Alas, procrastination.

A mind-blowing day . . . . I've never felt so on the edge of something vocationally, but today I ventured into a conversation with a co-chaplain and he shared a dream/vision he has had on his heart for some time now regarding opening a shelter in the Oconomowoc area for women and children experiencing abuse (a hushed but prevalent problem in the area). I listened to his still-forming hopes for the place and bounced a few ideas off of him. He has yet to see the full picture (which he feels he needs before acting--understandable), but when he does . . .I'm there. No hesitation on my part whatsoever. I think of all the healing that could begin with a big house on the lake . . .meeting with women in canoes and exploring life experiences out on the water . . .the kids having the lake to swim and fish in . . .big rooms to facilitate circles in for group therapy . . .with smaller rooms for reflection. Prayer/meditation rooms . . .yoga . . .some sort of education/training element. And if one can legally get away with it, a dog for pet therapy. It's pregnant (as my CPE supervisor would say) with potential.

Wow.

God, make the full picture known. Please include me in it.

An almost month of silence.

Greetings from what is a fabulous day in Scony. Low 70s, sunshine. I got to sleep in this morning and eat frozen custard this afternoon . . .life is fairly good with one dog beside me on the bed and the other at the foot of it. We're all resting and enjoying the quiet of the day.

I could go on about what I'm learning in CPE--all that business about diving into my inner self. Or I could go on about preaching last weekend in a church that I absolutely love. Or maybe . . .I could just not.

"If only I may grow: firmer, simpler--quieter, warmer." -Dag Hammarskjold, Markings, 1953

Pride and Prejudice

Just saw the movie for the first time and laughed! A classic: attraction, denial of attraction, teasing/banter, misunderstanding on one's part, a profession of love on the other's part, rejection, regret over rejecting, misunderstandings made clear, redemption, a final profession of love, and alas!, true love is fully realized (or should I say "accepted?") by both involved.

Simple.

A Significant Day in Kristy's Life Story

Two things:

1) I gave my first verbatim in CPE this afternoon. I received wonderful feedback from my peers and I just might be on the right track for this new direction in life.

2) I received the United Church of Christ's Book of Worship today in the mail. Having grown up in a non-denominational church, I never encountered the beauty of liturgy. Now I have it to myself (Pocket Edition!) and it is a tremendous resource for anything related to the "office" of a pastor: deaths, marriages, baptisms, etc.. Below is a prayer that resonates with me and its language draws me in (one of many reasons why I love the UCC).

O great and kind Spirit,
you have always been, and before you nothing has been.
There is no one to pray to but you.
The star nations all over the heavens are yours,
and yours are the grasses of the earth.
You are older than all need,
older than all pain and prayer.

O great and kind Spirit,
all over the world the faces of living ones are alike.
With tenderness they have come out of the earth
from which you give us food.
Look on your children.
With children in their arms, they face the wind
and walk the red road to the day of quiet.

O great and kind Spirit,
Give us strength to understand and eyes to see deeply.
Teach us to walk on soft earth as relatives to all that live.
Help us! Without you, we are nothing.
Amen.

Lines I especially love:

O Great and kind Spirit,

You are older than all need,
older than all pain and prayer.

Apartment Series: House

The entrance to the stairway, which leads both to the basement, Matt and Sarah's, and our place. Obviously.

I dig this light fixture.

The casa bonita . . .which will likely be painted this summer. Any ideas on color schemes? Matt and Sarah are taking suggestions.

Our street . . . .

Apartment Series: Deck

Matt--one of the proud homeowners--chillin' in my usual reading spot.

Lindsay's usual reading spot.

Our second story deck, facing the south.

The backyard, which our deck overlooks (picture a garage to your left).

Apartment Series: Bedroom

The south side of the entry way, with the doors to Lindsay and my's rooms. What I love about these doors is that they're at an angle to each other--something I haven't seen anywhere else. The bathroom door is also to the right.

My bedroom (with the door not pictured (to the right of the window) that leads to the deck).

My writing desk--home of many agonies over sermons, papers, and the like. Also home of email and the occasional chat.

