Oh love wash over a multitude of things
Love wash over a multitude of things
Love wash over a multitude of things
Make us whole
There is a love that never fails
There is a healing that always prevails
There is a hope that whispers a vow
A promise to stay while we're working it out
So come with your love and wash over us
-When it Was Over, Sara Groves
I am always inclined to be overly optimistic about my classes during the first week. My excitement about starting school again tends to overshadow the reality of courses that end up not being everything I had hoped. The seven research length papers that sounded like a wonderful academic challenge during the first week of class end up making me question my sanity. The geology class that I was sure would be no problem at all ends up being torture. And I always end up wondering what in the world I was thinking when I skipped right over the add/drop date without a second glance. Dang rose-colored glasses.
However, I really don't think I'll have too much "should have dropped when I could" regret this semester. Check back in two weeks when the reality of reading assignments, papers and tests kicks in, but I'm thinking I'm still going to be at least mostly happy with my classes. A.) I can't really drop any of them if I would like to still graduate in May. B.) I've had or at least know pretty well 3 of my 5 professors.
Outside of classes, the week has been good for other reasons as well.
I got back into my work at the law firm, the inauguration happened, got to hug several dear friends who were gone last semester traveling abroad but have returned, led the first juniors small group of the semester and stood in awe of the group of women the Lord has placed in my life, got to watch devon and katye dance in the sharp show, got to catch up with sara about her adventures in africa, got to have several wonderful one-on-ones and babysit two of my favorite kids.
Conversations between 4-year-old A and I last night...
A: You're shorter.
Me: Shorter than what?
A: Shorter than the last time you babysat.
Me: Well, maybe you've just gotten taller.
A: No, I'm only this tall (stretches her hands out). You're shorter.
later on while she's trying to fall asleep
A: I think something is wrong with my brain.
Me: What's wrong with your brain?
A: I turn it off, but it just keep hasing thoughts, even though I'm like, off! off! off!
All in all, a good start to the semester:-)
In the land of possible after graduation adventures, I'm...
...waiting to hear from GBGM
...submitting the simon fellowship application tomorrow
...praying about filling an application out for Word Made Flesh
...praying about sending a resume/cover letter for a position at a girl's school in India
...praying about sending a resume/cover letter for a position at a community center in Harlem.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
coming & going
Ocean City, MD
My feet didn't actually ever get to touch the sand in the four days I was in Maryland, but at least I got to see it from my hotel balcony as I came and went at hours that were too early and too late:-)
I had a wonderful few days helping a friend out with a youth conference in Ocean City.
And now I'm faced with a day of the in-between stuff: laundry, packing, cleaning, sorting. The necessary physical transitions that mark the move from one place to another.
Tomorrow, bearing unforseen circumstances and as-of-yet unknown plans, will be my last flight into Dallas for school attending purposes. I could get into the days, weeks, months countdown of how much time I have left at SMU, but I'm not all that interested in knowing. Regardless of the numbers, the time will go quickly and I will inevitably wonder where my last spring semester went.
And then it will be time to pack and clean and sort all over again. To make piles for a new adventure somewhere else. I'm ready to fully and completely enjoy what is left of my time in Dallas.
But I can't help but be excited about the unknown that is to come.
My feet didn't actually ever get to touch the sand in the four days I was in Maryland, but at least I got to see it from my hotel balcony as I came and went at hours that were too early and too late:-)
I had a wonderful few days helping a friend out with a youth conference in Ocean City.
And now I'm faced with a day of the in-between stuff: laundry, packing, cleaning, sorting. The necessary physical transitions that mark the move from one place to another.
Tomorrow, bearing unforseen circumstances and as-of-yet unknown plans, will be my last flight into Dallas for school attending purposes. I could get into the days, weeks, months countdown of how much time I have left at SMU, but I'm not all that interested in knowing. Regardless of the numbers, the time will go quickly and I will inevitably wonder where my last spring semester went.
And then it will be time to pack and clean and sort all over again. To make piles for a new adventure somewhere else. I'm ready to fully and completely enjoy what is left of my time in Dallas.
But I can't help but be excited about the unknown that is to come.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
a piece of the puzzle
It was cold. I should have guessed as much, seeing as how it was winter in Bolivia. But I walked out onto the balcony that morning barefoot and without a jacket, more intent on feeling the way I way I was feeling than worrying about the fact that I would be shivering in all of two minutes.
