2010

This year has been a busy one to say the least.  It has been a time of renewal, change, growth, and movement.

I'm not sure that if someone had told me on Jan. 1 2010 where I would be on Jan. 1 2011 I would have believed them, yet in the same breath everything this year has gone (for the most part) according to plan.

From Jan to April I finished my last semester at Wittenberg and graduated in May with a BA in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a minor in Religion.  From there I packed my life up in a luggage set and moved all the way to Custer, South Dakota where I spent the summer working as the Program Dirctor of Outlaw Ranch.  Camp ended the 13th of Aug and on the 15th I was in St Paul, MN beginning my trainning for Lutheran Volunteer Corps (LVC).  A week later I found myself in Omaha, NE starting my work with Trinity Lutheran Church and Nile Lutheran Chapel. 

On a more personal level, 2010 has brought shifting relationships.  I grew closer to some friends that I now live far away from.  Some relationships fell apart, due mostly to the fault of humans being broken things.  I have found a community of which I am so happy to be apart.  I've discovered that no matter how little you see some people, you will always carry them in your heart (and I know that they also carry me).  I have had the chance to help people grow and discover their own talents and in return grown myself.  And through all this changing landscapes of people I have had Marty by my side, loving and supporting me. 

2010 has been a year of much shifting in my life, of much turn over and movement.  My hope for 2011 is that it is a year of settling.  I think the verb "to settle" gets a bad rap most of the time.  It seems to imply that one is giving up on something better and accepting whatever is before them.  I've come up with this metaphor to explain what I mean when I say I want to settle:
My life, my being, is sand and the world around me is water.  These last few years have been ones of change and movement.  The sand is all mixed up in the water and I want this year to begin the time of the sand settling to the bottom and collecting all the different things that have come from the movement.  I need to settle, not to just accept where I am in life, but to allow everything to come together and the different influences in my life become known.  How will I know much more mixing and movement I need in my life if I don't allow time for all of the previous movements to come together? If I don't take quiet time to listen to my life?

So, my hope for 2011 is that is will be a time of settling in my life; a time for the water to become clear and the sand to come together.