To see Lindsay's place of rest, check out her blog (or the pictures I linked in a previous post).

Apartment Series: Entry Way and Bathroom

When you come up the stairs, this is part of what you see.

The bathroom, and yes, that's a full-sized window in the shower.
I tell myself that the steam and the vinyl shower curtain around/over
it blurs "the image" significantly, but it's likely that
some of our upstairs neighbors a few houses down
receive quite the show . . . .

Apartment Series: Kitchen

The entrance to the kitchen from the dining room.

More of the kitchen on the west side of the apartment.

Hands down, our biggest project--the cabinets. With Liquid Nails, 2 coats of oil-based outdoor trim paint, and new hardware courtesy of Matt and Sarah, they dressed up nicely.

The cabinets BEFORE 3 nights of work.
(The application of Mineral Spirits to just about every
body limb became a nightly ritual.)

Apartment Series: Dining Room

The dining room as seen from the living room. This table is the same table my dad grew up eating and doing homework on, and I got 4 the chairs through a coworker. (After Lindsay and my's mad reupholstering skills, and a coat of Old English, they're as good as new!) The end chairs I picked up at a rummage sale and painted to match the set.

The view from the other side of the dining room; the direct view from our entry way.

Apartment Series: Living Room

Boob tube in the SW corner.

The beloved lounge, nestled in the NW corner.

"The East Side"

Missing Traci

I wandered into the local Starbuck's this evening to find retreat and work on my prayer book for work. I'm consulting favorite poets and books, and gathering quotes and so on to assemble into a journal that I'll carry with me when doing rounds at the hospital. I think I'll find it to be a tremendous resource . . .and it'll be congruent to who I am as a person.

As I've been perusing books and mulling over different passages, I can't help but think of my college friend, Traci, and all of the long talks we had in various coffee shops in the Twin Cities. We would pull out our journals and share quotes that grabbed us. We'd talk about our lives in the context of the words we found profound and helpful, and little bits of our souls were handed back and forth--enjoyed, affirmed, loved.

All of this is to say, "Traci, you are missed!"

The calm before the storm?

Greetings from the back porch in Tosa. Everyone is on alert this evening . . .supposedly some nasty storms are making their way to the Milwaukee area, and the mayor already had a press conference concerning the city's preparedness for likely tornadoes.

I have yet to see lightning.
Or hear thunder.
Or hear the tornado siren wail.
And yes, I passed up Jazz in the Park because I thought the weather would be an issue.

*sigh*

But!! I have excellent news:

I got the internship at St. Luke's! Which means that come September, I will be an actual resident after completing my first unit of CPE. (A little trippy.) I'm also looking into finishing up the good ol' MDiv at Chicago Theological Seminary and will pursue ordination after. How crazy is that?! But it's time . . .I need to start finishing what I started years ago.

As for apartment pics, Linds has some posted on her blog. Check 'em out. I'll have more coming soon.

Can't catch a break . . . .

Bought a great bike on Saturday. Then bought an expensive u-lock Monday. Mounted the lock Tuesday evening. Had the bike stolen out of the garage sometime last night or today. (Sarah's bike, however, remains.)

Current question: why mine? Especially with a lock on it that they can't remove, because a) they don't have a key to the lock and b) the chord to the bike's seat is attached to it? And to top it off, the bike is actually registered in Wauwatosa!

What a great introduction to the neighborhood . . . .

The cop who took report told me to expect to never see it again, and then if it shows "which is a real shot in the dark," I can be surprised.

Thanks.

Check it out--Acorny Tale

My friend Sabrina is in the masters program for puppetry at UCONN . . .see her latest work. I love everything about it!

Happy Mother's Day

I absolutely adore my church. Like dating various types of men, I've tried different versions of Christianity--from conservative "non-denominational", to the charasmatic Assemblies of God, to the sort-of-pressing-the-norms Evangelical Covenant, to what I now find as my home (quite possibly for life): the United Church of Christ. Looking back, I see how experiences in each of the former institutions have led me here . . .and I'm thankful. It is good to know what one loves and needs, and to find both in one place is a tremendous blessing . . . .

