Street Corners and Little Miracles

I went to Orientation for my Summer CPE today. I will be serving as a Chaplain Intern at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital throughout the summer. I am excited, nervous, anxious, and thrilled all at the same time.

I stood at the corner of 21st Ave and the entrance to the hospital recalled a conversation I had a little over a year ago. It too took place on a street corner but in Chattanooga. It was a beautiful day and I had finished lunch. My friend Gwen looked at me and said “don’t let this place take your soul”. I had just been promoted to a managerial position at the company where I worked. She too had been in management for a good bit longer. She actually was my trainer when I came to work in August of 2000. She was well aware of the perils I was about to navigate. And she knew me much too well to attempt to buck up my ego.

And that is when the journey to this place began. I was struck this morning by how different my life is now than how it was this time last year. I am certain I am different but in ways I cannot name at the moment. I feel more peaceful though Heidi would tell you I am still hyped up 90% of the time. Only subject has changed. Another friend calls me “Capt. Anxious”. That too will fit.

My key relationships have been challenged to the very core of their being but are on track now. Thankfully. God bless that. We have come through the storms of uncertainty I never dreamed would face us. I know how blessed I am to have the people around me that I have. Who keep me grounded and hold me when I sleep at night. It is a miracle in so many ways.

There is some sense of moving I think. Not on as if to move along, but a movement toward something. I am trying to get used to actually having a summer for a few weeks. I will be back on an 8-5 schedule in June. That will be odd. Someone today told me they didn’t realize I had “grown-up” clothes.

I have actually taken to gardening. I have done it in part because I lost a bet to Heidi but in larger part because I am starting to see the therapy in it. Granted I needed some help in identifying the difference between a yellow leaf and a cucumber bloom but I will get there. I cussed one morning while trying to drag the water hose into the front yard in my pajamas. But, I go and check the garden every night and find myself looking over it as though it were a miracle. It is that indeed.

So as Josephine liked to say, “We shall see”. England is next up. It will be fascinating. To be where John Wesley was and the ages.

Good grief, we are but a twinkle in the eye of our Creator.