Cooking Creativity

On Monday, when it was time to write the Pastor's Message for the Church Newsletter, I asked our Church Administrator if it was too late to talk about the Practice of Lent. As I confessed to her, I'm still not sure what to do with this season. In her brilliance, she assured me that it was needed and valuable even if it did arrive one week into the season. She remarked: Write it for yourself. Isn't she brilliant? So, I wrote about Creating My Own Humanity in which I concluded:

In this season that came too soon for my human needs, I'm going to try to create. This Lent, I'm going to try to make spring. I don't think that this will result in a studio of complete paintings or a pile of short stories or even a completed knitting project. I am simply going to try to create -- for the sake of creating. I'm going to try to allow my human creativity connect with God in more places in my life. In these 40 days, I'm going to try to create -- and I may fail -- but this is part of my humanity too.

And so, I have presented myself with the challenge to explore my creativity. The snow storm (that changed to constant, endless rain that will soon freeze over) forced me to say home so I pushed up my sleeves to cook. I bought ingredients yesterday to make chili from my home church cookbook. Several years before I arrived, the church I serve now created a cookbook in which no recipe appeals to my palette. Curses of the New Yorker snobbery. I turn to my home church cookbook which offers yummy delights. It smells good too.

While I cook, I'm listening to NPR and heard a newsbit about this website: Couchsurfing.com. I'm fascinated. This summer, I will be traveling to Iona with two of my Young Clergy Women friends Teri and Amy. Our plan (I hope) is to spend a week in Iona in prayer followed by a week in Edinburgh. Before that, I'm hoping to spend a week in Glasgow wandering about by myself. But, it seems I could have a friend and a free (or really cheap) place to stay. How exciting. Or perhaps a little insane. I'm going to dream about that while I cook a little more.