Thank you, Dad, for bribing me with that free lunch a year ago!

Below is a poem that was on the front of our bulletin cover, titled For Love of the World.

For the love of a tree, she went out on a limb.
For the love of the sea, she rocked the boat.
For the love of the earth, she dug deeper.
For the love of community, she mended fences.
For the love of the stars, she let her light shine.
For the love of the spirit, she nurtured her soul.
For the love of a good time, she sowed seeds of happiness.
For the love of nature, she made compost.
For the love of a good meal, she gave thanks.
For the love of family, she reconciled differences.
For the love of creativity, she entertained new possibilities.
For the love of her enemies, she suspended judgment.
For the love of herself, she acknowledged her worth.
And the world was richer for her.

-Charlotte Tall Mountain

May your world be rich today.

First Post from the New Place

Greetings from Wauwatosa. I'm officially in my new place and am LOVING it. I'll get a mass email out soon with the new contact info, and then eventually pictures. I do have some of Matt hauling out a 25 lb raccoon carcass from the soffit of the garage (I won't go into details about the smell), but my inkling is that it doesn't make for good blog reading/viewing. Maggots and the whole nine yards. Funny and completely sick all at once, and having an aerial view at that . . . . Though in a moment of dignity, Matt did refuse to hold up the remains. My pleas for a picture of the proud new homeowner went unheard. Apparently we were not on a fishing trip . . . .

:)

I'm also preaching again at the end of the month and am mulling over what passage to go with . . .Proverbs 8 is jumping out, as is Romans 5:1-5. Wisdom is personified in the first, lending beautiful imagery. But then the savory and lingering words of endurance, character, hope, and peace with God tempt me in Romans. Wisdom seems to enable all of those, so I'll pull from both. Below is the verse I find most intriguing:

"and I [Wisdom] was daily his [God's] delight,
rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race."

So clever!

Just saw Stranger than Fiction and LOVED it.

An excerpt from a "reasonably full account" of my life...

Shortly after my grandmother’s funeral, my parents decided to move to WI to 1.) give my brother and me an excellent education (at that time WI had the best public school systems in the US) and 2.) give my father an opportunity to live closer to his family. Though I will never forget my grandfather crying as he hugged us goodbye, my parents made a good decision in relocating us to the Midwest. I think it is important to note here how impressed I am with my parents’ marriage. Growing up, not once did I get the impression that one was in charge of decision-making over the other, and because of this, it developed in me a deep respect for egalitarianism. Despite attending a fairly conservative church in WI where submission to husbands as “spiritual leaders” was taught and expected, my parents lived something different. Both of them worked; my mom an elementary school teacher and my dad an auto mechanic. They took turns cooking for each other, doing household chores, and so on. And though they fought at times, every decision was still a team effort. I don’t remember any ultimatums being given. And though the economic difference between Colorado and Wisconsin was drastic and created a lot of financial stress, they managed to keep our little family afloat. And further, even with my father recently being laid off from a job he worked for 18 years, my mother continues to stand beside him, all the while insisting that he find a job he genuinely likes instead of rushing into the next available position. He stands beside her as she faces the unpredictability of multiple sclerosis. I’m thankful to be near them now during this phase of life—they teach me deep and lasting truths about marriage.

Some mild procrastination going on...

Well, well, well. It's 6:37 pm and have I begun my ACPE application? Absolutely not. But have I watched the final episodes of Alias? Yes. Thank you, Netflix. I've also managed to pack up a quarter of my apartment, polish the sermon I'm giving tomorrow with the help of my pastor, do a run to my new apartment in Wauwatosa (I'm renting Matt and Sarah's upper with Lindsay--the change will be good for me in so many ways, though I will miss the community I've found here), and other odd ends . . . . And now Ryan Adams is in the stereo. Love that harmonica. Absolutely delicious. Now I'll just make some tea and settle into giving a "reasonably full account of my life." Not daunting or time-intensive at all . . . .