Celebrate!

This is my 200th blog! This leads me to a story.

When I was in fourth grade, I began to have some interest in writing.  My father, a printer on the newspaper, started bringing home the end rolls of newsprint and I began to write little poems and stories. As a high school senior I edited the school newspaper and later worked on college papers and in public relations departments.  My plan was to get a double major in sociology and journalism.  After I dropped out of college one semester, I couldn’t complete the journalism major and graduate on time. I ended up with only a journalism minor.  When the Kansas City Star was on campus interviewing, I interviewed with them.  But my goal had always been to be a therapist and I followed that dream to get my master’s degree in social work. 

                After a career as a therapist, I developed another dream to pastor and have been blessed on that path.  When I “landed” in Columbus, MT, as a settled pastor, I began to be published in the newspaper.  I discovered a latent dream I have harbored to work for a small town newspaper.

As we prepare to move back to Tennessee, I have been grieving leaving the newspaper behind.  Then I thought, “In this day and age, I could still write for the newspaper if they’ll consider having me continue.”  Well, what do you know?  They will! 

                I have been considering how I might reshape the direction of this blog.  I will keep my kateshopecafe.net address but focus it under the title “Two Cups of Tea,” a play on the book title Three Cups of Tea, intended to convey the image of chatting with a friend over a cup of tea or coffee.   These blogs will be shared in the local paper.  Perhaps I will have the opportunity to write some other things for them as well. 

                I am full of celebrations: my 200th blog, my career as a therapist, my pastoral roles over the years since, and now this long delayed dream to write for the newspaper. If you have joys, accomplishments, whether large or small, I urge you to give yourself credit.  Rejoice in those happy events and  achievements. You owe it to yourself. Consider it a moral obligation!

May we be bearers of hope, the “wait staff” of Hope’s Café for each other and all those we encounter.  Shalom, Kate

Hope’s Cafe Bonus: “The more you celebrate your life…the more there is in life to celebrate.”—instagreeetings