The New Guy

Hey Everyone!  I'm the new guy for a couple of weeks.  My name is Curtis Dehmey.  I am currently a student at Lancaster Theological Seminary, but until July 15 I am interning with Jonathan Shively and the rest of the Congregational Life Ministries office.  During this internship I am shadowing leaders within the Congregational Life Ministries office, taking part in various meetings, learning about church planting, learning about coaching/consultant work and in general, about life and leadership at the General Offices.  I am born and raised in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and no, I am not Amish.

I was quickly incorporated into the BVS house upon my arrival.  I learned right away how busy and active this house has become.  Everyone seems to have their own routine and schedule, but during most evenings, the activities are up in the air.  This makes for a nice flexible evening.  So if we want to watch a movie, take a walk down to Orange Julius for a smoothie, run some errands or spend a nice evening in the library, this is all up to us.  It has been both a loving and fun community.

An interesting challenge came upon my arrival because I do not eat too many vegetables.  I openly make fun of myself for my pickiness.  Mom and Dad and countless others have tried to be creative in enticing me to eat vegetables all of my life.  With two vegetarians living in the house this makes it challenging.  Gratefully, we have all been pretty flexible.  I try to be a good sport when they make something with vegetables in it.  If I make something with meat, I try to be considerate in what I make so that I can cook something that would also be agreeable to the vegetarian diet.

Another interesting delight and challenge this week has been that the Ministry Summer Service individuals and the Youth Peace Travel Team are temporarily staying at our house until Saturday.  At the moment we have 10 individuals living in the BVS house.  There is more activity than usual happening, but it makes it so that there is never a dull moment.  Two of these Ministry Summer Service individuals will be in and out of our house for the summer.  Sarah Neher and Jamie Frye will be out new housemates for the course of the summer!  Welcome!

As you can see new and exciting things are happening!  We are grateful to have you follow many of us on our journeys!

Lessons from Children

Sorry faithful readers that it has been so long since someone wrote on our house blog, we have all been busy with babysitting, graduation, office meetings, parties, BBQs, visitors, saying goodbye to Denise and welcoming new housemates. So needless to say things have been crazy.  

Over the past couple of months, I have been thinking about children, and the lessons that we can learn from them. (If you don't know I have a degree in Education, so soon this will be my whole world - teaching). There are a number of lessons that we can learn from our young friends including:

All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten

by Robert Fulghum

Most of what I really need
To know about how to live
And what to do and how to be
I learned in kindergarten.
Wisdom was not at the top
Of the graduate school mountain,
But there in the sandpile at Sunday school.

These are the things I learned:

Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life -
Learn some and think some
And draw and paint and sing and dance
And play and work everyday some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world,
Watch out for traffic,
Hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.

We are never to old to stop learning, and remembering what is important in life. 

During our house BBQ I spent the majority of the time entertaining our house little friend. Her name is Sage and she is fireball of energy. The first time that I ever met her, Jeremy and I were babysitting her and she told me that she wanted to play football. This instantly warmed my heart because I also share a deep love of football. That evening we ended up playing football, which really was really her throwing the ball and Jeremy fetching it. We also watched movie clips from the Blind Side I fast-forwarded through all the talking scenes (we just watched the football). 

So back to the BBQ, I ended up playing once again with Sage. There were about four of us that had fun playing dress up in my room. It was really great to be reminded of taking time to have girl time :). I myself need to remember to take time, have fun, and laugh occasionally. Never take life to seriously.   

I am still looking for the pictures that were taken, if I find them I will add them later. 

Your Friend, Carol. 

For the beauty of the Earth

Hello folks out there in the blogosphere!
Today's post is brought to you by Kendra, and I suppose I should start by introducing myself. I hail from the greatest state this nation has to offer - Iowa - and graduated from (the now-defunct) Dana College in Blair, Nebraska. I have spent the past three years volunteering in Germany: one year in a foster-care-type group home and two years, through Brethren Volunteer Service, with a peace and human rights organization called Peace Brigades International. Now, since January, I can be found here in Elgin, aiding and abetting the hi-jinx of the BVS office and joining in the fun of the BVS volunteer house. Clearly, God (with the help of Google) had a plan when I stumbled upon the COB world on the internet.

