Just Because

I would have graduated from seminary this year – had I not gotten divorced. I would have graduated next year if I had not gotten pregnant. I’m responsible for my own actions so I’m not sad that I’m not a pastor right this moment and that I probably never will be a pastor. I’m actually quite ok with all of that. I just know that being in seminary and wanting to be a pastor kept me accountable to my spirituality. I let myself go when I stop paying attention, where there isn’t anybody there to remind me.

One of my problems, which I might have mentioned before, is my need to perfect everything that I do. So if I plan on praying, then I need to be a perfect prayer. Of course, that is not going to happen. No one prays “perfectly”. There really isn’t any need to. But I want to pray perfectly.

So I don’t pray because it cannot be perfect. And I feel the distance between God and me and my consciousness and the world around me.

I’m also one of those people that need to fix whatever is wrong. So I called the senior priest at my church wanting to find somebody to talk to. When I had been in seminary I had a spiritual director and she was wonderful though this time I was determined to find somebody who would teach me to pray perfectly. Because I felt an immediate need to speak to someone I agreed to meet with him thinking he was not a viable option as a permanent spiritual director. And really, I didn’t think a man would do.

Maybe it will work out though. The conversation we had was wonderful. However, I don’t think he will teach me to pray perfectly. But that’s ok because I don’t think that is ever the point, regardless of what I keep thinking I want. Maybe it might not still work out depending on how our conversation goes regarding what I think about God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. But for now, Fr. B seems like a nice, old guy that challenges me and makes me a bit uncomfortable with his piercing questions and honest opinions. And after that meeting I felt peaceful. Maybe I’m finally accepting the path that I am on. We’ll see.

I have always been fascinated with monasticism and prayer. As I have mentioned before, I once had a childhood fantasy of becoming a nun. I’m pretty sure the appeal is in the solitude and organized aspect of that kind of life. While for some that kind of regulation seems boring, for me it feels productive. If I could organize my life that way with the support of a community, I might get more accomplished. These days I have nothing much going on except entertaining a 16 month old who is oh, so close to walking. You’d think I’d get more done.

Anyway, back to nuns and monks. Even celibacy appeals, even now. With my firm belief that celibacy is not a choice but a gift, I wish I had that gift. To be able to channel all my sexual energy and all my real energy towards community living, social justice and loving the world as opposed to loving one person is one of the things I’ll never have. However, I can only hope that I will find someone who will love me – and Tomas – and who I – and Tomas – will love, and that our relationship will enhance and better us so that we can do our part towards community living, social justice and world peace. Oh, and a second kid. (I really, really want a girl!! I keep thinking of putting Tomas in a dress, taking a picture and pulling it out whenever the girl longing pains my heart.)

But because I can’t become a nun, and the world does not function in the measured time of a monastery, how can I live my day so that I take time out to center myself, ground myself enough so that I don’t become paralyzed and lost in my anxieties and depression? I have thought of creating my own hours with my own music and my own prayers mixed with some of my favorite psalms and readings. This might take me a while, but I realized that as my seminary days grow more and more distant, the less I read that inspires me and that motivates me. My passion for social justice has declined because I am no longer around people who are motivated by those things. Not that the people I hang out with aren’t motivated by legitimate things. Family worries and busyness is legitimate. I just wanted more for myself and I have let my seminary failure determine my life and that needs to stop. I need to find the old part of myself that I loved and update her to what my life is now. As I evolve, as God-lover, trendy non-granola semi-hippie and mom, as I figure out what it is that I really want and need (immediately, a shower – in the future, TBD), I will find an end to the run-on sentence that is my life and find some satisfaction and fulfillment even if I’m not happy all the time.