Daily writing prompt

Name your top three pet peeves.

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So, I am going to be honest and give my actual pet peeves:

1. People touching me! I do not shake hands (if I can avoid it), and I most certainly do not hug random people. I am not against touching, but it must be the right person at the right time. I do not do random, and I do not do forced physical contact.
2. Random talkers, I do not talk for talk’s sake. I would rather sit silently than talk about the weather or the football.
3. The outspoken ignorant. People who speak with authority on a subject when they are ignorant. That might be rude, and I am often so considered, but people “stay in your lane”.

Daily writing prompt

What’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make? Why?

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Perhaps I have had many hard decisions to make? Not all are worth sharing, and some are very private. Also, most are painful and triggering.

But the clearest insight, and the hardest decision, is that I control who has access to me. No one has a right to me as a person or an individual. Yes, I have a duty to others, which is ultimately a duty to God, but that duty (to other people) is not my relationship with God – it is my duty to my neighbour. The call is to follow Jesus.

While the above is not a huge problem, no one has contacted me with demands for access. Yet, I feel I should be available to people more out of self-serving motives.

As I have written before, the thing that I pray for (solitary life) is also the thing I fear the most. The decision to control access, to deny access for some, is emotionally difficult and is the hardest decision I have had to make.

Daily writing prompt

Who are your current most favorite people?

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I was thinking this morning that I am in a little slump regarding people. I’m not sure who to trust at the moment.

So, Jesus! Perhaps that is a little strange, odd, or weird?! I am not a very good follower. And my sin is ever before me. But I try – I desire to follow Jesus. Resting in Him is my favourite past time.

Sorry is that like superweird and uber-religious?

Daily writing prompt

Beach or mountains? Which do you prefer? Why?

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From those choices, mountains. I live on the beach. In fact, I can see the “bay” from my porch. But during my time here, I think I have been to the beach once. So maybe the mountains are more my thing?!

Why the mountains? Because they are not the beach? Or, it would be a change for me. Hermits often live in the mountains.

Perhaps a third option is the desert. Yes, it can be hot and very cold, but the isolation! And no one would visit. Is it NBN ready?

Daily writing prompt

If you could meet a historical figure, who would it be and why?

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Without a doubt Soren Kierkegaard. Perhaps in a coffee shop? I know he takes his espresso with seven sugars.

Besides the language barrier—I don’t speak Danish—I think we could have a nice conversation. Or, I could simply listen. From what I have read about him, I think we have a lot of things in common. We could talk about irony, faith, despair, or perhaps the state of the modern sermon. Of course, we could talk about Christology, one of my favourite topics, or the power of abstractions in the modern age. I would love to ask his take on social media, modern democracy, or the state of the church.

Why Kierkegaard? He has been the most interesting and insightful person since Augustine of Hippo in the last 1500 years. And he is not the “same-same” as the majority of thinkers.

Daily writing prompt

What book are you reading right now?

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I never read just one book. I have multiple books on the go at once in multiple locations. So …

In the chapel:
Common Worship: Daily Prayer and NRSV Bible. (This is not technologically true. I use a version of Common Worship that I have adjusted to my needs, but the outline is there.) I also use several different prayer books for other devotions.

In the dayroom (that is, the inner cell):
This Is Epistemology: An Introduction by J. Adam Carter and Clayton Littlejohn.
Also:
Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs by Douglas Smith
Also:
The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism by Douglas Burton-Christie

In the parlour (main room where people can visit):
The Nature of Biblical Criticism by John Barton
Also:
The Word in the Desert: Anglican and Roman catholic Reactions to Liturgical Reform by Barry Spurr
Also (and, to be honest, I like to have this book on hand to “soothe my soul”):
Anglican Papalism: A History: 1900-1960 by Michael Yelton

I am also reading a novel:
The Vinyl Detective: Written in Dead Wax by Andrew Cartmel

On my Kindle (that travels with me):
Introducing Medieval Biblical Interpretation: The Senses of Scripture in Premodern Exegesis by Ian Christopher Levy

Now that was real fun! I love talking about books.

Daily writing prompt

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

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I love where I live now. It is more than a house; it is a “home for a solitary”. To be honest, I am thinking of moving. Maybe it is simply my state of mind at the moment? I am disappointed in people. I can only change “me” so. I need to lower my expectations. That does not change the darkness within at the moment. Being a nobody with no history and no story would be magic. So the option is moving to somewhere to be alone.

But it must be Merton’s hermitage if I could live somewhere else. In pictures, it looks so idyllic. It has a chapel, an altar, a stove, and an open fireplace. So that is where I would live if I could.

Daily writing prompt

What part of your routine do you always try to skip if you can?

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As an enclosed solitary, I live alone to not skip any part of my routine. The space it gives me, the solitude and silence, is the freedom to be present in the moment to Jesus. The routine is to return – to return to Jesus in the now.

The life I lived before was all about skipping that moment of return. It was about other people, and, as I have realised, it was spent chasing other people’s affection.

But, on a purely practical level, I try to skip housework!

Not a meeting people kind of person. I once knew a bishop who was in the news. He was mentioned in Parliament. He ordained me. Apart from him, no one famous.

But infamous! That would be me. Well, at least in some people’s minds.