In Between Times

Just when I recover from one semester, another one starts! That's the way of school, I guess, but it takes some getting-used-to after being away from academia for two years. For more info on what's going on with my program at Luther, I'll refer you to my seminary blog, but the short story is that I've officially changed programs, and I am now part of Luther's Old Testament department!

I successfully finished all my classes from last semester (getting A's in all of them!), even though I had a bit of a breakdown near the end, which, in hindsight, I realize was partially because I never let myself have any down-time. I'm being much more intentional this semester about setting aside time to not work, which is counter-intuitive to my nature, but I think I'll get the hang of it. I have Fridays off each week now, so that will help!
This semester I'm taking:
- Pauline Tradition (on the letters of Paul)
- Gospel and Epistles of John
- Hebrew Reading (basically Hebrew II)
- Prophets (with a focus on Jeremiah)
and I'm auditing the Children, Youth and Family ministry core class, just because I found the last one so helpful in my contextual education job at SpringHouse Ministry Center.

And speaking of SpringHouse, the job is going really well! I just had my half-year review, and everyone told me I'm doing a good job, even though I feel like I'm pushing them in some new directions. I'm working really full-on with all three churches in the ministry center now, and there are a lot of problems inherent in teaching kids from three different denominations all together, such as one pastor or congregation feeling like they're being ignored, or that another denomination is getting more attention in the classroom. So far the most frustrating thing is getting straight answers out of people about what I should be teaching the kids at all! For the first half of the year I created a lesson plan on comparative religions, which worked really well for everyone and I think the kids really enjoyed it! Next I'm planning out lessons to cover the Lenten/Easter season, and after that I'm going to try to formulate something that addresses some of the big questions the kids are asking me ("what is the Holy Spirit, exactly?" "why shouldn't I steal stuff from other people?" "do I have to believe in miracles to be a Christian?" and other gems). The only problem with this is that, when it comes to theology, I can only really teach what is consensus among the three denominations, so I have to generate general Protestant answers, which is sometimes difficult.

Meanwhile, in other areas, things are going pretty well post-Christmas. My job with my dad's company is still going, and I made up some extra hours over break to tide me over financially for a while. I'm working slowly towards being a financially responsible adult, and now that I have a new car (I got a new (used) car, you guys! One that won't break down on me and require expensive repairs once a month!) and a savings account, I'm doing my best, and I'm actually pretty proud of myself.

The Christmas season itself was pretty great this year. I mean, I had the flu over Christmas Eve and the day itself, which was really sad (I didn't even get to go to St. John's for the midnight service!), but I got better a few days afterward, and then Ari showed up and stayed for two weeks! We hadn't seen each other for four months, which, we both decided, was way, way too long. But we made the most of our time together, going skiing, and having her meet my family, celebrating each others holiday traditions after the fact (she taught me how to make latkes!), going to a Wolves game (my first!), and spending New Years with my friend Emmy, among other things. Here we are with latkes and after skiing:

So basically, it was a pretty great winter break. I'm sad to see it go, but also excited about the things coming up. There are several things on the horizon, one of which is me heading back to Boston for a weekend in the beginning of March to see Ari again, which is always nice to look forward to. Generally, spring is a great time for me, and I am so ready for it this year. I feel green-deprived! I can't wait to get outside and go hiking and running and breathe the fresh air and see things growing again. I wait and wait for it, but it still takes me by surprise when I go out and see the first lilacs.

Hope you're all doing well, and I'll write again soon!

Midterm Update

Hey everybody!

Well, it's midterm time at school, and I'm not even going to bother making excuses for my now-normal lapse between posts. Things are CRAZY here.
Allow me to paint a mental picture:

