Wednesday Festival: Beautiful Summer Edition

So titled in honor of Sally's glorious sunset photos. What's beautiful in your neck of the woods? Why not take and post a picture, and let us know where to find it in the comments...? (In case you were looking for something to do today...) :)

In the News (doo doo doo, doo doo doo)
RevGals are In The News again...have you seen the article about our ring at BlogHer? It's titled "Christian Blogs That May Surprise."

Life and All That
Mindy has Gone All Progressive on us!

And RevAbi has been sweaty with love. Abi also cleans up really well, and her gorgeous daughters do, too, for wedding/flower girl duty.

All God's Creatures...PinkShoes has a new inhabitant at her church.

1-4 Grace has been having a bit of a rough go, but makes a stellar presentation to St. Casserole. That's the spirit, Grace! Laughter is a sound the Lord loves!

Speaking of making a joyful noise, Gord has a djembe at his house, and a new drummer; and Rachel at The Big Dunk has been playing djembe in her church's drum circle.

Quotidian Grace shares about why Bruce Matthews is her favorite Hall of Famer!

LutheranHusker shares poignantly about how a fender bender turned into both a life lesson and a trip down memory lane.

Molly was asked to apply for a job, and is thinking hard about it.

Scripture and Stuff
Sally is thinking about being vulnerable to God.

Jeff (Philosophy over Coffee) has composed a series called "Children's Sermons that TextWeek Rejected." Aw, comeon, TextWeek!!

Kievas Fargo has pointed out a small but important miracle of Jesus that goes largely unnoticed.

Shawna has posted two great articles: one on the Gospel from Iraq, and one on Depression and Spiritual Direction.

Amy shares about a realization she had, watching a musical: we are Telling the Story!

Scott's got a sermon to share on The Rich Fool, and is thinking about his denomination's membership decline.

Back to school...
Lorna's heading back to seminary in Estonia next week, and looking at her scripture choices for a sermon to be handed in before school starts. But, in case you think she is working too hard, here are some photos from family R&R time in the country.

Who else is headed back to seminary? I know I've seen some posts around the ring...? And special ed teacher Cathy is already back in school! Her kids started on August 3!

CPClergymama wants to go back to school, and would appreciate some input on PhD programs.

Challenges
Sally shares a video from YouTube that caused her to feel both sad and challenged. She indicates it points out our need for a holistic theology, and for building bridges.

Please Cherish Yourselves
As has been noted on the RevGals blog in the past, the planning team continues to work on our RevGals Big Event planned for next year. "Relationship building and spiritual development will be the focus of the Big Event," said Quotidian Grace in reporting the group's discussions. Another theme that emerged in our discussions was self care.

Working in ministry, with many of us women, we tend to be the healers, caretakers, fixers, etc., but perhaps not take the time for that care for ourselves.

The brief Myers-Briggs Type Inventory that many of us have done online (here's mine, and you can take it yourself by clicking on the chart)) recently shows that while there are a variety of types in the ring, but Zorra notes that many of us, especially those with the NFP profile, suffer from depression. In this vein, I commend to you again Shawna's article on spiritual direction, which has certainly got me to thinking. And I ask you, in all love, to take some time each day to practice love and care for yourselves.

Beautiful summer. Beautiful you. Open your heart and let God speak to you today.

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If we missed your nomination, if you just forgot...please get it added in the comments! Happy Wednesday!

edited to add: Yikes, I went to clean out the Spam box and there are half a dozen real nominations in there...some of them old! Sorry y'all, I'm working on getting them added!