It's SPRING! :D

We have officially been welcomed into spring this year in Elgin! Ben and Kristen have done a lot of work in the garden and around the house, making room for new and fresh plants. As space has been created from the removal of grass, onion grass, and weeds running amok, we discovered lots of possibilities. Most of these photos are of the areas around the house that have undergone extensive work. We are able to get out most weekends and even some nights after work. It helps that the light is staying around longer, too!

This magnolia is at its peak blooming stage in the photo and that was two weeks ago. It's still blooming even as it has dropped most of its petals! 

The rest of the photos are from our projects of landscaping. Ben, especially, has been very proactive and creative in acquiring and arranging plants from various generous souls. 

This Iris is the only one of our plethora that 

has bloomed yet this year. 

This bed is well established.

Ben thinned the hydrangeas, moving them various places strategically around the yard.

















This space actually looks quite empty. Don't be fooled. Ferns keep coming up, we planted some Russian Sage, Echinacea, and daylilies there, and we have rescued and transplanted a forsythia in the corner, that previously had grown up in the lilac bush and in the crack of a neglected piece of cement. The plants in the foreground are simply taking off! They have clearly been well-established and produce purple flowers sometime late summer, early fall. We have yet to learn their name. Can you help us? Any guesses?

Lillies around the house are out of control, so they were thinned and given away. Ben pulled out five major stumps, which is part of the reason we have so much space now.

We have been gifted so many plants and would like to express a huge thank you to several of our generous neighbors for splitting their hostas (among other plants) for us. Ben rescued a group of hostas from the middle of the street and planted them last fall (pictured above.) They look great!

We were also gifted dozens of plants by a generous co-worker and would extend a special greeting to he and his wife. All of the transplants are finally looking healthy and happy! 

Ben also started a lot of garden veggies and many are already 

growing well in the garden and there continue to be starts
of flowers also finding their way into the beds around the house.

As we have mused this spring, there is something enchanting about fostering growth for others coming to the house after us. Many of these plants will only have a good beginning, thanks to hard work and some TLC. I hope that in the few years it takes for the majority of them to become established, future houses of BVSers and our neighbors will be able to appreciate our efforts and feel compelled to add their own creative and nurturing skills. While we may not see the bounty of our labor, it is exciting to know that the effort we have extended can be noticed and enjoyed by many to come. Perhaps this is a bigger lesson for all of us than just simply planting some random plants because "it just feels good." 

It does feel pretty good to play in the dirt, too. :)

I'll leave you with this:

      In the spirit of reflection on friends made here, in past life connections, and in relationships to come, I will share a calligraphy note I penned and mailed recently to a couple of graduating friends of mine. 

With love,
~Kristen

Labyrinths and Sabbath

Hello friends!

For those of you who may not know, as a house (like many houses before us) we have Spiritual Direction meetings once a month, led by David Doubt. Every month we try out different spiritual practices, have journaling time, and discussion. During Spiritual direction this week, we walked the labyrinth in David's backyard. I have a serious affinity for labyrinths, so this was my favorite Spiritual Direction that we've had so far. I don't think I'll be around for any further meetings, so it was nice to end on a special one. Below are some photos of Laura, Kristen, Hannah, Jessie, David, and I walking the labyrinth.

Tonight Highland Ave. COB is having a special evening service to celebrate the spiritual gifts of its members, and to allow for an intentional sabbath all day tomorrow. As a house we decided that we wanted to take advantage of a true Sunday sabbath  and have come up with a list of things that we're going to do tomorrow. I'm pretty stoked about it. We're going to cook and have a special brunch, go for a walk (weather pending), write cards to church members, and have a hymn-sing. For a few of us who are getting ready for a seriously full summer, this next week or two has been dubbed the calm before the storm. It will be nice to have tomorrow for rest and celebration of our community, before we part ways for a little while. 

Where's HOME for you?

Today marks the 3 month-a-versary of starting my new Brethren Volunteer Service position in Elgin, IL!  It is difficult for me to believe that I’ve already been here for 3 months.  I felt the same way when I was at my first BVS project for this long (or short, however you look at it).  Something that I noticed as soon as I arrived in Elgin was that everyone was asking me the same question:  “Where’s home for you?”  This caught me off guard a little because most of the time people just ask you where you’re from.  But ever since coming to Elgin the question has been re-worded to where I call home instead. 