Several weeks ago, I had started a blog post discussing the differences between my previous volunteer life and my one here in Elgin. And someday, I might just finish and post it. But today I'm taking the easy route and sharing how our house celebrated Earth Day.

To start with, we celebrated in Word, song, and skit by leading worship at Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren. In planning the service, some of us might have procrastinated more than we should have and it got a bit stressful at the end, but the service itself went pretty well and we all had a lot of fun. Our Scripture passages were taken from Psalm 24 and Psalm 8, and for hymns we picked 'Touch the Earth Lightly,' 'Morning has Broken,' and 'You Shall Go Out with Joy, the last of which contained a lot of energy thanks to our peppy pianist. For the children's message, Carol, Denise, and Rachel gave a stirring rendition of Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree.

For an added technological touch (which almost went off without a hitch), we put together a powerpoint featuring members of our church family providing their answers to the question: What change do you want to see in the world?"
Because I, with my limited technological prowess, can't figure out how to post a powerpoint on here, I am adding a selection of some of the photos.  For a closer slideshow experience, I suggest listening to the Wailin' Jennys' "One Voice" while viewing the pictures:

At the bottom of this post (because it's kind of long for here), I'll include the meditation I shared.

To finish out the day of Earth, some of us decided it was time to practice what we preached and get our hands dirty in the garden. After all, these little guys need a home:

My, how they've grown!

Rachel, making the world a little better, one straightened garden edge at a time.

Denise, getting up close and personal with the earth.

It's a lot harder to make a caption about yourself!

Jeremy, giving the soil some air and some love.

Meditation

Psalm 8: “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Sovereign,  how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

I’d like you to keep that psalm in your head for a moment as I read a sharp twist on those words from elsewhere in Scripture:

“What are human beings, that you make so much of them, that you set your mind on them, visit them every morning, test them every moment? Will you not look away from me for a while, let me alone until I swallow my spittle? If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target? Why have I become a burden to you?”

These are the cries of Job, a man who, according to Scripture, “was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.” However, he is also a man who finds himself victim of undeserved suffering and loss - loss of wealth, family, and health. To add insult to injury, the only ‘comfort’ his friends can provide is to maintain that Job must have sinned greatly and is now facing the just punishment.

Now, at first glance, Job’s story may seem an odd choice for what we are celebrating today, but I think it has much to teach us about the earth, about service, and about Easter.

The first lesson has to do with humility. After losing everything, Job is filled with mourning. He feels that his circumstances are so bad and his so suffering so great that life is not worth living, that it would have been better to have never been born at all, in the manner of George Bailey from “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Yet, Job even does a one-up on old George: he wishes not to just erase his birth from history but to stop that day from ever dawning.  “Yes, let that night be barren,” he cries, “ let no  joyful cry be heard in it!”  He pleads for an undoing of God’s creation, saying “Let that day be darkness!” using the same Hebrew word that God speaks in “Let there be light.”

It must be remembered that Job is speaking out of the depths of unwarranted sorrow, loss, and suffering, and he will spend the next several chapters telling of his despair and anger and his wish to somehow have it out with God, to prove his innocence and demand an answer for his suffering. And this is understandable. But he starts his laments in this arrogant and self-absorbed manner, as if to say “If I’m going down, the whole earth is going down with me,” as if to say, “If this world hasn’t been good to me, then what is it good for?”

Now, I sincerely hope that none of us have been so desperate as to wish for an undoing of God’s creation, yet I think behind it lies a very natural human tendency to treat the world as if it were created for us. It is true, of course, that God blesses us with the gifts of creation, gifts that not only bring us joy but allow the basis of our very existence, but the earth’s value doesn’t like in what it can provide for us. The earth is valuable because it is God’s good work - work that God continues to maintain and value. Nature was not created to serve humanity; instead, humanity was created to care for nature as a way of serving God. While the creation narratives have often been misused to justify and encourage exploitation of the earth, touting the idea of dominion started in Genesis and continued in passages like the eighth Psalm, there is actually a very different message to be found there. Genesis 2:15 states that “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.”  This isn’t a call to abuse but rather a call to care. Steven Bouma-Prediger states that ‘to till the earth means to serve it for its own sake. To keep the earth means to caringly guard it the way that God blesses and keeps his people.” Put another way, Cal DeWitt tells that “such keeping is not preservation as applied to pickles in a jar; it is the kind of keeping we ask God to give us.” An alternative translation of the original Hebrew makes this message even clearer: God placed adam (aka humanity) in the garden to serve and protect it. As stated in Psalm 24, the earth is the Lord’s - we are merely caretakers in it, hired hands, servants. Plain and simple: we are born to serve.

