i am thankful for..

its beginning to look a lot like christmas...

at least at crate and barrel it is. can you believe a customer actually complained about the lack of holiday decor in the store? sheesh...guess you gotta go full out gaudy in order to be 'festive'.

this is the first time ive been away from home for thanksgiving...the turkey, cranberry sauce, my greenbean casserole, and oohhhhhh my mashed potatoes. i really miss the food. i really miss my family.

a friend just called and mentioned that it was snowing outside. can you believe it? snowing before thanksgiving. goodness, its soo beautiful outside. very picturesque....fall has left the branches bare..and now the snow is dusting everything..like powdered sugar.

i could sit here and feel extra sorry for myself...but the truth is, i am extremely thankful this year. i have my health, which some know is a huge feat...i have so many new friends here at school...good, genuine, friends that you can confide in and drink pumpkin ale with....and of course, i have my family..which at the moment is spread out around the world..none too close to me at the moment..but i have the security of knowing that many people are there for all the right reasons, encouraging me, supporting me in my walk with God and through everything, checking in on me and making sure im doing well.

thank you Lord for the many many blessings.

family

i had a great weekend with my family....ate sophie and ate sarah along with my bestest friend in the world came to visit me. they came on thurs night and left on monday. they were able to meet all my seminary people...got to sleep in the dorms...took the metro...saw some monuments...i think they had a good time.

it is amazing that one minute you can be loud and rowdy with your friends and family all around you..and the next minute it seems like everything is calm again, and things are back to normal...and your family's gone back home..and your left feeling kinda sad. i am grateful for the opportunity to spend time with them...the generosity and thoughtfulness they show whenever they visit me...im just very blessed.

oh and i got used as a prop in a picture during the candlelight vigil last week. check it out: http://www.bwcumc.org/

daily bread

today was interesting...

it started out slow, not getting enough sleep from the night before...i just laid in bed while my roommate got ready for class. i was thinking what a beautiful day was about to unfold. i knew the vigil would be later on that day...and before that would be chapel and a midterm. i just laid there praying for strength and wisdom...for forgiveness because i hadn't studied enough...and for humility because the vigil, as beautiful as it was, was to be a silent witness, not a chance for more acclaim.

class went well. chapel was nice. the midterm wasn't as brutal as i thought. and then the news came that someone had stolen both me and my roommate's laptops...and some. it was surreal. someone was in our room? someone looked through my stuff and took my things? but thank you Lord for my roommate...i took my cue from her, that while this chaos was ensuing, she provided the calm. reminding me that we still have our health and are blessed far more than what we need, my roommate lent me some of her gentle spirit and got me through what could have been an awful day.

my attention was refocused on the all saints day service and as the sun set, the luminaries grew with intensity and forced me to keep my thoughts on the real issues at hand. i felt God's presence in the midst of a mixed crowd of neighbors, students and faculty reciting a litany in which every phrase carried weight yet, extended hope.

in one of the oldest prayers i know, we ask God for daily bread...not for bread to last for the next six months...not for the next six years...but for strength, guidance and mercy on a day to day basis. with all the ups and downs this day brought, i thank God for the daily bread given to handle it all.

be a witness

tomorrow's an important day. im blessed enough to be a part of a community that fuses active faith with contemporary issues. unfortunately, due to the enormous impact the iraq war has made on lives everywhere, my community has started a tradition of commemorating u.s. soldiers that have died in the iraq war. tomorrow we set out 2026 (as of a few hours ago) luminaries to remember u.s. soldiers...not at all forgetting the 15 times as many civilians who've died also.

the weather will be beautiful. people will come and help in the overwhelming task of creating 2000+ luminaries. passersby will gaze in awe at the sight of hundreds of lights dotting the hillside. students will sing about hope and peace. and hopefully, in the whole mix, someone will see that we've been a witness...to what God wants in the world.