Back Into Parish Ministry

 For a while.

On Thursday night 13th April I dreamed that I had been appointed to the staff at St. Augustine's Church in Bristol.

Appointed with me was Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook, Professor of Practical Theology and Religious Education at Claremont School of Theology.

( I  knew Sheryl when she was on the staff of the Former Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA)

In the dream a more senior member of the St. Augustine's staff asked Sheryl and me to move some hessian (burlap) sacks (contents we knew not) to the Church Undercroft.

I began to dismount from a large chest on which I had been sitting, and fell to the ground.

I had indeed fallen.   But I had fallen out of bed.  I banged up my shoulder, but no bones were broken.

I am a restless sleeper. I toss and turn, never finding comfort. I may start the night in my bed, then half asleep, move to a recliner, then back to bed.

Zion hears me quoting Scripture (totally out of context) "A wandering Aramean is your Father".

I've fallen out of bed before (always on the right side) and have trained myself to sleep in the middle of my full sized bed so that I can turn over safely. My guess is that when I returned to my bed last Thursday I was still half asleep and pitched my body too close to the edge.

My shoulder still hurts.  Ample applications of Pain Relieving Cream with Lidocane help.

My bedroom is small, so I can't set the right side of the bed alongside a wall.

So I bought a bolster pillow to go onto the long side of the bed.   This forces me to sleep in the middle. Should I turn over I will turn onto the bolster, not the floor.

(I'd thought about putting oversized cushions of the floor to muffle my falls, but they would be a slide/trip hazard)

P.S. 1  I am slated for an overnight sleep study on Thursday 27th April.

P.S. 2  There was a St. Augustine's Church in Bristol, near the inner City Harbour    It was bombed beyond use in WWII