What a difference

two years make. This weekend I've been flashing back to my first weekend of seminary spent in a frantic rush of madly reading and lots of tears. I felt so overwhelmed, and no matter how much work I did, it seemed that there was always twice as much left to do. Kind of like eating a big pasta dish where you eat for half an hour only to discover you haven't made a dent. This weekend I had time for dinner with a friend, some apartment cleaning, watching half of the first Star Wars movie (of the real trilogy), taking walks each day, going to see the movie Star Dust, some homework, and various other tasks. No crying. No anxiety. Even my three upcoming sermons couldn't persuade me to be nervous and overwork. It's been a very pleasant weekend. Something I couldn't have imagined two years ago.

On a completely different note, Madeleine L'Engle died last week. I was reading a bit about her over at Beth's blog, and I was reminded of what a companion she's been to me ever since I read A Wrinkle in Time in the 5th grade. I have read and reread those books as well as most of the rest of her books. I think I've rebought them several times over because I lend them out and they tend not to come back. In fact, I seem to be down a copy of A Swiftly Tilting Planet at the moment. I remember hearing her speak at a Women's Conference at Sewanee when I was there as a guest stage manager for The Grapes of Wrath. She seemed old and frail then, and that must have been over ten years ago. Whenever I get discouraged about how slow something is, I remember that A Wrinkle in Time was rejected something like 49 times before it was published. There's still hope for me to write a book! She had an office at St. John the Divine in NYC and she wrote about her struggle with the church. Her books have been a great influence on me. I am sad that she is gone. I hope that in the resurrection she will have all of her questions answered. Such a curious mind.