I didn’t even know how to answer.  I call so many places my home.  Of course my initial reaction is to say, “Bridgewater, Virginia!”  Yes, Bridgewater was my home for nearly 15 years but I technically don’t live there anymore…so does that make it not my home anymore?  Last year I lived in Sullivan County, New York.  I called that my home for nearly one year…but I don’t live there anymore, so does that make it not my home anymore?  Now, I live in Elgin…so do I call this my home?

These are challenging questions for BVSers.  Where do we call home?  We leave the safety of our original home to go and live somewhere else for a year or two or maybe even six or seven!  Our year might take us to a new home, a new town, a new community.  Then after that, do go back to our first home?  Do we move on to another new home?  And after all this traveling, where are we supposed to “call home”? 

Here is my answer to where home is for me:

·          Bridgewater, VA at my parents’ house with my two cats and our stunning mountain views.

·         Wherever there is a campfire.

·         Liberty, NY with my amazing Youth Economic Group members and Methodist church community.

·         Wherever my friends are.

·         Elgin, IL with my 5 housemates and a new Brethren church community.

·         Wherever I sleep at night wearing my sweatpants and a watching a movie on my laptop.

·         Camp Ithiel, where I had my orientation for BVS.

·         Bridgewater College, in my room with my best friend, Katie Smith.

There are so many more!  I realized that the “Where’s home for you?” question is a broad one.  I am at home whenever I am happy. This might seem silly to others but it makes perfect sense to me.   Although, I do think everyone can relate to the fact that wherever there is familiarity and comfort there is a sense of homey-ness.

 

I feel completely blessed when I think of ‘home’.  I have been traveling a lot recently and in my travels I have found so many places that I can call home.  

So whomever is reading this, I challenge you to pause and think about what the word home means to you.  Maybe you start with where you live or one moment in your life when you were most happy.  Would you call that home?  Maybe home isn't an actual physical place but a state of mind.  If you’re a faithful type, send a Thank you up to God.  I also challenge you that anytime during your day or week that you feel at home, recognize the feeling and give thanks.  In a world with riots, suffering, and natural disasters, take a breath of thanksgiving for the happy things in life.

Home.

Peace,

-Jessie

The Old and The New

Sometimes is seems that there isn't much that can be new anymore. I'm not getting any taller, I've had the same haircut for more than a year (and don't plan to change it anytime soon), I'm at my third project and in my fourth BVS year. "Coasting along" would be a pretty accurate description of how I feel many days.

Despite the familiarity of it, springtime is never quite a coast-along time, though. The first of our garden seeds - kale, I think - sprouted on Saturday, followed by the quick-germinating alyssum that had been planted indoors just a few days earlier.

They're tiny lil' suckers, alright. Part of the excitement with these is due to it being the first success story of an effort begun by Kristen and me last fall. We'd been collecting seeds whenever we happened to think of it and saving them away "for such a time as this" (sound familiar to anybody?). These seeds came from LeAnn's house which she's currently renting to Don. As exciting as sprouting seeds can be (but seriously, I love it), it's even better when there are stories of friends and travel intertwined with them. Still yet to come (hopefully): Cosmos and Zinnias from Kristen's parents; Marigolds from Taste of the Himalayas at Chelsea's farewell meal; Moon Flowers from the Mid-Atlantic District youth advisor's house (which I remember seeing when I was there as a youth for meetings); some more seeds from the Spring Street house; and Columbine and Chinese Hibiscus gathered during a walk at fall orientation in New Windsor.

In other news, I joined the smart phone world. As much as I'd resisted it, I had to acknowledge that there are some benefits to access to this sort of technology. Considering how much I traveled this past year, it would've been pretty nice to have a map readily available that 1.) didn't need to be printed and 2.) was smaller than my U.S. road atlas. I'm also able to keep up with (read: learn how to use) Instagram and potentially Twitter. This Snapchat thing has happened, too. Apparently I snap current and former female housemates quite a bit. This was me learning how to take a screenshot, FYI.

