Work, anxiety and half-birthday balloons!

Back to work today after a 3 week break. Feeling out of touch and not really able to leap into the "stuff" of work. I think i've been in limbo for a very long time and now i'm waiting to see what the consultant says about my neck/shoulder before feeling that i can get on with anything. However there's always plenty to do while in this waiting room - going through emails, chasing up the engineer about my office phone, going for physio treatment and coming back feeling even more sore both in the neck and in the wallet(!), and catching up with what's happening and what is about to happen... This last bit is what makes me particularly anxious as the department is doing its annual review, revisiting major goals, visions, and looking at KPIs (Key Performance Indicators to you and i!)... And i don't know where, or even if, i still fit in - or i guess if i even want to...

Fortunately i am launched up and out of this worry-wartedness by the announcement that it's Gail's half-birthday!!! Whoops! I promised her that i would do something for this occasion, having been out of the country for her 40th birthday and what have i done? Nothing! I forgot and i'm heartbroken. Not only does she have to alert me to the fact but she also has to suggest going out for a meal. What can i do? The house already has 3 vases of flowers - all bought by Gail for me - so i opt for a big helium star-shaped balloon that says "Celebrate!" and i pay for our meal at Pizza Express. I manage to get and quickly write a card too but i now understand the forgetful husband who dashes to the florist, the jeweller, the perfume counter on his way home from work!!! Of course i am in no way suggesting that Gail is the wee wife at home!

So do i have a spiritual message for today? Well without going into detail we have been discussing sex, how it fits into our theology and our struggles with identifying with non-monogamy, non-egalitarian and other behaviours and lifestyles other than our own... And then i read one of the articles i need to read for the course and lo and behold it's Carter Heyward writing about teaching sex in seminary!!! So here's the message:

respect for self and others is an underpinning of justice and peace and is also a primary human expression of the love of God...

To read the whole article, go to "Body and Soul" edited by Marvin M Ellison and Sylvia Thorson-Smith.