If we return to the story of Job, we see that when God finally provides a response to Job’s cries and accusations, it is a response  that matches the universal proportions set by Job and one that is meant to essentially put him in his place.  God doesn’t directly answer Job’s questions  and instead asks other questions, questions that show Job’s ignorance and powerlessness. God illustrates to Job the scope and magnificence of the earth in order to humble him, highlighting Job’s relative insignificance in light of such unfathomable creation. God talks of the wild ass and ox who serve no human and of the rain and life God brings to land that Job has never imagined and that no human will ever see.

And yet God is not cold and unfeeling to Job’s pain - God doesn’t give Job a reason for his suffering but does take him beyond it. Creation is as good as it is vast. God’s admonition is also an invitation. In creation is a source of comfort and joy deep and strong enough to reach Job even amidst his suffering.

This is another very important lesson for us. God’s creation is something beyond all comprehension, and we are each but a microscopic speck in light of the earth and all its glory. But this is not cause for discouragement but rather for joy. In creation, God offers us a goodness that is bigger than anything we are facing, a goodness that calls us to rejoice even in the darkest of times. Sometimes we may prefer to dwell in our despair, echoing Job when he says “Why is light given to one in misery, and life to the bitter in soul....Why is light given to one who cannot see the way?” Or sometimes we may be like the people author T.M. Moore describes who “trudge through their daily routines of trade and toil, unmindful of the glory shimmering and beckoning around them.”  Perhaps that is the lesson of Earth Day, the lesson of Easter: God continually fills the world with newness and life and light, even when we ignore it, even when we can’t accept it, even when we would rather that it wasn’t there. In every drop of rain or ray of sun, in every bird that sings or tulip that blooms before our eyes, God’s love and grace are present, calling and inviting us again and again to take notice and rejoice.

If we can take on this spirit of rejoicing, we find that not just we ourselves but all of creation

benefits. One of the major factors in the vast level of environmental destruction is our affliction of perpetual discontentment, our constant state of production and consumption to feed our belief that if we could just get more things, better things, life would be better. Conversely, if we could join with the apostle Paul in learning to be content with whatever we have, if we take up contentment and delight in God’s good creation as a choice and a practice, regardless of circumstance, we can do much in our individual battles against exploitation and destruction of that same good creation.

And indeed, in the realm of all creation, we as human beings have been richly blessed by God - we have been paid special attention, singled out for a special role. We too might join in the awe and wonder of the psalmist in asking “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Or, conversely, we might feel the burden and join with our buddy Job in asking “What are human beings, that you make so much of them, that you set your mind on them, visit them every morning, test them every moment? Will you not look away from me for a while?” Job views God’s attention to humanity, and to himself personally, not as a loving parent but rather as a watchful overseer with an unswerving gaze, waiting for (perhaps even hoping for) the instant that Job messes up and sins so that God can swoop down like a hawk and punish him.

This special attention from God which both the psalmist and Job have hit upon is very important. And unavoidable. We can’t deny that we have dominion - the writer of Psalm 8 is right: we are created a little lower than the divine - crowned with glory and honor, we are the royalty of the earth. If we look past his despondent, self-pitying, tone, Job, too, has an important truth to teach us about what it really means to the be the royalty of creation: it’s hard work and there are high standards. With great privilege comes great responsibility - just a king has an immense responsibility to his people, so we have an immense responsibility to the creation with which we are entrusted. And of course there is accountability there. Elected leaders know that the eyes of their people are upon them, watching and judging their every move, checking to see if that leader holds up to their expectations. Likewise, God’s eyes are upon us - just as Job says, God’s mind is set upon us and God does visit us every morning. Partly, because God loves us, yes of course, but also because God has expectations for us and wants to ensure that we are living up to them (which, clearly, we usually don’t).  Yet it’s not in the manner of the harsh overseer, as Job imagines,  or even that of a jaded public, but rather more like a loving parent who wants to make sure that the gift she has given her child is taken care of because she knows it will hurt both her and her child if it is not.

