How the Heart Opens

I've been reading Janisse Ray's Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, which is part memoir, part environmentalist book about her childhood in Baxley, Georgia, which is near some of the towns I lived in growing up (Tifton, Ga., Statesboro, Savannah). She includes a lovely quote from Albert Camus, of all people, that I really like. Pardon the male exclusive language, but that is Camus's language not Ray's or mine.

"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."

I"m not sure what all this meant to Camus, but to me it evokes a powerful recall of the central images that come together in my own life that open my heart towards God, my family, friends, and strangers. Those great and simple images for me: fishing, fiction, faith, and family. Somewhere, right in those few things, is where so much of meaning and passion lies for me. I think they are the keys to who I am now, who I have been in the past, and who God is continuing to shape me to become in the future.

Calling, Elizabeth O'Connor

I ran across this quote from Elizabeth O'Connor while I was reading for our formation for ministry class at MTS. "One of the ways we know the call to be God's call is when a feeling of awe-filled dread is combined with one of being companioned." (From Cry Pain, Cry Hope). I like that a great deal. ddb

Cat???

I'll have to ask Luke about the cat and halloween. Sounds ghastly.

Check out this photo from our trip to Junaluska.

Mary Oliver

Loved the Mary Oliver poem. She is much like another of my favorite contemporary poets, Wendell Berry. I think that I have talked with you about him before. One of his lines that I love is, "Practice resurrection. Plant sequoias." Dad

A new Project

You all know that I always have to have some creative outlet brewing. I continue to enjoy teaching, but I can only get excited about vertebrates and inverts for so many years. This year I am very excited about working with members of the environment club to create an educational dvd that will be distributed to our NH families (and maybe beyond). This project gives me great excitement. Grading papers is such a drag and I miss you Shelley and your willingness to grade-for-pay. (Luke opts out of this easy money.)I love my job, but there are parts that are less fun--such is life!

I have been mulling around the idea of this educational piece for several months. Finally Mr. Howard pushed me to outline my ideas. I couldn't do it. How did I get in a family of writers and I struggle so with this aptitude. When all else fails...diagram it! Being the visual learner that I am, I sat down on our lovely screened in back porch and drew my ideas out. (I had to do this with my "professional assessment paper at Candler my senior year, too) My drawing sort of freaked out my two co-sponsors for the environment club. I know we are not all visual people.

I have often wondered how the three of you are all such excellent writers; and I struggle so with this skill. That's it--it's a skill for me and a gift for you three. Writing must be a dominate trait.

I enjoy reading your blog entries. I will be a lesser contributor, but an avid supporter. (Remember, forgiveness and mercy for spelling and grammar mistakes)

Mom

A Frisky World

Don't call this world adorable, or useful, that's not it.
It's frisky and a theatre for more than fair winds.
The eyelash of lightning is neither good nor evil.
The struck tree burns like a pillar of gold.
-Mary Oliver

The Red Brick is Closing In...

Glad the Savannah trip went well! No ghost tours this time?! :)

The red brick of Trinity is really starting to get to me. After being here for almost 3.5 years the campus is starting to feel extremely small, and I'm really ready for a change of scenery, experiences, etc. I mentioned to mom over the phone this weekend that I am going to try and work it out to be a peer tutor next semester, intern with TRLA again, and possibly work as a research assistant. (My Sociology of Religion professor asked me if I would be interested in serving as her research assistant in the spring) That way, I would only have one academic class for the spring semester. I only need 11 more credits to graduate, and I am going stir crazy sitting in classrooms. I have come to realize several things about myself this semester :

a) I have a pretty restless personality. I used to think I had a restless soul, but I don't want to give my soul that much of a transient element.
b) I am a pretty drastic person. When I do things, I tend to go all the way.
c) I have the dietary needs of a toddler. I am SO tired of not being able to eat the vast majority of food on this campus.
d) I am still trying to figure out where my passion meets the world's needs.

....I have gotten part of my costume of "storch cat" for halloween put together. (That's the picture on this blog post.) Mom and Dad, get Luke to explain the myth of storch cat to you if I have not told you yet.

Looking forward to our fall break this week! We get Friday off, and I am going to Austin and Houston for the long weekend.

Love from Texas!!
Let the beauty of what we love be what we do.

Great Weekend in Savannah

It has been so wonderful poking around Savannah, seeing Carolyn Siefferman, my former high school English teacher, meeting a couple of her literary friends, and reconnecting with Enoch Hendry, a minister from South Georgia who is now the pastor of Trinity UMC in Savannah. He and his family live in the educational building of the congregation in 4,200 sq feet of loft space. Now there's a parsonage concept for you. Enoch is going to put me in touch with my other former high school english teacher, Wayne Brantley. Turns out that Wayne is a friend of Enoch's brother, Judson, who also taught at Beach High. Wayne has retired to a family farm in Wrightsville, Ga., and, sadly, is in the early stages of Parkinson's disease.

