Sunday, December 24, 2006

Incarnation

'Tis Christmas eve, traditionally one of my most favorite days of the year. The traditions we have associated with Christmas all start on this evening and last until tomorrow...so I'm hyped. Christmas rocks. But, surprise surprise, I actually have something a little more thoughtful to write about today.

I've been thinking alot lately about incarnation. For those of you who don't know what it means, it means "enfleshment." The doctrine of the Incarnation is that which states that God became enfleshed when he became a human in the form of Jesus. Anglicans are traditionally very incarnational people....to be incarnational means that we believe God to be present in the world in a very real and tangible way. But that all started at Christmas...

Annie Dillard wrote a passage about Easter and how Easter is so profound and radical that we should all be going to church on Easter Sunday not dressed in our finery but wearing crash helmets. While I wholeheartedly agree, I feel the same could be said (and may even be more appropriate) for Christmas. Easter could not have happened in the first place without it. But even more importantly, the fact that God became fully human is so profound that it should make us want to run around like crazy people! In other traditions of the world, God does participate in human life. Particularly if one were to look at the Hindu tradition, one will find very real interactions between God and God's people. Just look at all of the stories surrounding Krishna, or even just look at the Mahabarata and you'll get the idea. But what makes Christianity different is that God didn't just come down to the earth, God became human. Just like us. Look at the Christmas story if you're unsure. I have a rather long passage that I would like to post, written by Evelyn Underhill called "The Light of the World."

"...the heavens open and what is disclosed? A Baby, God manifest in the flesh. The stable, the manger, the straw; poverty, cold, darkness--these form the setting of the divine gift. In this child God gives his supreme message to the soul- Spirit to spirit-but in a human way. Outside in the fields the heavens open and the shepherds look up astonished to find the music and radiance of reality all around them. BUt inside, our closest contact with that same reality is being offered to us in the very simplest, homeliest way-emerging right into our ordinary life. A baby-just that. We are not told that the blessed, virgin Mary saw the angels or heard the Gloria in the air. Her initiation had been quite different, like the quiet voice speaking in our deepest prayer- 'The Lord is with thee!' 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord.' Humble self-abandonment is quite enough to give us God...

It is easy for the devout to join up with the shepherds and fall into place at the crib and look out into the surrounding night and say, 'Look at those extraordinary intellectuals wandering about after a star with no religious sense at all! Look at that clumsy camel, what an unspiritual animal it is! We know the ox and the ass are the right animals to have! Look what queer gifts and off types of self-consecration they are bringing; not the sort of people who come to church!' But remember that the child who began by receiving these very unexpected pilgrims had a woman of the streets for his faithful friend and two thieves for his comrades at the end: and looking at these two extremes let us try to learn a little of the height and breadth and depth of his love--and then apply it to our own lives.

Beholding his glory is only half our job. In our souls too the mysteries must be brought forth; we are not really Christians till that has been done. 'The Eternal Birth,' says Eckhart, 'must take place in you.' And another mystic adds that human nature is like a stable inhabited by the ox of passion and the ass of prejudice; animals which take up a lot of room and which I suppose most of us are feeing on the quiet. And it is there between them, pushing them out, that Christ must be born and int heir very manger he must be laid- and they will be he first to fall on their knees before them. Sometimes Christians seem far nearer to those animals than to Christ in his simply poverty, self-abandoned God."

Just some food for thought. Merry Christmas everyone.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Rick (and Hilary)



Rick and I at the Winter Waltz. I love this picture :)

Excitement

Howdy everyone. Sorry it's been a while since my last post...tons of things have been happening in my life, and I've been slacking when it comes to blogging. Hopefully over the holidays I will be able to get things back in to shape in that respect. So mea culpa, and I hope you will forgive me.

So. Big things have been coming my way. I have two big pieces of news.
1. I have a new love. YAY!!! His name is Rick, and he's the most amazing man I've ever been with before in my life. I mean...I could just list the ways that he's so awesome. He cooks for me, he fixed my bike for me, he walks in traffic before me (if we can't see if anything is coming), he took me to the Nutcracker for Christmas...he's amazing. Simply amazing. I can't gush enough about how great he is. Hopefully he'll be down in KY sometime this spring so I can introduce him to you all. I think you'll really like him. He's 28, works in publishing, and owns a house. I know, right? A house! Needless to say, he's responsible, which is nice. And a gentleman, which is incredibly hard to come by, especially up here. For those wanting to know, we met online (at Yahoo). I had actually given up on the whole thing and had seen Rick's profile, thought he was cute, but figured that he would be like the rest of the guys on there and not respond to my emails. But apparently Rick was notified when I viewed his profile and he sent me an "icebreak." So I wrote him back...we emailed for a week or so and then im'ed, and then went on a date! And it was amazing...and it's been fantastic since then! I'll post a picture here in a minute once I finish this blog. But like I said, he's an amazing man. Truly amazing. Not to mention that he has a college degree (which has been a rarity in my love life) and he's nice (another rarity). Just when I had consigned myself to a love life of Bridget Jones-like proportions, here comes Rick. :) He makes me smile.

2. I got in to Duke!!!! This was my number one choice for seminary. It was an amazing fit when I went there, and all I could think when I left was how good of a fit it was. And I got in! Pray that they call me this next week about money, because I could really use the financial help...but woohoo!! Now that I'm in, I'm goign to start applying for scholarships. I decided not to apply anywhere else. I think I could really grow at Duke more so than at any of the other schools I looked at, so I'll find a way to make it work.

Other than that...I would say the semester is almost over, but that would be a lie since it doesn't end until January. But break is almost here, which will be nice. I have a Greek quiz in the morning and a tomorrow night. So I'll be writing the paper all day tomorrow. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, eh? But after I study Greek tonight I'm going to try to get an outline put together that will make my life a little easier tomorrow. And I have to pack, as I'm leaving for Louisville on Tuesday. So if I don't talk to some of you before then, have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Friday, December 01, 2006

Music

I was looking at a friend's notes on Facebook today, and one of them is this thing you do with some music on your playlist. I think what's on someone's mp3 can tell you a lot about a person, in the sense of figuring out how ecletic they are, what they like, etc. So what you do is put your music player on shuffle and write down the first 40 songs that come up. Then you answer some questions. Here's how it turned out for me...these are the first forty that came up out of 2165 that are on my ipod. It goes song title, artist, album

1. Kathy's Song, Simon and Garfunkel Live
2. Move, Jonathan Elias, American River
3. Get it Like you Like It (Acoustic), Ben Harper, Both Sides of the Gun
4. Perhaps Love, John Denver, The Best of John Denver
5. Smile, Weezer, Green
6. Save it For A Rainy Day, The Jayhawks, Rainy Day Music
7. Personent Hodie, Choir of King's College Cambridge, Essential Carols: The Very Best of King's College Cambridge
8. What You Are, Dave Matthews Band, Everyday
9. Angel of Harmlem, U2, The Best of 1980-1990
10. Trouble, Coldplay, Parachutes
11. Mozart Requiem K 626 .3 Sequenz-Dies Irae (can't remember the group)
12. Galileo, Indigo Girls, 1200 Curfews
13. Carriage, Counting Crows, Hard Candy
14. She Thinks I Still Care, James Taylor, Live
15. Eraser, Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral
16. Guitar Man, Bread, Singers and Songwriters 1972-3
17. Millworker, James Taylor, Live
18. How Sweet it Is (To Be Loved by You) Live (there seems to be a string of these..)
19. A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28 ix Spring Carol; Choir of King's College Cambridge, Britten: Choral Music
20. God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman, Manheim Steamroller, Christmas
21. Spies, Coldplay, Parachutes
22. Hurt, Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral
23. Faraway Land, Alison Kraus and Union Station, AKUS Live
24. Glory and Worship, Choir of King's College Cambridge, Handel Coronation Anthems
25. Stuck in A Moment You Can't Get Out Of, U2, All That You Can't Leave Behind
26. Hand in My Pocket, Alanis Morsette, Jagged Little Pill
27. Lie In Our Graves, Dave Matthews Band, Live at Red Rocks
28. Nights in White Satin, The Moody Blues, Singers and Songwriters, 1972-3
29. Pslam 23, The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, Howard Goodall Choral Works
30. Track 11 (forgot title and it's not in there), Bonnie Raitt and Norah Jones, Bonnie Raitt and Friends
31. Wunderkind, Alanis Morisette, The Chronicles of Narnia
32. Taking Over Me, Evanescence, Fallen
33. Constellations, Jack Johnson, In Between Dreams
34. Too High, Dave Matthews and Friends, Some Devil
35. Lover Lay Down, Dave Matthews Band, Under the Table and Dreaming
36. Enough to be On Your Way, James Taylor, Greatest Hits 2
37. Welcome to the Cruel World, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Live from Mars
38. Where Could I Go, Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama, There Will Be a Light
39. Joking, Indigo Girls, 1200 Curfews
40. The Black Gate Opens, Howard Shore and Sir James Galway, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
41. Copland Concerto for Clarinet (I had to include this because it's thebest clarinet piece EVER)

Ok now on to the questions.

