Notes from my life

I had a bad week last week and used the weekend to recover and rest and stay away from the computer. I subbed all week in a self-contained behavior and disability room at school, plus it was standardized testing week. Everyone from Principal to teachers to kids were stressed beyond imagining.

My heart breaks for how broken these little kids are. Needless to say it took a lot of patience and I was so tired each night. Not a good kind of tired, but a stressed, comatose, glassy eyed kind of tired. Mostly I sat on the couch and looked out the window, I could not think at all never mind keep up with my online ministries.

The teacher in the room I subbed in was laughing as we were talking...I remember being tired when I taught in Lewiston Maine but I was younger then with no kids. I told her I don't know how she does it (she is my age, with two teenagers, plus going to school for her PhD). That's what made her laugh. "You just stay tired all the time," she said. Please pray for our teachers. They are saints.

Church was really good yesterday. The pastor spoke on the bread of life section in John, because it was the Lord's Supper day, (we take the bread and wine/grapejuice on the last Sunday of each quarter). He told about how important bread was to the Israelites back then. Poor folk made barley bread but the richer people used wheat flour. It was actually barley bread the boy had which Jesus used to feed the 5000. Bread was the central part of the meal, the meat was not because it also had the burden of representing friendship and fellowship. Literally, if you broke bread at the table with a family it meant you were part of the family now too with all the Hebrew obligations that entailed.

In addition, the pastor brought us back to Leviticus 24 to show how important bread was in the Old Testament days as a symbol of life. It was a good lesson, and then the preacher went on to talk about the spiritual importance of why Jesus used the metaphor of bread of life.

The music is so good too, a huge choir and a huge congregation, all singing. I was moved to tears and hung my head for a minute in the middle of it. This older lady who has taken me under her wing and sits with me in the pew put her arm around my shoulder and patted my arm. It was nice to be taken care of for a minute. I like my new church more and more.

I did not get a call to work today and I am figuring I'll be called to sub less and less as the last week of school approaches, May 19-22. But I have Good News Club later and that means I can go in early and help the ladies set up. I am telling you, aside from one man on the team who is in his 50s, all the other workers are in their 70s and 80s. Man oh, man they work hard. There's a lot of stuff to carry in to the school and there they were last week, carrying out all their bags and coolers and jugs of sodas for snack, humped over and shuffling along but smiling and getting it done. My, they are an inspiration. I feel lucky to be working alongside with them.

I see that Maine is going to vote on gay marriage...I will be interested to see how Rep. Sue Austin votes. I am definitely watching this vote. The Gray Independent newspaper shut down so that is a good thing. It is sad when newspapers fold but the bad ones remaining open do much worse for the industry than the loss of a good one folding, so... My most fervent hope is that the town of Gray does not have enough money to fix Pennell. That is an evil building. Can buildings be evil? Yes!

Here at home I'm thrilled that Georgia is one of only three states whose unemployment stats did not increase but stayed flat. So many people are hurting around here and there is stress on the churches and food pantries to help the increasing wave of destitute or imminently hungry.

Have you seen the Susan Boyle video everyone is talking about? She made history in being the most watched video on internet history. She has had 85 million views! The moving and inspiring clip is here if you have not seen it yet. You really must!

On the plus side, my basil is coming up quickly, my tomatoes are not dead yet (I have a penchant for killing plants), and the azaleas are in full bloom. And it is a warm day. Ah, the library beckons and so does the day...till next time!