Merry Christmas... and we're off!

Hi, whover is still out there, and Merry Christmas!

I must say, it's been an amazing couple of years since I've written. I'd actually forgotten that I have this blog, and then, in the past week, three completely unconnected people have either recommended that I start blogging, or asked me to post again to this one:


1. Scott Armstrong, my pastor at City Church-Eastside. I sent him a "deep thoughts about Charlie Brown" email (not kidding - I will repost it on this blog) - and he recommended that I start a blog. I gave myself a major spiritual high five for that one, I must admit. Not that I'm counting...


2. Uy Vu, an old friend from years ago who now lives in Hawaii. Out of the blue, he sent me a facebook message and told me he missed my blog. Again, major funny-life-story high five on that one, since, well... I've always had the impression that I'm writing for an audience of one. (Hi, Mom! Love you too!)


3. Joan Hutcheson, one of the most wonderful women I've ever known. She was the wife of my dad's boss, the Superintendent of Schools for Vidalia City Schools, when my family moved to Vidalia when I was five. She was kind and interested in me, even though she did cook asparagus casserole for us. (Sorry, Mrs. Hutcheson, but my five year-old self thought asparagus was icky. Truth be told, so did my dad! Ha! He's going to hate me for that one. Today, Dad and I are both proud eaters of asparagus. I think you might have had something to do with that.) She was then my fourth grade homeroom teacher, and always kind and patient with us - and I pretty regularly had the impression that she was trying not to laugh at a lot of the stuff we did, which made me like her even more. Then, when I was in high school, Mrs. Hutcheson and I both participated in a year-long Bible study, called Disciple. I got to know her as an adult - a kind, remarkably curious, intelligent, amazing, inspiring woman. She wrote letters to all of her favorite authors, and has an awesome collection of their handwritten letter responses. When I went through a rough time during law school, she gave me a book called "Kitchen Table Wisdom," and wonderfully understanding hugs. Just this past Sunday, when we ran into each other at church, she caught me up on her grandchildren, and we talked about how much we love our churches and pastors, and philosophized about the susceptibility of all groups to cults of personality, and the safeguards that organized denominations try to put in place to guard against that... In short, she's a remarkable woman and I adore her. So when she told me that she'd be checking my blog, I was really thrilled.


So that's it -- three people, completely unconnected, reminding me to blog. All in one week. So here we are! I'm really grateful for the reminder, and for the sense of connection I feel when someone reads.


To get back into this blog, I had to reactivate a defunct email account, contact yahoo, contact blogspot, and reactivate the blog itself. After some pretty fancy online antics if I do say so myself, we're off!


Next post: the email that I sent to my pastor that kicked this whole thing off. Merry Christmas, y'all!