Friday Five: Rivers in the Desert

I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19, NRSV

As we near the end of the long journey toward Easter, a busy time for pastors and layfolk alike, I ponder the words of Isaiah and the relief and refreshment of a river in the desert.

For this Friday Five, name five practices, activities, people or _____ (feel free to fill in something I may be forgetting) that for you are rivers in the desert.

A well-timed set of questions...

1. A Day Off.
Part of the struggle of Lent, although it is one of my favorite seasons of the year, is always the busy schedule which inevitably comes along with it. I always know that it will come to an end, so that helps, but it's the one time of the year in which my normally stoic resolve to take a regular day off starts to evaporate. And, believe me, I notice it in myself. For various reasons, some good and some not-so-good, this has been a particularly busy Lent, and I know that my lack of sabbath days has contributed significantly to my slightly cranky attitude at the moment. So I am working on that.

2. A Little Piano Playing.
Yesterday afternoon I had a very stressful meeting planned, one that had been coming for about a month, and I was completely (naturally) distracted by that impending thing all day. About half an hour before it was scheduled to start, I went into the sanctuary and played a particularly beautiful arrangement of "Tallis Canon," which I know as "All Praise to You, My God, This Night." There is something about playing the piano which calms me. My mom says that she could often tell how I was feeling during my teenage years, not because I would tell her directly, but by the music I chose to play after my official "piano practice" time was over. This is why I was completely traumatized by the movie, The Piano: the idea of losing a finger, and thus losing your ability to play, is like the idea of having your tongue cut out. Sometimes expressing yourself artistically is a river in the desert.

3. Talking with Spouse.
This is still a fairly new one for me, having been married about two and a half years; I used to talk to the cat a lot, and he was a good listener, but he rarely gave good feedback. I know how very fortunate I am to have a spouse who really is a good listener, who is extraordinarily calm when I am freaking out, and who will say what he thinks in a constructive way. Don't get me wrong: the man is not perfect, and sometimes I think that my Catholic friends might have the priest/celibacy thing right, but on so many other days I am tremendously grateful for a friend in the house, someone to keep me from driving myself insane.

4. Brain Candy.
Sometimes I just like a little Desperate Housewives/Grey's Anatomy/Sex & the City/insert-junk-entertainment-program-here (excluding American Idol and all reality television, with the exception of Project Runway). It's good to laugh. It's nice to get caught up in someone else's made-up drama, the resolution of which is someone else's responsibility. This is a pretty shallow river - more like a creek - but it's nice to have a little of it once in awhile.

5. Worship.
So I could have listed this one first, but saved it for last. Not because it's always best, but simply because it's always there. I have a hard time with personal devotions, and working on that is a constant struggle for me, but worship - yes, I'm paid to be there, but it's something I need apart from the paycheck. That's the joy of all the Lenten busy-ness; so much of it has to do with worship that it's not as draining as a lot of busy-ness tends to be.

Others that didn't quite make the cut but deserve a mention: a good cup of coffee, a good glass of wine, a nap, a really good book, reading some of my favorite blogs, a conversation with a great friend, and, when all else fails during this particular time of year, Cadbury's Mini-Eggs.