- I'm taking five classes at school, all of them graded. Out of context this doesn't seem like that much, but the usual course load is apparently four, and classes at Luther are automatically pass/fail unless you request grades, which of course, being the nutty overachiever I am, I did. I'm loving the classes, though! Pentateuch and Hebrew are still my overall favorites, my Children Youth and Family Ministry class is proving to be the most helpful and applicable, History is by far my least favorite, but it's still informational, and two weeks ago I had my seminar on Human Sexuality and Faith, which was FASCINATING  and I'm so glad I took it, but it was also pretty mentally and emotionally draining, and I have a big research paper to write for it that's due in December.
- My job working for Salem English Lutheran Church is going well, and I'm really enjoying it! (Take a look, I'm officially on the website!) I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing most of the time, but I'm learning how to create lesson plans, lead activities, and generally facilitate a LOT of stuff. Technically I work for all three churches that live in what we call the SpringHouse Ministry Center, so between three different small congregations there are special activities going on just about every weekend, plus I have meetings with the two of the three pastors every other week to keep everybody briefed on the program! Uffda!
- I'm still working about 12 hours a week with dad's company, and as of the beginning of October, Maddie and her boyfriend Charley have also joined the team, and we spent most of the month trying to get everybody on the same page with a lot of daily protocol. It's going much better now that they don't need me to be there every single day for training, and I'm really glad to have the income because without it I couldn't afford things like rent and groceries, but it's still a little bit stressful.

So outside of those things, I don't have very much time! I've made a bunch of friends at school, though, and we hang out over lunch periods and usually for an hour or two on Monday afternoons, and they're really fun to be around. And I still get to spend time talking to Ari on Skype most nights, which has basically been preserving my sanity. Thank goodness for a free way to spend time sort-of-together! We've gotten a system down where we occasionally just leave the video on while we do homework, and she tells me about the history of the French revolution, and I talk to her about connections between Jesus' sermons and the law codes in the Torah, and we're generally happy most of the time :-)

Lately I've been feeling like I'm dropping things, though. With all these responsibilities up in the air at the same time, I feel like the ones I've been dropping are my health and my relationships. Because I'm constantly rushing from one thing to the next, I don't have time to do anything with the attention and commitment that I'd like to, and I feel like it looks like I'm doing everything half-assed. Because I'm so fixated on doing a good job at church and getting good grades and making sure things get done with dad's company, I can't ever seem to find time to sleep, or to calm myself down after being around people and dealing with things that make me anxious. So all this has kind of resulted in waking up with headaches, sudden crashing, being sharp with people, and crying a lot. I'm trying to think myself out of this problem, but I can't seem to find anything that I can pay less attention to. For now I'm talking with people, like my mom, my academic adviser, my pastor at Salem, and others, and trying to just explain things as well as I can and see where there could be some wiggle room. I'm being forced to deal with the fact that I CAN'T deal with everything, and facing my own limitations isn't something I'm very good at. But, as one of my Sem friends says, when you want to get better at something, you practice it, and when you ask God for help with something, that doesn't mean it's going to get fixed; it means you're going to get some help practicing.

So, I'm concentrating on the moments when I DO get to settle down and appreciate the good things in my life. Like finding an awesome fall coat in a thrift store for $15 dollars. (Good segue, huh??)

Best Summer Ever

Was there ever a summer like this summer? Have I ever felt so happy and content, not in fits and starts, but consecutively, every day?

I don't think so, and that's why I haven't updated in two months! :-D
I mean, c'mon. These are the faces of happy people.

So it's taken me a while to get back to the "real life" business of being back here in Minnesota. The first few weeks were tough. I felt rootless and in transition between several different places, and I missed Ari a lot; turns out that when you see someone nearly every day for three months and then realize you won't get to see them again until January, you tend to get a little bummed out. Also, two days after I got back I began orientation week at Luther, which meant being at school from 8am to at least 6pm for five days straight, and I felt very over-peopled. It's been a while since I've had to be around people (most of whom I didn't know) all-day-every-day, and it led to some anxiety issues resurfacing, as they tend to do at these times. But we got through it, and I'm finally set up in my new apartment in Minneapolis, and I just finished my second week of school at Luther!

This semester I'm taking:
-Hebrew 101 - My favorite class! My professor is hilarious and insightful, and the language just fascinates me.
-Pentateuch - A study on the first five books of the Old Testement, also known as the Torah.
-Ministry with Youth and Family - This is a methods class to help me learn how to work with kids!
-History of Christianity: Overview - So far the subject matter is interesting, but I'm finding that I have a lot of theological disagreements with the professor. But it makes for some good discussion!
-Human Sexuality and Faith - This is a weekend seminar in October that I'm pretty excited for. Luther only offers it every-other-year, so I'm glad I made it in!

