The theme of this blog, as I tried to articulate it in “A Welcome Message” at the top of the site, is about the richness of contrasting experiences. In that first essay, I offered the image of how a certain color of a wall meets a contrasting color of a ceiling….just two colors. Today, though, I’m imagining the juncture of two walls – each with a different color, unusual as that may be –meeting that same ceiling: three instead of … Read More
So now it’s official: I’m not quite the Bishop’s Wife yet because he’s not quite the Bishop of New Hampshire yet, but I am the Wife (I’ll keep the capital letter, thank you very much) of the Bishop Coadjutor Elect, and – however you call it – the past week has been an unusual one in the life of this family. The flurry of articles in newspapers, as well as the blurbs on local radio and television stations, led to … Read More
We have a kind of a mix-up going on in our marriage: my husband, the introvert, is encouraging me, the extrovert, to follow his lead and get a Facebook account. I’m on the Facebook Fence. Talk about turning the tables. For as long as we’ve been together, I’ve been the one planning most of our get-togethers with friends in the here and now and emphasizing the importance of keeping in touch with people from way back. It’s true that he … Read More
When we have a “moving experience,” it usually means we are enriched by it in some way — affected emotionally, even pulled to a place where new vistas open up for us. The actual experience of moving, however, is usually different: especially when it’s a whole family doing the re-locating, there is inevitably a feeling of loss mixed in with an anticipation of new opportunities and adventures. Since my husband was named one of three nominees to become Bishop of … Read More
Do we remain ourselves as the years, like waves, lap up on the shore or do we become different people over the course of a decade, half a century, a century? A couple of recent family get-togethers have pulled me back in time, and as a result, on most days this spring I’m surrounded by memories — some of which are not even my own. It’s true that I was just about a complete stranger to organized religion when I … Read More
You might not think that “wanton destruction” or “a state of violent disorder or riotous confusion” would have any place in a clergyman’s home. Think again, dear reader. It’s after Easter now, in a college town known for plenty of partying, and I’m reporting in to say that a little madness in the spring– mayhem, even — has crept into our normally quiet abode. Recently my husband found some post-Holy Week relaxation in watching, on YouTube of course, those new … Read More
“Just think of it as one service that spreads out over three days,” Rob said to me, trying to be helpful. I was asking him to explain the different services of Holy Week for the umpteenth time. Certain things don’t change: He is always just as amazed by my fogginess about the whole crucial story as I am by his ability to guide people through so much worship year after year. When I ask him why he says “three days” rather … Read More
Before unleashing one of his sermons at church, my husband is likely to gaze out into the congregation and notice that people are in their usual pews. Of course there are slight variations from Sunday to Sunday, and often one or more newcomers who don’t have a favorite location yet, but there is also quite a high degree of sameness to the configuration. Certain people like to be right up front on the left, say, and others prefer the back … Read More
This weirdly warm March has brought out mixed reactions: some people don’t mind a bit that there’s been very little winter to speak of and are ready to garden; others (I’m in this group) feel there’s something kind of eerie about the missing cold temperatures and snow. We’re used to a certain rhythm of the seasons — even though for most of us who don’t work the land the weather conditions are more of a backdrop than anything else — … Read More
He no doubt meant it as a compliment, but when Rick Santorum referred to his wife Karen as “the rock which I stand upon” (The New York Times, 2/4/2012), apparently crediting her for the solidity of his religious faith, I was glad that my husband would know better than to describe our relationship this way. Besides the obvious fact that it would be uncomfortable to be stood upon at all, and that the rock involved wouldn’t have any freedom of … Read More