Here is the prompt from RevGalBlogPals.

So, let’s get on with a Random Friday Five.

1. Tell us a moment of blessing that you have experienced in the past week.

This has been a busy, busy week. But I have managed to make it to all three District soccer games for Alden and Elliott’s City cross country meet. So I am thankful for a flexible schedule that allows for things like that.

Celebrating a great season! Undefeated. Allowed only one goal all season (and that was in the District Championships).

But the surprising blessing was yesterday in the funeral at our church. This was for a woman who had worshiped with us the past few years and had been as active as her health would allow. So we knew her pretty well, but had not known her long.

We try, when putting together services for people to strike the balance between having a worship service where the gospel is proclaimed while also making it a personal service, in which the life of the deceased is really celebrated. Most days we do that pretty well, but yesterday, we accompanied Nadine at the end of her earthly journey in a way that struck that perfect balance.

And the Spirit created a space in that service where I experienced my own mortality in a good and helpful way, where I was reminded of the gift of this life we’re given.

Also, Nadine’s deacon spoke at the service and it was beautiful, true, and courageous. I serve alongside some really gifted and faithful people and am thankful for the privilege.

2. Share the first thing/story that comes to mind when you read “When I was a child…”

So many images come to mind, but perhaps because it is Fall, I think of all the time I spent playing outside. I grew up on a beautiful, tree lined boulevard. We’d play football in the boulevard, chase and be chased by the boys, build huge leaf forts in the Fall, ride our bikes throughout Manito Park, and generally waste a lot of time doing nothing in the beautiful outdoors. It was an ideal place to be a kid.

Boo Kitty enjoying a nice autumn day

3, 4, and 5. If you were the host of a t.v. talk show, what three people would you like to interview on your first show, and what would you ask them.

3. My birth mother, who I have never met. I would thank her for her courage and ask her to tell me her story.

4. Marilynne Robinson. She is such a talented writer. I would love to hear her talk about her writing and editing process. To use language both powerfully and succinctly is a gift. She has that gift. (And now I want to go re-read Gilead.)

5. John Irving. He is one of my favorite story tellers. The writing in his books is not always consistent (she writes with the awareness that his worst book is better than what I could dream of writing) but the storytelling in his books always grabs me. I would ask him who told him stories, or where did he encounter stories, when he was a kid. (And now I want to go re-read Owen Meany.)