on the move again...

So I guess I'm not quite ready to change the name of this blog yet...

I've had a wonderful two months at my parents' home in Oregon while readjusting to American culture and getting used to life outside of a monastery...  2+ months filled with camping trips in the woods/mountains with my parents, visits to friends and grandmothers, raspberry-blueberry-blackberry-picking, jam-making, playing marimba, going to the farmers' market, a day at the beach, a friend's wedding, sorting through the boxes of stuff I have stored in the attic, pesto-making, a mozzarella cheese experiment, a little bit of gardening, and babysitting the kids in the community - mostly the very calm and adorable Amada (8 mos).  In other words: lots of things to keep me occupied and help me avoid planning my next move... :\

But after the celebratory festivities of my dad's 60th birthday and one final camping trip, it's on the move again for me -- this time in my new super-classy  gold 1998 Toyota Camry with leather seats and fake wood trim...  It's a cross-country road trip to Massachusetts to be reunited with the other bits of my life and decide where to go (or see where it takes me) from there. 

I envision:  living in the country/city outskirts.  living simply.  living in community - even better, a community with spiritual values.  being part of a religious community (church, small groups, etc.).  living close enough to an urban area to be able to take advantage of what it offers - cultural and educational opportunities.  plenty of access to quiet outdoor space.  working with kids (esp. 7-11 yr-olds).  working outdoors.  gardening.  improving my folk-guitar skills.  taking some classes, get some training to increase my knowledge and skills re:gardening/working with kids/communicating, figuring out if i want/need to go to grad school/seminary... 

If you have any ideas about places/towns, organizations, networks, farms, communities, programs, jobs, people, resources, I'd love it if you could point me in their direction! 

I imagine the next few months will be more unsettled than I'd prefer, but hopefully my visions and dreams and trust in god's goodness will keep me going and lead me through it to a place of firmer rootedness...  

homing

farewell, Holy Hill, home of my heart these past 8 months...thank you for all your love and care and stretching and soul-nurturing and adventuring and faith-exploring and laughter and the growing of gifts and gardens...(and thanks to the sun for shining bright on my last day here!)
who would have guessed when i arrived here in October how things would unfold?  certainly not i.  it was a time of deep personal and spiritual growth, and i'm certain that it has impacted me in ways that i probably don't even know yet, and won't be aware of until i get home.  

yes, home.  after one year and five months (almost to the day!) i am finally returning to the USA.  there are things i'm going to miss incredibly: the simple rhythm of daily life and communal prayer; my role as liturgical musician - and my performance buddy and partner-in-creativity; Saturday night Sabbath vigils and sung compline; the constantly shifting skies; walks on Dunmoran strand; the stunning view of Sligo/Ballisodare Bay, Knoncknarae, Ben Bulben, and the Slieve League; my window seat; pottery lessons with Paddy; spiritual direction sessions with Margaret; music sessions in Tubbercurry with Liam; cooking with Sioga; talking and singing with Travis; eating Barbara's custard w/apple tart; Rev. Allen's booming voice; being addressed as Lady Autumn and "my fair dame" by the estimable and eccentric Brother Thomas; having a whole beautiful library of meaningful books at my disposal; nobody thinking it odd if all you want to do is hole up in your hermitage and be quiet for hours on end; being surrounded by loving and encouraging people who are concerned more about the state of your soul & spirit and inner integrity than anything else...and being offered endless cups of tea.

it's like i've been enfolded in a nurturing womb, and it's been beautiful, but it also feels like the right time to leave.  i needed it, but i've been there long enough and it's time to figure out how to move forward with my life and the other aspects of my calling - it's helped me find my feet and now it's time to use them.  i feel strong enough and eager enough to press "play" and see what happens...i'm exhausted with all of this traveling and dibbling and dabbling of the last 5 years and i'm feeling ready to stop and be settled and create a life for myself.  i don't really know what that means yet, only that hopefully i'll feel less like a "wondering and wandering wind-blown leaf" and more like a little tree sapling...

my anniversary

One year ago, on just such a misty day as this, I stepped off the plane onto Irish soil for the first time and my eyes first encountered the elegant Scots pine, the graceful snowdrop, the fierce gorse bush.

I was filled with such ambition, adventure, expectation...I was approaching my upcoming experiences almost like a research project - I was going to learn darn-dungit!  Learn communication and conflict resolution skills, learn more about my own gifts, interests, spirituality, gathering information to help me with my vocational discernment.