Authors Matthew Dickerson and David O’Hara point out that: “We act with such sovereignty over nature that the question is not whether or not we are royalty; the question is what sort of royalty we will be.”  So far, the answer has been the sort of royalty that would have been overthrown, the sort of elected leader who would have been impeached. Blessed with immense power and opportunity, we have abused it - we have not borne God’s image well.

This can well lead to despair, similar to that of Job’s. Everywhere we turn, we are slapped in the face with ways in which we have made a mess of this world, harming the earth and those on it. When reading the litany of human and environmental suffering, it’s hard not to wonder if we have even started to drive God out of this world. We have long asked where God is amidst hatred and violence, and now that our greed and sin has started to devour creation itself, we ask where God is amidst environmental destruction. Author Roger Gottlieb asks: ““How am I to feel joy in existence when existence is such a mess? And if I cannot feel that, all in all, this world - despite everything - is holy, then what kind of religious life will I be left with?”

What we are left with is hope and faith. The message of Earth Day, the message of Easter is that no place is forsaken by God. The message is that the times and places of deepest pain and sorrow are where God is most present. Barbara Rossing states that “Whatever future events await the earth, the biblical message is that God comes down to earth to live on it with us. Earthquakes, darkness, plagues? God comes. Are hearts breaking? Is all hope lost? God comes. At one of the bleakest moments in history, when people of Judea and Galilee groaned under Roman occupation some two thousand years ago, ‘the word became flesh and dwelt among us.’ John’s Gospel tells us.” In the end, what ties everything together is Christ. Through Christ, God once and for all affirmed the goodness of creation by choosing to live in it. In Christ we find light that darkness cannot overcome, light that teaches us how to find joy when we are sunk in despair as deep as Job’s. Christ teaches us to cherish and rejoice in, rather than oppress and exploit, the most vulnerable among us; Christ teaches us to value the seemingly mundane in creation, teaches us to bring sight and healing with just a bit of spit and mud. In Christ we find a model of what true royalty looks like, royalty in the form of humble servanthood, royalty in the form of self-sacrificial love.

And in Christ we find a call to action. True, as the apostle Paul writes, the whole of creation has been groaning in pain, but we are not called to simply wait for a new heaven and earth to descend upon us once we’ve finished off this one. We are called to transform this earth now. 

To close, let us consider this passage from German author Hermann Hesse: “Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world's phenomena intersect, only once in this way, and never again. That is why every man's story is important, eternal, sacred; that is why every man, as long as he lives and fulfills the will of nature, is wondrous, and worthy of consideration. In each individual the spirit has become flesh, in each man the creation suffers, within each one a redeemer is nailed to the cross.” 

God has invested a great deal in each one of us, invested God’s only Son, in fact. - we are all, so to speak, princes of the universe, freed by Christ’s sacrifice for the purpose and potential with which we were all created. The beauty of the earth lies in every single child and creature of God that it contains; the joy of creation is that every  morning that breaks calls and equips each of us to do our part in restoring the garden.
Sometimes we question with Job what this creation holds for us. But we need not because, really, all of creation is within us, and every moment it calls us forth to serve. And so, instead of mourning with Job, let us join with the psalmist in proclaiming ‘O Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!’ And, led forth by the peace of Christ, let us go out with joy and do our part in God’s vision of redemption and new life. Creation is waiting.

Rachel's First Chapel

This morning I gave my first chapel and I thought I would share it with all of you who couldn't be there! I know you are all dying to know what I talked about. ;-) Anyway, here you go!

Scripture

Proverbs 16:1-3 (MSG)

1 Mortals make elaborate plans, but God has the last word. 2 Humans are satisfied with whatever looks good; God probes for what is good. 3 Put God in charge of your work, then what you've planned will take place.

