Simon, Teddy and Oliver

My family and I moved to Texas in the spring of 2003.  When I say “my family” I am referring, of course, to my wife and sons, but also to our two siamese-himalayan cats, Edmund and Evelyn.  A few months after our arrival someone left a box out in front of the church.  There were three tiny gray tabbies in the box.  I begged my wife to keep one.  Against her better judgment, she acquiesced.  We named him Oliver.  Elizabeth (Bizz) Watson, King of Glory’s accounts payable administrator took the other two, Simon and Teddy.

Edmund, a gorgeous rug of a cat who loved Jennifer and tolerated the rest of us, died the Saturday after Thanksgiving 2010.  His little sister (and I do mean little.  We affectionately called her “the two ounce kitty”) died on Christmas Eve 2011.  As an only cat Oliver is settling in well.  He is almost what one would call affectionate, even to Jennifer, whom he would simply hiss at in the past after attacking her foot or hand and scampering away. He almost doesn’t need his daily prozac any more.  Yes, prozac.  He’s been getting it daily since our vet recommended it a few years ago.

A few weeks ago I got a phone call from Robert Watson.  Bizz died of cancer in December.  Robert misses Bizz desperately.  That’s a good thing.  (I remember very well when as a rookie pastor I asked a widow how she was doing and her reply was, “Horrible!  And I wouldn’t have it any other way!”)  As we chatted I asked after Simon and Teddy.  They were well, Robert said, ornery but well.  Ornery seemed to run in the family, I told him. He seemed half amused, half embarrassed when he told me that their two cats had been on prozac for two or three years.  I fessed up about Oliver and we laughed about the things we do for our pets.

Leaving King of Glory was difficult.  We still miss our friends there and we don’t stay in touch as well as we should.  Bizz is one of the people I miss the most.  We weren’t personally close, but in many very quiet ways she was a key part of a very loving staff community.  So Oliver is not just Oliver any more.  He’s Simon and Teddy’s brother.  He’s a tie to a wonderful time in my life and one of the people who made it so.  We miss you, Bizz, and we’ll see you on the other side.

 

Eat, Sleep, Exercise

Think how hard it is to make those three things happen well. If you’re locked in with fastfood or even prepared food from the grocery store you don’t eat well.  You just don’t.  But if you’re one of the dwindling few who actually eat meals made from the raw materials (a sincere thank you to my wife for fighting the good fight in our household), it’s still tough to get enough of “this” while staying away from eating too much of “that”. And then there are folks like me who eat well at home but hoover anything fattening and sweet at work. I’m getting better, but sugar lows that hit in the mid to late afternoon can convince me that donuts are real food and cookies are too small and light (even by the handful) to contain actual calories.

And sleep?  Between what should have been done yesterday and absolutely must be done by tomorrow, helping kids with homework and ruminating in the wee hours over the 201K, sleep can be a bear.  I used to just sleep like a baby, but now I get up at least once a night to pee (It’s not age, of course.  I just have a small bladder.) and my shoulders are pretty good during the day, but they ache enough at night occasionally to keep me on the edge of wakefulness.  And when I do sleep as soundly as I used to (and, actually, I usually do), I find that I don’t sleep nearly as long.

As for exercise, we live in a world that moves us from one sedentary active to another.  Conveyor belts, elevators, escalators, cars and every imaginable movable contraption (The segway?  Uggh.) conspire against us to make sure that the 500 daily calories we consume through beverages (Yes, it’s true.  The average American consumes 500 calories daily in pop, juice, etc.  That’s 15,000 calories in a month.  It would take a daily 80 minute run to burn that off, something the average person does NOT do).  The only hunting and gathering we do involves shopping malls and most of us run only at the mouth.

These are three of the reasons I’m starting my sabbatical May 21 with a five week canoe trip.  I will eat not to entertain myself, but because I’m hungry.  I will sleep because I’ll be exhausted.  The five or six hundred miles I will cover will be human powered.  And, God willing, when I return those five weeks will help me change bad habits for the better.