It has been several months since I have written anything here, and so wanting to get back to my blog I thought I would share a few thoughts as to what has been happening with me over the last while.  First of all I have been on medical leave from my parish work due to having a fall in which I broke several bones in my foot, and so having it in a cast I have been unable to work for the past six weeks.  Mainly because my Parish consists of a number of congregations in which I have to drive a substantial amount of time, and so having my right or ‘driving’ foot in cast made that impossible.  The past six weeks have been for me not only a time of healing waiting for the bones to mend in my foot, but it has been a time to reflect on where I am now.  How have I evolved in this time from being the one who is always in charge, being there for others, tending to the needs of my parish,  to a place where I find myself having to let go and allow others to do for me;  not only in my ministry but in accepting the generosity and help that have come my way during this time.

I haven’t always been one to accept help easily, as a clergy friend said to me recently, “you are a giver as I am, and we don’t find it easy to accept help from others because we are the one’s suppose to be doing the giving.”  And while I hadn’t thought of it in that way, she was absolutely right.  Having the personality trait of being a ‘giver’ in ministry is a very good thing, but there are times that our nature to give has to be curtailed, in order that we can help others too, to learn and give in the true heart of giving, as in the words of St. Paul written in acts, “remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive”(Acts 20:35). And so ever more humble, realizing it is likely my overdoing and rushing around, not paying attention to my own needs that got me into this trouble in the first place, with a broken foot, that I step back and let others do the giving,  “knowing that, “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).  Still in a cast and waiting patiently for the time when I can safely put both feet solidly on the ground again, I give God thanks always.