01. Which song do you prefer, #1 or #40? Depends on my mood, but probably 1.
02. Have you ever listened to #12 continuously on repeat? Maybe in high school, but I don't remember ever doing so.
03. What album is #26 from? Jagged Little Pill
04. What do you think about the artist who did #15? Well, NIN is good workout music or for when your pissed off. Although I don't really ascribe to any of Reznor's outlook on life, he's very talented musically (I think), not to mention hot.
05. Is #19 one of your favorite songs? No, but it is on one of my favorite albums
06. Who does #38 (Eclipse - Be Happy (Brisk & Vagabond Remix)) remind you of?
I'm not sure.
07. Does #20 have better lyrics or music? Seeing as this one's not pop music, I dont' think they can really be separated...but I'm not sure what the translation from the Latin is here, so I'll jsut say music to play it safe.
08. Do any of your friends like #3? Heck yeah. A good many, probably.
09. Is #33 from a movie soundtrack? Not that I know of.
10. Is #18 overplayed on the radio? I don't listen to the radio, but I'm sure some stations play it.
11. What does #21 remind you of? Freshman year of college.
12. Which song do you prefer, or #22 ? 5 definitely. Although 22 is good, as is Johnny Cash's remake.
13. What album is #17 from? look at the list.
14. When did you first hear #39? Well, I was probably at Bear Creek, so probably in eight of ninth grade, so almost 10 years ago (sheesh now I feel old)
15. When did you first hear #7? Last year.
16. What genre is #8 ? Rock.
17. Do any of your friends like #14? Maybe my mom. Don't know if my friends even know this album exists.
18. What color does #4 remind you of? Purple or blue I guess.
19. Have you ever blasted #11 on your stereo? Well, I don't have a stereo. But if I did...no. I've never blasted this anywhere. It would be cool to blast on a car stereo though when driving slowly down the street.
20. What genre is #37? Acoustic Rock
21. Can you play #13 on any instrument? Never tried.
22. What is your favorite lyric from #30? No clue.
23. What is your favorite lyric from #23? if you have been running too, stop now in your tracks, turn again to the one in you, put your burden on his back.
24. Would you recommend #24 to your friends? Sure, but I dont think they would listen to it.
25. Is #2 a good song to dance to? Nope. I'd like to see someone try though.
26. Have you ever heard #16 on the radio? On the oldies station.
27. Is #32 more of a "nighttime" or "daytime" song? Either I guess.
28. Does #36 have any special meaning to you? Not really.
29. Do any of your friends like #31 ? Probably not. I don't even like it that much.
30. Is #25 a fast or slow song? Slow.
31. Is #35 a happy or sad song? Happy, but in a melancholy kinda way.
32. What is one of your favorite lyrics from #9? It's U2, therefore it's all good.
33. Is #34 (better to listen to alone or with friends? With friends, preferably with beer involved.
34. When did you first hear #27? Oh man...1998 I think.
35. Name 3 other songs by the artist who did #29? The Marlborogh Canticles, Ecce Homo, and he did a mass that's pretty nice.
36. Do you know all the words to #6? Yep.
37. Does #28 (have better lyrics or music? About the same I think, but if I had to choose I'd say music (I'll almost always choose music over lyrics)
38. What album is #10 from? Parachutes.

Well, that's all folks. Just thought I would waste some of my time and yours with this fun little diversion...

Friday, November 24, 2006

Happy (Belated) Turkey Day!!!

Howdy Howdy
I realize that it has been a while since I updated...there's no particular reason for this most heinous delay, just me being lazy. So I thought I would take this moment to write a little update for those of you semi-loyal fans who actually read my blog. Life has been pretty good this fall. I'm home right now for thanksgiving, which has been good. We're actually celebrating today since my sister couldn't yesterday. The weather is beautiful, the fam is all here, so I can't ask for much more than that! School is going well...still chugging along in Greek. I need to work on my Greek homework sometime this weekend, as well as the ton of reading I have to do. But I'm not really behind in any of my classes, and for this far into the semester that's a real feat. So yay there. Umm...still waiting to hear back from Duke. Only a few more weeks and then I should know something, I think, and hopefully the news will be good. I need to get my CPE applications done sometime soon as well so that I can get that underway for this summer. And then, if the news from Duke is bad or doesn't tell me anything about money I'll be working to get my other applications for next year done. They don't look too bad, really ,and Yale Emory and Chicago are all due on February 1st, so that's convenient, at least. What else? Just started dating someone, so that has been lots of fun. :) Other than that, it's pretty much same ol same ol. AND...is going well. School is going well. Yep.

Hope you all have had a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

November

It's November now. And what does that mean? Well, in MA anyway (and in KY too) it means that it's raining. Raining and usually a little chilly and you walk around all day sneezing and going from a chilly outside to an overly warm inside with wet jeans on. Ew. November. It also means that election day has come and gone by this point. ROCK ON JOHN YARMUTH. way to beat Anne Northup. And Rumsfeld resigned, and Santorum is out...so maybe times they are a changin', as Bob Dylan used to say. If they change for the better, we'll have to see. It also means that Harvard/Yale is coming up next weekend. Dan and I got our tickets in this week, and the game is next weekend. Should be exciting...it looks like Harvard is in good shape to take the conference, so go crimsons! It also means that UL football is still going on, and we're rockin' this season hard. Let's hope the cardiac cards don't make an appearance and screw things up for us...And Thanksgiving is almost here, which means I get to be home and see the fam. Seems like I've been gone longer than 2 months...I guess it will almost have been 3 by the time I get home. But in any case, that's a good thing.

On a completely unrelated note, I got a 95.5 on my Greek midterm, for those of you who care. Needless to say, I'm more than excited about that grade. I'll take a 95 in Greek any day.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

One down...

I just submitted my Duke application. Why do I never feel relieved after doing so? Always more nervous...maybe because now it's totally out of my hands and there's nothing I can do cept pray. So guys, pray that I get into to and get money. Because that's where I want to go. Big time.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Sigh of a Bit of Relief

I just wanted to share the news with you all that I did not bomb said Greek quiz. I got it back today and got an 86 on it, which is a good solid B. So as of now I think I've got a nice solid B in the class, which is fine by me. It's not what I would like but hey, it's still "above average," and I have the rest of the semester to try and pull it up. Whew. Talk about a relief. I expected to have done much much worse, but thankfully I didn't. I did however spend four hours memorizing verb forms yesterday...I'm hoping that I've gotten back into the swing of language study, as it's been two years since I did any. So that's heartening.

I'm trying to figure out why I always insist on taking a nap even when I know it will make me feel icky when I wake up. Maybe it's because it's cloudy and cold and windy outside, and my room was so warm and cozy. I like to tell myself that it's Monday and I have class until 9 PM, so the nap will help with that, but I think that's just me rationalizing things.

Spent the weekend reading several Anglican Communion related documents. I'd actually never read the Windsor Report before, and I thought it was definitely a document worth reading. I think if more people had actually read the report we might have had some good conversations in the past couple of years. While there are some things that I didn't necessarily agree with (why were ECUSA and the Canadian church only asked to apologize? What about those on the other side who had been just as divisive?) on the whole it was a good insight into what the worldwide Communion is struggling with. But here's the thing I really don't get: If right now we're trying to figure out what "communion" means, and we're having dialouge, etc., then why ask the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church of Canada to step down from their ACC positions? It would to me that this would be the last thing we want if we truly want to be in communion. It just seems to be contrary to the stated intentions of the report. But there could be something I'm missing...I think I'll bring the point up in class and see what kind of answer I get.

Speaking of which, I have to run to the lirbary to make some copies for class tonight. Hope those of you in KY are staying warm (I saw on the weather channel website that there's a slight chance of a few flurries tonight...my dad said he was going to start his rain dance). In the mean time...

Peace y'all.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Back Again

Well hello.
Sorry it's been a while...nine days to be exact. I know you've all been checking this page frequently to see when the next update would be. I apologize for not posting more pics from Vermont...however, it takes a bajillion years for them to upload, and then by the time it gets done the damn thing has timed out. Oh well. But if you are on Facebook, I've uploaded an album of the pics there. It's called (gasp) Vermont.

Had somewhat of a crappy morning. I think I totally bombed a Greek quiz, mostly because I'm exhausted from travelling and because I was out of town for two days this week, so I didn't have the time to devote to studying that I would have liked. But I was gone for good reason.

I spent some time travelling to the good ol' south east this week. Why was I there, you may wonder? Well, I was visiting Duke Divinity School. I'm applying to their MDiv program, and it's my first choice. So I wanted to go down and get the lay of the land so to speak. And I LOVED IT. It was truly amazing...the faculty is beyond awesome, there's a real sense of institutional vocation, and the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies seems right up my alley. So pray that I get in and (more importantly) can get some good funding. I'm going into debt at HDS...can't afford to go in to anymore. But I should know, assuming my transcripts get there by Nov. 1st and my recommenders get everything done by then as well, by mid December about whether or not I got in and hopefully whether or not I got a merit scholarship. Needless to say I'll be praying hard about it. But it definitely seems like an environment where I could really grow spiritually and intellectually. It would be a "win win win" situation (for those of you who haven't seen The Office...it's a reference from that.)

Now, I should point out that I'm not the biggest fan of flying, although I'm getting better about it. I mostly dislike sitting there waiting around for take off, after we've been told to put up tray table sand turn off eletronic devices. So I amuse myself by looking through the shopping catalogue (www.skymall.com) to see what kind of great stuff they have. And there's always a million things I'd love to buy for folks, mostly because they're so ridiculous you wouldn't want to pass them up. For example, they had a three layered pool table. Pretty interesting. But by far the most amazing gift (and one which I couldn't find online; I was going to post a picture of it for you) was an IPod dock/radio/clock/toilet paper roll holder. The picture even demonstrated how good the device is for holding said TP and advertised itself as making the "royal throne" even better. Amazing. The fact that a. someone makes such a thing and b. that someone would buy such a thing is pretty remarable. I would like to meet said person and ask them how they feel about their new toilet paper roll. Too cool.

Anywho that's about all for now. I'm going to do some more homework (as it's getting to be that time of the semester). It's been raining all day and thus I've been sleepy all day, but I think I've had my first productive Friday of the semester. Hopefully the rest of the weekend will be similarly fruitful. So you guys have a great weekend.

