end times

So in two days I leave for a great trip!! I'm so excited, so looking forward to it. The fact that this trip to this great place looms in my future has its effects on all the "departments" of my life. Suddenly, some things are not so important, and some other things have a new urgency.
All the daily drudgery things that annoy me usually, the things that cast a pall over my day and my mood, well, this week, they don't matter so much. I can take two days of the usual because the neon lights are at the end of this short tunnel!
But there's so much, too, to square away. Must pay the bills before we go, cash our spending money checks, do laundry, pack, get the tickets in order, make sure the cats are set.
The weekly Mass readings lately have been talking about end times, which is not an easy idea to wrap my head around. But this week, I kind of get it... I bet with the end nearing, so many things would become unimportant, while others would become important. When the big boom hit last week, Scott said that he thought about all these "end-time" warnings, and wondered "would I be ready?" What would we feel okay about leaving behind? What would we be so sad to lose touch with? (okay, yes, it would be my cats! is that so bad?)
I love the wisdom of the Liturgical year- they make you think about the "what ifs" and yearn for the "if onlys" and then remind you that the "if onlys" already exist for us, in the birth, life, death and resurrection of our Christ.

I heard the great last part of the sermon from Marsh Chapel at BU this morning. I can't vouch for the whole thing, but I loved the final message; The End Is Not Near.
At this posting, the sermon from 11/26 isn't up yet, but do check back:
http://www.bu.edu/chapel/services/sermons/current.html