Another first happened this past weekend. Theresa (whom I've taken to calling Tessa without really realizing it) and I spent the entire weekend with the house to ourselves. To preserve the sanctity of housemate relations and bonds of trust, I will not go into any further details regarding movies watched and amounts of ice cream consumed. Suffice it to say we enjoyed ourselves.

Maybe it's not as old and boring as I'd initially thought. To be fair, ice cream always helps. Until next time...


Ben

We're all here! Here's a great shot of everyone in the house, plus our friend Kelley, at the house for Spiritual Direction.

This was a novel photo, as we only had about four days during the last two or three months where we were all together. Crazy, huh?

Here are a few more photographs from the past weeks including mid-year retreat, my time pet-sitting, fun remembering and celebrating Easter with good friends and dying eggs, a birthday story in pictures, and gardening!

Our fantastic mid-year retreat group at Camp Dickson Valley:

 No. Way.

 

 Yeah, that's right, Jessie! We DID make all of these! :D

Easter sunset in Kansas

To round it out, here's a look at our gardening and planning thus far.

 

These beautiful flowers, "Siberian Squill", can be found ALL OVER ELGIN. It's crazy!!! It is not uncommon to see a front lawn covered in hundreds of these little things, making a wonderful sea of blue beauty. Gorgeous.

Happy spring, everyone! From our house to yours, have a peaceful and fresh start to the spring season!

~K

Adventures in California

What were were up to traveling this time, you might ask?!

Well, as Hannah alluded to in her recent post, Laura and I both went to the Forum for Theological Exploration (FTE for short), a vocations conference, hosted in beautiful Lake Arrowhead, CA. 

Throughout my 6 months in Elgin thus far, Becky and I have come up with a weekly project, similar to a check-in, to help me think about life after BVS and what direction I want to go. Spoiler alert: I have no clear answers yet. Becky, Laura, and I are in this, what we are calling a "Faithy-Professional Development" (referred to further as FPDJ), and the way I find best to learn is by interviewing people, interviewing myself, and creating journals based on this information I've gathered. 

The following are pieces of a reflection of myself and experiences in the midst of our FTE gathering. 

Feb. 26, 2015     
Give and Take, Ebb and Flow

Reflecting on the state of my well-being (incorporating musings from conversations with Becky, myself, leaders at the FTE conference, and others)

                I am very aware of the wonderful and strong network of support persons I have here and surrounded in various communities I’ve found myself a part of throughout my short life. I know this is a luxury that many don’t get to see and experience, and frankly one that I have not and will not always have. For this space to talk, and muse, and reflect, and speak, I give many thanks.

                I think I spend a lot of time trying to pinpoint what is going on, whether it’s good or bad. I spend a lot of time in reflection. I’m not sure what is affected directly because of that, but I can probably surmise that once in awhile I should probably start thinking about the future. During a recent conversation in which we discussed the self-care I was neglecting and needing to create space to embody that again, there was a huge release of tension. I do try so hard sometimes, that those fall second to what is happening or needs to happen and how I should respond. All of that control, all of the trying hard, really does wear on a person and creates exhaustion.

              In the grand scheme of things, taking that time for myself – what? – will actually create space for me to think about next steps and future plans. But what if I did give myself some room to grow and muse, on my own? Well, not necessarily “on my own,” I have a whole community of support.

                This is a weird phenomenon for me, that I have not looked after myself intentionally that I remember well, and looking ahead. After listening to church services and other faithful sources, I think that, “Wow, God has a plan for me, and I’ll know because doors will open that I hadn’t heard of or known of before.” I still believe this is the case; it is less easy, admittedly, to believe that I have to put in effort, too. “How much is enough? How much is too much? How am I influencing myself and the outcome of the situation?"

                In letting go.

                One important lesson we learned from one of our first sessions at that beautiful retreat in CA for Forum for Theological Exploration, discussion led by Callid, was the concept of discernment and what vocation meant. His explanation really helped me and others, understand in a new way what discerning might look like. Think of a salad bowl, and imagine you are using it to rinse something (yourself in this case?) through a colander. He said, the colander is like the discernment process. Vocation comes out of the sifting of what you already have, filtering between what is important and meaningful to you and your work and your ministry, and what is holding you back, or no longer necessary and important, or something that is not holding your attention at the moment.

