Questions, Questions

Peripatetic Polar Bear asks:

1. When you were a child, what did you think you'd be when you grew up? I wanted to be a scientist and an actor. At the same time. Important, earthshattering scientific discoveries by day, Rodgers and Hammerstein by night. I was able to (sort of) accomplish both -- I worked as the "offical mathematician" at the local science center for 13 years and have been involved in theatre for 22 years. I still love theatre, but right now real life gives me all the drama I could want, nes pas?

2. If you could do one moment of your life over again, what would it be? The night my father died. He had been in bad health for a long time, he lost a lung as a result of his involvement in WWII and had been a semi-invalid for many many years. He contracted a type of pneumonia that antibiotics wouldn't touch. My mother and sister and I had been camping out in the hospital waiting room for more than a week and we all were stress and tired. We had talked to the hospital administration about moving him to hospice care the next day. He looked stable for the night and so for the first time in more than a week we decided to go home and get some sleep. I was really irritable from lost sleep and nursing an infant. When he said "Good night baby. Thanks for the dinner and I love you," I was really short with him and said something like "yeah, yeah. See you tomorrow." That was our last conversation. If I could, I would go back and leave with more loving words. But I have realized that it's how you live your life, not the words that you leave on that really matter -- so I have a measure of peace. But still want to change it.

3. If you could be a superhero, what super-power would you want to have? I want a "turn-backer" watch like Hermione has in the last movie. It would be *so* cool.

From Michael at Blogin' Idiot

1. To find those precious moments alone do you find yourself staying up late, getting up early or a little of both? Ooooo... I am the definitive night owl. I usually am the last person to go to bed and stay up way too late. So, mornings are ba-a-a-d. I drink lots of coffee. But, three days a week I see the kids off to school and the husband off to work and I have time to drink coffee, listen to music and write lots and lots of seminary papers. But I don't really become human until way after 9:00 am.

2. God provides small miracles every day. What was the most memorable miracle for you? The everyday miracles that we take for granted are special. However, my most definitive miracle that defined both my faith and my journey occured during 1996, when I had breast cancer that I discovered during my 8th month of pregnancy. I had already gone into preterm labor and the baby had low birthweight, so we decided not to operate -- that it would be too risky. I waited until the baby was 6 weeks old and tried to wean her so that I could have the tumor removed. By this time the tumor had grown from the size of an English pea to a Walnut. Weaning the baby was unsucessful. She was allergic to all the baby formulas we tried (more than 17). She came within a few ounces of a condition called "failure to thrive." She could not tolerate anything but human breast milk. I could not stop nursing without risking the life of my baby. I risked my own life by not having the tumor removed. I chose to wait. After six months the baby was large enough to wean off one side and I have the tumor removed. They removed more than 1000 cc of tissue. I continued to nurse and then developed a severe wound infection. The miracle? I never had radiation or chemo and to this date have not had a re-occurance. I feel I have found healing. Through this experience, I rediscovered God. I rediscovered what it really means to act out your faith. I learned reliance on God. I re-discovered my call from God. My husband and I became stronger individually and stronger in our marriage. Through this suffering, my life was redefined and somehow redeemed. That's the miracle. Strange, huh?

3. Peeking at you through the veil of your blog I see a beautiful, talented, intelligent, articulate, organized and persistent young lady with a heart full of love. How do you see yourself? Uhhh... Hmmm... Just me! Persistant sure fits. Like a dog with a bone. Young....eh.... depends on what you call young. From your comments, I believe we are about the same age. About. I can do some things well. I *love* to teach -- I am defining my ministry position as "Associate for Christian Education and Technology." I *love* to preach. It's the hardest thing to do, but it's also an incredible experience. I love to bring the congregation to God in prayer. Today I felt the Spirit move during the prayer -- we had a person kneeling after communion -- she is going to have surgery this Wednesday and about 15 people surrounded her and laid on hands. I went to the lecturn to pray -- I had lost the prayer I had written, so the prayer was extemporaneous. I felt the little group around B expand until the entire congregation was enfolded in prayer. When we began to pray the Lord's prayer, the unity I felt cannot be expressed. I do love my people.

Organized? only by necessity, not nature.
More later. My, that was tiring.