I am delighted with this theme!!  This is REALLY a good time of year to be thinking about all the delightful things that bring me joy…like the end of another school year.  (Ok, that’s a bit tongue in cheek..I will miss many of my students as they move on).

But the wonderful thing about summer is that it gives me the opportunity to recharge my batteries and dig into my creativity.  Even when I am planning my next school year, I can allow myself to delight in what makes me happy about being a teacher and what kinds of activities I would be delighted to try.   And Rev. Kaaren gave us a prescription today to relax!  Thank you, Kaaren!  I shall take that medicine!  (Sorry mine got a little wrinkled when I was hugging Rev. Scott goodbye…more on that to come…)

And our summer installation is delightful as well!

Painted by Laura Wilder, inspired by a walk in Durand Eastman Park.

This lovely painting inspires me to take Kaaren’s prescription which calls for no substitutions and three refills!

So what shall I delight in doing this summer?  One thing that I am delighting in is rebuilding myself…physically, emotionally, creatively, and spiritually.   At this very moment I am delighting in the most scrumptious juice I have ever made: carrot, apple, celery, lemon, and ginger.  I am not sure I could ever replicate it exactly, so I am taking special delight in savoring it.

What I have really been trying to do for the past year or so is to remove all the “hats” that I have been wearing throughout my adult life and try to figure out who is underneath them all.    I had come to realize that I not only felt but behaved differently depending upon the situation I found myself.  I had my “Mom” hat, my “Teacher” hat, my huge collection of “Performer” hats… I had so many hats, I felt like Bartholomew Cubbins from that Dr. Seuss book!  So, like Bartholomew Cubbins, I have been removing my hats one by one over the past year or so, waiting to get to the point where it’s just Susan, and the breeze blows through my own hair.

I have found that it’s very uncomfortable being hatless when one is not at all used to it.   As just Susan, I find that I am very, very different than when I am wearing one of my many hats.  I have no trouble standing up in front of people when I wear the Teacher hat or the Performer hat and have a lot of extroverted energy… but put me in with a group of people to socialize with as myself, and I suddenly become an introvert.   I sit there quietly listening because I awkwardly do not know what to say.  And frequently, I say very little…but that’s something to work on.   I am not yet comfortable without having some kind of hat to wear that somehow directs how I speak and act in certain situations.  I purposefully took off so many hats to try to find out what’s underneath, and it shall be my delight to work on that discovery.

Speaking of taking off hats, it is with mixed emotions that Rev. Scott will be leaving as our Co-Pastor and moving on to work for the Unitarian Universalist movement at large.  While this is a wonderful opportunity for him and a BOON to the larger UU community, it is an incredibly sad thing to know that he won’t be serving at our church in the ministerial capacity any longer.  Not that he’s totally leaving us… he leaves us in Kaaren’s most capable hands!   But I have to tell you, when this year’s pledge drive focused on the whole superhero thing, I have always thought of Kaaren and Scott as the dynamic duo of First UU!

I am delighted that you are not leaving us entirely, and I wish you well, Scott, in your new endeavor!   And we all look forward to having you join us on THIS side of the podium!  🙂

And Kaaren, we’ve got your back!  🙂