                What do we use to identify us? Which of those identifiers could/do we need, to give up in order to look ahead? (Sound familiar??!!)

                Susan, one small-group leader and spiritual director for the entire group, said this as she led the workshop Jesse and I went to, about Listening to Your Life. “Imagine you are holding on to something so tight… so tight that it will not leave. Now, open your hand up.” It is only as we are acknowledging our action in letting go, that something has the potential to be placed. (If that’s not revolutionary enough, it’s worth noting that’s not the first time I’ve heard that in the past couple of weeks.)

                So now, I wonder what I am needing to “let go”. Do I have the answer now, or part of the answer, or am I still searching? Surely, the process of the week is not lost; in fact, conversation with others since, is invaluable and totally part of my journey. 

symbolism:

              

Path to the lake from the conference center

                In another interesting note, to tie in I think with both the premise of this FPDJ and the conference itself, I went to a grant-writing workshop. We opened with a set of expectations that included every member’s opinion, definitely acknowledging our previous experience and what we hoped to learn by the end of the session. Joscelyn named these for us, and we had exactly 10 minutes to write what was important, vital, life story-esque, that we would then have the opportunity to share in the group.   

                Everyone’s interpretation of the assignment was different and we all ended in different places. New ground was broken that afternoon; we heard stories told as they hadn’t been shared before or ever, we connected with each other, and we reflected on our feelings in our interactions with each narration and words. She also gave constructive feedback and tools that would enhance our story-telling skills.

                Because. For grant-writing, Joscelyn explained to us that the simple motive was to create strong relationships (I’m good at that!) and to notice that everyone does have a story to share (which includes the premise for the FPDJ and other desires I’ve had before this BVS year). With each story we were telling, as individuals, we were telling stories we thought were important for others in the group to hear and to give reflection about. It really was quite the affirming and healing place, to be in a group of intentionally disciplined discussion of emotion and reaction.

We closed that session, again in community with each other, in seeing each other.

Greetings we used during conference, from South Africa:

Sawa bono - greeting in Zulu, meaning "I see you"

Seecona - greeting in Zulu, meaning "I have been seen"

--

In peace,

~Kristen

Where in the world are the BVSers?

One of the blessings (and sometimes curses) of being an Elgin BVSer is the travel that we get to do. For recruitment, workcamps, orientations, and regional and national conferences we travel across the country visiting with organizations, youth, pastors, churches and colleges. This year we will travel more than most people around the world will in their entire life. That’s a pretty cool and humbling realization. Sometimes travel can get exhausting, but we’re also getting the opportunity to see many new places and meet with truly interesting and inspiring people!

Here is where some of us have been lately:

Kristen and Laura escaped the negative-degree wind chill weather of snowy Elgin and spent the past weekend in Lake Arrowhead, California. They were at a Forum for Theological Exploration Regional Discernment Retreat where they learned about different opportunities in ministry and had time to discern their purpose and call in the future of the church. They also got to meet up with a pretty cool guy from our orientation unit who was also attending the retreat (shout- out to Jesse Winter!). Of course the place they stayed was gorgeous and it wasn’t all sessions and learning, I hear they even got to dance!

While Laura, Kristen and Jesse reunited on the West Coast, I got to spend time with Katie Furrow (also a unit 307er) in the Nation’s Capital. She is directing the Washington DC workcamp with me so we got to spend a wonderful two days re-connecting, sight-seeing, visiting organizations and planning for the workcamp!
#awesomeleadershipteam

#watchoutDC

Theresa made it to Seattle on Monday for a workcamp site visit out West! She told me that she has already had some famous Seattle coffee!

One of the perks of traveling is getting to visit places that are special to us! Last week (before California) Kristen got to go to Manchester University with Ben to help with recruitment at their career fair. As a Manchester alum she was a huge help in making connections with professors and current students. I heard that she was a total rockstar on campus!

At the end of this week Laura and I get the very special opportunity to go to Juniata College’s career fair for BVS recruitment. I know we are both looking forward to being on campus again and sharing about our BVS experience so far.

It’s been awhile since we’ve all been together in the house, and this is just the start of the busy travel season. 

Let the crazy, fun times begin! 

Peace, 

Hannah