I might gonna be in trouble if someone tattles.

My day at church was spent on what might be best described as "ecclesial domesticity." Aside from some study and devotional time, I spent a major portion of the day on the phone. I chatted with The Ref about next week's sermon; contacted my Canon to the Ordinary about some paperwork and discretionary funding; helped a woman who needs some assistance with her rent this month; and had a lovely conversation with a friend now living and working in the Pacific Northwest, who passed on my name (along with a generous endorsement) to the powers-that-be there for possible consideration next year, when my curacy ends.

Then, after a late lunch, I looked around my office and spotted The Cabinet. This is a portable (and I use the term very loosely; that sucker's heavy!) wardrobe-sized storage unit left from when my office was a church school classroom. It has since been used as a catchall for myriad items deemed "Too Good To Throw Away" by a Longtime Parishioner. When we cleared out that room for my use, Carol (aka "The Boss") helped me shove The Cabinet face first into the corner. She mentioned (between grunts) that no one had touched its contents in the three years she's been at St. A's, and told me to feel free to look through it one day and dispose of anything not worth saving, if I felt so inclined.

So inclined?? You know, some of my favorite people are pack rats, saving every piece of this and that which comes their way. I, however . . . am not. In point of fact, if it were not for the "savers" I live with, our house would be a whole lot emptier than it is.

So this afternoon, alone in the building (Longtime Parishioner was especially not around), I took on The Cabinet. I muscled it out of the corner (dropping my hips and employing some decidedly unclerical language proved quite effective), opened the doors, and started tossing. Three loaded-cart trips to the trash and the transfer of a collection of milk glass bud vases to the kitchen later, it stood vacant.

Well, almost vacant-- excepting only a stack of unused fabric. My sister-in-law maintains that "she who dies with the most, wins;" and while I do not subscribe to that particular doctrine, I am loathe to pitch usable cloth. Even if it is polyester. Bad polyester. In odd colors. (My one purging weakness, okay? Now hush.)

Anyway, The Cabinet is now nearly empty, and three trash cans out back are nearly full. I hope that Longtime Parishioner doesn't get wind of my efforts for a while-- or the Curate's Office may be hearing another dose of unclerical language.