Peace y'all.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

more pics





Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Rollin' rollin' rollin'

Howdy Howdy.
I realize it's been a little while since my last post, but I've been busy (to say the least). I spent this weekend in Vermont checking out the fall foliage. For those who haven't been to Vermont, it looks exactly like you would expect it to look. The people all look like they eat granola all of the time, and it's very...farmy, in a New England sense. I really liked it, although I'm not sure I could live there. It was 30 degrees on Saturday night, and it was just October 7th! Hard frost in early October=not for Hilary. I'll post some pictures from the trip, though, so you all can see what it was like. Great times.

I've been working a lot on my "container" for the AND...group. I'm doing a four week session on "why we do what we do," which is basically how being Episcopalian informs our actions. Last week was about Scripture, and then next two weeks are about...you guessed it. Tradition and Reason. and the fourth week will be about Action. I thought it went pretty well last week. The group seemed to be engaged, and when Paige FIsher (a priest at Trinity) asked a question, the group really responded and started dialoguing with one another, which was in my opinion the best part of the night. It doesn't really matter what I say, as people are most likely to forget it anyway, but if I can facilitate thinking and interaction, then I feel that I've done my job. I've been thinking a lot about what to say this week, but I'm a little less sure about the next two segments than I was about Scripture. I'll have it done by tomorrow evening, though, so ask me again then and maybe I can tell you something. But here's a teaser: it involves a clip from Animal House : ) That one's for you, dad.

I heard back from the national church office today about the investiture. I didn't get tickets, which is too bad. I was really excited about going. They said only 25% of the requests were honored, but I overnighted mine on the fifteenth and it got there in time, so I don't know why I didn't get them. Oh well. There's not really much I can do about it at this point. Watch it online, I guess, but that's also the day of teh UL-WV game, so I may be trying to find a place to watch that. Although in all likelihood I'll be studying somewhere.

Speaking of which, classes are going well. We had a long weekend, which was great. I'm hoping I did better on this Greek quiz than I did on last week's, which I am referring to as my personal comedy of errors. Other than that, just doing a lot of reading. Will be meeting with my group for my EDS class sometime in the next week, I think, to go over stuff for our case study assignment. I'm probably going to the library here soon to work on a paper for Prof. Koester's class, do some Greek, and read some for the EDS class (because at some point I have to read the next three Narnia books for next week). I'm also working a lot on my application for seminary. I go to visit Duke next week, which I'm really excited about. I hope the visit goes well, and that it turns out to be a good fit. That application is due November 1st, so I've been working to try and get that all ready. Got to get the transcripts sent out soon.

Anywho, that's all for now. I'm going to post the VT pics later, so you can see what it looked like. Gorgeous.

Peace y'all.

Friday, September 29, 2006

Well hello my adoring readers. I realized it has been a few days since I have written, and I could tell that you all were all trying to keep a stiff upper lip about the whole thing, so I'm writing this afternoon. It seems as though fall has officially fallen upon New England, which is good and bad. Good because it's beautiful and not humid as hell all of the time. Bad because it means that allergies will start rearing their ugly head once more. Oh well, you take the good and the bad.

Not much really going on up here. Went to a Sox game on Wednesday and saw the worst pro baseball I've ever seen. We lost to Tampa Bay 11-0. Come on folks. TAMPA BAY. They're not even a real team!! But no matter; it was fun and the energy at Fenway is great. Going again tonight, actually. And then on the way back from the game Wed. I happened to see Mike at Great Scott, so I went in to hang out with him. The highlight of my week, actually.

This weekend is the ministry fair at Trinity, so I'll be sitting at a table with my JC t shirt on and getting folks hyp[ed about AND... too bad I can't make the night time service, because they're having beer afterwards. Sheesh. Umm...what else? Starting on applications, which will be all kinds of fun. I'm applying to Duke, Yale, and Emory. Luckily the basic info is all the same. The only downside is that Emory's is not an online application, so I have to either find a computer with Adobe Acrobat on it or handwrite the application (which I would prefer not to do).

I just found out last night how to hold a video conference on a macbook. So I'm going to call my mom and pass on the info. Now we can talk face to face and (even better) i can see Blaine! Won't be as good as seeing him in person (because nothing would be equal to that) but I'll take what I can get.

Anywho, I'm going to make an attempt at reading this book on the history of Missions in ECUSA. Have a good weekend.

Peace Y'all

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Musings

Ember Day was Wesdnesday, which meant that I had to write a letter to my Bishop. It was weird, though, because a. he told me he had to get it in hard copy form (which to him means I have to mail it...what???? i don't DO mail. I could just email it as an attachment and he could print it out, which would save me .39 and the trip to the post office. ) and b. that I had to figure out what the hell to say in this letter. Seriously, school just started Monday, so there wasn't much to say. So we'll see if I get a letter back telling me that I have to write another one because this last one sucked. Ha.

Classes look like they're going to be awesome. I'm taking classical Greek, Children's Lit. and Religious Education (which is going to be super super AWESOME), Jesus of Nazareth and the Gospels, and the Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion. All very reading/study intensive courses, but they're going to be great.

Anywho, I have tons of homework to do and am not quite sure how I will get it done by Monday. So I'm going to start on it.

Peace y'all.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Stupid Bike Rules

This morning I rode my bike to the T. Now, I should begin this by saying that there are signs as you enter Harvard Yard saying "Please Walk Your Bike." A Stupid Rule, if you ask me. If it's exceptionally crowded, I will walk my bike. However, at 8:30 this morning there were 2--count them, one, two--people in the yard. Two. That's it. So I decided to ride on through. And then the security guard right as I am leaving the Yard says to me "you're supposed to walk your bike through the yard ma'am." Not in a nice way, mind you, but in a "you're obviously too dumb to read the sign" way. Now, who was I endangering by riding my bike? Seriously. Who? The TWO PEOPLE in the yard? I highly doubt it, especially considering that I never came within 100 feet of either of them. I know the guy was just doing his job, but couldn't he be walking around busting undergrads for partying too loud or something? Seriously folks. Part of the reason for this over-reaction is the fact that I am so painfully nonconfrontational that I take it really personally when someone tries to yell at me for riding my bike in the yard. Most of the time people don't say anything...they only point it out if they're a. old men (this is the first and foremost prerequisite for being a meddlesome jerk who likes to yell at people who aren't causing them any problems as they ride their bikes in the yard) b. incredibly bored or curmudgeonly c. it's early in the morning or late at night. Once these three conditions are met, you're likely to get called out for riding your bike through the yard.

Stupid Harvard signs.

Sheesh.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Mission and Respect

If you talk to a lot of liberal Christians about mission, you'll notice that they either a. try to change the subject, b. stumble over some words about building hospitals, or c. get really uncomfortable and turn an interesting shade of purplish-red. I must confess that I have gone through such a similar stage myself. The basic problem that many progressives I think have with mission is how do we a. profess the Gospel in very concrete ways that do actually mention Jesus while at the same time b. respecting other's religious traditions and not condemning them to some kind of eternal judgement. I've wrestled with this much, trying to figure out how to strike a balance between the two. Most Episcopalians I know will say, when asked about evangelism and mission, "well, I just try to live a good life and if someone asks me about it, then I'll tell them." Now, there's not necessarily anything wrong with this method. We should all be trying to live our lives as best as we can, and if we're making a decent showing of it people are bound to notice and ask questions. This method, however, doesn't do tons to spread the Gospel. At least it hasn't ever in my experience. But where's Jesus in this whole conversation?

Well, I read something the other day that made sense of the whole situation for me. It's from the book Anglicanism: A Global Communion edited by Andrew Wingate, Kevin Ward, Carrie Pemberton, and Wilson Sitshebo; Church Publishing Incorporated, New York NY, 1998. This particular quote is from Wingate's essay "Salvation and other faiths--and Anglican perspective." He writes:

"We deny the fullness of [God's] love if we deny the truth and goodness which Christ, as Logos, and God by the Spirit, can also inspire in those of other faiths and none. But we believe that God has chosen to provide the fullest revelation of his love for humanity in the cross and resurrection. Hence we naturally pray that God will bring all people, including those of other faiths, to explicit faith in Christ and membership of his church. This is not because we believe they cannot be saved without this--but because this is the truest and fullest expression of his love, and we long for them to share it--as St. John puts in, 'I come that you may have life, and have it abundantly'" (12). (emphasis my own)

Now this is what I think most of us are missing when we think about mission. That quote just made sense out of the whole issue for me...why we pray for people to come to love Jesus Christ, why we pray for the mission of the church, why we spread the Gospel. Not because people can't be saved in other religious traditions. No, not at all. To say so would I think a. deny God's power and b. deny God's grace. But we share the Gospel so that others can be a part of God's "truest and fullest expression of [God's] love."

Righteous.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Attempting to Be More Insightful

So I was reading through my previous few blogs, and I've realized that compared to the majority of blogs I read, mine is incredibly un-insightful. Unless of course you find that insightful in and of itself. So I'm thinking maybe I'll try to be more insightful (yeah...right...). Or maybe this will be along the lines of Peter Griffin's "You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?" Ha. We'll see.

I had a really great meeting with Mike yesterday. We started off by talking about the state of the Episcopal Church in today's world, which is pretty much how we start every conversation. We had an interesting talk about the Prayer Book and Rite One. He likes Rite One, and I'm not a big fan. I think my issues with it come from being a cradle Episcopalian, because he says most young converts he knows really like it. I just remember growing up and being interminably bored during Rite One. And I've really tried to get over that; I swear I have. But there's something inside of me that just clenches when I have to say "vouchsafe" in a service. I agree with Mike, though, that the movement of the Rite One service is beautiful. It's musical in a way, much more so than Rite Two I would think. And as he said, the prayer of humble access is something that we should perhaps incorporate more into our daily lives. And I totally agree on all of that. I think my hang up with Rite One has to do with the language. We're supposed to have services in the language of our times, and paternalistic toudated language is not my language, nor has it ever been. So why can't we rework Rite One, keeping the qualities of the service while changing the language? I think a lot more young people (especially cradles like myself, who admittedly are not very great in number) would respond to the service better if the language were more familiar. Just a thought.

