just have to say that an impromptu drop-by the vds annual alumni reunion on friday was lovely. admittedly, i nodded through the cole lecture (if i'd been at the part 1 lecture the night before, maybe i'd been more engaged?...and if i'd not stayed up the night before looking at one more thing online, then another). but then i came to the lunch that i wasn't previously aware of, and chatted with folks the rest of the afternoon until time to go pick up the guys. i ranted to a couple of friends about my recent frustrations with my employer, apologizing for myself along the way, answered by "it's worth ranting about...i want to hear about this...questions are good...you're a jewel, they're lucky to have you...and by the way, you look great." thank you, dear people who know what i need to hear, when i need to hear it.
in one of jean vanier's books, i believe it was, there's a bit in there about how community is not a place where the first priority is that all would be close friends, telling each other "you're fabulous"..."you are too"..."we're fabulous together." (he actually uses the word "fabulous.") rather, he says it is a place where we're honest with one another, and find a way to live peaceably together even when one or more community members don't especially rub us the right way.
and i agree with him - i think it's that kind of commitment that has held together my family and the circles of community of which i've been a part.
however - i also have to say that it's those "you're fabulous...you are too" moments that give me life, and make the other moments tolerable - whether the not-so-fabulous moments with those same friends, or the not-so-fabulous moments that recur with other people in my life that must remain present for one reason or another.
and that is why i love doing coffee with dear friends. more often than not, especially those "catching up, i don't see you often enough" coffees end with us mutually saying to one another "you're fabulous, i'm so glad we got together, we need to do this more often, i enjoy spending time with you."
i've been spoiled, i suppose. i haven't had that many situations in life where i didn't have a pervasively "fabulous" core community of folks. at sojo, we read the jean vanier chapter referenced above, and i felt totally prepared to have a void of "fabulous" feelings during the course of that year. and sure enough, we certainly had our moments, and some relationships became closer than others at different points in the year - but in the end, we had our little love-letter worship-fest with many genuine words resounding "you are fabulous...we are fabulous together."
because of this and so many other examples in my life - and probably also because i have so many pastoral-type folks in my life, as i enter the profession myself - i can't really imagine not having mutually-"fabulous" folks around me for more than brief stints of time.
and at the moment, as i sit in my naive, self-righteous frustration with my not-so-pastoral, not-so-prophetic, not-so-spiritually-concerned employer, i am grateful for being in close physical proximity to my already-formed "fabulous" nashville community, i look toward helping to form community in the future which edifies each of its members, and i seek peace, kind words, and the proper diplomatic strategy for dealing with my employer.
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