Thursday, 1/2/03

Hi, magnificent people ~

What a couple of weeks it�s been. I don�t know if you have any idea of how busy it is at a church prior to and during Christmas and New Year. By New Year�s Eve, I was really exhausted. Consequently, I took today off work in addition to yesterday.

Here are the highlights:

Thursday evenings I did the last 2 of my Practicing the Power of Now groups for December.

Friday evening the 20th I hosted a potluck and showing of �It�s a Wonderful Life� at Unity Santa Fe. Not a lot of people showed up, and it was fun anyway.

Sunday the 21st I was Prayer Chaplain for the 2nd service at Unity Santa Fe.

Monday and Tuesday the 22nd and 23rd were intensive preparations for Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve at 6:00 was our annual candle lighting service. Unity Santa Fe looked awesome. A team put together hundreds of farolitos (not luminarias, for the sake of you who don�t live in Santa Fe and don�t know the difference). For anyone who doesn�t know what they are at all, farolitos are a Santa Fe tradition on Christmas Eve. They�re paper bags (lunch size) partly filled with sand with a candle stuck in the sand. When the candle is lit, it lights up the bag. They had them lining the road from the highway to the church and then up the walkway to the door and all around the patio.

For the service, I was one of the candle lighters (representing John/love). A woman who has operatic training was our soloist. Incredible. You haven�t lived until you�ve heard �Oh, Holy Night� sung by someone like her.

After the service I did some impromptu Prayer Chaplain work with a woman who was grieving about the death of a friend whom she had usually spent Christmas with.

Then came the real highlight! A group of us from the church met at Canyon Road (actually, it�s the Canyon Road area, not just Canyon Road) and did the walk (another Santa Fe tradition on Christmas Eve). I loved it. There were thousands of people doing the walk. The whole area was lit up with farolitos and other decorations. There were many groups singing carols (and I�d sing with whoever I was close to). This isn�t sounding as fabulous as it felt to me. I guess you had to be there.

The only down side was that there was someone I hoped would come with us who had family plans and didn�t. I was a bit disappointed.

When we got cold, we went to a private party at one of the galleries. Brendalyn is on the Board (I think it is) of this gallery, so she had an invitation for all of us. For non-Santa Fe folk, Canyon Road is the center of Santa Fe art. There are galleries every few feet. I'm not the cocktail party type, but the food was good.

Christmas Day I mostly just rested and watched the New Mexico Lobos play in the Las Vegas Bowl. They lost, but they stayed in the game a lot better than some of us thought they might.

Then on Thursday and Friday, Peg, my co-worker, Office Manager, and friend, took time off. Thus I did 3 days of work in 2 days without anyone else there to help. Even most of our volunteers took time off.

Sunday the 29th I drove out south of Santa Fe into the boonies and picked up my long-time internet friend Vera, who was visiting her mother and sister from South Carolina. This was the first time we�d met in person. I took her to church with me (she�s another Unity person). It turned out to be a great service, and I had the opportunity to introduce her to a lot of people. Afterwards, we went downtown to one of my favorite restaurants for lunch. It was great finally meeting her in person.

Then Monday and Tuesday were a combination of preparing for the New Year�s Eve Burning Bowl service (including lots of climbing up into � literally up a ladder and stepped into them - rarely used large cupboards, looking for things) and working with a consultant trying (still) to get the church computers networked since we got our new computer. I intended to go home about 2:00 because I was coming back to work that evening, and I didn�t get away until 4:00.

I worked the Burning Bowl service. As I said to a few people, I was the all-purpose person that night. I was one of the Prayer Chaplains, helped with set-up, operated the overhead projector, cleaned up afterwards, and closed the building.

What do I want to say about this that doesn�t reveal too much that I'm not ready to reveal? By the time the service was over, I was thoroughly wasted. Thus, when I had the opportunity to connect with the same woman I was disappointed didn�t go with us Christmas Eve, I just didn�t want to do anything more. So, that�s still in limbo, and I still haven�t told her of my interest in getting to know her better. I'm not kicking myself, and I do feel disappointed again. I also turned down an invitation to a party.

So, I went home about 9:00 and went to bed. I set my alarm for 11:55, woke up, watched the ball fall on TV, and went back to sleep.

New Year�s Day was my traditional New Year�s Day � the Rose Bowl parade and lots of Bowl games. I also finally got my holiday cards (the ones to be mailed by surface mail) addressed and stuffed into their envelopes. (Yes, I'm well aware that I'm quite late with them.)

And now, here I am writing this on January 2.

So, what did you do for the holidays?

Warmly,
Michael

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