In addition to classes and continuing to work for my dad's company part time, I also just got a job as an intern for Salem Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, and I'll be working 10 hours a week with their middle school and young adult groups! This is part of a requirement at Luther; that you work in a contextual setting throughout your time at school. But of all the churches I read about, Salem was the one I liked most, and was most interested in, so I'm pretty thankful I got it!

Among other news, my car is nearing the end of its life, and no wonder after 6 trips across the country with me! But I've been a little stressed out about money lately, and that's not helping. I'm finding that I've lost a lot of my trust (and what I refer to as my "zen") about things. I haven't taken enough time lately to get back into my yoga, or meditation, and stress about money and people and time and school come together to create a pretty frazzled Alison sometimes. I'm working on trying to reclaim my zen, and grow back into my faith that all things work together for good, and that God will take care of the big picture while I take care of the small things like making sure I eat healthy and practice a bit of self-care. Now that I've gotten more firmly settled in my schedule I think things will be able to go forward with a little more ease.

Once again, the old refrain: I AM going to post more over on my seminary thoughts blog, especially now that I'm getting inundated with all these new theologies (some of which ring true for me and some of which I just can't understand at all) and I'm sure I'll have lots to say about them!

For now, though, I'll be content with this regular life update, and I hope everyone out there is doing well!

A Month In The Hills

Here I am a month into my stay in Massachusetts, and I still feel like I've jumped into a cold pool of life-appreciation on a hot day.

THE WORLD IS A WONDERFUL PLACE, YOU GUYS.

So far Ari and I have hiked about 14 miles (most of it uphill), topped three peaks, been camping twice, recorded a cover song together*, spent time starwatching and swimming, visited the adorably quirky town of Northamption, and been to see James Taylor play at Tanglewood, among other things. Of course, the regular every-day stuff has been happening as well; I'm still working for my dad's company, I've been learning how to cook with the vegetables and fruits I get in my organic produce basket every week, trying to keep from overheating when it gets above 90 degrees (there's no air conditioning in my room at the boarding house), doing laundry and paying the bills. But I feel so much more alive when I'm spending my free time outside, in a new place, with someone who I care about and who cares about me. If you've been following me on Twitter or Facebook then you've been seeing all the pictures I've been taking, but in case you haven't I'll try to make a big post full of pictures in the next few days.

I've been having all kinds of thoughts about life, and I want to start posting some of my ramblings here again, like I did when I was in New Zealand, so hopefully I'll get some time to do that in the near future. Travel always makes me more thoughtful, and in a more positive way, than when I'm at home. I'm also going to be posting some more thoughts over on the pre-seminary blog because I've been doing a lot of reading about Judaism, and I went to a class at the temple Ari's family goes to last week and hope to go to another one this week, and I'm all FULL of excitement about it. There are so many fascinating similarities and differences between Judaism and Christianity, and I love learning about all of them.

Anyway, I hope you're all well, and that you're having a good summer! Talk to you soon!

*Here's a clip of that song. :-)

Berkshire Bound

Hey, everyone!

As I sort of hinted, I'm about to hit the road again, so I thought a new post was in order!

Here's the summer plan: I just packed up and moved out of my place in Minneapolis, and I'm going to be spending the next three months in western Massachusetts! There will be much hiking and camping, swimming and reading and nature-lovin', and generally having fun in the sun with this girl:

This is Ari. I met her while I was out visiting Mike and Dita in February, and then went back in March so we could see Eisley (her favorite band, and one of my new obsessions) play in Boston!

When she's not in school, she lives in a small town in the Berkshires, RIGHT ON the Appalachian Trail, which I've been wanting to see since I read Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods about eight years ago. Now I'm finally gonna go check it out! I'm bringing all my camping and hiking gear, and in between my work hours and on the weekends I plan to explore as much as I can. I'll be renting a small room in a big old Victorian house from June 3rd until the middle of August (though I'll be back for Dita's wedding in the end of July!), and I'm pretty excited about that as well.

Not to mention the road trip to get there! I'll be leaving on May 31st and I'll be on the road for three days, making my way through Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York before I finally reach Massachusetts. It's a lot of driving by myself, but I'm stocked up on music and audio books, and I'm ready for the trail again. Hopefully by the time I get back for school in the fall, my wanderlust will be sated for a while.