Never would I have imagined that I would still be here a year later - and at a monastery no less!  I did not expect to end up living at Holy Hill for 3 months (much less 7!).  I did not expect to end  up doing such huge spiritual discernment.  I was interested in practical discernment!

And yet, here I am.  Still not knowing where life will take me next, but so much more sure of who I want to be, both apprehensive and excited to see how this journey will unfold...

God is impossible to predict.

happy holy-days

Dear friends,

This Christmas season finds me remaining at Holy Hill, where I have been since Oct 6, when my parents left from their lovely little tour of Scotland and Ireland with me.  It was quite the wonderful little adventure we had together! -- dashing through the rain, squishing through bogs, sheltering in castles, driving through the mountains (and through herds of cattle or sheep depending on the day), sleeping in lighthouses, riding on ferries, standing in megalithic structures older than the great pyramids, climbing in ruined church towers, comparing scones, mourning for trees, gazing at the ocean, watching the clouds race across the sky, and basking in the sun's rare glow.

As you know if you've been reading my blog, I was ready for some calm, quiet time to reflect on my experiences, rejuvenate my spirit, and consider my future, so I came to Holy Hill, which was offering a 2-month contemplative experience for young adults. 

T.S Eliot's description fits my experience here when he writes,

and what you thought you came for
is only a shell, a husk of meaning
from which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled
if at all.  either you had no purpose
or the purpose is beyond the end you figured
and is altered in fulfillment.
...
you are not here to verify,
instruct yourself, or inform curiosity
or carry report.  you are here to kneel
where prayer has been valid...

(4 Quartets: Little Gidding)

I thought I would be spending most of my time on discernment, trying to decide the next steps to take in this journey that is my life. Of course I was also looking forward to the support of a spiritual community and other young adults in similar situations, but pretty soon those spiritual hungers took over my practical quest and I was fully immersed in the program schedule:
7am morning office, work projects from 1-4pm, group book discussions on Tuesday and Friday from 11-12, silence from 4-5, evening office at 5, dinner on Wednesdays at 6, Friday night movie after communion service, Saturday morning chores from 9-12 and sabbath vigil/compline at 7:30pm followed by silence until Sunday morning. Saturday and/or Sunday afternoons often involved community outings, visiting local sites of historic/cultural/religious significance or going on walks in the woods/on the beach. Sunday brunch was the big feast of the week, when usually all of the retreatants would be present. Mondays were much needed "desert days" of solitude. Plus there were often special things going on during the week: a trip south to visit Ballintubber Abbey, a Celtic Christian ceremony at a Holy Well, a play, a trad session at a pub.

The questions about my future have not been answered, and yet I seem to have made some peace with the idea of simply trying to live in touch with myself and with God and trusting that as I do so, things will unfold...  Advent is all about clearing a place in your heart for God to enter in; trusting the goodness of God enough to let the Spirit take root in your soul and be born into the world through you.

May beauty and grace find you this Christmas season,

autumn

(pause)

8 months, 2 incredible and busy internships, and 1 wonderful whirlwind trip with my parents later, it's time to pause.
re-collect myself.
reflect.
integrate my experiences with my understanding of myself, my call, my spirituality.

what better place to do that than at a contemplative monastery?

the place is Holy Hill Hermitage, a Carmelite community in Skreen, Ireland, founded in connection to the Spiritual Life Institute based in Crestone, Colorado.  The four monks (3 sisters, 1 brother) are all from the US.

i am here with 5 other young people taking part in a "young adult contemplative experience."  together, we will be exploring our spirituality, participating in the monastery's rhythm of life and prayer, of community and solitude, through readings, discussions, and time spent outdoors in nature and getting to know the local community.

i don't know yet if my travels abroad are over for the time being, or if my time here will re-invigorate me, but i plan to remain here at least until the end of November.  where i go from here may well have more to do with the balance of my bank account than by any other ambitions for travel and exploration, although "home" (though i have many "homes" to choose from thanks to all of you wonderful people!) is beginning to tug me back in that direction as well...

adventures in bogland

i did a very silly thing on my day off last week, which invovled me getting very wet and tired.

i've been wanting to go to Lochbuie all season, having read about the ivy-strewn castle and the ancient stone circle located there, and being captivated by the scenic valley leading to it with its three consecutive lochs.

