Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Reflections on the year

As 2008 slips on by, with me way behind on other people's blogs, I did find a minute to spot-check my Bloglines account today. One of the blogs I checked was Diane's, and it is from her that I hereby blatantly steal the idea for this post.

She put her reflections in 3 categories: Memorable, Disappointing, and Ambivalent. I'm not ambivalent about "ambivalent," but I am about the other two, so I'm changing their names.

Joyful:
1. Attending the RevGalBlogPals Big Event 1.0, and looking forward to 2.0 this spring.
2. Our church finally completing its new building and making the long, long move across the field from the building we'd already sold.
3. Being able to provide a home to Tuesday the dog, when the timing was so right it just couldn't be denied.
4. Getting opportunities to work with new people in my same job.

Sorrowful:
1. The death of my sweet girl, The Best Dog Ever, Cub. But thankful for the outpouring of sympathy, even from people I've never met.
2. The deaths of two clergy friends, one anticipated, one unexpected. Each of their absences leaves a hole.

Ambivalent:
1. United Methodist General Conference. As a rookie delegate, I'm still trying to figure out what I learned, and what kind of difference it made that I was there. I don't believe all of my time there was wasted, but I struggle with the apparent necessity of navigating tons of bureaucracy in the hopes of doing at least some good.
2. Deciding, discerning, which opportunities required a yes and which required a no.
3. Reacting to my sister's and my brother-in-law's deteriorating health. Not being sure if I've always made the right call. Trying to maintain healthy boundaries in these situations as we decide how to help.
4. Tiptoeing into other forms of social media. I got two more Facebook invitations today, both from family members, and I'm still not planning to join. On the other hand, Twitter is kinda nifty. On the other other hand, finding out through Twitter that a friend has just died is kinda odd. On the other other other hand, I got ReTweeted a couple of times yesterday, which I liked.

Time to get my new chair's slipcover out of its dye bath in the washing machine. We shall see whether the result of this experiment lands in Joyful, Sorrowful, or Ambivalent... tune in next time...

7 comments:

zorra said...

Oh, go ahead. Do Facebook. I have re-connected with all my long-lost Yankee cousins and a bunch of friends from college and graduate school. It's fun.

Tyra said...

Oh, I love Facebook! Join! I've even found friends from junior high, last seen in 1984.

Happy 2009 to you!

DogBlogger said...

That's one of my problems with FB, Tyra -- some of us would rather forget junior high ever happened....

RevAnne said...

It's high school I'd rather forget, myself...but I still enjoy Facebook. I just keep blocking cheesy little applications offering virtual gifts :)

Michelle said...

I'm glad you took the plunge. Yes, it's a little cheesy, but it's also really easy. And, there are some fun things like poker and wordgames and other time killers. I've found Governor's school people, high school people, and friends from work that have left Tyson. It's definitely making it easier to find people that I actually wanted to talk to. And, ignoring the ones you don't care to talk to is pretty easy too!

Linda said...

FB has surprised me with the ease of rallying people re: social justice issues. I'm also proud that I personally know 61% of my FB friends! The rest are either friends of friends or various health support buddies. I also don't feel bad about blocking TONS of definitely cheesy applications. :)

Unknown said...

And how did the dye bath turn out?