A lovely day

Clearly the impact of Sunday night in terms of boosting confidence and morale in my churches is spilling over into the week...I'm having a really good time.
Yesterday featured two excellent visits, some useful paperwork (getting rid of things that had been hanging over me - including the discovery of the Long Lost Notebook containing vital notes from meeting in September, and the transformation of said notes into reliable minutes of the meeting...Hallelujah) and a burst of domestic activity as I tried to deal with the huge box of apples that a local funeral director kindly sent my way. It was strangely pleasing to have several tubs full of pork and apple casserole to consign to the freezer...maybe there is a wee bit of me that rather misses being "just a mum", and smiles when that sort of box gets ticked.

Today was quite different...A training day for women in ministry, called (punning cheerfully) "Taking responsibility for ourselves"
The blurb about the day spoke of the speaker's passion
"She explores continually how to set limits that satisfy others’ needs whilst enabling re-creation and abundant life."
It was good to spend time with someone who acknowledged and understood that double bind that so often besets women (not just in ministry)...to keep everyone else happy while recognising that we do have needs of our own that deserve attention. It was good to be given some helpful suggestions that might make it easier to handle difficult situations (we spent a while in the dreaded "small groups" planning our approach to a specific potentially tricky encounter which might come our way in the near future - and unhappily, I had one all dressed up and ready to go. It was splendid to be instructed to choose 3 specific ways of building up our reserves of self-worth (mine featured having supper with a good friend, writing a retreat into the diary here and now and planning a second proper dog walk every day). But the best thing was being in a safe group of colleagues...
I do know some wonderful women.