Thought for the day...

The greatest challenge is living your wounds through instead of thinking them through. It is better to cry than to worry, better to feel your wounds deeply than to understand them, better to enter into your silence than to talk about them.... You need to let your wounds go down to your heart. Then you can live through them and discover that they will not destroy you. Your heart is greater than your wounds. ~Henri Nouwen

No Shirt...No Shoes...No Service...

So I learned something new this week. You're thinking, well I hope so--you are a student, aren't you and you're paying enough to learn stuff. But this was something I didn't learn in the classroom.

Taking your shoes off when you go inside is a Canadian (or at least a Canadian prairie) thing!

First of all, I went for a massage this week. I walked into the office and took of my shoes at the door because it was a fairly sloppy day outside and I was also wearing my winter boots, so it just seemed like the right thing to do. The lady at the front desk seemed surprised and told me I didn't have to take my shoes off. Then my massage therapist came out and also told me that I didn't have to take my shoes off. She, too, seemed shocked that I was exposing socked feet in public. I mentioned to her that I had worked at a chiro. office and almost everyone took off their shoes when they walked in the door, especially in winter. We also got to talking and I found out that the "indoor shoes/outdoor shoes" policy that we had at our elementary and high schools while I was growing up was not a universal school policy. I went home and told my roommate about the weird reaction I had received for having stepped out of my boots in public.

The next day we had someone from the seminary over for lunch. We invited him in and he began taking off his shoes while commenting that he has known a few Canadian students over the years and he had noticed that all of them take off their shoes when they enter a house. He said he really liked the custom because there was a certain informality that is created by walking around in sock feet. My roommate and I just looked at each other and grinned. What just seemed so practical--taking off outdoor shoes to keep floors clean--is actually a cultural norm.

Love and indulgences...

Last night I went to a post-Valentines day ladies evening. The idea for the event was sparked in the imagination of my friends following Friday's chapel which was all about personal well-being and self-care. Our invitation asked us to bring two things. (1) An insight that we have learned about ourselves or life, particularly in terms of self-care, and (2) an indulgence. It was a really great way to learn more about some of the ladies of AMBS. I found the indulgences that people shared really interesting, such as:

• popcorn
• stuffed animals
• crayons and colouring sheets
• inspiring quotes
• face masks
• sweatpants
• roses
  
• wine
• chocolate
• a playing card collection

It was really good to be forced to think about self-care and what I do to treat myself.

Springtime of the soul...

Something that I've noticed lately is how closely my inner life mirrors the weather. God is so present in nature that I don't think that I can help but be changed by the changes occurring out of doors. An internal shift coincides with a seasonal shift. As I wrote in a post a while back, wintertime for me is a time for contemplation. With the rising temperatures and melting snow last week I noticed that I was slipping into my internal springtime reality or way of being. When I met with my spiritual director last week I mentioned this to her and she asked, but what if it snows or gets cold again? How will that affect your inner being? So long as it doesn't snow 2' or go down to -20 it is spring in my world, I replied.

So what does this internal shift from winter to spring look like? I've never really paid as much attention to this aspect of my soul as I am this year so I have been thinking back to the forms it has taken in the past. Some common themes are celebration and creativity. A few words that I have been contemplating over the last few weeks are mystery, creativity, restlessness, honesty, and witness. My spiritual director asked me if I often have words come to me like this and when I think back on it, usually the words come to me following an insight or major shift, not before. I'm not sure where God is leading me exactly. I continue this period of waiting, which I think to some extent lasts a lifetime, but I anticipate new discoveries in this season of spring.

The Decadent...

I just got home from a lunch meeting with the Canadian development office associate and a couple of other Canadian students. She works in Ontario but was here on campus for a few days and wanted to hear some of our stories so that she could relay them back to donors in Canada. We had a good meeting and at the end what did she pull out of her bag but a bag of Presidents Choice Decadent Chocolate Chunk cookies! Funny thing is I was craving these a few weeks back and Carrie went and bought some chocolate chip cookies but they just weren't the same. There's nothing like the Decadent. A fellow Canadian student and I each stuffed a napkin full of cookies for the road. Good ol' PC.

Frugality is a virtue...

This weekend Carrie's parents are here visiting. On Friday evening we introduced them to family style dining at the Essenhaus. Yesterday we went out for Chinese and my fortune cookie said something to the effect of "You will need to be careful with your money. Frugality is a virtue." Now, I absolutely love a good deal. I don't know who doesn't love a good deal, but today I was able to practice the virtue of frugality, or at least, spending less.