Reflection

Most of you may already know that I majored in theatre performance in college. Theatre was my life, as those of you with kids in theatre programs know. I was in choir, I was in the theatre club, I was running lights, acting in full lengths, and one acts, and the list goes on. By about sophomore year, I decided to go out for one of the last sections of the theatre scene that I hadn’t explored yet and was, honestly, afraid to try. It was the improv group on campus.

I have never been good at improv. I have always wanted to be but I always got too nervous. Give me a script I can memorize and work on and I’ll go out there, head held high. Throw something at me from left field, however, and I’m slightly lost.

So, I decided to face this fear and, knowing I probably wouldn’t make the troop anyway, gave improv a shot. I went to the auditions and I was so nervous the whole time. I did okay, but, as I assumed, I didn’t make the group. I was fine with that, however, and just proud of myself for trying.

From this experience and from my numerous theatre classes, I learned several things about improv and acting. What to do and what not to do. I found an example list online which spells it out nicely into five basic rules:

1. Don't Deny. Denial is the number one reason most scenes go bad. Any time you refuse an offer made by your partner your scene will almost instantly come to a grinding halt.

2. Don't ask open ended Questions. (like "Who are you?") They stop the scene while your partner has to think of something.

3. You don't have to be funny. Play the truth of the scene, make it interesting, and the funny will follow.

4. You can look good if you make your partner look good. People come into scenes with a great idea for a character but your partner has no idea what’s going on in your head.

5. Tell a story. The players take totally random suggestions (like a plumber and a cab driver selling shoes in a cubicle) and somehow "make it work". (I got these rules here.)

These rules helped me get through some tough scenes in theatre and in life. Another rule that isn’t in the improv list but that was drilled into my head was to make a decision and make it big. Once you make your choice, stick with it. If you second guess yourself, the audience will second guess you as well. I use this one a lot.

My next brush with improv was not as happy an experience as the first. I was cast in a play with a small cast. There really were, for the most part, no small parts. I was part of a trio that formed the comic relief team. At one point, we play opposite the lead and, through some witty comments and comic repetition, get a few laughs. The lead, however, was not happy with us getting the laughs and wanted some for himself.

One night, we were going through our routine when, out of the blue, the lead starts throwing lines at us that we have never heard before. He starts improving. Now, there’s nothing wrong with a few lines of witty improv, but, without sounding too mean, hopefully, he wasn’t being witty. Instead, he was making things up just to get some laughs which, when they didn’t come, made him try all the harder.

One of the rules of comedy or improv, if you recall, is that you don’t have to be funny or, the way I learned it, never play for the laughs. One of the first rules of the stage is that you have to be trustworthy and your fellow actors need to know they can rely on you. This sounds a bit like the “official” rule number four: You can look good if you make your partner look good. He broke both those rules that night, consciously. He was being selfish to get a few laughs on stage which he never even got. And none of us could trust him from that night on.

Some improv in theatre and in life is necessary. When a situation arises without warning, on the stage or in life, sometimes you have to jump, take the chance, or fix the situation by doing a little improv. When people improv for their personal benefit only, however, it doesn’t help anyone out.

The way I see it, God is the master playwright. He has a script for each one of us. Sometimes we have our lines nailed. Sometimes someone else throws in some improv and we have to find our way back to the script. And sometimes, we do our own improv for our own benefit and we need help getting back on track. It might seem a little bit of a cliché or even a naive way of looking at the world, and I know that, but it’s one way for me to start to wrap my head around this play called Life. The potters get their metaphor; this is mine as an actor and a playwright.

Right now I’m trying a little improv in my own life by going with the flow and not knowing what comes next. I finished college and now I’m doing BVS and I’m not quite sure what is going to happen next but I’m trusting in God to help me out and guide me.

The rules of improv seem to apply to this situation as well. Don’t deny. Don’t ask open ended questions (What happens next?). You don’t have to be funny (well, thanks). Make others look good and I’ll make myself look good (golden rule anyone?). Tell a story.

