IHOP Girl: Another week gone by!

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Another week gone by!

It is amazing how fast time flies!

Here I am, and a week has already flown by. School is going to be hard, but so far I like it which is good. The only hard thing is that all my classes resolve around the same topics not allowing me any subject changes when I'm studying. I guess there is some difference b/w the classes, but it doesn't feel like it as if you had math and english.

Anyway, what can I say life is boring for the most part. I study, go to class, eat, study, study, study, sleep, and the cycle goes on. Weekends are the hardest I like school days better, because there is a feeling of purpose and progression.

Thursday is FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) which is one of the highlights of my week, but this week I almost didn't go. Although I'm not an athlete, most of the ppl who come to FCA aren't. Sure there are ppl who are just there to look pretty and find a guy, but there is great worship and teaching, and the leadership has a heart for the Lord, so if you want to encounter Jesus you will. Anyway, I was going to go with the roomies, but they went out, and I really didn't want to go by myself. How stupid is that? Not to go because I feel awkward going alone! Thus, I went, b/c it was time to grow up. I have a cute napkin hanging on my tack board that says "Put your big girl panties on & deal with it", and it was definitely one of those moments! I actually had a great time, and on the walk over met a freshman who was walking alone too, so we joined forces and went together. It was great fun. See how the Lord provides if I would just get over myself and live unashamedly! Hehehe, my life...what can I say in the midst of the mundane God shows up and suprises me. I love it!! :-)

1 comment:

Jess said...: Hi!!! Thank you for your comment on my blog. Did you see how many others I got? I think they were all spam but I answered a couple just to make sure. I didn't mention yours because I didn't want the spammers to get hold of your blog...LOL! Anyway! How are you?? Love you and miss you! I can't imagine you feeling awkward going somewhere because you were by yourself...that just does not seem like you, hon. You're always such a go-getter, you go out there and just do stuff I only sit back and *think* about doing. I'm glad you went to FCA even though you felt funny about it. And look what happened -- you met someone else who was going! Huzzah! God does love to surprise us, ay? On a side note, my dear, I don't know how you can keep your classes straight and not mix up what you're studying if they are all the same! Poor you!! Today was my first day of classes...it's going to be rough. I'm so busy now, even without trying to keep up with school work -- I don't know how I'm going to get it all done! *sob!* Waaaahh! *sniff* OK, I'm all better. See? I'm just not going to allow myself to think about it. That's always what I do when I have something difficult to accomplish...never think about it until I actually have to do it. Yeah, anyway, I'm rambling again...but please keep posting, my dear. I always check out your blog hopefully each day, waiting to see if you have posted anything new yet. :) I will try to keep updating things too...I still have to give the Mumford Report, agh!!! Oh, well...sigh...anyway (how many times have I said that?), must go...it's getting late...I should read stuff for tomorrow but I'm not going to. So there, professors! LOL! Got to run, my dear, dear friend...again, miss you lots and can't wait for you to come back home. In the meantime, keep safe and know that I am thinking of you and praying for you. :); 7:17 PM

Movie Night In...I love a good movie!

Mega Mind
Taking Chance (Will make you cry like a baby)
Charlotte Grey (A bit of a different take on Nazi Germany)
Series - Merlin (I LOVE BBC)
Robin Hood (Okay, a love Russell Crowe, you'll have to understand that about me...)
Kingdom of Heaven (Chuck full of acting power with an epic tale)
Miss Potter (Such a great film! Story of the creator of Peter Rabbit)
How to Train your Dragon (Possibly my favorite animated movie ever...I'm like a little kid, I watch it over and over)
Buck (Sundance winner, Biography of Horse Trainer, heart touching)
Lost in Austin (Modern day spin on Pride and Prej.)

Life as a nurse...

Great words by Reb Jeff: Vayishlach: Facing Death

"Rachel died. She was buried on the road to Ephrat — now called Bethlehem. Jacob set up a pillar above her grave. It is the pillar at Rachel’s grave to this day."–Genesis 35:19-20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidui http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_(Judaism), and preparing the notifications to the community, feel like little fragments of the sacred. I have been entrusted with the care and tending of the most powerful, complex and difficult emotions that a person can experience in life. I have been made, in some small part, a guardian of the memory of a departed soul — a life that touches upon many other lives.After dropping off my older daughter at her high school this morning, I made a stop at Treasure Coast Hospice http://www.tchospice.org/, a remarkable organization that sets a very high standard for the loving and respectful care of the dying. There, I visited a lovely man whom I have seen a few times in his hospice room. I sat by his bedside and listened to him (in full possession of his faculties) as he told me about his worries about his family, the support of his wife after he is gone, and the future of his children and grandchildren. I was deeply moved by the way he put any concern for himself — even while facing death — in a distant backseat to his concerns for his family. When my own time comes, I can only hope to have his awareness of the way that one life can touch so many others.Also at hospice, I visited a woman I have known for the past two years — a dear soul who is a former Jewish religious school director. I sat with her, too, singing psalms to her as I listened to her heavy and labored breathing. I have no medical training, but I have come to know the sound of a person who is close to death. The body begins to fight for each breath as it slowly looses it grasp on life. As I held her hand and sang, I realized that being a rabbi is no protection against becoming one of the people caught in the web of connection. I, too, am changed by the loss of a life that has touched mine.Later in the day, I met with a couple from our congregation. She had just learned that her brother died yesterday in a car crash. Coming to terms with the loss is made more difficult for her by the fact that she and her brother had not seen each other or spoken in five years. Sometimes, people think it is easier to mourn the death of someone who has moved out of your life. In my experience, though, it's harder. Grief is magnified by wounded love and regret. I have no magic words to say to ease the pain of mourning. All I can do is listen, become a vessel in which people place their stories, and offer compassion.Actually, there is one more thing I can do. I can have faith that "all I can do" is all that I need to do. It is enough.In this week's Torah portion (Vayishlach) Jacob watched Rachel, the love of his life, die in childbirth. He was overcome by grief. Jacob had worked for his cruel uncle Laban for fourteen years to earn the right to marry Rachel. Now she was gone. Because she died while they were traveling, Jacob had to bury her by the side of the road. He built a pillar of stones on the spot to mark the place as sacred.This is what we all do, in one way or another, when death enters our lives. We grieve and our hearts break. We wish that we could continue to walk along the path of life with our loved ones forever, but the dead cannot fully join us. We have to leave something behind in order to resume our own journey. So, what do we do? We mark the moment as sacred. We erect monuments — both in cemeteries and in our hearts. The stones we place on top of stones remind us that a life may end, but its sanctity is forever.The Torah says that the monument Jacob built for his beloved continues to stand until this day. A life that touches the lives of others never ceases to send living reverberations throughout the web that binds us all.