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twinnieboo17
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Name: Kristen
Birthday: 8/30/1900
Gender: Female
Interests: I think I spend more time playing volleyball than I do at home.
Expertise: Jack of many trades, master of none I suppose.
Occupation: Student
Industry: Other
Message: message me
Member Since:
6/15/2003
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| I just signed up for the Invisble Children Event 'Displace Me' on April
28th in KC. I'm pretty excited. Check it out at
http://www.invisiblechildren.com/displaceMe/.
What weather...maybe that's what made me sick? And what makes my heart feel so heavy?
Okay, two tests tomorrow...Art History and Vector Calc...I must study...ah.
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| I am currently reading The Return of the Prodigal Son
by Henri J.M. Nouwen, and I think it's awesome. I'm still only on
the first chapter (about the younger son), but I will keep you posted
as I continue reading. Here are some things that really stuck out
to me:
"Leaving home is, then...a denial of the spiritual reality that I
belong to God with every part of my being, that God holds me safe in an
eternal embrace, that I am indeed carved in the palms of God's hands
and hidden in their shadows. Leaving home means ignoring the
truth that God has 'fashioned me in secret moulded me in the depths of
the earth and knitted me together in my mother's womb.' Leaving
home is living as though I do not yet have a home and must look far and
wide to find one.
"Home is the center of my being where I can hear the voice that says: 'You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests'...
I have heard that voice. It has spoken to me in the past and
continues to speak to me now...As the Beloved, I can confront, console,
admonish and encourage without fear of rejection or need for
affirmation...I can suffer persecution without desire for revenge and receive praise without using it as proof of my goodness...
"Yet over and over again I have left home. I have fled the hands
of blessing and run off to faraway places searching for love!...Why
should I leave the place where all I need to hear can be heard?
The more I think about this question, the more I realize that the true voice of love is a very soft and gentle voice speaking to me in the most hidden places of my being...
"But there are many other voices, voices that are loud, full of
promises and very seductive. These voices say, 'Go out and prove
that you are worth something.'...they reach into those inner places where I question my own goodness and doubt my self-worth.
" God has never pulled back his arms, never withheld his
blessing, never stopped considering his son the Beloved One. But
the Father couldn't...force his love on the Beloved. He had to
let him go in freedom, even though he knew the pain it would cause both
his son and himself. It was love itself that allowed him to let his son find his own life, even with the risk of losing it...the
Father is always looking for me with outstreched arms to receive me
back and whisper again in my ear: 'You are my Beloved, on you my
favor rests.'"
(pp. 37-44)
So anyway, that's a pretty awesome meditation if anyone wants one. :)
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| Well, I'm just hanging out waiting for Lauren to pack and thought I
would write on this for once. We're headed home tonight, then to
Ava tomorrow for Papa's funeral. Thanks so much to all of you who
have been so supportive and generally amazing this week. I am so
glad that I have such fantastic friends...all of the hugs and thoughts
and prayers really do mean a lot.
I don't really know what to think about this. It's hard to
believe that Papa is gone now...I think it is going to take a while
before that really sinks in. I am really glad that most of his
ten children and several grandchildren were there when he passed.
It made me want to have a huge family too. So much love in one
place.
We went to the park earlier in the day...I think it was good to show
the younger ones that it's okay to have fun, even when you're going
through a time of suffering, you know? Along the same lines, I
thought it was great that not an hour after Papa died, everybody was
eating and joking a little and telling stories. That's how I
would want it to be after I die.
Okay, Lauren's ready to go. Here's a pic of some of my awesome cousins:
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| I've been meaning to update this...but you know how it goes.
Koinonia was awesome. Seriously. A month ago, I was
completely opposed to ever being a resource. First of all, I
don't like talking about myself, second I really don't like talking in
front of people...and combining the two into a 20 minute talk...not
okay. But little by little I got more comfortable with it (never
completely comfortable). God helped me take baby steps...after I
wrote it, after I practiced in front of people the first time, once I
was there and got to know the retreat participants it got a little bit
easier each time. I absolutely loved being a wheatie, and I still
cannot chose which would be my favorite Koinonia, but being a resource
is just so meaningful because you can watch the effect that the retreat
is having on people. I had some great discussion at my table, and
I really think that several of my table members really benefited from
the grace of this retreat. And now I get to see them around
campus and the center and it is just awesome!
Catching up this week has been crazy. I had a speech on Tuesday
and two tests this morning: Art History at 9:30 and Vector Calculus at
11:00...these are the kind of test that it's not too bad when you just
have one to study for, but when they're right after each other it is
really overwhelming. After class ended at 3:45, I went to the
library and typed up the essays for my study abroad application and got
that turned in. I have one more advisor to talk to tomorrow about
course transfer credit, then I'll be done with that.
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| "I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once." -Jennifer Yane
That's kind of how I felt last week...hopefully this one is better.
Well our volleyball tournament at Drake went really well
yesterday. It was actually fun - not nearly as frustrating as
usual. We actually had our setter with us this time, and that
made all the difference. After winning only one or two games at
our last several tournaments, our 7-5 3rd place finish was
awesome. Plus, we were only 3 or 4 points away from being in the
finals with the KU A team. We were joking that if we did play
each other, we could just not play and all win, or we would just
postpone the final match until practice on Tuesday and just send them
word as to how it went, so we could get home for the basketball
game. Looks like that wouldn't have been worth it anyway...
Today = soreness + lot's of homework.
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