I went to church with my roomate last night. We went to Hope Church in JP. I had told her beforehand that UCC/DOC is no where near liturgical enough for me, but I agreed to go with her anyway. And my opinion still stands (there was no reading from the Gospel at all during the service, and they had communion as well...maybe I'm just uber Episcopalian but you gotta have the Gospels...), but the community and the energy at the church was really really great. I was very thankful to have had that experience with her. Really great group of people, and the preaching was pretty good too. I'm glad Sarah has found a church community that she can feel a part of...I wish everyone could.

OK well, I have to run and meet Sarah and some others for lunch. I'll write more in the next couple of days about mission (I came to a realization yesterday that made sense out of many conundrums I'd been stuck in with regards to mission). But in the meantime, y'all keeo your noses clean.

Monday, September 11, 2006

I'm Just Hangin' Around

Hello all. Not really much to report, in the long run. I've just been taking some time for some much needed rest (although I'm more than ready for school to start now). It's beautiful up here, and cool. Feels like fall!!! Which I guess would make sense because it is fall. AND...last week was GREAT. We had 19 people show up, which was amazing! And then I met another Div student this week who is hopefully going to come on Thursday this week, so that's great. It was a really great group of people, and I think there's definitely some positive energy there. What else? I'm in the process of introducing my roomate Sarah to the joys of Indiana Jones. Last night we watched Raiders and tonight we're on to Temple of Doom. And then on to the best of them all...Last Crusade. Sweet.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Back in Beantown

Hello hello hello. As the title of this posting shows, I am indeed back in Boston now. I got in yesterday after a veeeeeerry long drive from West Virginia. I think Pennsylvania wins the award for most boring state through which to drive. Ugh. Anyway, I moved in yesterday and got all unpacked and everything, so my room is actually livable! For those of you who saw my room last year, you will be pleased to note that I do in fact have floor space this year, as my room is bigger. There are three windows, so I have really really great light in here, which is awesome. That's the whole reason I wanted the room, really.

Now that I'm back, I can start to digest the summer a little bit, I think. Overall, I want to give a big shout out to Charles Hawkins and the St. Mark's crew. I had such a great experience there this summer...that church welcomed me into their family without even knowing me too well, and they even put up with me preaching a coupl eof times and filling the church with the music of U2. I wasn't really sure what to expect when the internship started. I've been so involved in the Episcopal Church form the git go...but I did learn something about ministry. And that something is this: ministry is about empowerment. It's about empowering people to do the work God has given them to do. And the best thing about this definition of ministry is that it can be done ANYWHERE, which means that the church is EVERYWHERE. So that's pretty sweet.

I miss the fam tons already, most especially getting to see Blaine and look at his beautiful smile. I can still feel the little guy falling asleep in my arms...he'll probably be too big to do that in December. Oh well, kids grow up. And in a few years, he and I are going camping. And it's going to rock.

I met with Mike Dangelo today to talk about AND... I'm focusing on recruitment, which is going to be interesting. Neither of us really have any preconceived notions about our strategy (read: we have no idea what the hell we're going to do) but we'll do it anyway : ) At least now we have matching t-shirts. He asked me if I wanted to present the next container (programing sequence) and I said sure. I figure I'll ask the group what they want to hear about, but I think it would be cool to do a container on the other four of the world's major religions. Just so people know something about them...not to mention that's something I know about and can speak comfortably about. But then again it would be fun to learn something new as well. Or maybe do a container on Jesus? No clue. We'll see what the group wants.

What else? Ran a bunch of errands today. Joined the Cambridge YMCA, did laundry, found my keys (they were in Sarah's room...go figure), met with Mike. Oh and I got a really random phone call from an old priest who'd been at my church from when I was about 2 til I was 10. Said he had some books he wanted to give me. This was weird A. because he called my cell phone. No clue how he got the number. And B. because I haven't talked to him in 10 years. I don't think I'm going to call him back...it's too weird. Not to mention that I barely have room for the books I have.

That's all I can think of for now. The humidity is making my hair get huge and mushroom-like. Fun times.

Have a good night.

Peace ya'll.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Subconscious (Un)reality

So my hopes of getting a good night's sleep last night were quickly dashed to the ground. Had a crazy dream that left me pretty restless, to say the least. In said dream the U2charist started and only about 40 people showed up. And then the powerpoint wasn't working and the whole thing was a mess. I told Charles about it, but he said if 40 people show up it will be a success. Be that as it may, I hope there will be more than 40 people there. Then Peachie (our beagle) started barking at 6 am. This was weird for a couple of reasons. 1. As she's gotten older, she tends to sleep longer and doesn't whine so much during the night. and 2. She's never been really big on barking, but yesterday she was barking all of the time. I'm a firm believer in that whole "animals have a sixth sense" thing, so maybe we're going to have an earthquake or something. Who knows. I thought about just getting up at 6, as I had trouble falling back asleep, but eventually sleep came and it was all good. Until my phone rang at 7:20 am. Julie Roth wanted me to watch Alan Todd, which I would have loved to do, if it weren't for the fact that I'm going crazy today getting stuff ready for the service tomorrow. So I felt really really bad that I had to say no. Then I couldn't fall asleep for real, and just laid in bed for a while.

I had another crazy dream the night before. In this one I had to meet with the Commission on Ministry again, and they said I could be a postulant as long as I was willing to go back to being a 10 year old and live for a year as such. But the thing was, I would have the intellect and life experience of a 23 year old. It was the most horrible dream ever. I kept trying to convince people that I knew this stuff already and wasn't really ten, but they didn't believe me. Probably plays in to my fears that alot of priests in the diocese have known me since I was about 10 or 11, and that they'll always see me that way (something which I don't believe is true at all, and have never had reason to believe).

Geez.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Another Blaine shot


I decided to also upload another picture of Blaine. This was actually taken about a month ago, so he's even bigger now. And just as cute (but with more hair.) And apparently he's laughing now (but I've yet to experience his laugh. Can't wait, though). Enjoy!

U2charist on my Mind

Howdy folks. I've been at church all day getting stuff set up for the U2charist. I have to admit, it looks pretty damn good. All that's really left to do is get the screen/sheets set up for the powerpoint and the slideshow, and everything will be good to go. The sound system in the church is amazing...wish I had one like that in my car/house/anywhere really. The whole place is definitely going to be rockin' out come Saturday night! I'm trying to figure out a couple of lighting issues (i.e. making sure people who are sitting where you can't see the ppt can actually read their bulletins). But so far I've got no idea how to make it work. The rope lighting doesn't do much other than blind you in one third of your eye, while the other two thirds tries in vain to see in the dark. I did get all of the window coverings painted and put up. Damn things were a pain in the ass, to say the least, but I think they're a nice addition. They have that kind of "I just threw together this sign for a rock concert" look to them, and as the service is kind of simulating a concert, I think it's all good. I'm exhausted though. Hopefully I'll get some good sleep tonight...haven't been sleeping the best lately. And then tomorrow night we have a tech rehearsal (tip of the hat to you, mom), and then Saturday is the big day!!! So come on out if you can. And if you can't, I'll let you know what you missed : )

Peace ya'll

P.S. Props to the guys at Doo Wop Shop on Hurstbourne Lane. Here's more to the saga of yesterday: sometime yesterday afternoon I called Doo Wop Shop to see if they had another T Bar, as they only had one that morning. The guy said yeah, they had it, so I left church and raced over to Bardstown Road to get it. Well, I get in there and it turns out they don't have a T-Bar. Which was kind of annoying but I was cool with it. But the guys in the store were really upset about the mix up, so they called Hurstbourne to see if they had one. Well, they did, so I battled rush hour traffic on Taylorsville Rd. to get out there and get the bar. I get there and the guys were like "yeah, we were the ones who told you we had the t bar. You actually called this store." Doh. So I apologized for being a spaz. Well, they weren't sure if I had to fill out a contract again or not, so the guy called the Bardstown Rd. store and said that they should just add it to my contract there because they were stupid and told me they had a bar when they didn't and made me drive all the way out to Hurstbourne. Ha. Take that, you somewhat stuck up about your monopoly on lights in the Highlands Doo Wop Shop workers on Bardstown Rd. And thank you oh so much, Bob at Hurstbourne Lane. You made my day.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

The Results Are In...

That's right folks. The results are in, and I'm now officially a postulant!!! For those of you who don't know , that means I'm on track for ordination in the Episcopal Church. Which means awesomeness, mostly because I get to do ministry that's so important in our world, with awesome people, at an awesome time! So I'm uber excited, needless to say. Anywho...I'm going to get back to work. On a slightly random note: WHAT KIND OF BUSINESS ISN'T OPEN AT 9 AM?????? Not restaurants, mind you. I'll accept that. But this morning I decided to be on top of things and stop by the Doo Wop shop on my way to work, which meant that I had to negotiate the hellacious Bardstown Road traffic (I have Bardstown Road unless I'm walking down it, and even then I don't like it much). I should have known something was amiss when there weren't a bajillion cars parked along the side of the road, thereby cutting off the flow of traffic. But I remaind hopeful nonetheless, especially since the neon lights in the store's windows were on (which to me means that you are open). So then I pull up to the garage and the door's closed, but I remain hopeful thinking "well, I'm just the first one here, so they haven't opened the doors yet." But no. They don't open until 10. LAME. Now I have to go back there today and get the lights, and when I go I'll have to be turning left onto Bardstown as well as left into Doo Wop Shop. And left turns+Bardstown Rd.= bad news bears. Oh well. It'll be aight.