i left Camas at 1:30 and hitchhiked all the way, first to Bunessan, then Pennyghael, then to the top of the trailhead, arriving there at 3:45.  mistake number one: getting out of the truck there, rather than letting it take me to the Lochbuie road turnoff...  It was an insane decision, which i didn't realize until it was too late.

i had enjoyed a warm sunny walk up until that point, but about 10  minutes after i started hiking, it began to rain -- so not only was i getting wet from the top down, i was also getting wet from the group up... As the hike was along a lake, i had been expecting the path to be boggy, but it was very rough going, with uneven tufts of grass and small channels.  I couldn't say how many times I almost twisted an ankle by slipping and tripping along a path that turned out to be more bog than trail.  There were at least 7 creeks/waterfalls to ford, full of water from the previous day's rainfall, making it quite difficult to find adequate crossing points.  Eventually the rain stopped and the trail evened out, turning into a rocky creek-bed instead of a bog...  I stopped at least 3 times along the way to empty out my wellies and wring out my socks!

The last part of the hike was beautiful - the sun came out and dried out my clothes, the river turned into a waterfall, and you could see the view down to Lochbuie.  The stone circle and Moy castle (covered in scaffolding) were a disappointing reward for such a rough journey, but the shoreline was simply stunning.
 
It was past 7 by the time I started heading back, and it was at this point that I became fully aware of the predicament I'd gotten myself into.  I had only seen two people down at the Loch, and there were very few houses, meaning my chances of getting a lift back up the road to Craignure were practically nil.  I had walked one mile up the road, and just passed the marker stating "Craignure - 13 miles" when a lovely elderly couple drove by on their way to a function in town for the evening.  They let me off at the Craignure road junction, and only 5 minutes later I got another lift from a woman heading home to Bunessan -- wow did I feel lucky!
Now, Bunessan is only 2.5 miles from Camas, but it was 9pm when I got there, hungry and tired - too weak to feel brave, and not desperate enough to be bold.  So instead of seeking out the people I knew to help me get those last couple miles down the road, I just kept walking.  and walking.  and walking.

It was dark, and none of the 5 cars that passed me stopped to ask where I was going or what my situation was.  So I kept walking and jogging, with a few pauses to sit and recuperate, east some nuts, and wonder why I hadn't gone to find someone to drive me or a phone to call Camas...  my consolation was the light provided by a beautiful moon, and that my legs hadn't given out on me, even though just about everything else had...

I finally made it to the top of the track at 10:15pm, and began making my flashlight-less way back to Camas.  I was 5 minutes away when I saw the bouncing beam of a flashlight ahead of me, and Rosie and Adam were soon within sight, having come on a rescue mission to find me!  It didn't matter that I was almost back - it was still an an overwhelming feeling of relief and joy and being cared for, and I was overwhelmed with gratitude.  they even saved me some dinner, but after a small snack, i fell asleep quite promptly!  whew.

this is why Europe is cool:

it has ancient things.
like 500-year-old castles.
and 1000-year-old monasteries.
and 5000-year-old megalithic sites.
LOTS of them.

I've been having fun exploring them, particularly now that we have a car to drive!

Dunluce, Enniskillen, Kinbane, Carrickfergus...
Dungiven, Bonamarghy,...
stone circles and cairns and raths and forts and tombs and crannogs...

and you'll find them unexpectedly off the side of a road, on a cliff's edge, in the middle of a neighborhood or a field with sheep grazing on it, not listed in the guidebook, sometimes without a signmarker.  just there.  still.  300, 900, 2000, 5000 years later...

Being from Oregon, I remember thinking structures from the 1800s were super-old, and things from before that were ancient!  On the East Coast, I loved seeing things from the 1700s and was awed by things from the 1600s.  (I've been plenty exposed to Native American dwellings, artifacts, structures, etc., which of course are much much older than any of that, but I'm not used to "western architecture" that's as old as that).

Kids in school complain about history class all the time - but as far as the United States goes, there's so little history to learn compared with countries in Europe!  (if you're talking official US history and "Western civilization," which is generally what's taught, with maybe a few global history/ancient civilizations classes thrown in for good measure).

