think I was meant to be seeing that play. God's plans seem to be all encompassing don't they.

And I'd love to see you coming back to TX in a couple of years. :)

Hugs!

murat11 said...

Also meant to say: wouldn't it be nice if the folks at Toy Joy were the Bishop of the Diocese of West Texas?

But, the Church of Benjamin and Gerald may be calling you anyway...

San said...

How inspiring to read this post, JS. To learn that you know, deep down, that your path will lead to ETSS. It's probably a dumb comparison, but it reminds me of something I've often observed when people are looking at art in the gallery. A certain piece will exert this gravitational pull on them. Then they start second-guessing, wondering if they should select something else, here or in another gallery. And they inevitably return to the piece that drew them.

And as to your going to Vermont to return to Texas, that doesn't sound like second-guessing at all. That sounds to me like a willingness to go with the winding path. Like a labyrinth, it leads to the center.

Lee said...

JS, I'm so glad you guys had a great time in Austin. I'm keeping you in my thoughts and prayers today and tomorrow. Your family too as you travel far from them.

That play was something I was meant to see. It is perhaps something I want to talk to you about later when you get back.

Peace! Hope! Joy! & Love!!!

jsd said...

hey guys: thank for for the love; i feel like i should say more but i just don't have the strength in me.