Rejuvenation Weekend

You never realise how boring you are until you have spare time to fill in.

I'm writing this early on a Sunday afternoon.  I was hoping to facetime with Grace and Rachel, but that's fallen through as they're staying with their uncle tonight.  As they're otherwise engaged I'm at a bit of a loose end in the time I'd set aside.

I've used this weekend to rejuvenate myself a bit: I've been feeling very blah mentally at work and so this weekend has been an attempt to get my perspective back.  I started yesterday with my Red Cross phone calls (all clients well) and then drove out to Rowville to see a client about some paperwork.  I was back in Melbourne by about 1pm.

The weather was depressing and so the best place I could think of to go and apply some mental Dencorub was the National Gallery.  They currently have a stunning exhibition of Venetian glass titled "Liquid Light".  I love the frozen perfection of these pieces: like music had been made solid.

 

That said, I found myself imagining funny captions for the mosaic of the Last Supper.  It's masterfully done although Judas looks like he's about to start breakdancing.

The Last Supper (Venice & Murano Glass & Mosaic Co., 1880) [Image from here]

From there I went off to St Mary Star of the Sea church in West Melbourne.  It's one of the most beautiful churches in Victoria.  I don't often go there was it's a bit out of my way, but every time I do I'm glad of it.  I attended confession and set into a meditative Rosary which I'd just finished when Mass began.

 

Quite a long homily from the priest which made the interesting point that "Doubting Thomas" might be thought of as a type of skeptic, demanding evidence rather than taking things on faith.  To that extent, by being persuaded by what he saw himself, perhaps he was not so different to the laity who were drawn to the disciples' healing work in Acts or John of Patmos watching and recording what he was shown in Revelation.

I should add that partway through the service I noted that the paintings of the saints included one of Thomas More, the patron of lawyers.  It seemed I was on the right track!

This morning was an early start, getting down to the Albert Park Lake for the Angela Taylor Memorial Walk/Run.  This Race is over 5 or 10 kilometres and is run by the Victoria Police Blue Ribbon Foundation in honour of Constable Taylor, who was murdered in the Russell Street Bombing. Conditions were pretty well perfect - cloudy and cool, with about a thousand entrants!

I got together with the SES team and we headed out.  I was on the 10km course.  This is shorter than my usual race distance and so I really hammered it with a sprint at the end.  I finished in a time of 50m32s which is just shy of a PB for me.  Outside of medal contention but it still left me pretty happy.

Which brings me to now, back at my digs.  I've had a kind of chicken/Greek salad for lunch and I think it might be time for a little guided meditation and maybe some yoga: pace Fr Flader, I'm not persuaded either practice poses as much of a threat to my soul as burnout does to my mental health or lactic acid to my muscles.

How's your weekend?