Here, it's kind of disappointing to come across a castle or church that's "only" from the 15- or 1600s!  (a regular house, like a fisherman's cottage, that's different...).  Now, 11th or 12th century, that's more like it!  I'd be really excited to see something from the 4- or 800s...and a stone circle from 5,000 years ago would do nicely...

Of course, it's all fascinating to look at, but it really doesn't have much of an impact unless you know the stories...which I guess is why historic buildings in the US can be just as cool as historic buildings here - because we know the stories about the events that took place there; the people that were there; and that's what gives it meaning, no matter what era it's from.

still...









pretty cool, huh?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This may surprise you, especially if you live in Boston or Chicago, but it's not as easy to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Northern Ireland as you may think it would be. Like so many other things here, whether you celebrate it or have the day off of work or school has religious/political overtones. It is seen as a mostly Catholic Nationalist holiday, and schools and businesses have the choice to remain open or not. Coleraine, being a Plantation town, is still primarily Protestant, and there were no city-wide, city-sponsored events, although some community organizations and schools had programs.

I had thought of going to [London]Derry (another religious/political distinction), which has a much larger Catholic population and a big outdoor festival with music and a parade – but I got a late start because it was rainy this morning, only to learn that the buses and trains were on holiday schedules, which ended up making it unfeasible for me to get there in time for the festivities.

So instead I went to Portstewart, wandered the cold and windy Promenade, and sat in on the last hour of a community music and dance concert at the town hall, which was filled with families and little noisy kids running around. That was followed by some coffee and a chocolate-filled croissant in a cafe on the Promenade, reading my book, and walking along the shore a bit more. By this time, the sky had cleared, the sun had come out, and the evening was calm and beautiful, and I got to watch the sun set over the water. At 6:15 I hopped on the bus to Portrush, wandered the [very quiet] streets a bit, and then headed back to Coleraine and Kilcranny.

I bought some Guinness on the way home to share with Mike, since he'd decided not to go out, and we celebrated in style with our cans of Guinness and some freshly baked Irish soda bread...because if you're going to be in Ireland on St. Patrick's Day, you have to do something Irish!

Tomorrow - planting potatoes? That seems to be the farmers' Paddy's Day tradition!

Portstewart

If you read a tourist guidebook for Ireland, you likely won't find Portstewart in it. Or at least, not for its own sake. It's a small coastal town, overshadowed by its larger neighbor Portrush, which is the launching point for sites of interest further east - namely, Dunluce Castle, the Giant's Causeway, and the Bushmills Distillery. In fact, besides Belfast and Derry, the Antrim coast is the only other place in Northern Ireland deserving of mention in many guidebooks. Perhaps that's because they don't seem to make guidebooks solely for Northern Ireland... In any case, I haven't made it to any of those other places yet, but I DID make it to Portstewart on Saturday! And I'm so glad I did.

The weather around here makes it difficult to plan outings. When I went to bed on Friday night, it was rainy, windy, and stormy. I had no plans for the weekend because I knew that I wouldn't want to do anything at all if the weather didn't change. But Saturday arrived clear and calm, so all of a sudden I was left wondering what to do and where to go! I had a slow enough morning that I knew a train ride to Derry wasn't in the cards, and besides, I was limited by having to incorporate a 45-minute walk into Coleraine and back in order to go anywhere. So I looked up the bus schedules to Portrush and Portstewart and decided, well, I'll at least go into town, and once I'm there I'll decide whether to catch a bus or not.

On my way out, I stopped to chat with our part-time groundskeeper who was working in his garden allotment, saying I hadn't decided if I would go in to Portstewart or not - but before I could even finish my sentence, he said, so matter-of-factly, "Oh, you'll go!" Well, then, that settled it. He even offered to drive me to the bus station.

£2.90 and a 10-minute bus ride later, I stepped off the bus in Portstewart and spent 2 1/2 hours traversing its jagged, rocky coastline, complete with beach, 1600s fisherman's cottage, 1830s castle, and golf course. The coolest part was the walk along the edge of the cliff under the castle/convent/college. The shoreline and promenade were teeming with people, and of course it was absolutely beautiful. It was simply a magnificent, splendid, sunny and breezy 50-degree afternoon. Topped off by some "chips with curry" (fries with curry sauce!) to devour on the bus ride back.

And that's what a wee bit of encouragement can do to a wee idea.

You can view the photo album here.

Boston to Belfast, and beyond!