O'Connor society meetings went very well. A small but appreciative group of folks, all who love O'Connor's work as much or more than I do. Luke, they really liked it when I quoted you as having said, "o'Connor is such a badass." I told them that was high praise coming from a 17 year old. They agreed.

I sold several of my books and the local bookstore ownder asked for 10 additional copies to sell. That's a good thing!

Rode out to Tybee Island and the beach late yesterday afternoon. It is still a bit funky but has been greatly improved since I was in high school. I miss regular visits to the salt water, but looking forward to being back in Memphis and with the family. Dad

In the Fullness of Time

Peace is not a goal to be reached but a way of life to be lived. Violence erupts in moments of hatred and rejection, but peace is created in long years of love and acceptance. Trust must be built over generations, but small, even symbolic acts -- a handshake -- can make a great difference in humanizing former enemies. Desmond Tutu

In reading for my formation for ministry class, this quote jumped off the page. It so reminds me that peace is not an abstract ideal but a way of daily life. Tutu's Christian faith is what makes it possible for him to realize this, but he also sees the truth being expressed by persons of other faiths -- Gandhi, etc.

Response

Shelley, I loved the quote from Thomas Merton. That is a new one for me. So powerful. I am going to post another by Desmond Tutu that I think you and Luke might like.

As for your thoughts about how long to stay in Central America, I like that you are keeping an open mind about it. Clarity will come, but the waiting is really hard, I know. The interaction you are having with the migrant community around Trinity sounds really important as you continue to open yourself to their lives and stories. I'll bet that in these relationships, you are finding not only deeper understanding of their lives but deeper awareness of yourself and your own needs and gifts.

Hey Luke? You can't run from genetics, right?

"If you want to identify me,ask me not where I live,or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I am living for, in detail,ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for."
— Thomas Merton

I know several lives worth living

You know how sometimes you see yourself from the outside, looking in? It used to freak me out when that happened. Back in middle school and the beginning of highschool I found it really weird to see myself doing things, as if I was not sure who I was and had to put on a front and was watching myself do it. I see things differently now.

I'm currently babysitting at our president's house. Correction, his son is sleeping, and I'm doing homework while his mom is at a meeting. I just spent half an hour talking to their house keeper who I have known for the past 2 years because of ESL classes. As she was telling me how her husband is still unemployed (it's been a year and half) and she is the sole provider for her five children, I realized that the interactions and conversations I am having with many of the immigrant workers around campus are exactly like those I have read and heard about. I guess this should not be a novel thought, given my experience within the migrant community since highschool, but for the first time, I actually felt truly connected. As I was talking to her, I saw myself engaging in a relationship that is often just observed or read about. There are so many realities and lives intertwined on this campus and it still frustrates me that so many students are completely oblivious to it. But then again, the vast majority of the U.S. does not understand or even know about how the other half lives.

I have really started wondering if maybe I should reconsider going to El Salvador for a full year after graduation. If the Fulbright comes thorough that commits me to a year, but otherwise I am thinking six months might be enough. It's hard to tell at this time though. I have been asking around for outside funding these past few weeks. We'll see where everything goes...A grad school fair came to Mabee today. Did not hit up that one. Luke, wanna help me study for the math portion of the GRE over winter break? I'll need a refresher in Pre-Cal...Also, send me your college essays sometime! CAN'T WAIT FOR YOU TO COME VISIT.

Highlight of my day: Met a new Spanish speaking employee who is really interested in having me help tutor her for her citizenship test she is taking this year.

*I know several lives worth living.

Love from the balcony of South 1st...
DDG

Logos

So it's midnight. I have not taken my nightly dose of melatonin, and therefore, am not tired enough to go to sleep yet. Dad decided over Labor Day weekend that we should come up with a family blog- So here it is... Feel free to post anything, thoughts/quotes/daily experiences, etc. Mom, don't worry about your spelling or grammar. You know that's not important to us.

My current thoughts in poem form, courtesy of Mary Oliver:

LOGOS

Why wonder about the loaves and the fishes?
If you say the right words, the wine expands.
If you say them with love
And the felt ferocity of that love
And the felt necessity of that love,
The fish explode into many.
Imagine him, speaking,
And don’t worry about what is reality,
Or what is plain, or what is mysterious.
If you were there, it was all of those things.
If you can imagine it, it is all of those things.
Eat, drink, be happy.
Accept the miracle.
Accept, too, each spoken word
Spoken with love.