5 Moments

Quick-Play Friday Five (I’m at the Rocky Mountain Conference UCC Annual Meeting in SLC, UT, taking 5 for 5!)…five memorable moments of insight, discovery, awareness--from childhood or later, something you experienced or something you shared with someone else (read more at RGBP).

1. The first one that comes to mind is my ordination… when people removed their hands from my head/shoulders (I was kneeling during laying on of hands) and I stood, I felt as if my body were literally being pulled upward from the crown of my head—to the point that I remember thinking I was standing on my toes to keep up with the sense of pull. That experience led me to understand that this was not simply a symbolic act… I don’t know what it was, but it was “true.”
2. My first day and night of on-call as a student-chaplain in a hospital, I was called to the bedside of a dying man. He died before his one family member could arrive. I breathed with him until the end. When the family member arrived, I had to lead her to the morgue (a decent “viewing room,” but still), prepare his body, and pray with her. They were both Jewish, I was Christian, and I’d never experienced anything remotely interfaith before.  That was the day I knew—with all my being—that I was being called to chaplaincy as a vocation.  Thanks be to G-d.
3. The moment (it was a revelation!) that I realized I was intensely attracted to a woman. Within 24 hours of that moment I told the whole world (at least those people most important people in my world—best friend, subject of my attraction, parents, church mentor, etc.) that I was lesbian. Holy wow!
4.   Singing at summer camp. There’s nothing better. Still!  As a kiddo, I’d sing so hard I always lost my voice before the final campfire… and I was so very sad. It hurt that I couldn’t sing out with everyone else. It was then that I realized how much singing meant to my spirit; even if I do it poorly I don’t care, as long as I can sing my heart out. Now I know how to use my voice better, so there’s no stopping me (I also only go to camp for 3 days now rather than a week—that may help). J
5. That’s all I can think of quickly, and I need to get back to the gathering… but THANK YOU for this opportunity to remember….