June – 2018

Persevere is my Word for this Year.

Looking at where I am in my life, I really don’t want to take on anything new, but I do need to deepen my knowledge and commitment to the things I am doing.

• Politically – I’m going to persist in the resistance.
  • People Power – I continue to serve on the Texting Team for People Power. That means most days I send between 200 and 600 texts to people who have signed up with the ACLU People Power. Some of the texts are invitations to training for organizing. Some are invitations to organizational meetings, and some are invitations to write, phone, or email political representatives. They are all sent individually and answered individually (thank goodness, I have canned answers available – but we individualize everything as much as possible.) Remember, the ACLU is political but non-partisan. I am one of the texting leads on this team. There are four of us who try to take some of the burden off of the folks to do the real work of getting everything set up. We also TRY to deal creatively and nicely with other volunteers who may not be very understanding or kind.
  • Wall of Us – I continue to try to accomplish the four actions requested by Wall of Us every week. For instance, this week we are asked to honor Independence Day by Fighting the Muslim Ban, Tell our Senators to Block and Supreme Court Nomination until After Midterms, Continue to Support On-the-Ground Organizations Keeping Families Together, and Ask Greyhound to Stop Driving our Country’s Values to the Ground.
  • I have a recurring donation to the Poor People’s Campaign.
  • I’m also collecting signatures for a ballot initiative in Washington State, to tax carbon polluters and use the extra money to build more wind and solar power farms. It’s Initiative 1631. The petition drive ended last week and I haven’t heard whether we got enough signatures to get it on the ballot.
• Religiously – I’m going to really work at being Moderator of Olympia Presbytery.
  • June’s Leadership Council meeting was held at Camp Soundview
    We met out at the camp and were treated to a wonderful lunch and a tour of the facilities.
  • Interfaith community – I continue to meet with the Interfaith Ladies once a month.
  • I was elected by the 223rd General Assembly to serve on the Nominating Committee for the Presbyterian Church (USA) class of 2024. I still need to be trained.

• Creatively – I’m going to try to get down to working on my family history/memoir.
  • Fill in gaps on Ancestry.com – Still working on my genealogy (I don’t think it’s ever finished).
  • I finished the poetry course, and the instructor has agreed to help by editing some of my things. I’m looking into doing some self-publishing because I know I’ll never get anyone to publish a book of poetry.
  • Keep up with my knitting – I’m turning out a couple of pairs of socks a week. So far this year I’ve turned out 40 pairs of socks and have yarn for 8 more.
• Personally – I’m going to keep up walking, and try to add some resistance training.10,000 steps a day –
  • I’m keeping up with this, but not being obsessive about it.
  • 2-3 sessions of weight training a week – I finally made an appointment for a personal trainer here and I now have appointments to do strength and weight training as well as my Fitbit steps.
• Socially – I’m going to tend my current relationships.
  • Gazebo Group – The Gazebo Group continues to thrive (particularly with the younger (less than 80 years old) members of the community). We’ll be sponsoring a cookout on the 4th of July, since the staff will all be on holiday.
  • Maintain congregational ties – I attend weekly Bible study and try to attend whatever extra worship services there may be.
  • My brother, sister-in-law, and nephew visited the first of June. I tagged along with them on a trip to Victoria, BC. We had a great time.

I would really appreciate it if you, gentle readers, would remind me of these intentions when you see me fluttering off after the latest cause du jour.