NOW I'll get back to work. Got U2charist stuff to work on. Thus far I've heard of people coming from Lexington, Campbellsville, Glasgow, and Bowling Green. So that rocks!!!! Again, if you're in the area on Saturday night, come to the U2charist!!!!

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Hilary is, in fact, Alive.

Why hello there everyone. I guess it's been about two months since last I wrote. So sorry about that. Summer has gotten in the way of things, but hopefully once school starts back up I will be able to write some more.

I'm writing right now from my very own storage closet/office at St. Mark's. It's my last week here, which is very sad. I've grown accustomed to the flourescent lighting and the lack of air circulation. But those things aside, it's been nice. I feel like I have my own little niche here at St. Mark's. So I guess I will get everyone up to speed on what's been going on...

Internship: It's almost over, which is incredibly hard to believe! I actually have a meeting tonight in front of the commission on ministry, and they'll decide today (hopefully) if they want to make me a postulant (again, hopefully they will). I have high hopes that things will go well, and I'm pretty sure I'll get the green light, but you never know what can happen. So I'm nervous, and have spent a good portion of the day wondering what the hell I will do with my life if the commission says no. I do feel strongly, however, that God has called me to ministry, and I believe the commission sees that call as well. But pray for me and the COM tonight nonetheless, that God may be present in our mutual discernment.

In other internship news, things are going along swimmingly for the U2charist. I'm wicked excited about it, and it sounds like we may have a crowd! I know there are people coming from Campbellsville, Bowling Green, and Lexington, so that's huge! If you're in the Louisville area, it's this Saturday the 26th at 5:30 pm. It's a really powerful service and a huge testimony to how we as Christians can live out our faith. The rehearsal is this Friday night, and I keep thinking that perhaps there is more I should be doing, but things are pretty much in place so now it's kind of a waiting game! Sunday is also my last Sunday at St. Mark's, which is going to be sad. I've grown to love this community alot, and it's going to be hard leaving them. Kind of like it was hard leaving Christ Church. But there's exciting stuff to come...

School: Speaking of exciting, I'll be leaving one internship to be going to another. I'll be helping out at Trinity this next year in Boston with our young adult group. I'll be going around to campuses and telling young people about what we're doing. It should be a lot of fun, but also really hard. More to come on this once I know more. School starts the 18th, so I'm going to b e sitting around in Boston for a while trying to find something to do. Although I'll have AND stuff. And I'm going to be taking Greek this year so I could go ahead and buy the book so I can start memorizing the alphabet, etc. School should be exciting though.

Other Stuff: Mainly my nephew. He's amazing, and adorable, and beautiful. He's gotten so b ig, and his real hair is growing in! Erin has to brush it after she gives him a bath, which is cute. I'm going to miss him something fierce, and he'll be so huge when I get home for Christmas break. I try not to think about that, but it will still be hard.

Anyway, that's all I'm going to post for now. I'm going to go home and maybe work on the pool a bit before I get ready for the commission meeting tonight. I'll try to remember to post the results tomorrow.

Peace y'all.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Titles are Hard to Come By

I'm thinking of taking the titles off of my posts...they're so hard to come up with. That and in the past two weeks only 20 people have looked at this site, and 10 of those people I believe have been myself. Lame... So I'm not going to take the time to come up with cool post titles if no one's reading. Anyway, I'm back from camp. It was a good week. They combined 1/2 with 3/4 grade camp, and I thought it went really well. The kids were all and all pretty good, with only the usual bouts of homesickness and the like. And the weather was nice, aside from the blazing hot days for the beginning of the week. So now I'm back home, bringing back an ear infection and sinusitis as souvenirs. Woohoo!

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Archbishop's Response

The Archbishop of Canterbury today posted his longer response to General Convention and the goings on there. I was a little disappointed to see almost no mention of the role of women in the Anglican Communion, particularly how KJS's position as PB-elect is going to effect the communion. The best part of the letter was, I believe, the following:
"Both of these points are really grounded in the belief that our unity is something given to us prior to our choices - let alone our votes. ‘You have not chosen me but I have chosen you’, says Jesus to his disciples; and when we gather to celebrate the Eucharist, we are saying that we are all there as invited guests, not because of what we have done. The basic challenge that practically all the churches worldwide, of whatever denomination, so often have to struggle with is, ‘Are we joining together in one act of Holy Communion, one Eucharist, throughout the world, or are we just celebrating our local identities and our personal preferences?’"
Food for thought, definitely. I agree with the Daily Episcopalian, though, in that trying to say this whole debate is about how we make decisions and not homosexuality is like saying the civil war was about states' rights and not slavery. Right on, man. Let's just name it for what it is and go from there. That's just my opinion, anyway. If you're interested in reading the whole letter, go to http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org and check press releases. It's the first one under that, dated June 27. Happy reading.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Pic of Blaine

I think I may have promised you all that I would post a picture of my nephew...Well, here he is! The most beautiful boy in the world, Blaine. He's even a little bigger now than he was in this picture! He's perfect.

Interesting Article

Here's an interesting article from a newspaper in the UK...The Guardian. The comments below are also somewhat intriguing, as they provide a more everyday perspective from the British people. I like what the author says about the American Episcopal church being a church of the people. Nice. Anyway, I recommend you read the article.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1805970,00.html

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Back to the Daily Grind

Today was the first Sunday back at church since General Convention. I was half expecting Charles to preach on it, but to no avail. I also didn't hear many people talking about it. Could be because it's been half a week, or maybe because the average Episcopalian hasn't really paid too much attention to what's going on around the world. Check out some of the "Blogs I Read" for info on the conversation going on surrounding GC. I think the best point I've heard thus far is that in reality, what happens in our churches is on a very local level...and when it goes international, then it's usually one church pairing up with another. There's not really any meeting with the primates (how many Episcopalians have really known and been influenced directly by the PB? or the Archbishop of Canterbury? Or Akinola?) I just wonder how much of an effect this is going to have on the large middle ground dioceses of Episcopalians...It will be interesting to see.

Friday, June 23, 2006

Back from General Convention

That's right folks. I'm back from Columbus, OH, and the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church. I went there to participate in the Young Adult Festival as well as Convention itself. Aside from the awesome young adults I met from all over the country, and my conversation with Professor Britton at Berkeley Divinity (at Yale...which is where I want to go to seminary), there were a few things that were especially good.

First, we elected the first ever female presiding bishop. AMAZING!!! I hadn't even counted Katherine Jefferts Schori as one of the contenders, because I NEVER thought that the bishops would vote for a woman. But the Spirit moved them...and THEY DID!!!! The reaction in the House of Deputies was amazing. There was literally a huge gasp when they said her name, and then everyone started clapping (which we weren't supposed to do). I had chills down my arms, and my friend Bart literally fell out of his chair. There were women crying, and men got up to speak in favor of the nomination. Thinking about it makes me tear up...as a young woman who will (hopefully) one day be ordained in the Episcopal Church, there is nothing more affirming. Nothing whatsoever.

Second, there was a TON of energy around the millenium development goals (for more info go to www.episcopalchurch.org/one). I think that there is no better way to show the Anglican Communion that we are commited to such a communion than to commit our souls and resources to helping our brothers and sisters in the global South who go to bed hungry every night, are oppressed because of their sex of indigenous status, or are ravished by HIV/AIDS, TB, or malaria. Part of this energy centered around a U2charist, which was the most amazing spiritual service I've ever been too. Seriously. 750 people packed into this ballroom. The Spirit was moving there. Michael Curry preached an amazing sermon and had a whole room of God's frozen chosen saying Amen! Then the convention voted to make the MDG's a budget priority. The PB-elect has also made them one of her priorities, which is great!

Third, we approved shared communion in the interim with the United Methodist Church. This is a great move, in my opinion, towards a more unified Church. We're not becoming Methodist, bu t we're recognising the shared heritage of all Christians. I ate lunch at a pub and the chief officer for ecumenical relations (a bishop whose name escapes me at the moment) was very pleased. So yahoo!

As for the Windsor Report, and everything surrounding it, I feel that this General Convention worked so hard to wrestle seriously with issues of communion and what that entails. Some may feel that the resolutions were not good enough, either because they went too far or not far enough. But the Archbishop can't say we didn't try. I sat in on the debates, and there was a real willingness (as far as I could tell) to work out these issues and come to some resolve.

All in all, it was an amazing experience. Anyone who can should check out General Convention in three years...

Peace ya'll

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

The Heat is Hot

Well, it's hot as hell here. As PT would say...balls. It's that hot. Wonder if Boston is anywhere near as bad. Anywho, pretty much just rollin' along here on the home front. The baby is home with his family. They came over on Monday and we had a great time. I can't get over how cute he is! And he is already lifting his head some. At 1.5 weeks! Crazy. I started my job at St. Mark's this week, and I'm excited about it. Charles is a great guy, and I think it will be good to be working under him this summer. He's so upbeat, and I think St. Mark's will be a good place to get some perspective on ministry and my place in ministry. I'm reading a book he assigned me called "On Being a Priest Today." Thus far it's great, and totally confirms my view of ministry (which is one that is centered in empowering people to be the apostles we're called to be) and is helping me to develop it further. So that's cool! I'm trying to finish up my report for the Project, but it's slow go. I've been working on it for over a month...almost two I think, and I just want it to be done!!!! Hopefully soon. I've gotten 3 grades back so far, and I'm pleased. Got an A- in French, which was somewhat of a bummer, but I think it's because of the translation that was due the week I had my appendix taken out. I got it in on time and everything, but had to get it ready the day I got home from the hospital. So I'm not upset about it. I think it's pretty damn good, considering the circumstances. Let's see what else? The Niebuhr/Day paper got a good grade, strangely enough. I didn't feel that it was well developed, but who knew? Enough about school though. We bought an above ground pool for the yard yesterday. Hopefully we'll get it all set up and ready to go in the next few days! It's 4 feet deep, which is deeper than anything we had growing up. It will be nice to have a place to hang out in the back yard this summer. Especially since it's been so hot lately...That's about all I've got for now. Just thought I'd write about what had happened lately. Hope you all aren't melting.
Peace y'all.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

I'm an Aunt!!!

