Babies are everywhere

Is it just me, or are there a lot of pregnant people around lately?

Hiding

I guess I've been in hiding for a while. I have moved, stopped my assistantship, been working on my thesis, got another job, commited to an apartment for next year, and gone home since my last blog...and I could blame all these things on being too busy to think... but anyone who knows me, knows that this is not the truth.

I think that I've been Silent in a lot of ways lately. Silent from my God, Silent from some friends, and even silent from myself. Some of it was intentional, and some of it just kinda happened in the day in and day out... no real resolution there, just like real life... but still working on it.

rethinking

I recounted from my post this morning...and you know what I realized:
In the past three years (from today) I have lived in two states, three countries/continents, seven different places. Whew that makes me tired just thinking about it. And by the end of this summer, I will add one more move onto that one. WHO AM I?

Went to Birmingham today to talk to the person who is me right now... who has the job that I will be taking. It was an interesting day. I thought that I was just going for a friendly chat with a fellow VISTA worker (Americorps), but it turned out to be a lot more than that. A lot of information. Some I was ready to hear... some I wasn't yet.... some I don't think that I ever will be. Maybe I will post about that later, though.

Been thinking about moving again- obvious from the earlier sentiments. I just don't want to deal with it all again. Changing all the addresses, making sure I close accounts, and open accounts. Pack up boxes and unpack boxes. Take down and decorate up.

And then there's the friend thing. The whole thing of re-establishing with new people. "where are you from" "what is your social club"...no wait, I'm more mature now, we no longer judge people by that... we have moved now into "what do you do" These presumptious statements begin to define and somehow my identity. My three years of moving from place to place to place, becomes, "I am a _______".

Shesh, I don't want to start over again.

Soap

This morning as I was taking a shower, thinking about moving....again... for the fifth time in the past three years...I thought:

"I bought this bar of soap when I moved in here, and now it is almost gone. I don't think that I will take the sliver with me."

Is it weird that I have begun to measure time with a bar of soap?

Ode to running... and Shaliah "tupperware" Armstrong

Shaliah Armstong and I following 13.1 miles

An exercise in the spirit, the mind and the body as we pound out the mysteries of God with each beat our foot takes.

A simple task of the mundane becomes holy ground where angels fear to tread.

We speak of the things we know, and make speculations on the things we will never understand. With each gasp for breath, our physical bodies scream and want to quit, but we must endure, just as we urge these spirits that groan inside us, inwardly waiting for full redemption, to endure. To hope. To have patience.

We speak of the hard things. The things that sometimes we would only talk about with bated breath. Love, and pain. Sometimes we just run, but know that the presence of the other is critical to keep us moving.

Thank you for your presence.

What are you doing on Sunday?

a line from an e-mail I recieved today....
"It was good to see you at church. I wondered
if you still went to church or liked God. Nice to know that you do. Talk to
you soon"

Seriously, I was so irate when I read this, I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. I think that the thing that got me so much was that this person- this person with whom I have had a superficial relationship with for many years now really knows nothing about me, or my about whether I "like God". However, he equated seeing me in church to "liking God". He saw me there, so he assumed that I was still "on the right side" I guess. Man, o man. I love the south. Where all you have to do is come in and make sure enough people see you, and look pretty enough, and leave.

What's really timely about this comment is the discussion that I had with a dear friend of mine who does not believe in "church" and she talked about the judgementalism that she felt here in the "south" because she does not walk into a building on Sunday morning, and yet, she feels like when she looks around, she leads a better life than most of the hulligans that go out to the bar with a Jesus fish on their car. Now, I'm not against the bar...but I am against profaning the name of Jesus when one acts like they are better than someone else because of what they do on Sunday morning, dismissing the rest of their.... or the other person's life.

Am I rambling, or is this a truth that we really need to hear...I need to hear?