Monday Diverse

Well, we all got through the weekend. The memorial service yesterday went smoothly, and I believe the family found great comfort in it. All I can say is that my feet hurt mightily by the end of the day. Shoes that feel okay for four hours may not work as well for ten. Next time, I think it will be the Dansko clogs.

Bless PH. He was home after flying the redeye back from the Pacific Northwest, where he had been at a conference, and I called him as I left the after-memorial-service reception. He had already done some laundry, and he put the lasagna in the oven. When I got home, he poured me a glass of wine and made us a salad. I took out the contacts, took off the shoes, switched into comfortable garb, and had my dinner served to me while we caught up on what had happened to each of us over the few days we had been apart. Bliss.

On another topic, we have seen an increase in the number of folks asking the church for help with groceries, utilities and such. In the past, it might have just been folks within a ten-mile radius of the parish. Now they are calling from much further afield. I'm wrestling with the problem of how to respond to these folks - we will get a bunch of gift cards to the grocery stores or Target, but I am not out there in the parish office every day (part-time position and 40 miles away), and I'm debating ways of setting up a lay-led ministry to work with these folks. It's not fair to the parish secretary, who is there most every day for a few hours, to have to field all this stuff. Maybe I'll talk to those who call and ask for help by phone, then arrange for a layperson whom I've trained to give them the gift cards. Any ideas would be appreciated.

I'm planning on this being a day of rest for me, but other needful things will intrude, I would bet. Maybe it's time for me to take a walk.