Sorry for the long period of no blogs. I know the five of you who read this were heartbroken :) Anyway, the reason for the long delay is twofold: 1. I was moving back to Kentucky, which involved a two day drive through five states. So thank God that is over and that my brother and I got home safe. Road trips like those always wear me out. And then, the night we got back the baby was born! He was born at 8:12 pm on May 20th. He is the cutest thing I've ever seen. It's amazing to see how great this world is, all wrapped up in a baby. I mean, the miracle of birth...he's so perfect. Ten fingers and ten toes...I can't get enough of just looking at him and thinking about the great things he has in store for his future. With parents like Erin and Chase, he's good to go. I'm going out to the hospital to spend the night with my sister; she was supposed to go home tonight but he's a little jaundiced and has lost some weight, so they're keeping him again. She's really sad about it, but it will be ok. So it will be a girly sleep over and Suburban tonight. Woohoo! Other than that...I have my meeting with the commission on ministry tonight. It should be interesting; I have no idea what is going to happen or what is expected of me. I just figure I will go in and be myself and it should be all good. I'm also in the process of cleaning my room, which is tiring but I got this awesome new surfing monkeys room set from Target, so I can't wait to get my room clean and put it up. I'm also leaving for Florida on Friday!!!!! sweet. I haven't had a vacation in years and years, and I'm going with my best friend and her husband. It's going to be great, and I can't wait to go to a beach (haven't been to one since I was 11). Yay vacation! Then it's back home to start work. I'm excited for the baby to get to go home, both b ecause it will be good for him and also because it means I will get to spend some time at home. I feel like I haven't really been there at all since I got back. But I'll go wherever I have to go to see Blaine. Well, that's all from here. I'm off to pick up a laundry hamper, as mine from college is now officially demonlished. Time for a new one. Peace y'all.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Clouds

So I didn't realize that Boston is located inside of a cloud. It has now been rainy and foggy for DAYS. I'm surprised my brother even made it to Boston yesterday because of the fog, and if he hadn't I don't think he would have made it today. And now it's raining really hard, and we have Sox tickets for tomorrow night but it's looking like it's going to be raining really hard the whole time and then they'll cancel the game and we won't get to go. LAME. Not to mention that the weather is supposed to be like this until I leave for KY. I feel bad for my brother because Boston is so beautiful when it's nice outside! Right now, though, it's been wet and foggy and cold for several days, and it's not going to let up anytime soon. I don't think he's even gotten to see the Boston skyline yet because visibility is less than a mile. Craziness. I'm ready for some warm Kentucky weather!

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Procrastinate Now!!!

Procrastination sucks. Papers suck. Ahhh, the joys of finals. I'm working on my religious belief and moral action paper. I have about 6 pages done of 15, and I want to finish it tonight, but it's like pulling teeth I swear. I like the subject, but I would much rather just talk to my tf about it for an hour or so and leave it at that. Sitting here writing it all out is just so...tiresome. especially when I have a more exciting paper waiting in the wings to research and write in 6 days. How many people do you know who have to read Lord of the Rings in two days in order to get a paper done? Not many, but it'll be fine. On a happier note, I got a High Pass on my French exam, which is uber exciting! I was going to be pissed if I didn't pass. But I did so no worries. OK, back to work. For serious this time.

Monday, May 08, 2006

French exam...check

I'm now checking off everything on my insane list of things to do. So the language exam is out of the way, and I should get results this week. The paperwork for my liscense (sp?) arrived in l'ville today, and the guy forgot to get it notarized. So I have no idea what I'm going to do about that. At all. And I don't have the time or energy to deal with it. Just one more stresser. I bought boxes today and started packing, however. Which is an odd feeling...I mean, I lived in a dorm all through college, but for some reason this just feels different. Maybe because it's a house. But it's weird. Means school's almost over though!!!

Saturday, May 06, 2006

PBS Reality TV???

Normally I despise reality TV. I think it tends to bring out the worst side of American culture, especially shows like Extreme Makeover and America's Next Top Model. Granted, there are reality TV shows that I guess could do some good. Like Extreme Home Makeover. And that's great. What I'm getting at is this PBS reality TV series I got hooked on while in the hospital. Remember, I was on morphine, lying in a hospital bed alone at 1 am watching hospital TV. So PBS was it. Anyway, there's this show called Texas Ranch House about these 15 people who all live on a Texas Ranch like it's 1867. I must have worked too hard yesterday because today I've been exhausted and not feeling great, so I lounged about at home resting up for the concert tomorrow. And what should be on TV but the last three episodes of Texas Ranch that I missed. Amazing. Go to www.pbs.org and you can see about the show. They apparently did another one the year before about a Colonial House or something of that nature. They're reairing a few episodes this Friday, so needless to say I'm uber excited about that. The show is interesting, mostly because the women get very frustrated with the situation and the men tend to turn into chauvanistic assholes. So it's an interesting lesson in gender relations. Which isn't to say that the men are really sexist in their normal lives, but living in 1867 they seemed to think it gave them an excuse to air sentiments otherwise regarded as offensive. I would recommend watching it. It's also pretty educational, and as a history buff I liked it. Something interesting anyway. I even thought it would be fun to apply to be on the next show they come up with, whatever it is. It's a thought...

Oh and hope your Derby horses did better than mine. Something nice about watching the Derby when I'm away from home and don't have to deal with the traffic and crazy drunk people. Sinister Minister started strong but ended weak. It's nice to hear My Old KY Home and see the bugler (who I actually know...I played Into The Woods with him at Trinity in '01)...home sweet home. Two weeks from today and I will be there. Yay! : )

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Human Again

Nothing new has happened really. Aside from the fact that I am bored out of my mind. Yes, I realize I have finals to write and papers to work on, but every time I start reading I get so damn worn out...I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll be in much better shape to work and all of that. I actually feel human today for the first time since Monday night. I still can't believe everything that's happened since then. I feel bad too cause I won't be able to help my brother move me out of this house and into storage...I'm not supposed to lift anything over 10 lbs. Which also means I'll have to find help taking laundry to the basement to wash, returning library books, etc. Geez. I swear sometimes I feel like a baby again...it's like I can't do anything! But it was nice sleeping in my own bed and actually being able to sleep on my side a little bit. I'm awful lonely, which is a bummer. I haven't heard from any school friends since yesterday, and my roomates are being kinda weird. Maybe I expect too much from them...but I got a little upset last night when they took over the living room to watch America's Next Top Model. It's not like they don't have tvs in their room or that I had just gotten home from surgery that night. But people have their lives to live, so I guess stiff upper lip and all that. I'm going to church tonight...hopefully it won't wear me out too much, but I have to do something. I can't sit around this house with the roomies tonight...I'll go nuts. Anywho, my doctor just called to check on me, which was nice :) He's a cool guy. I like him. Well I'm going to go now, because I'm done venting and am bored again. I leave in two weeks!!!

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Update

Sorry it's been a while since the last post. But I don't think there are many of you reading this anyway, however, some explanation is due. On Monday night I had my appendix taken out. Couldn't have come at a more inconvenient time...couldn't it have waited a month??? But no, there's no waiting. So I went into the hospital on Monday and I just got home about 30 minutes ago. It was a a weird experience...having surgery so far from home. But my friends came and visited, and Mike came by, so it all turned out ok. And the nurses were really nice too. So not too much to complain about. Anywho, I haven't showered since Monday, so I'm going to do that now. And then go lay down, as my tummy is hurting : (

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Notes

School=stressful. Yesterday I was so stressed my entire body hurt. Luckily I'm doing better (so far) today. I'm not worried about getting stuff done...it's just the process of doing it all that stresses me out. But the weather is nice and I'm going to get ice cream with Julia, so it's all good. Hopefully I'll be picking up the truck next week. I think I'm going to name him Clifford (like the big red dog). Seems fitting. Anyway, just thought I'd post to say hey to all three people who actually read this thing. Now I'm off to write a paper on Kurozumikyo. Hot damn.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Blah.

So spring is here...but you wouldn't know it, seeing as it's cold as crap outside. Blah. It's been a blah day, for no real reason. Well, I take that back. For a real reason. So I went and bought a truck today; I'll go pay for it on Monday, but I test drove it and everything. It's a 95 Ford Ranger. I guess I would be more excited if I felt good about buying a car. But I don't. I hate the thought that once more I'm going to have to get caught up in all of the gasoline price wars and the destruction of our environment...but I have to have one for my jobs this summer. And to move. It's really ironic that I got the truck on earth day. Crazy. But anyway I was hoping someone would go with me to get the truck, especially one of my roomates. But when I mentioned it no one was willing. And when I got b ack they were in the same places they had been before I left: in front of the TV. Now, I understand it's their Saturday and they have every right to relax, but I just feel so...outside of everything in this house. It's to the point where I'm counting down the days before I move out. I can't stand it anymore. I love the roomies, I just don't wan tto live with them. Well, most of them. There are a couple I could live with and have no problem. I'm just tired of the relentless reminders to "Wash your dishes and turn off the lights." Makes me feel like I'm 13. And the constant comments about weight and people being overweight and food obsessions and body image....AHHHHHH. It doesn't help that almost none of my roomies believe in anything. Only one of them goes to church, and surprisingly she's the one I get along with best. Which isn't to say I have anything against those who don't go to church. I just wish my roomates had some kind of belief system. They could be secular humanists and I would be fine! Just have some sort of ethical system by which to run your life! Anyone, it feels like a very oppressive environment. Only a few more weeks and then I get to be home for the summer! I can't wait until my brother comes to visit. That will be awesome. And next year I'll be living with people who I really feel like are all there for me and are real friends. I'm sorry for complaining. It's cold and rainy and has just been one of those days.