Hope you're all doing well!

Patience

I took this picture on September 26th of last year. I’d just read these words somewhere (I never did write down the source), and they resonated with me. Even though, at the time, I was feeling pretty directionless and cruddy, I felt like I was on the edge of discovering something wonderful, if only I could be patient long enough to watch it unfold.

Cut to eight months later, and I’ve met several amazing people who have literally changed my life; made it more friendly and exciting, full of love and opportunities for growth, music and words and sunlight. I’ve moved up to the Big City (and I’m about to go explore a whole new state), learned how to deal more effectively with my anxiety, and gotten into a graduate program that I’m enthused about to a really dorky extent.

And yet even now, this morning, as I looked at these words still taped to my bedroom mirror, I’m feeling it again; like there’s something great waiting for me. I know there will be rough patches and disappointments and bruises and tears, because that’s part of life, but today, in this moment, I am unbelievably excited about the future. I just have this feeling that the next couple of years are going to be great. I don’t know what they’ll be like yet, but I can tell that they’ll be filled with that unfathomable beauty.

24 Going On 12

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a good Easter weekend! I sure did! It was a jam-packed couple of days in Alison land, because Saturday was my birthday, and then Sunday was Easter, and there was just so much going on!

I wasn't really planning anything to celebrate turning 24, but my amazing friend Emmy was having none of it, and when I tossed out the idea of going to an arcade, she hopped on board and took over the wheel, to GREAT success. She and her super awesome girlfriend, Kristi, picked me up a little before ten on Saturday, and she had the whole day planned.

First, we went to the Loring Bar for brunch (fruit-covered french toast with caramel sauce for me) and bottomless mimosas, which was AMAZING. Brunch food truly is the best food. And the waiter even brought us free cake when he found out it was my birthday!

Em also surprised me with three seminary-related books, which I'm very excited about. I started reading one of them, "Manna and Mercy" by Daniel Erlander, which is basically an illustrated walk through the bible, and it's already one of my favorite things.

Next we headed to the Mall of America, and after wandering around Barnes and Noble (drooling over books) and the American Girl store (reminiscing over dolls) for a while, we took to the arcade and got in touch with our inner 12-year-olds. Air hockey, pac-man, DDR, Guitar Hero, skee-ball, basketball and many others were played.

Emmy and Kristi kicking ass at DDR:

By the end of our almost-three hours at the arcade we had a fist full of tickets that bought us candy bracelets and temporary dinosaur tattoos. TOTALLY WORTH IT.

And then I remembered something that one of my favorite writers does on her birthday; she finds something she's afraid of. Keeping in mind the fact that I was in the middle of an indoor theme park, I decided there was no good reason not to try to conquer my fear of roller coasters, and rides in general. We got on what USED to be called "The Ripsaw," back when the park was known as Camp Snoopy (I'll never let that go), and even though I was so nervous I'm pretty sure I almost broke Emmy's hand (she offered to hold mine, and I stoically refused...until the coaster took off), I TOTALLY loved it. This shouldn't really come as a surprise, because I like things that go fast, but I was kind of amazed that I liked it as much as I did.

Emboldened by the success on the coaster, we promptly got in line with the little kids for a turn on the Kite Eating Tree, which is a swing ride that pulls you up into the air and spins you around, and then took pictures of each other while we waited for the kids to get strapped in.

By that time all three of us were pretty mall-ed out, and Em and Kristi had to get back for choir, and I had to head for Northfield, so we called it a day, but I've gotta say that it was THE best birthday I've had in a few years, and I'm hoping I can return the favor when Emmy has her birthday towards the end of the month. We'll see what I can come up with.

So far, being 24 isn't too different than being 23, except that this year I'm starting to worry about things like taxes and settling down and being a grown-up, but the more people I talk to, and the more opportunities I run across, the more alright I am with letting my life stay open to possibility. There are a lot of great things in my life right now, and a lot of things to look forward to in the next few months (including going to Luther, now that I'm officially accepted!!)!

LIFE IS GOOD, YOU GUYS, no matter how old you are. :-)