This afternoon we took a trip to Michigan City which is about an hour away. There are 100 shoppes in their outlet mall. I headed straight to one of my favorite stores, Eddie Bauer, and found myself two turtlenecks, 2 long sleeved shirts, and 3 sweaters all for only $82.33. Had I paid full price for all of that, I would have paid $200.01! Had I paid full-price for all of that in a Canadian store it would have been even more! I also found a pair of Ecco shoes, regularly $100.00, down to $49.95. Carrie and I also went to the Crocs store. I couldn't believe how many different styles of Crocs there were in one store and Carrie found herself a brand new pair of purple Crocs for $15.00 less than the usual asking price. Frugality (or shopping at an outlet mall) really pays off.

It's all Greek to me...

Yup...that's right...this evening I have to learn the Greek alphabet and tomorrow in class my prof is going to make me read out loud in Greek! I am one of the few fortunate M.Div. students who does not have to take the Greek and Hebrew courses (those in the Pastoral Care and Counseling track get off a little easier, at least in this regard). Instead I have to take a course called Intro to Bible Study Tools where they teach us how to pronounce Greek and Hebrew so we can read it out loud but then we learn how to use a computer program for translation and interpretation. Well, back to the books.

Green in February...

Underneath all that snow (I would guess that there was 1 to 1 1/2 feet of snow before the melt) there was green grass! As I was getting ready for church yesterday I noticed that the weather makes it feel like is should be Easter already.

Spring is in the air...

The spring semester is in full swing. Last week a co-worker mentioned that the beginning of the spring semester gives him hope that winter won't last forever. I shared with him that in Manitoba we always called this "Winter Semester" and I had to agree, "Spring Semester" does sound more hopeful. This week we celebrated Groundhog Day with shadow (chocolate) and sunshine (lemon and white) cakes and played pin the shadow on the groundhog during coffee break one morning. I even won a bubble-blowing parrot for my efforts at the game of skill/chance (it's debatable). Though 6 more weeks of winter was predicted by our prophetic little rodent buddy, last night the snow began to melt and by this afternoon half the snow was gone. Temperatures reached +14C this afternoon! Spring is definitely in the air. I'm not sure if it's simply the warmer temperatures and melting snow, or if it was syllabi overload from this week, but I jumped through puddles all the way to class this afternoon. I also got into a spring cleaning mood, which is probably good since in a few weeks I think I'll be in so far over my head that I won't have time for such.

Waiting...

Have you ever experienced a time in your life when you seem to be getting the same message over and over and over again and finally you get the hint that maybe, just maybe, God might be trying to tell you something? Over the past month I seem to be getting the message, "wait ... be still ... quiet yourself" from every angle - books that I'm currently reading, church and chapel service meditations, hymns, spiritual direction, Scripture and meditation.

Then he took his hands and placed them on my shoulders, peered straight into my eyes and said, "I hope you'll hear what I'm about to tell you. I hope you'll hear it all the way down to your toes. When you're waiting, you're not doing nothing. You're doing the most important something there is. You're allowing your soul to grow up. If you can't be still and wait, you can't become what God created you to be." ~Sue Monk Kidd in When the Heart Waits, p. 22

Potluck x 2...

It's always a good day when it includes a potluck, so today must have been unusually good because I found myself at the right place at the right time to take in two potlucks on this Superbowl Sunday! And no, for those of you out there who are wondering if Alicia has taken up football watching on Sunday afternoons, I didn't watch the Superbowl, not even for the commercials which is the reason I should have sat down in front of the tube today (according everyone who asked if I was going to watch football today). Instead, I stopped by the women's anti-Superbowl party. We also had our monthly "carry-in" (that's what they call them here in Indiana) lunch at church.

Potlucks, I have discovered, have a standard menu. The same casseroles and salads potluck standbys make their appearance at every potluck, whether I'm in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, or Indiana. Pasta casseroles seem to always top the list. Of course every potluck has a bit of its own flavour too, you know, those few signature dishes. In Hudson Bay I remember the wild rice and mushroom casserole that one of the ladies in the church used to make. In southern Manitoba, a farmer sausage dish is pretty much a guarantee. At the church I attend here in Indiana, I've noticed that tapioca pudding and deviled eggs seem to be the favourites (or at least what people tend to bring).

And what did I contribute to the pot? Well, my roommate made two delicious pizza casseroles.