Peace ya'll

P.S. Nathan, you are the coolest brother in the world. Thank you for everything.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Thank you Ben King

I had lunch today with Ben King, chaplain for the Episcopal student group at Harvard College. Great guy. I hadn't seen him since the fall and we caught up again last week and decided to go to lunch. Aside from a great lunch and an awesome new (and free) t shirt, Ben said something that really struck me. He said "I'm socially and ethically liberal because I'm doctrinally orthodox." Now that's it, right there. I think so many people associate orthodoxy with right wing fundamentalism, and they really have nothing to do with one another, especially if you're working within a denominational framework. It's because I believe that Jesus is God's son and because I believe in the Resurrection that I believe in social justice for all people, and our mutual responsibility (and by mutual I mean both individual and societal i.e. the government) to work towards that. Which doesn't mean that believing in the resurrection is easy for me. It's not by any means, but reducing it to a mere metaphor seems to devalue everything I stand for. Ben told me I'm a closet doctrinal conservative. Ha. But I said I don't know enough about theology (yet) to be one way or another. So gimme a few years and we'll see : ) Other than that things are going well here. Hard to believe I am leaving for KY in a month. I'm excited about going home, but the amoung of work I have to get done...sheesh! I spent all day today working on my Shinto paper...which meant that I didn't go to work. I'll just put in the rest of my hours on Friday, when I have a tendency not to focus as well on school work anyway. I'm hoping to knock this Shinto paper out of the way ASAP so I can start on the other two papers I have to do. Yikes. And move outta here into a storage place, which means I have to buy the truck first. So many logistics and so little time! But it's all good. AND...is meeting here tomorrow night, so I've got to get ready for that. And pray that I can get this field ed stuff for next year worked out in the upcoming couple of weeks...I really feel called to work with that group...
Hope you're all staying sane as school comes to a close!

Peace y'all

Sunday, April 16, 2006

HAPPY EASTER!!!!

Alleluia!!! Christ is Risen!!!!! HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!! It's been one hell of a week...from trying to do school work and work to getting to services for the week...I don't feel that I was able to focus on Holy Week as much as I was last year on the AT, but I'm inclined to believe that that was a definite once-in-a-lifetime deal. But this year's Holy Week wasn't bad...Maundy Thursday was good. Mike preached, and I got this great idea for a sermon. Usually I don't write those things down, but this time I did. Which was good. If you want to read it, let me know and I'll send it to you. And then Good Friday was a weird mix of the solemn and the beautiful...it was hard to sit in church for three hours during a most glorious Friday afternoon (I actually only stayed for 2.5 because of the weather...). And then the Easter Vigil...it was how Easter vigils are supposed to be, with the presiding priest SHOUTING ALLELUIA!!!! None of this namby-pamby polite mumbo jumbo. Easter this morning wasn't bad...kind of flat compared to last night though. It was just so crowded at church--which is great don't get me wrong--but it all felt a little rushed. I've been having this issue lately with rished Eucharist. Every Sunday at church I end up with the same priest giving out communion. And I always feel that she's rushing it. I'm used to a much more intentional experience...I look at the person giving me communion and usually he/she puts it in my hand with intention. This particular priest seems to rush through it, like it's all about getting it to as many people as possible as quickly. And I understand that it's a big church...but people aren't going anywhere. I just hate feeling like I'm on the communion assembly line. And what makes it worse is that I'm always checking to see if I'll have her for communion, and when I move to a different part of the church the next week I still have her! And then I start to feel somewhat resentful...maybe it's ego I'm struggling with here, I'm not sure. I just don't feel that the Eucharist is something that should be rushed. I always try to be very intentional when I'm giving bread or wine to another, I guess I just hope for the same in return. Oh well. Anyway, the weather today was perfect Easter weather...reminds me of Easter weather when I was a kid. Just wish I could have been home with my family for it. But I was still gathered with my family in Christ, and ALLELUIA!!!! It feels so good to get to say that again : ) May you all have a blessed Easter season!!!

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Tickets

Stupid Red Sox. All I want to do is go to a game with a friend. And are the Sox making it easy? No. First of all, the tickets are expensive...23.00 just for bleacher seats!!! I can get awesome seats for my Reds for just 19.00. Bleacher seats for them are only 9. I understand Fenway is small, but come on. They sell out all of the time. So I could only find one ticket, and I needed two, so I'm hoping this Craigslist situation is going to work out. The guy is selling them for face value and a friend said he would pick them up for me, so if all goes well I will be at Fenway on Tuesday night!!!! But you never know with these Sox fans... Other than the frustrations of trying to see a baseball game around here, you can tell spring has arrived. How? My eyes are watering, my throat hurts, and I'm sneezing. Yeehaw! But the weather is glorious so I'm not complaining. It was 70 today and I busted out with the shorts. Hell yeah. And I managed to fix my own bike. I haven't been able to brake for the past 3 days, so it's been pretty treacherous riding around without brakes. But I bought some new brake shoes and tools today and fixed them all on my own, which is very gratifying. I like fixing things...there's something really nice about the whole thing. Like I feel like I've done something useful (which hasn't been the case for the rest of the night as I'm trying to get through a Virginia Woolf novel that's 400 pages for class...ugh). Anywho, that's about all I know. Maundy Thursday is tomorrow...I'll reflect on that more then. So everyone have a peaceful night, and enjoy listening to the rain (if you're in Beantown).

Peace ya'll

Monday, April 10, 2006

Holy Week

It's hard to believe that this time last year I was on the AT...talk about a Holy Week. Kinda hard to follow that one up...but I have high hopes for this year. This weekend was pretty crazy. We had a party on Saturday night, which was fun, but I'm still recovering from the sheer exhaustion of putting one on and having to do all of my regular work on top of things. Haven't been able to pick up the Volf in a few days, not because I don't want to, but because when I go to bed at night I'm just exhausted and pretty much fall asleep. Hopeully I can get some reading in this week.

Went to morning prayers at Appleton chapel this morning and then service at the monastery this evening. Both were actually very good. Ben King is doing morning prayer this week. I haven't seen him since September, so I said hey. He was at service this evening too, so we're going out to lunch next week to catch up. He seems like a really cool guy. And he has an accent, which is always awesome. Anyway, the service tonight was especially good and peaceful. The weather was gorgeous, and I had just been outside reading for an hour or so...and then I went into to SSJE and the monk greeting us was so friendly. And worship was so good, especially when we sang "O Sacred Head Sore Wounded," perhaps one of my very favorite hymns, mostly because I love singing the alto part. And there we sing with no organ, so it was four part harmony...wow. It was beautiful.

On a much more mundane level, I'm starting the search for a car. I'm going to have to go into more debt for it, but I have to have one for the summer, and as my sister's extra car's engine blew up, I'm kind of sol. So now I'm looking for a truck; I figure it will be a bit cheaper and I'll be able to do all of the moving I'm going to have to do in the next year with it. Plus it will just be cool to drive a pickup : )

Anyway, that's all here. I'm going to try and finish up some Shinto reading and then crash. Tomorrow's new student open house day, so I'm going to get the free lunch and talk to all of the newly admitted students who came to visit. Hard to believe that was me just one year ago!

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Springtime in Boston


A personal favorite of mine...I took this one on Cambridge St. as I was walking to work...I just looked up and there was this beautiful tree above my head. Awesome.











This is the most amazing bit ever. It's right after Oxford St. turns into Kirkland, and you're just walking along and if you don't look over you'll miss it, but BAM, there they are. Tons of these small flowers under the forsythia bushes. Amazing. I stand and look at it for a minute every time I pass. Isn't God's world amazing???







A tree in the yard...













Flowers in front of the business school... although things still seem a wee bit brown up here, signs of spring are turning up everywhere!!! Even at the business school...










This is what it looked like on Tuesday...is that snow, you ask? Why yes, yes it is. Wasn't it April 4th, you might also ask? Yes, why yes it was.

Friday, April 07, 2006

It's raining...

Howdy there. Not much to report on today...just went to work this morning and ran some errands this afternoon. Worked on a paper for a class...that's about it. I did get the book The Left Hand of God by Rabbi Lerner. Hopefully that will help with some of the issues I've had with the Volf book I'm reading, although I feel a little more settled about it now than I did last night. I sincerely hope that the Lerner book will be refreshing. After a while all of this "take Christianity back from the Right" stuff starts to sound the same, which is just the nature of politics. When you have a platform, you have to go with it. But since this book is coming from a Jewish perspective, I'm hoping that will help. I came up with my reading list today for the summer, although I'm sure it will grow by leaps and bounds. Thus far the "I've read" column only has three books in it, and the "Want to Read" column has about 20. Ha. To which I need to add Jeffrey Sachs's The End of Poverty. We read his Dignity of Difference book last semester, but I actually didn't really read it. It came at a time when I was really really swamped, and it was for a class that I could afford to fall behind in a little bit, so I just let it slide. Maybe I'll get to that one as well.

Let's see, what else? Oh I was thinking about intentional communities today, and how much I would love to start one with some HDS people. Maybe just find a house like the one I'm in now, get 6 or 7 others together and form an intentional Christian community, focused on working, serving, studying, praying, and living together. After my crisis last night when I was thinking about how no church holds anyone accountable for anything, I've decided I need to seek out such a community. Not to say that I'm leaving my present church. Not at all. But to find another community as well to hold me accountable...and I think an intentional community could do that. Everyone serves the community once a week or something. It's a start...so I emailed St. Francis House about volunteering, because I'm just trying to hold myself accountable at the moment. That really needs to change though. I can't go it alone; no one can. That's why we've got the church...

