Launch week...

Well, as someone said to me at church yesterday, "it's launch week!" This afternoon I biked to Goshen (a new habit I hope to maintain this fall, commuting by bicycle) and met with the co-directors of Pathways Retreat to discuss my internship there this fall. This is not an internship to meet a requirement, it is simply to learn more about retreat ministry. I'm looking forward to a variety of experiences, from Praying the Hours to administrative tasks to yard work, and more. Something that I have come to realize during my time at seminary is the way in which retreat ministry draws from the variety of gifts I have come to recognize in myself so I'm excited to learn more as I discern if and how retreat ministry fits with my calling.

On Thursday I begin at Elkhart General. I'll be spending the majority of my time as a counselor to oncology patients, and also do some on-call chaplaincy work. No one has ever done quite what I'm doing in terms of this practicum before, so there are a lot of pioneering efforts going on on many fronts. It will be exciting to see what happens! The completion of this practicum in December will complete my M.Div. Also, in conjunction with with EGH practicum, I begin my Gestalt Pastoral Care practicum!

Finally, I continue to put in hours on the maintenance team here on campus. This feels like the summer crew experience that's never ending. Not only did a get a whole additional summer on the crew that I wasn't expecting, but I also will be staying on this fall. My current projects include striping the parking lots on campus (who knew there were so many parking spaces?!), watering, and deep cleaning recently vacated apartments. It will be a little different not working with an entire team of peers, but I also look forward to the solitary manual labour to balance out the being with people portions of my practicum.

It's going to be a busy fall but I'm very much looking forward to it!

My favorite little Levi!

It was great to visit with family these past couple of weeks and great to see my 10 month old nephew.

Looking very impressed on Andrew's pocket rocket

My sister and nephew

Intrigued by the camera

Playing peek-a-boo with grandpa

Centre of attention

360 Degree Prairie...

On the road to grandma's house.

Northern lights...

Have I mentioned recently that I love the prairie skies? It's so much easier to breathe under the wide open space. Yesterday evening we were treated to a dancing northern lights show as we drove home from seeing my sister, brother-in-law and nephew at their new home.

Saskatchewan truly is "Land of the Living Skies."

These are a few of my favorite things...

Absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder. When I return to the rural, northern Saskatchewan town where I grew up I am always amazed at the things that I took for granted while I lived there during my childhood and youth, for example:

- being able to walk anywhere I need to go in town.

- the neighbourly over-the-fence conversations, chats in the grocery store and post-office, and being waved to by at least 50% of the people you pass by.

- the wide open prairie skies that (on a typical day) announce the beginning of a new day with a beautiful sunrise, are watery blue by day, and then end each day with the most vibrant sunsets, followed by a deep starry dome at night. If we're lucky, we may even have a singing and dancing northern lights show to bid the day farewell. It is here, under these "living skies", that I can most easily breathe.

- the instant calm and relaxation that comes from summer evening on the lake just a stone-throws distance north of town, kayaking among the calling loons and busy beavers.

- eating wild raspberries, saskatoons and fresh peas straight from the source.

- evenings spent around a fire.

- the overall slower pace of small-town life.

Yes, I miss this place. I had not, however, missed the plentiful mosquitoes!