For example. When I go to Newbold after I've been gone for a while I can tell my academic muscles aren't very strong. I take longer to get words on paper, I get distracted more easily, I'm tempted to visit Facebook-land and Youtube-land more often. But after a whole semester of training in the library gym my muscles get stronger and I get tougher. I can do longer days in the library, the quality of the text I produce is often better. All that kind of stuff. Which is one of the reasons I don't want to have a break too long between my studies. I just get academically weak.
But my pastoral muscles are still terribly weak. Like yesterday. I went to preach in a small church group some 50km from Tartu, we had such a lovely church service, and then a looong lunch at one of the church member's house. We only got back to Tartu in late afternoon and as there was no point in me going home for an hour because I had to be back in church in the evening to record a video broadcast, I went to my senior pastor's house. And I'm not even kidding you, I just walked in and crushed their couch and slept for a good hour. When I got up to get ready for the recording in the church, my pastor's little daughter gave me some chocolate and told me I looked like I needed some energy. Haha, tell me about weak pastoral muscles!
(I thought about the muscle thing this morning when I was out jogging. I'm planning on running a half marathon in a few month's time. So training is clearly an important topic right now.:)
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My Saturday evening treat usually means watching an episode of Downton Abbey and Hercule Poirot on the national tv. Yesterday they showed Eurovision instead. We live in a sad sad world indeed... Oh, and if anyone's wondering, I kept the tv turned off last night. That was my little personal non-violent resistance.
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It's the Mother's Day over here today. Great. Fantastic. Marvelous. I saw my mum last night in a dream after a long time. I guess that's as good as it gets for me. ****.
Don't imagine my silence signifies not hearing or caring. I hear you, I care for you, and I'm just sitting here quietly listening to you.
ReplyDeleteMervi, if there is anybody who shouldn't talk about weakness - it's you. You are one of the strongest people I know. Don't let anybody tell you anything else. About the running thing: now that you have a new phone - have you got any workout apps? I started running again about 6 weeks ago - and the training apps have really kept me motivated. We could start sharing things - and motivate each other. I did this 6.5K run this afternoon - and it was so beautiful and I so wished that I could have shared it with somebody.
ReplyDeleteAs for mother's day - there really is nothing more to say then that I'm thinking at you and praying an extra prayer for you. Feel yourself hugged.
Thank you, Laura!
ReplyDeleteSonja, I don't know what this strength is that everyone keeps talking about. A friend wrote me last week and told me I was the second strongest woman he knew after his mother. As much as I appreciate people saying things like this, I really don't feel strong. Like, not at all. (especially not on terrible days like this one)
But you need to tell me everything about workout apps! Because I need some sort of plan and some motivation when I want to run 20+km in September and actually cross the finish line. :)