Just the other day, Cat and I sat down and drew up a “story board,” if you will, of our lives. I looked at her and I said, “I have a plan! I’ve never had a plan before!” I think about the scripture I’ve chosen for today, however, and make sure that I don’t get upset if my plan doesn’t correspond precisely with God’s plans. I’m flexible and, hopefully, better at improv in life than on the stage.

Let me read that passage from Proverbs again. “Mortals make elaborate plans, but God has the last word. Humans are satisfied with whatever looks good; God probes for what is good. Put God in charge of your work, then what you've planned will take place.”

It’s okay to make our own plans, as long as we keep God with us in making those plans. If we keep the intentions good and we ask God’s blessing, it’s hard to fail.

Song

How Bad We Need Each Other by Marc Scibilia (I played it on my laptop, but you can find the youtube version here.)

Prayer

God, you know your plans for us. Whether they are elaborate or simply that you want us to be happy. Thank you for watching over us as follow the path you have set out for us and as well as when we stray from that path. May we find many wondrous things on our journeys and always keep in mind those around us. Thank you for your presence in our lives. Amen.

End scene.
 
Sincerely,
Rachel

A little behind... oops!

Greetings Friends!

So I must start by saying that I had intended on posting this a while ago, but it never happened. My apologies that I am a little late on some of this, but it is still to have on our blog.

Over a year ago, I had been at my BVS retreat. I soon got to talking to a new friend about various things, and he told me all about the St. Patrick's day celebrations that take place in the city of Chicago. I thought that it sounded pretty cool, but I realized that I would probably never be around for another year. Well then, I decided to sign on for a second year and I happened to be at home in Elgin St. Patrick's day weekend. Kendra and I decided that a Chicago St. Patrick's day was something that we needed to experience for ourselves.

We decided that due to all the traffic that would be in the city, it would be best if we took the metra into the city, rather than trying to drive a car in. We were the first ones on the metra, so we obviously got a good seat, but it was pretty hilarious to watch all the people dressed in green getting on the train as we would stop at every station. It was also funny to listen to everyone, as we got closer to Chicago and the noise levels would continue to elevate.

It was a beautiful day in the city.

I hope you enjoyed coming along to Chicago :) Carol

A Little Spring Cleaning

    It’s finally spring here in Elgin. Flowers are blooming, birds are singing, children are playing in the streets, and I can finally go outside without having to bundle up first. Oh yes, spring is here.

    Inspired by the warmer weather, I cleaned out my room at the BVS house a couple weeks ago. With the cool breeze coming in through the open windows I sorted through the piles of papers, clothes, shoes, and scarves strewn about. Then I went through every single drawer, nook, and cranny to decide if I really needed that thing. All this was done while listening to the wonderful Jason Mraz, who Rachel listed lyrics for a couple weeks ago for her blog.
  
    Listening to his music brought back a lot of memories from college, when his music was quite popular. My friends and I would listen to his music as we zipped away from State College to drive to Whipples Dam. Whipples was our ‘beach’. I use quotations because if you go there it’s a manmade lake with a little roped off swimming section and some sand. But when you’re stuck in the middle of Pennsylvania, Whipples, is a site to behold.

    When we arrived at the ‘beach’ we would troop over to the sand and find a spot not too close to other college students. Lay down, read magazines, sun bathe and if we were feeling particularly adventurous we would actually go into the water.

    As my mind switched back and forth between sun bathing and whether or not I should keep these poppers from Chinese New Year, I started remembering many other things from college that hadn’t been so pleasant. In fact, it put me in a debbie downer kind of mood and while brooding in my room, I had had enough. I went over to my computer and typed into Google, “Mental Spring Cleaning”. One of the first search results that popped up was this site:

http://reflectionsinverse.blogspot.com/2011/04/mental-spring-cleaning-clear-clutter-in.html

    It’s a blog post written by someone suggesting different ways to clean out the clutter in your head. The writer gives seven suggestions for clearing. I’ve shortened them here, but if you want to read the full descriptions, refer to the site I put in above.

1. Clean out the anger, hatred, jealousy, and self doubt.

2. Wash away delay and procrastination.

3. Dust off your attitude and put on a fresh coat of positivity.

4. Throw out misunderstandings, and lack of patience.

5. Lighten up your life with humor and fun.

6. Open the windows of your mind to new ideas and a fresh perspective on living a happier, better, and easier life. Change takes action.

