And this is not worth an entire one, but still appropriate for the group: The UMC a stone's throw from me - I can see it from my living room window - got a new pastor about a month ago. I happened to be there for his first sermon and the welcoming carryin afterward. I don't remember very much about the sermon except for one thing: he said he had a naturally retiring personality and had to push himself to go out among people even though he loved them. "I'm a loner." That was when I thought he might really be worth listening to. A person who enjoys their own company earns my respect. Maybe its partly the way I grew up, but I never felt at ease around clingy people. They make me feel smothered.
We've had a few brief private conversations here and there, planned and unplanned - he lives just across the alley from me. I feel more understood by him than so many people who look at you like you're weird or cracked somehow when you are happy living alone. With dogs, of course. They're as necessary as water, food, air, and shelter. I actually love people more because I don't have to stay in the crosshairs of the ones who bother me. I have patience but not like a saint. It occurred to me just now that most days I talk more to my dogs than to other people.
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