I sat and took in the view. El Cristo stretching out to the west, the city a few miles north and the sprawl of the neighborhood coming to life in the morning hour before me. All of it had become a part of me- the mountains, the city, the people, the language, the days of laughter and tears and discovery.
I sat feeling the conflict between my present reality and everything that had been reality before our plane landed in La Paz. How does one reconcile the two? In those moments it seemed unbearably impossible.
When my friends, my community there asked why I could not just stay, why I had to leave at the beginning of August, my answer was always the same. My rudimentary Spanish didn't give justice to the intent of my words, but I tried nonetheless to explain.
Porque, porque tengo una vida en los Estados Unidos, I would say. Porque tengo una familia. Amigos. Trabajo. La Universidad.
Yet somehow my life had stretched to include all that lay before me that morning on the balcony. Those moments, those people, those experiences, both the good and the bad, were as much a part of me as my memories of growing up in Pennsylvania.
Coming back to Pennsylvania after time away at school always reminds me of how these different parts of my life begin to feel like puzzle pieces that don't or can't always fit together. Just like in Bolivia, I struggle because I'm not always sure how to make them all fit.
I've had the incredible blessing of being able to do lots of visiting in these weeks of Christmas break. I've spent time with both sides of my extended family, as well as with friends from elementary school although the way up to high school graduation. Each one is a link to a part of my past, to memories and to the place they now hold in my present.
I was pondering the fit of all of these pieces of my life, praying over how they are to come together, wondering if there was a way for all of them to make sense together, when I came across this:
And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
-Ephesians 1:22-23
My puzzle, the various pieces of my life, make sense and fit together because of Christ. He "who fills everything in every way" fills the cracks and crevasses, making sense of it all because it's all a part of his plan for me. He is the current that runs through all of the communities of people, the places, the moments, the lessons that make up my life. And in him, all the things that I cannot make sense of, fit together because he is the purpose, the reason, the focus of it all.
Tengo una vida...Una vida con el.
And because of that, everything makes sense.
(I should note that as I wrote this my dog snuck into my room and begged her way onto my bed. She has now stretched out, fallen sound asleep and is dreaming so hard her snores are shaking my bed. One passed out pit bull+ a twin sized bed = me probably having all of 1/4 of my bed to try and sleep on tonight)
I sat and took in the view. El Cristo stretching out to the west, the city a few miles north and the sprawl of the neighborhood coming to life in the morning hour before me. All of it had become a part of me- the mountains, the city, the people, the language, the days of laughter and tears and discovery.
I sat feeling the conflict between my present reality and everything that had been reality before our plane landed in La Paz. How does one reconcile the two? In those moments it seemed unbearably impossible.
When my friends, my community there asked why I could not just stay, why I had to leave at the beginning of August, my answer was always the same. My rudimentary Spanish didn't give justice to the intent of my words, but I tried nonetheless to explain.
Porque, porque tengo una vida en los Estados Unidos, I would say. Porque tengo una familia. Amigos. Trabajo. La Universidad.
Yet somehow my life had stretched to include all that lay before me that morning on the balcony. Those moments, those people, those experiences, both the good and the bad, were as much a part of me as my memories of growing up in Pennsylvania.
Coming back to Pennsylvania after time away at school always reminds me of how these different parts of my life begin to feel like puzzle pieces that don't or can't always fit together. Just like in Bolivia, I struggle because I'm not always sure how to make them all fit.
I've had the incredible blessing of being able to do lots of visiting in these weeks of Christmas break. I've spent time with both sides of my extended family, as well as with friends from elementary school although the way up to high school graduation. Each one is a link to a part of my past, to memories and to the place they now hold in my present.
I was pondering the fit of all of these pieces of my life, praying over how they are to come together, wondering if there was a way for all of them to make sense together, when I came across this:
And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
-Ephesians 1:22-23
My puzzle, the various pieces of my life, make sense and fit together because of Christ. He "who fills everything in every way" fills the cracks and crevasses, making sense of it all because it's all a part of his plan for me. He is the current that runs through all of the communities of people, the places, the moments, the lessons that make up my life. And in him, all the things that I cannot make sense of, fit together because he is the purpose, the reason, the focus of it all.
Tengo una vida...Una vida con el.
And because of that, everything makes sense.
(I should note that as I wrote this my dog snuck into my room and begged her way onto my bed. She has now stretched out, fallen sound asleep and is dreaming so hard her snores are shaking my bed. One passed out pit bull+ a twin sized bed = me probably having all of 1/4 of my bed to try and sleep on tonight)
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