7. And finally: Enjoy the person you are.

    Sounds simple enough right? I thought so at first, but then starting with number one, I tried a little exercise we had done at spiritual direction previously. First you think about someone you know very well and love very much. Pray for them. Then you think about a person that you don’t know so well, an acquaintance. Pray for them the same things you prayed for the person you love. Finally think of a person you really can’t stand and are not friends with at all. Pray for them the same things you prayed for the person you love.
   
    After thinking about that process I realized I was stuck at number one on the mental cleaning list. Not a good way to start. So I skipped it and went to the last 6 and have been working on those for the past couple weeks. I found that I could do these things with great ease, which made me happy! But now it’s back to that number one. The things that trip me up are cleaning out the anger and self doubt.
   
    I’m not an angry person, but things happen and stick with you and it’s hard to shake those emotions. The self doubt bit started in high school with a couple cruel comments from a classmate. Don’t worry, I dished it back to him at the time (I was no pansy) but after those comments I always wondered, what if he was right? Maybe I’m not as smart as I should be…
   
    This year in BVS has helped me to come to grips with the past and work on bettering myself mentally and spiritually. I’ve realized now that those words in high school were just that: words. They held no malice or ill will towards me and I’ve just shaped and molded them over time and used them to hide behind. This is a notice to myself that I’m kicking all that aside. No more anger or self doubt. It’s going to be hard, but sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. And I need to do this. Anyone else out there with me?
   
    Jason Mraz will forever have a little place in my heart for those good times. And now those Chinese poppers will always have a little place in my soul to remind me of my healing and cleaning.


Rock on.
Cat

Over the River and Through the Woods...and Around the Bend, Down the Street...

“Oh, my my how beautiful, oh my beautiful mother

She told me, ‘Son, in life you’re gonna go far, and if you do it right, you’ll love where you are

Just know, that wherever you go, you can always come back home.’”

(Lyrics from 93 Million Miles by Jason Mraz)

 

Sometimes we’re away from home too long and we just need an energy boost by seeing and hugging the ones we love. I’m not sure you’re interested, but I’m going to tell you about my weekend at home. It was a nice, quick trip and so worth it!

 

I had the good fortune to catch a ride home this past weekend with a lovely couple from church. They were going to see their son in a concert at the college that happens to be in my home town. Graciously, they offered to take me along. But I never felt like just a tag-along. They made me feel very welcome and we had a grand ‘ole time on our eleven hour round trip!

 

When I was planning the trip, my dad told me that he would be out of town on business but my mom was going to be around at least. However, as the time came closer, my dad got sick (boo!) but that meant he needed to stay home and therefore, I was able to see him (yay!).

 

It also just happened to be the weekend before my mom’s birthday. Getting to see each other that close to her big day was a extra special treat for both of us. I also got to see a few of my good friends, my best friend, and my grandparents—who made an afternoon trip on Saturday to meet up with us.

Saturday was a nice, full, fun day for all of us. I slept in (which used to mean that I slept till 11 or 12 but now means I got to sleep past 8. Woot!) and then Mama and I went to get mani/pedis! I chose two different shades of pink (Pink Friday and You're Such a Kabuki Queen, both by OPI) and mama chose a dark purple for toes and a “Chocolate Shakespeare” (also by OPI) for her fingernails.

Afterward, we ran a few errands and then met up with my grandparents for lunch. We went to O.I.P. —one of my favorite pizza places ever!—and then went back home to meet up with Keira. Then, we went to the aforementioned concert. We hung out for a while and then Mom-mom and Pop-pop headed back home.

Mama, Daddy, and I went to Red Lobster to celebrate Mama’s birthday! She was craving some lobster from Lobster Fest. It was such a special treat. Then we went shopping and got some ice cream from Friendly’s!

Keira (my best friend from home) came over for a sleepover and then she went to church and lunch with us in the morning. Then it was back on the road and back to Elgin.

A whirlwind trip but a wonderful one. Now it just has to hold me till August. But that’s what Skype is for, l have discovered, and I am thankful for it! :-D

Hearts & Hugs,

Rachel