February 18, friendship

Sitting next to me on my desk is a dark grey stone that has written on it in black marker, "beloved beauty grace sb 2008." My friend, Sarah, gave this to me the morning I left for Kentucky. This stone travelled 2,500 miles with me to Wilmore. It was with me in my car accident and miraculously not thrown through a broken window and lost somewhere between the westbound and eastbound sides of I-64.  It sat on my desk with me during my three emotional, difficult, beautiful, and very definitive years in seminary at Asbury (I think I even brought it with me for my three-month internship in Toronto), and then travelled the 2,500 miles back to Portland with me last summer. I cleaned off my desk today and there it was. It made me smile and made me ever so grateful for Sarah's gracious and beautiful friendship with me.  I love my friends.  They have profoundly changed my life.

February 10

I’ve had a very up and down week.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll actually get to it.  For now, though, I must sleep.  I have to work at 4am.  But I do get to wear new shoes to work. That makes 4am ever so slightly appealing.  And a little video from when my niece was here earlier this week.

February 7, a commissioning

I was sitting on the bus today waiting for it to leave when a text came through my phone.  A friend of mine was sending me a picture, and to my surprise, it worked.  They usually don’t.  When I opened it, I saw my dear friend and mentor, whom I love more than words can say, kneeling at the altar in Estes at Asbury being commissioned and prayed over in all her academic regalia (her penguin outfit, as she calls it) and blessed on her new journey as Vice President of Community Formation.  The picture made me so happy that it made me cry.  

So Marilyn, a little prayer from me, too.  May God bless you and keep you, and I pray that God gives you strength and a growing heart and the vision to see and discern the Spirit and beauty in your life and work.  

And thank you, Leigh, for being a little rebellious during prayer and sending me that picture. :)  I have really good friends.