My journey into the damp northerly lands has begun.

At 12:45PM on Saturday, I walked off the airplane that I'd been on for 10 hours into a perfectly typical drizzly 45-degree day and rode through the Northern Irish countryside to Kilcranny House, a drive that felt oddly familiar to my senses after all those trips home to Oregon from Minnesota at Christmastime. Well, except for the fact that we were driving on the wrong side of the road and the signs were white with blue or red, not yellow with black.

Kilcranny is located just outside of Coleraine, close to the western banks of the River Bann. Portstewart is to the north of us on the opposite side of the river and Portrush farther north and east along the Antrim coast, in the direction of the Giant's Causeway and Dunluce Castle. From the top of the drive, we can see where the river runs into the sea, and the town of Castlerock across the bay. We're about 90 minutes northwest of Belfast and 45 minutes east of Derry.

This is where I'll be for the next three months, living in the newly renovated farmhouse with my compatriot Mike, from Pennsylvania, who's here for a year through the Brethren Volunteer Service. Our main duties as residential volunteers are to be caretakers of the buildings and grounds (including gardening) and hosts to the groups that use the facilities. I am also looking forward to being able to participate in some of the peace & reconciliation programs that they do out in the community, especially with schoolchildren. For now, please go to Kilcranny'swebsite to learn more about the organization and what they do -- you'll get more first-hand impressions and accounts from me later on!

picture perfect...

Thank you, CVS, for printing my photos correctly! And no thanks to you, Walgreens! At least I didn't have to pay for all of their messed-up prints, but they still set me back a whole 3 days in getting my UK visa application submitted.

Of course I take responsibility for taking so long to get around to getting the photos printed in the first place, but still -- what kind of "Photo Tech" at a photo printing place doesn't recognize when their machine is messing up? No, my original was not out of focus, not even when zoomed in. it was a perfectly good, perfectly clear picture. It was so obvious -wasn't it?- that the blue-red color alignment was off! I'm sure I pointed that out 4 or 5 times. But nobody could seem to figure out why or what to do about it. Hello? Well, I hope the other customers who were having hundreds of prints made this week are happy with how theirs turned out...

Meanwhile, I'll be putting my application in the main tomorrow, so I can go to Northern Ireland in February!

cohoot connections

our parents always forget that the two of us haven't met. just because we're the same age and interested in farming and live on the east coast and because our parents live in the same cohousing community in oregon where we've both spent time doesn't mean we know each other!

but now we do. i decided to make our parents' delusions a reality by calling up Laura and visiting her in Brattleboro, VT. and we had a fabulous time. :) lots of beautiful fall hiking, planting garlic, and cooking of garden-fresh produce! pumpkin pie, pumkin bread, minestrone soup, brussels sprouts, kale, squash...and a giant miatake mushroom found in the woods.

can life be like this all the time?

so mom, dad, yes - now we are friends, and not just in your imaginations. :)

Cold Pond Community Land Trust

South Acworth, NH

My stay here at Cold Pond has been quite nice - and very quiet. I got here just in time yesterday for Steve to greet me before he went off to go bowling, and then I was on my own until almost 11pm to figure out how to make a wood cookstove work, take a walk, build a fire in my little cabin, and search unsuccessfully for matches, among other things (including talk to the neighbor about the horses that had gotten loose and were in the road...).

Today, it snowed. It was heavy, wet snow, mixed with rain at times - like the way it snows in Western Oregon. And it was windy. So, we didn't do anything. In fact, from the time I walked over the house at 9:30am, I didn't set foot outside again until I walked back to the cabin at 9:30pm. We made potato-leek soup, and Steve made an apple cobbler - yum yum!



It's down to Brattleboro tomorrow!

on the river that flows both ways

"River, take me along
In your sunshine, sing me your song
Ever moving and winding and free
You rolling old river, you changing old river
Let's you and me river run down to the sea!"


I just spent 10 incredible days with 17 incredible people on the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. It was loads of fun, and I loved it, but I think I discovered that even though I love the water, I'm not a sailor. Or a chemistry teacher. I was originally only supposed to be on the boat from Sunday through Saturday, but I ended up staying 3 extra days because they were short on staff and volunteers. I'm glad I did, because there was a lot of lousy, rainy, windy weather the first week and 4 groups cancelled their sails!

