I made it!

I recall the last part of one tramp I did. I was dehydrated. I had blistered feet.  I had carried too much stuff and it seemed there was just one hill after the other. When we arrived back at the car I just sat on the ground in sheer relief. "I made it!" I blurted out, because there were times when I thought I may not make it. It felt like there were too many hills to climb.

Well its been a bit like that for me in the past week. For a lot of reasons I started the week feeling sad. Tuesday was a "normal" day, except we had a Church Board meeting. This meant extra work and thinking. On Wednesday I was asked to sit in the Emergency Department with a woman who had had a stroke. It took up most of the afternoon, a day I was hoping to get a lot done. Thursday seemed normal, but there were a couple of extra duties, phone calls and conversations. On Friday morning I ended up running a defuse at a volunteer fire station, for fire fighters who had watched a colleague die, in spite of their best attempts to help. I was not that happy with how I performed as facilitator, though there were a number of factors making it difficult. On that day also I heard that a man had died in the hospice and that I would take his funeral on Monday. He was only 51 years old! Friday afternoon involved my normal chaplaincy visits, and in the evening our Friday night Drop-in centre. Saturday morning I worked hard on the Habitat house, (frames are up now) then spent much of the afternoon talking to the family about the funeral. Saturday late afternoon, night and Sunday morning were spent preparing the morning church service, the powerpoints, the newsletter for Sunday and presenting it all. At church I learned of a man who is disenchanted with what is happening at church. I am not surprised, given his theological stance, I would be disenchanted if he was running the church. Though I can understand it, I still find it hurts to have put someone offside with me. The news made me feel useless as a minister and drained my confidence. Sunday afternoon I went back out to the funeral family, helping prepare a powerpoint set up for the funeral. Sunday night and Monday morning (Mondays are my normal day off)  I prepared the funeral service. From 1p.m. - 4 p.m. I was tied up with physical preparations at the church, presenting the ceremony and then packing up after the funeral. The funeral went OK, though I was not on top of my game. It was held at an historic little church at Pukihiki, on the Otago Peninsula. 

It was then I collapsed in absolute relief. "I made it!" I blurted out as I sat in my office chair.... because there were times when I thought I would not. I did not attend the after funeral bash because I wanted to claim some "me" time. I enjoyed a late walk up Flagstaff, arriving on top just at sunset. There was a light dusting of snow all around, which in some places had turned to slippery ice. The lights in both Dunedin City and Mosgiel were just coming on, so the scenery was very impressive. It was just a short climb, but it was a nice way to unwind.

Humour

One of the stressors was the fact that I had only met the man whose funeral I was taking once. That was in the hospice when his mind was a little confused anyway. It is never easy just depending on what family say about a man. You could get it all wrong. I was lucky though that there were a number of speakers. The picture I got of the man was that he had a positive nature tackling any job he took on with a passion to do it well and that he had a sense of humour. As people told of various incidents, I began to see that a sense of humour is such a valuable asset in life. You can help brighten people's day with a smile and a laugh. You can weather any storms with a sense of humour. As I drove along the top of the Otago Peninsula, on my way back to town from the funeral, I sent a prayer up saying, "Lord give me a sense of humour too please!" 

Photos: Bottom to top... Snow on the path up; The summit looking across to Swampy Summit; The sunset; the path on the way down with an orange horizon.