After a full night volunteering at church I am exhausted! It started with accompanying the children's choir practice - this was probably the most "fun" thing I did! The kids are great to work with and really sounded good singing. They are always so enthusiastic about what they are doing and really want to sing well. Just telling them "good job" puts big smiles on their faces!
From their I moved to a joint board meeting for Faith Formation. We were recently twinned with another parish and have been going through the pains of this process. While much of what we are doing is still separate, we decided to come together to get to know each other and see if there are areas in which we can collaborate. Our programs for grades 1 - 10 are still separate but we offered the adult sessions jointly for the first time this year. The meeting started out very tense but did become much better as it went on. It does take alot of energy, though, and I was already tired when I left early from that meeting to go to adult choir practice 30 minutes late! By 9:00 I was ready for a good glass of wine - only to be stopped by one FF director on my way out of the church, and the other FF director in the parking lot. An hour later I was finally home!
Through all of this, along with a long phone conversation this morning with one of the FF directors, I have determined that many people in each of the parishes are listening and making decisions and/or judgements with a particular filter over their lenses rather than truly listening and trying to work together to make a really positive environment. It is really very frustrating! And, everybody thinks someone else is the problem! Yikes - I'm ready to just step away but I feel very vested in my church and it would kill me to do this. I'm hoping a little R & R will help me see things through fresh eyes. Or, it is time to step away from some of my volunteer activities with the church and just be a parishioner!
Looking forward to a quiet weekend - maybe I'll finally get back to that knitting.
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