My job description as a volunteer was to help in every way I could - with boat operation, maintenance, and education. So I learned how to tie a highwayman's cutaway, a round turn and two half hitches, and a stopper knot; how to clip the lizard onto the otter trawl net line; how to coil a line (always clockwise!) and make a butterfly coil; how to tie a reef in the sail. I did 7am saltwater deckwashes, scrubbed soleboards, cleaned the hold shelves, washed dishes in the galley, and helped furl the jib. I slid a lot of fenders between the rub-rail and the pilings, manned the tiller, and did bow watch in the rain keeping a lookout for logs and moving vessels.

On the days we had group sails, I taught kids about dissolved oxygen and turbidity, tides and salinity, navigating on a river, the history of Hudson River sloops, how to identify an oyster toadfish, tell the difference between male and female blue crabs, what a hogchoker is and how it got its name, and how to touch a fish (use one finger - your "fishy finger"- to stroke it, not poke it, because we don't want to squish the fish!). I even played some music. And of course I hauled away on those halyards to help raise that gigantic 3,000 pound mainsail!

"Come along with me upon this broad old river
and we will see what we can do,
for when we work together in all kinds of weather,
there's no telling what the power of the people and the river can do!"

Visiting Agape

In the interest of consolidating my belongings, the first stop on my trip was to Agape, where I re-packed the boxes I had stored there and shipped them to Freedom Farm. I had a wonderful but too brief stay, arriving in the late afternoon on Tuesday and leaving after lunch on Thursday. It felt a little bit like coming home when Brayton picked me up at the bus station.

A number of changes have occurred since I left at the end of May! A new shed was built on top of the platform that one of the work groups moved into the garden in the spring, and it’s beautiful. The chapel has a new maple altar and wood sconces for candles in the corders. And the third floor (where I lived) finally had wood flooring put down (leftover from the chapel project) and it’s absolutely gorgeous! They also changed prayer time, which no one informed me of, and so I missed 7:30 prayer – because it was at 7. Oops.

I got to meet all three - three! - of the new interns who will be living there through next summer, answer a few of their questions, share a little advice. I think they’re going to have a great time, but Ellen wishes there was another female intern...

the journey continues

with my summer internship at Freedom Farm at an end, i have returned to my wonderings and wanderings. i am attempting to be in the wandering mode with gusto, but i admit it's challenging. i currently have 3 weeks of my life more or less planned, but what happens after that is still a big question mark... i like exploring and traveling, but that's difficult to do without much money, and believe it or not, i actually do like knowing what's going to happen 3 weeks from now - or 3 days from now....

today i am in NY - i spent the night at a friend's place in Harlem -- she was my roommate with our host family in nicaragua on our semester abroad 4 years ago and i haven't seen her since! this afternoon i am heading to Agape for the night and to deal with the boxes of stuff i left there over the summer. then it's to Boston for a night and on to Portland, Maine to visit my cousin and her family for a few days! I've only been there at Thanksgiving and Christmas with lots of other people, so it will be fun to be able to actually have time to visit with them and do a little sightseeing in Maine! after that it's back to Boston for 4 days, then maybe a night at a friend's in NY, and then the thing i'm most excited about: a week onboard the Clearwater! You can definitely expect a report on that experience.

Memory Lane

I went on a trip down memory lane this weekend. And it only took an hour to get there!


I spent the weekend at Camp Epworth, the place where we lived from '91-'95 when I was is elementary school. 15 years later, I wasn't expecting things to look exactly like when we'd left, especially since the program offerings have changed significantly -- but I was suprised at how many things had not changed! In fact, the pot-holed road and most of the buildings were in the same or worse condition than I remember -- a sign that the thing that has changed the least is the financial situation of the camp. The grounds and the river are still as beautiful and picturesque as ever - but I did mourn the loss of the swing, on which I used to spend hours and hours looking over the river and across to Mohonk and watching the light sift through the leaves and branches of the sugar maple from which it hung (and playing "milkshake" and "tie-dye"), which is no longer hanging at the top of the hill by the gazeebo.I got to explore the town of High Falls, wander through my old elementary school, visit with my third grade teacher (the best teacher ever!), and eat pizza in Stone Ridge. It was pretty amazing to walk into church on Sunday (Rondout Valley and Shady) and see so many faces that I hadn't remembered but instantly recognized! And it was also incredible to drive to Kingston and see the [Hudson River Sloop] Clearwater, just after I had decided to apply to volunteer on it... [that's where I'll be next week! -9/23]

The only thing that would have made it more perfect is if my sister could have been there to reminisce with me...

