Blue Roof Moments
I hope that everyone is surviving the heat and remaining Covid free!
When Josh asked Vestry members to take a week during his leave to write a Spirit Shot article, I chose one of the further dates to give myself ample time to produce something inspirational. All the previous articles have been heartfelt, insightful and a pleasure to read.
My husband and I are Emmanuel transplants and came to Holy Spirit by accident or as I like to say, “We are all where we are supposed to be.” Holy Spirit was such a welcoming place, and it was an easy transition.
After twenty-five years as a runner, (and seven orthopedic surgeries later), I have progressed to being a walker and enjoy my two or three mile walks most mornings. I use this time to meditate, pray, and just think. We are truly fortunate to have a sidewalk beside our home that takes us directly to a greenbelt and I walk into the next neighborhood and around their lake. Like most people, there is an order to my daily prayers, or it may have come from my Baptist upbringing. Anyway, it goes like this: give thanks for blessings, ask forgiveness, pray for others, and then pray for myself. My forgiveness prayer is always the same. “Please help me to be less judgmental”. My judgments have nothing to do with someone’s beliefs or opinions. My judgments are small and petty and are not spoken aloud. A perfect example would be, “No time to look in a full length mirror this morning??” or “Why would anyone choose that color for a car??”. Again, the thoughts remain mine alone and are never spoken, but after a while my mind gets crowded with completely unproductive thoughts.
Flash forward to my walks and passing by a house where the owners recently replaced their roof, as many of us have done in our neighborhood. However, this roof is a complete deviation from the brown or black colors approved by the homeowners’ association. This is a blue roof and it catches my eye on every walk, and I wonder what made them choose that color and how they got past the homeowners’ association. Yet, another judgmental thought! I am not proud of this, but many mornings as I passed by that house and at the point in my prayers of asking for forgiveness for being judgmental, I would completely abandon the prayer and move onto why someone would ever choose that roof color. It took Josh asking for a Spirit Shot article for me to connect the dots. One morning, it hit me like a ton of bricks just what I was doing and how I was missing time with God and in nature to worry about a homeowner’s color choice.
I have now labeled these thoughts as “Blue Roof Moments” and work hard to replace them with something more productive, like offering a prayer for someone suffering from an illness or thanking God for the wonderful blessings in my life. I am so far from perfect, but I hope this revelation in my daily thoughts and prayers have moved me in the right direction.
Blessings to all.
Pat Groves
Vestry