Cat, get off my chest!

Kind of hard to compose an entry when my cat is standing on my chest, purring madly and blocking my view of the laptop screen propped on my leg.

I accomplished more today than I have in...weeks?

As one of the members of my Quaker Meeting's Worship & Ministry Committee, I was responsible for care of Meeting today. It's the job of the care-of-meeting person to close worship by shaking hands with her/his neighbor; also to welcome folks at the end of worship, invite visitors to introduce themeselves, and make announcements. The role goes beyond the nitty-gritty, though. Ideally we're a sort of anchor for the worship, by our own centeredness helping to ground others in "expectant waiting" on the Spirit.

...That's ideally. I have a hard time centering myself, let alone helping others do so! This in spite of growing up as a Friend in the unprogrammed tradition. Faith-by-osmosis only works up to a point.

Well, I got myself to Meeting in plenty of time to attend First Day School beforehand; set out the announcement sheets, contribution envelopes, Bibles and copies of Faith & Practice on either side of the facing benches; and sat myself down on said facing benches several minutes before the official starting time of worship. (...An improvement on the time when I arrived a couple of minutes late and other W&M Friends were already sitting in the care-of-meeting spot! ^^;; Apparently they figured I was going to be a no-show.)

All through worship, I found my mind wandering, straying as far as fanfiction at times... at least there was a smattering of vocal ministry that succeeded in tugging my thoughts a little deeper for a few moments.

Then it was noon, and I stood up and stammered my way through the welcoming/announcements spiel. One of the other members of W&M asked later if it was my first time closing Meeting (it wasn't).
:-/

Sheesh, I'm making it sound as if W&M is a judgmental group of fuddy-duddies. They aren't. I just feel...lightweight sometimes, immature, insubstantial, not as rooted as I ought to be in the life of the Spirit.

But at least I soldiered, er, I mean Quakered my way through a task that makes me exceedingly uncomfortable!

I walked much of the way home from meeting. Exercise good. Dehydration headache bad (today was unseasonably hot here). One thing about walking, though--it makes me feel more like I belong to this city. So I plan on doing a lot more walking this spring/summer.

Back home, I scrubbed ferociously to remove at least some evidence of mouse-invasion from the kitchen floor. Yergh. Vacuumed up Shag-fluff and more mouse detritus.

And after much postponing, I finally sent an email of condolence to a friend I haven't been in touch with in forever--her sister passed away. That was the real accomplishment of the day, I think. (I caught up on some other correspondence too, but that was the Big Scary-feeling one.)

*sigh* enough rambling. Time to make myself something to eat.

(Shag apparently thinks so too: in one sinuous motion she rolled herself to her feet, meowed, dropped off the futon and padded toward the kitchen.)