28 Day Cleanse - Day 2

Got up and made a multi-grain cereal with some unsweetened almond milk. One of the funny things about this plan is that you have a thing called "Wake Up!" You're supposed to get up and drink some water and tea and maybe a fizzy tab. Are you kidding me?! Since I went to bed hungry, don't they realize that the first thing I want to do when I get up is eat!? Seriously.
However, the hunger makes me much more aware of my body.

I had a shake for lunch. For dinner was two out of three. Yummy turbot and some great starchy veggies from Trader Joe's. However, the salad was a big fail. I think that cooking these veggies is more the way to go for me. I like dressing. Plain and simple. But I'm not so crazy about salad, so eating veggies in other ways is okay with me.

Back to the body awareness: Yesterday I had a headache. Today no headache. Yesterday I was a bit light headed. Today less so. The new less than pleasing side effect is a really awful taste in my mouth. What is that about?

God awareness: Nothing much to report. I led a memorial service this morning. I was certainly aware of the presence of God and my openness to follow God's lead. It's like being in the zone.
I am going to go to bed, pray for strength and go to sleep with a realization that millions of God's children go to bed hungry.

28 Day Cleanse - Day 1

So, maybe this is just what it will take for me to write more regularly. I've just started a program that was recommended to me by a friend. It's called Metabolic Edge. It is a combination of very basic foods (organic lean meats, limited starchy veggies, low sugar fruits, unlimited leafy greens and other non-starchy veggies, etc), protein shakes and other products from Figure 8 by Arbonne, and a paleo cleanse product that is used after day 7 and increases to a 4 day liquid only and then reverses the trend til the end of the 28 days. It's about gratitude, doing what is good for my body, understanding what foods I may actually be allergic to, and personally, trying to spend less time focusing on food and more time focusing on God. They say when you're hungry, think drink not food (non-alcoholic, mind you). I'm adding think God. The way I look food, I can only imagine I'm going to have a LOT of God time!!!!
My plan is to blog daily and to reflect upon my changing relationship to food and to God.

P.S. I appreciate people's thoughts and concerns. I do not believe this is a program that compromises my health.

Day 1 in the very early morning

I'm sitting at the computer at 6:24 am with cereal in hand. We are scheduled to leave the parking lot at 7ish. We have an 8+ hour drive ahead today. Our destination is Sisters, OR. I am wishing we could take the unseasonably cool weather with us to the heat parched Northwest! I have never gone on a trip like this and been less prepared. Usually, I'm a leader/coordinator/driver/organizer. This week, I'm simply an advisor and a parent. I am looking forward to less stress and less responsibility (we'll see how that works for me!) I pray for safe travels, willing service, transformed lives and openness for whatever God has in store.

Correction

Oops! Campbell Farms has a new website http://www.campbellfarmwa.org/ See their Wish List for opportunities to send them charitable donations! I need to pack right now....unfortunately, there is no room for a portable air conditioner!!!! Eastern Washington is hot, hot, hot!

Mission Trip to Campbell Farms

On Saturday morning at 7 am, I will depart from Lafayette with the youth group and their advisors from Lafayette Orinda Presbyterian Church.  3 of the other members of this mission delegation are my family (husband David and daughters Allison and Shannon).  I did a mental calculation and figured that between the 4 of us, we’ve done nearly 30 mission trips in the US, Mexico and Latin America, but never has that trip been with all 4 of us present.  So, this is a first.  It will be Allison’s last as a high school student.  We are going to Wapato, WA to Campbell Farms, a Native American reservation that is a working farm (entirely self sustaining). http://www.winbeam.com/~campbellfarm/

I hope to be able to provide some photos and other reflections from the week.  But first, I have to get my head around packing!  Right now my main prayer is that the heat wave of the Northwest subsides and that my heart is open and my hands willing to serve. 

saying goodbye

It's hard work to say goodbye and today, we do so as a church community. We bid farewell to a beloved pastor, loving sister and aunt, devoted colleague and friend to many, The Rev. Linda Ellen Regan. As a pastor at the church we she served and where she is the Pastor Emerita, I feel overwhelmed with that nagging feeling that I am not up to the task of helping others say goodbye. So much loss, so much grief, so much pain....what can I say? What can I do? I know it's not about me, but as a human being, I have the capacity to make it so. I must trust God to see me and the community through this time.

Linda's own Statement of Faith says, "Through grace: God's unconditional, undeserved, unearned love, I believe...." So I shall stand and claim that grace for myself and all others, for nothing, no nothing, can separate us from God's love.

I've been installed

Just like a new Kenmore washer and dryer set, I've been what they call in the Presbyterian Church (USA), installed as the called pastor of Clayton Valley Presbyterian Church. Many people have said to me, "Did you get a new church? I didn't know you were searching?" No, I did not. I've been at CVPC since October 2007. I came in as a Temporary Supply Pastor (sort of like the ones they get off the shelf at the big box store...you know, the ones where you can buy the pastor of your dreams?) Seriously, it has been a long journey for me and for the church, but it is finally a call.
Many of the members of the church have asked me if I was excited for this to be completed. Hmmmm, excited? Maybe a better word would be relieved. Also, this is not the culmination of the call. It feels like that happened months ago. I love this church. I love the people. I love the work. I see so much to be done. I know that all will not be easy. I understand my own brokenness and the brokenness of the church. In all of it, I see God. Excited, not really. Ecstatic with God's overwhelming Spirit....Absolutely!