Finding a Rhythm

A cool breeze has been waking me up in the mornings, causing me to climb out of bed earlier than my alarm to shut off my window fan. Thick layers of fog seem to swallow up the city street outside as I turn to make my coffee and pour myself a bowl of cereal. And as I sit down, cross-legged on my carpeted floor, I think about how fall is finally moving in. Of course, students moved in weeks ago, mid- to late August. That's usually the first indicator. Often it feels as though life speeds up in the fall too; summer usually drifts, its characteristic long days blending into one another until you realize that the sunset really isn't at 9 pm anymore and you catch yourself grabbing a jacket before you head out the door. Life often picks up the pace, especially if you work in campus ministry. In my mind, students being back on campus translates to staff being back in the thick of it - meaning lots of questions, planning of trainings, weekend and weeklong trips, etc. 

Campus life picks up and that's good. That's normal. Yet if you know anything about me, sitting on the floor of my room eating breakfast and enjoying a cup of coffee is a pretty rare picture. In fact, I bought a box fan a few days before September began, mainly because I hadn't been in my room all summer. No, my evenings were typically spent under a thin sheet of nylon fabric, either reading or planning lessons or leading a discussion. Because for me, my summer is when life picks up and when I get to spend countless hours with students. Leadership development, discipleship, creating space for rest, giving direction to begin preparing for a new semester - this what my summer looks like. I stop looking at my calendar in days and begin looking at it in weeklong or multi-week segments, where backpacking and climbing trips are blocked out in various colors. And when fall comes, swinging in with new things? I just add in more colored blocks. 

But there's a slight difference for me that distinguishes the summer from the fall: the trips are shorter. Almost like the shortening of fall days. With the return to campus, the weekends become the main time to get away and even then, often only for a day instead of several. Which means time for me to develop new routines in life again. Like blogging, say, or sitting cross-legged on my floor enjoying breakfast. Or having a consistent time to read my Bible and think on God's goodness. Indeed, life has its rhythms and for me, the seasons have a direct impact on them. So would you pray for me as I try to settle into a new rhythm? Because sometimes settling into something has its ups and downs. And I will pray the same for you, that you would be in a rhythm that God has laid out for you.

The Mastery of Unpacking

If you've ever lived out of a suitcase, for any period of time, you know to some extent the mastery of packing. Keep it simple. Keep it small. Take only the essentials and make sure you have just enough of what you need to make it through until your next stop. Life is simple.

Until you unpack.

There is an art of unpacking, I'm sure of it. It's something I have not mastered yet. Maybe I never will. The question for me is always, where to begin? Do I start with the trip itself? Or the cleaning and putting away of the contents of my bags? Or maybe by telling my stories or writing them down so I can begin the processing of what happened? To be truthful, I often just set my bags on my bed, put the worst smelling items in the laundry and make myself a cup of coffee. It's overwhelming when I sit down, sipping my coffee, to think about three months worth of living to and how to explain it. Where to begin? What to say? What to highlight? What to mourn? How can any and all of these things be put into words? What if I don't even quite know how to describe the feelings, the depth, even just the simple sounds that I miss?

And so I propose to you all this: A story a week. I know, life keeps on moving forward. The leaves will change colors soon and I'll still be talking about spring blooming in the mountains of Wyoming. There will be new stories mixed in with old ones. But at least I can promise you some depth to them and not just an overview. An overview, in my mind, seems a great injustice to the depth of the people I was with and the ripe nature of each and every experience. And my hope is that you will see God's timely presence in each and every story. There was a book we read on the first course I co-instructed that talked about "story feasting" - a place to share openly the stories that we have with one another and celebrate or cry or mourn or be still with one another in the sharing of our lives.

So here's to a spread of stories for you to read, spanning from June 1 to August 28. I hope that they are worth your while to read and, that like all good stories, they inspire you to share yours with those around you.