Third Year Goals

School has started, and God is just as good as ever! I feel unsettled and unruly in my heart, though, and I can't imagine what would quiet me. I doubt I'd do it if I knew. I am ready to call it fatigue and leave the question to be sucked up by the fan in the window.

I'm undertaking a few challenges this year, friends. The first is a prayer challenge: to pray in the girls' lounge for a half an hour two nights a week, from about 10:15 - 10:45. The second is to read one book from my writing class's reading list every two weeks. I often say, rightly, that I don't have time to read; but I want to make time, because I enjoy reading and because I have the happy excuse of calling it career development.

This being my third at the residence hall, I have two points, and am able to finally draw a navigation line between them. Year one, I thought my job was tough, filled with apathetic or annoying teenagers who were inherently my excuse for not building community. Year two, I thought it was my sole job to build a community, to pray it into being, and then, when I failed, to accept that I should have done more and better.

Year three, it seems obvious now that building a community is not something a person can do alone. There's no amount of willpower or hard work that can form it. No way. It takes a friggin' village, and the grace of God. The residence hall is a village. Sorta. By the end of last year, it was time for me to admit that the students of the RH were a big part of my community, and therefore my calling and my ministry.

Also of note, a writing student informed me today that she is considering getting a tattoo of a semi-colon, because though the sentence seems to have stopped, like life, it goes on. Awesome.

Attempts at Hospitality

I believe in offering what I have.

Me: See ya, Lachelle! Thanks for visiting me!

Lachelle: See ya! Thanks for the water, the icing, and the offer of cold, cooked chicken!

Ready For School?

Yes, sure. No, not really.

It's almost unfair that school-centered jobs have so much build-up before beginning. In late July, back-to-school "sales" begin, and right on cue this question begins to circulate. I have nothing against the question, let me be clear.

The truth is this: I feel like a different person in the summertime. I let down my guard and say yes to doing things. During the school year, I am focused on a whole different set of joys and challenges. It's like crossing a border into another country. Not good or bad, really, but entirely different. The comparison doesn't stand.

I suppose the point is that neither the summertime nor the school year are paradise in their own right. The only paradise is where Christ is.

Check this out:
"Anchor" by Beautiful Eulogy and Josh Garrels

Productive Day List

On Facebook, I often see lists of things people did on their most productive days. A few of those lists, and I am sure that I am unsuccessful at living. I make to-do lists all the time, and rarely cross off more than two or three items before day's end. BUT, if you make the list AFTER the day is over, it's much more rewarding.

Here's what this morning's to-do list would have consisted of, if it had been accurate.

Drive to Philly and back.

Turn around only three times.

Attend a doctor's appointment with a friend who will get sutures removed, right in front of me. 

Do not throw up.

Have a stimulating conversation.

Leave windows down during a rainstorm.

Eat Vietnamese food with Elizabeth.

Buy two cute shirts at a thrift store.

Read Steinbeck.

Clap loudly to scare off a skunk while Lachelle unlocks the building. 

 Ignore other lists.