Peace ya'll

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Mental Overload

I'm still working on the Volf. Although by now a few pages of it looks like Talmud excerpts...I still think it's a good book, but I don't think he goes far enough in his requirements for us to give. I had a great conversation with Mike at church tonight about it, and when I mentioned a sermon from Duke I'd recently listened to, he said it's about checking your community. Do you have a community that holds you accountable. And I replied that's just it-the church is supposed to hold people accountable, but it doesn't!!!! I have so many questions right now about the role of the church in the world, and how to execute that role. Needless to say, I don't feel like all that great of a person of faith right now...I feel like there's so much more I could do, but I'm too attached to it. For example, how do I justify passing up the guy on the street asking me for spare change as i leave Tower Records with the Chronicles of Narnia on DVD? I don't know. I can't justify it...but i'm so caught up in this web of materialism and consumerism that sometimes it feels like I just can't get out of it. Not that I'm overly materialistic...I think I'm less so than many people I know. Only when it comes to books, movies, and music do I feel that I spend. But maybe that's moderation. But, and this is the key question, in a world of so much poverty and so much pain, is moderation enough?

I have to get some sleep and try and settle down. I'm kinda riled up from all of this thinkin'. And my sinuses and starting to hurt a bit, so it's bedtime.

Peace ya'll.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Feminism

I went to see a film today at the Div school. It was a 10 minute film made in the 1970s called "Period Piece," by Emily Culpepper. Dr. Culpepper made the film as part of her MDiv senior thesis, and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of women at HDS they showed the film and had responses and discussion. The movie, made in the 70s (1974 maybe?), explored issues of women's menstruation, showing a woman removing and inserting a tampon, and another performing a self-gynecological exam. There was an interesting mixture of people in the room...some who were older and professors during the women's lib movement (for example Mary Daly was there, as well as Elizabeth Schussler-Fiorenza), people of Dr. Culpepper's generation, and people from the Div school now. I have always considered myself to be a feminist, but as I sat in this room full of women I really wondered about where I fit into the whole scheme. Here were these women who had really struggled for the movement; they had taken radical steps to try and ensure that women would be treated equally (which is work that sometimes, I fear, will never be finished). And I have friends who are definitely into the more radical side of feminism; my friend Sarah directed to Vagina Monologues at HDS this year, for example. And I really admire her for that. But it's not for me, and I can't figure out why. At first I felt that I was betraying my feminist roots (props to my mom here). Why is it that I don't feel the need to make or even talk about menstruation in a public forum, or to take part in the Vagina Monologues (even though I will gladly attend and support it). I thought about this for hours today, and finally it dawned on me. So many people I know who are radical feminists in their actions, both young and old, are so because they felt some keen sense of disempowerment, or society's attempt to make them feel disempowered, during their lives. And that's what I don't have. I've never felt disempowered because I'm a woman. It was never and issue. Not once in my life do I remember thinking that I couldn't or shouldn't do something because I am female. Even in the realm of religion, which is where so many women feel disenfranchised, I never felt that calling God "Father" or "King" was a major problem. While most of the time now I refer to God as God, and not Him or Her, or sometimes both Father and Mother, even as a child I didn't think that "Father" in reference to God meant that the Creator was male. Never crossed my mind. I remember in college being told that I wasn't asked to do research for a professor overseas because women aren't allowed to ask certain questions of monks in Sri Lanka. That really hit me hard for a few days...I couldn't fathom that my sex had prevented me from doing something I felt I deserved to do. But even then, for some reason I got over it. It didn't mean that I couldn't go into academia...it just meant that I had to be creative. And I like a challenge :) So anyway, that's where my thoughts have been today.

That and the fact that I'm trying not to be too intense about my whole vocational path. It's just hard...I'm so excited about the prospect of going to seminary and really getting to start on the path for my vocation, that I'm afraid I'm too enthusiastic for some people. I really really really want to do an internship at my church next year, but I don't want to harass the person I'd work with too much and make him annoyed. But the passion and excitement inside of me about this whole path is like this...I don't know. Force that's driving me on. And it's amazing, but I feel like at the moment I'm at kind of a resting point while I wait for some things to fall into place before the summer hits. Maybe the Good Lord is trying to teach me patience, which God knows I need.

Oh yeah, and it snowed all morning this morning. Got soaked going to class so I just came home to work for the afternoon. Fun times. I read all of Deep River by Shusaku Endo today. If you haven't read that book, you definitely should. It's amazing (although I found his book Silence to be even more powerful...one of the best books I think I've ever read). And now I'm going to study some more.

Sorry if this has seemed to ramble a bit...my thoughts tend to go on for a while sometimes...

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Tuesday

Why are my Tuesdays always a bajillion times worse than my Mondays? It's been raining all day, which isn't too bad because it will make everything more green. But it's cold. And it's just a long day, with class going on all day and then doing work at night. And then I get an email tonight from this guy I was supposed to go out with tomorrow night telling me he's too exhausted and doesn't have time to date anyone and he hopes I'll understand. And I do. I seriously do. But why even start talking to me in the first place? Grr...that kind of stuff drives me nuts. On a happier note, though, I think I did pretty well on my French test. So yay there. And I finished homework early this morning, so I can read some Volf for a longer time tonight.

Had an awesome conversation tonight online with Michael Broughton. For those of you who don't know him, he was in ECF with me at WKU. Awesome guy. Funny as hell. Anyway, we were talking about the amazing sermon he's going to preach in a few weeks and he said something about the sanity of ECF. And I got to thinking about how churches really need to provide that for people...they are there to provide sanity in an insane world. And I think many churches preach that message, but they go about providing that sanity in the wrong ways. Our sanity isn't necessarily God's sanity. How do we give sanity to people? Not by providing a warm and fuzzy message to people telling them they're "in" with God and to just read more of their Bible and pray harder. It's all about loving others, in a really radical way. In an insane way even. Reaching sanity through insanity...

Peace ya'll

Monday, April 03, 2006

Wow

Four posts in one day? *gasp* I know you, my two loyal readers, will be more than excited. Hopefully some other people from facebook and the like will be interested enough to read this blog...if not, no biggie. I refuse to put a counter on here...don't want to see that the number only changes when I visit the site. Ha. Anywho...end of a Monday. Thank goodness. I can already feel the tension building in my shoulders for the week, but oh well. Not too much I can do about it except try to let it go. I have a French quiz tomorrow...I'm not really sure if I'm prepared for it or not, but I'm tired an somewhat beyond the point of comprehending anything in a foreign language. So instead I'll just read more about Shinto. Hooray! Tomorrow is my long day. How did I ever go entire days in school going to class? I even have a 2.5 hour break tomorrow and it's still an incredibly long day. Who knows...could be...ok you know it's late when I start quoting West Side Story.

On a completely different note I got an email from Sojourners today about a conference they're holding at the end of June. It sounds like it could be really interesting...all about a "New Covenant for America" or something like that. Not sure I can afford to go, though; and if I'm interning at this church I can't really take weekends off too easily. I'm also not sure how much new material there would be at the conference, or if it would be the same stuff in Wallis's book and from his class. Which, don't get me wrong, is not bad material, I've just heard it over. And over. And over. Not sure I want to pay over $200 to hear it again. But that's just me. I'm looking forward to General Convention, though. It should be interesting-I'm trying to get more young people to go to the Festival but to no avail. It will be a chance to meet new people, at the very least. Well, I'm going to get some more reading done and then hit the hay. Peace.

What I'm reading: Free of Charge; Gandhi's My Experiments with Truth; Gandhi: The Traditional Roots of Charisma; Shusaku Endo's Deep River
What I'm listening to: The Prayer Cycle (Jonathan Elias); Plans (Death Cab for Cutie)

Grrr...

So you would think that living in Cambridge would mean that the bookstores would carry a book that you are looking for. Right? Well, I'm here to tell you folks that it is NOT SO. I'm looking for the Gordon Fee book God's Empowering Presence. Harvard's library only has one copy of the book, and it's checked out until Friday. And I'm not going to be a jerk and request the book, because whoever has it might really need it for something. I just want to read it. So I thought what the hell, I'll buy it. So I went to the Div bookstore. And the Coop. And Harvard booksellers. Did any of them have it? Nope. Not a one. But on a better note, I did buy Volf's Free of Charge, on recommendation from Daniel. I'm excited about reading it. I started The Brothers Karamazov yet again, but I think that one is going to have to wait until the summer to digest fully. I'm hoping to read this one this week and next. Yay books! Now if I could just get focused so I could finish this Shinto midterm...

Daffodils


Here are some flowers to start your day with...I took this picture in front of my house last week on Thursday (the house in the picture isn't mine...it's the neighbors'). Yay spring!!!!

Welcome!!!!

Welcome welcome welcome!!! So I tried this whole blog thing before, to no avail, so maybe this time around it will work. I don't really have too much in mind for what this is going to be...mostly my reflections on the day, my theological ponderings, and just some good ol' fashion fun. if there is such a thing. two shout outs for this blog: 1. jeff marcilliat gets initial responsibility for this blog's creation. He is my inspiration (for those who noticed, I know I've been switching between all lower case...I'm just too lazy to go back and change it). and 2. Daniel Greeson, sole brother and guy who keeps me from doing my homework extraordinaire. His blog is amazing, so hopefully mine will come somewhere close. Daniel, I love the typepad server, but I'm not paying 5 bucks a month. So alas, I am here where the freebie pages are. Woohoo!

Anywho...It is the start of a new week. A new chance to get everything done I need to get done. Or not (which is often the case). Next week is Holy Week, which should be especially interesting being at a new church. I'll post more tonight about my spring break and what happened, but for now I must depart and head to school. Happy Monday, everyone!!!