Leaping into Hedges

leaping into hedges . . .

this is quite the phenomenon during monday night frisbee games at holcomb gardens on butler university's campus.

mackenzie and i decided to start up a little frisbee game last year, calling any friends we thought would play. now, here we are, a year or so later, and we have 80 people on the weekly email listserv!!! how lovely!

back to the leaping. since we play in the holcomb gardens, we have to play with some prickly boundaries, also know as: the hedges (shown above). these are no ordinary hedges. i believe that they are extra forgiving (most of the time), and that they like the extra attention paid to them on monday nights. it's a pretty exciting experience to jump into a hedge simply to catch a flying disc.

ahhhhhh . . . the glory!

the only bummer is when the hedge decides against the forgiveness aspect i mentioned and scrapes you to smitherines! i feel like my back was a canvas for a particular hedge . . . and it surely left it's marksssssss - youch!

at least i caught it. :-)

Sista, Sistaaaaa!

i love my sister, katelin! aside from being hilarious, fun, beautiful, athletic, and classy, she's quite the deep thinker.

here's a post encouraging you, all 5 of my readers (ha!), to check out her blog. don't just read her thoughts, but share some of your own! she loves a good debate, and comes up with some fantastic food for thought. so, check it out!

www.thefehrenbox.com . . . CORRECTION: http://thefehrenbox.blogspot.com

Pain & Suffering

after at least six months of just plain BAD news, my family finally received some GREAT news about my mom's cancer. it actually shrunk! 25%, at that! thank God!!!

as i am so used to bad news at these doctor's appointments, i was especially delighted to hear such a positive report. it makes me think about an ongoing conversation my sister and i have been having about pain and suffering.

it's an interesting thought that we, as humans, believe that we are entitled to live without any pain or suffering. we think that modern medicine should solve all of life's problems and keep us from feeling even the smallest pains . . . to the lengths of more controversial medical ideas. (i'll leave those alone for now - i don't feel like rocking any boats tonight.)

i am learning many lessons watching my mom suffer through countless chemo, radiation, surgeries, scans, and waiting, waiting, waiting . . . she takes it like a champ, of course, and has even decided to go to college and obtain a degree (which she never got to do in her 20s). way to go, mom! one lesson i learned from her is that suffering is a privilege. if you think about it, we really deserve to suffer all day, everyday for the amount of sins we commit. instead, Jesus took care of that for us when He died for us on the cross. if we have the chance to suffer, we should look at it as a sort of suffering FOR and WITH Him . . . what an honor! what a different way to look at suffering; to be truly joyful in one's suffering, as james talks about.

although this may seem basic to some, it has truly rocked my world recently. truly delighting in suffering by doing it for Christ takes immense faith and perseverance. what a blessing to have someone so close to me to teach me such lessons through her unyielding faith and commitment to Christ.

(i think you should all be jealous - excluding katelin, of course - that's she not YOUR mom!) he, he . . .

Politics

politics. money. religion.

i believe that these are the three taboo topics at dinner parties, weddings, etc. somehow, though, a guest of a wedding i attended managed to bring up ALL THREE for an entire night. nice.

in one way, it's all good. this year, i am more interested in politics than ever before. it's also a tougher year for me to pick a candidate to follow. i have finally pushed myself enough to become more educated on the issues . . . and figure out which issues are actually important to me.

i do think it's tough to become educated because of all biases present in friends, media, websites, etc. i did find a few websites that have been helpful in outlining the issues with each candidate without bias. check them out if are having as much trouble as i am in distinguishing what the candidates REALLY think. he, he . . .

Select Smart (you will have to click on the top link after answering to avoid solicitations, but includes ranking interest level of issues.)
Select a Candidate Quiz (a bit shorter, easier - includes ranking interest level of issues)
Pick your 2008 Presidential Candidate (easy, includes ranking interest level of issues)
Compare the Candidates (allows you to simply put the two candidates side-by-side)

AND DON'T FORGET TO REGISTER!!!

but what am i supposed to do when my percentages are consistently equal or near equal. grrrrrr . . .

Grad School

it's nice to be back working, but it's been ever nicer realizing that it's not where i hope to be next year. somehow, thinking about getting out of teaching is making teaching even more bearable. it's not that i don't like working with kids - i do! it's all the politics and unnecessary stress that's put on teachers just meet some state or national standard. blah!

in the meantime, i am staying busy looking at grad schools on the east coast! as long as it's catholic, has a theology masters program, and isn't in the midwest, i'm golden! the idea of going somewhere i haven't and trying to make it is extremely appealing! everyone has to do it at least once in their life, right? leave what they know as "home" and expand their horizons.

three weeks of school down; 33 to go . . .