It’s been a while…

Hey people – it’s been a while since I put anything up on this blog, so if that’s the only way you keep up with what I’m doing you would have been completely in the dark since August…sorry! My life has been pretty unsettled, with lots of traveling and decision-making.

After JVC ended, I went back to Philadelphia and stayed with my aunt for a few weeks. Not be able to decide what to do with my life, I decided instead to go on a trip: first to Asheville, North Carolina to visit Leah McCullough (former campus minister at Oregon State) and attend a Carrie Newcomer workshop and concert. Then, I flew to Chicago where I spent 2 and a half days with two good friends from my college days, Tracy and Sarah. From there I took the Megabus to Minneapolis and visited my aunt, uncle, and cousins for a week, along with getting to see a couple college friends and spending a day in Northfield visiting professors and church folk. when that was over, I flew back to Asheville, where I spent a few more weeks at Leah’s house, walking in the “mountains”, and attending a number of interesting lectures (Marcus Borg, Elias Chacour, Shane Claiborne…).

Eventually, I returned to Philadelphia – the first week of October. It was the epic kind of Greyhound bus ride you never want to experience…to put it briefly: delays, overbooked routes, overflow buses, missed connections, and unorganized boarding got me to Philly 7 hours later than I was originally scheduled to arrive…

So there I was, back in Philly again, trying to figure out where to go from there…finally – finally! – I made enough of a decision to put me on the road again, not sure exactly how it would turn out, but happy to be moving on.

And now I’m here at Agape, living in the woods about two miles’ distance from the great Quabbin reservoir. Hiking, reading, praying, working, and mastering the art of driving a stick-shift. Read more about it here.

Boston!

I just got back from a historic trip to Boston! Historic for two reasons. 1, the obvious: Boston is a historic city. 2, the hysteric: I was visiting a friend I hadn't seen in 14 years! Dorothy and I were best friends in 3rd and 4th grades, but then I moved to Oregon and although we stayed in touch for a while (and Facebook is amazing!), we never saw each other again -- until now! Her younger sister, Delia, who was entering 3rd grade when I moved is now entering her senior year of college at BU and is living with Dorothy for the summer, so I got to see her, too. Here's how it transpired:


Pattie, Megan and I drove up on Friday night after dropping Dan off in NYC and got in at about 12:15 a.m. On Saturday morning, I had nutella on a bagel for breakfast. Nutella! A great start to a great day. :)


Delia had some work to do, so it was just Dorothy and I who set out walking and talking in the morning. We walked from Jamaica Plain down through the university/med. school/hospital area, past the Fenway, across the bridge into Cambridge with its beautiful view of downtown Boston and Beacon Hill, and back across the river where we rested our feet for a while in the Charles River Park. It was an absolutely beautiful day out: sunny, clear skies, 70-75 degrees with a light breeze.

Delia met up with us in the park. On our way out, we stopped by a bunch of tents that were set up and discovered that they were giving away free health food samples! So that was our free lunch... We walked down Charles Street and then throught Boston Commons and past the Paul Revere cemetery to Government Square, where there was a gay pride festival going on.

Next stop was the Old State House. We got there at 4:55. From there we headed to the North End where Dorothy bought a salad and we sat on the wharfs at the waterfront to eat it. And rest. We continued our walk to the Old North Church of Paul Revere fame, and then down to the Paul Revere house (built in 1680!). Before heading back to the subway , we wandered through the Italian neighborhood and stopped at the famous Mike's Pastry, where they bought me a cannoli and the best tiramisu i've had in ages. That place was busy and crowded for a reason!

We were back to Dorothy's by 7:30 and left at 8:30 with one of her friends to get some dinner. It was a beautiful evening, but we were so tired we didn't stay out long. By 10:00 we were back at the house and it didn't take long before we collapsed in bed.

Sunday morning was really low-key. We just lounged around the house (it was kind of dismal and rainy) and then finally went out to get breakfast at a nearby corner store/cafe, and then it was time for Megan and Patti to pick me up and come home!

It was an A+ weekend!

Honduras!

I'm off to Honduras for a week to visit my sister with my parents and my aunt! =)