BAM! Kerchunk!

That, friends, is the sound my 20-year-old gas dryer made on Sunday night. Fortunately it was holding the very last of five loads; unfortunately, it had just started. Incisive diagnostician that I am, after I detached my fingers and toes from the ceiling and resumed breathing, I thought, "It finally threw a belt." And so it had.

Being married to a handy person is a great blessing. I think one of the minor reasons why I married the Scientist is that he can fix anything, or at least is willing to try. He dismantled the ancient dryer, discovering the busted belt, a prodigious amount of lint, a front door key that went missing two years ago, and $1.63 in change. Thank God for him, and for repairclinic.com (if you are handy, or live with someone who is, this is a wondrous website). Our new dryer innards are on the way.

Anyway (Still with me? Still awake?), all that is to say, that that is why we walked down to my MIL's house late at night with a load of wet laundry, how we got sucked into watching the Oscars instead of simply drying our clothes and going home at a reasonable hour, and how I wound up staying up until 12:30 and stumbling around like a zombie all day yesterday. The only time I wasn't thinking "do not lie down...do not close eyes" was while I was with a client. As soon as my client left, I was sleepy again. It felt great to go to bed on time last night.

Oh, and my client. I have a marvelous new referral source: the local Catholic Archdiocese. When I served on CPM, and used to read my candidates' psychological evaluations, I envied the psychologists who got to do that work. Then several months ago, a colleague who has been doing a lot of these evals for the Archdiocese introduced me to the priest who is in charge of the Office of Vocations, and to my delight he has sent me four candidates this month.

I love talking with these men. Some are mature in their faith and in their personal lives, self-aware, filled with love for God and the church, and I think they will be wonderful priests. Others are more in the inquirer stage, still finding their way, wondering if this still small voice they've been hearing could really be God's. I've been a little surprised how frank they are willing to be about their sexual struggles and their feelings about celibacy--but they realize that's one of the big things we need to discuss. Family of origin issues, childhood trauma--it's all there, and most of them seem willing to take a closer look at the impact these things could have on their ministry. I feel so privileged to meet with them, and pray that they will gain some useful insights from their evaluations. Healthy clergy, equipped to lead healthy churches, is my prayer--for all of us, not just the Catholics!