Licking my wounds
After a (more often than not) good weekend with my family back in Hutchinson, this week's been off to a rough start, and I'm licking my wounds a bit today.
The parish council met last night. Without getting into details (I'm not intending to air out dirty laundry here!), I can say that I had a few little victories in the things I brought to the council, and took what seemed like a pretty major beating on one other. It caught me off guard, and I'm still trying to figure out what happened, and how things got so tense so quickly, and especially what I can do to mend things now and avoid such moments in the future.
As the title of my blog points out, I am still a "young pastor." My bumps and bruises leftover from last night are a reminder of that fact. There is much room left to learn and grow.
As I mentioned, though, at least one proposal (which I expected to be the contentious one, actually) sailed through unanimously, with only the slightest amending. And to their credit, my council members stuck with the meeting even when it was getting hairy... they're good people. Maybe I did a better job of communicating the ideas of the one proposal than the other. Something to think about.
I'm also licking my wounds a bit with how things are with Nikki. She's had her ups and downs. Yesterday she was having an "up" day. Today seems to be more of a "down" day. But even her most "up" days are not like she was last month at this time. An up day now is one where she's not trembling so much, where she's eating stuff, and where she's generally attentive to what's going on around her. A down day is one where she often looks "out of it" and unhappy, like she doesn't know what to do next to be happier or more comfortable.
It may blow over, but it may not. Something happened three weeks ago, and Nikki's been in the dumps ever since. I'm starting to consider the real possiblity that Nikki and I may only get this one Christmas together in Litchville. And that, to put it succinctly, stinks.
My family commented on how she's aged. Not necessarily since they last saw her, but compared to how she was when I first brought her home. But the change since they last saw her is real, too. On Halloween, you probably wouldn't have believed Nikki was eleven years old if you saw her bouncing, running and playing. Most people assumed she was a puppy. On Thanksgiving, you probably wouldn't have doubted me if I told you Nikki was an old dog. She looked and acted the part. That she has changed that much in such a short time is too discouraging to say.
So I guess you could say I'm really licking Nikki's wounds, although that image leaves something to be desired.
There will be more up days, I'm sure. But the honest truth is that I'm a glum fellow today. At least when I don't have my "game face" on.
The parish council met last night. Without getting into details (I'm not intending to air out dirty laundry here!), I can say that I had a few little victories in the things I brought to the council, and took what seemed like a pretty major beating on one other. It caught me off guard, and I'm still trying to figure out what happened, and how things got so tense so quickly, and especially what I can do to mend things now and avoid such moments in the future.
As the title of my blog points out, I am still a "young pastor." My bumps and bruises leftover from last night are a reminder of that fact. There is much room left to learn and grow.
As I mentioned, though, at least one proposal (which I expected to be the contentious one, actually) sailed through unanimously, with only the slightest amending. And to their credit, my council members stuck with the meeting even when it was getting hairy... they're good people. Maybe I did a better job of communicating the ideas of the one proposal than the other. Something to think about.
I'm also licking my wounds a bit with how things are with Nikki. She's had her ups and downs. Yesterday she was having an "up" day. Today seems to be more of a "down" day. But even her most "up" days are not like she was last month at this time. An up day now is one where she's not trembling so much, where she's eating stuff, and where she's generally attentive to what's going on around her. A down day is one where she often looks "out of it" and unhappy, like she doesn't know what to do next to be happier or more comfortable.
It may blow over, but it may not. Something happened three weeks ago, and Nikki's been in the dumps ever since. I'm starting to consider the real possiblity that Nikki and I may only get this one Christmas together in Litchville. And that, to put it succinctly, stinks.
My family commented on how she's aged. Not necessarily since they last saw her, but compared to how she was when I first brought her home. But the change since they last saw her is real, too. On Halloween, you probably wouldn't have believed Nikki was eleven years old if you saw her bouncing, running and playing. Most people assumed she was a puppy. On Thanksgiving, you probably wouldn't have doubted me if I told you Nikki was an old dog. She looked and acted the part. That she has changed that much in such a short time is too discouraging to say.
So I guess you could say I'm really licking Nikki's wounds, although that image leaves something to be desired.
There will be more up days, I'm sure. But the honest truth is that I'm a glum fellow today. At least when I don't have my "game face" on.
posted by Bob at
12:35 PM
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