Raw

I'm feeling really raw right now.

Engaged in some deep places. Looking to avoid some others.

Feeling some deep wounds - some new some older - and hoping to see healing in all of them.

writing and space

Spent several chunks of today just sitting with a journal. I'm beginning to suspect that few of the really important things from my trip are going to make it onto this blog. They'll have to be saved for face-to-face or phone conversations if you really want to hear them. Some of them will probably not even make it to that point.

I'm so glad (despite my griping at my inability to schedule time with friends) that I was unable to fill the time I've had this week, and that I scheduled the time for processing before returning to work.

Part of what I'm committed to in Lent this year is pursuing writing in my journal again. Hopefully on a daily basis. I'm committed to processing the things that have begun within me over the course of the last five weeks, and I think that needs to happen first on paper, before it ever makes it to this blog.

So I'll still blog, but maybe not with the depth I've sometimes applied. You may see more thoughts from others, more links to articles, more humor, and less of my own essays.

I need to make sure I take this space. That I let Lent work in me again this year.

Headlines and Articles

Since I got up half-hour ago or so, I've been browsing news headlines and various articles, and thought I'd return to the tradition of sharing the ones that have caught my attention with all of you... So...

Avoiding Hollywood's Lure

A Generations' Epidemic

Gunman Kills 6 at US University

HIV Vaccine Research Hits Impasse

Trafficking: A Very Modern Slavery

AIDS Patients Hit by Kenya Crisis

Grief Haunts Peru Quake Survivors

Peru's Potato Passion Goes Global

To be blessed...

I know, I know, after a month of hardly writing, I've put lots of little things up today. But I've been catching up, and some of the things I've come across have just been too beautiful not to share.

My friend Faye, of the ever challengingly honest posts wrote a post in poem form recently - a meditation of sorts on candles and life. I love the way Faye thinks and writes. So deep and personal, and yet integrating her coursework, the things she happens to be reading and listening to, whatever's been going on in her world. She used colors in this one the way she always does, and they add something to her posts. They work for her in ways they'd never work for me were I to attempt such a thing. You can find the whole post here, but, I'm going to steal just a few lines from it, and put them on my own blog - giving her credit of course - because they caught me where I'm at today, as I work to process the impact of five weeks away from home, in the midst of intense situations.

John says:
"Jesus breathed on his disciples"
before his ascent-
"a blessing".
We generally avoid being breathed on.
Breath is stinky,
wet,
contagious,
a violation of our personal space.
Maybe we need to be violated
to be blessed.

In Honor of Valentine's Day...

In honor of the day, I thought I'd share one picture from my recent trip to Rome. This, my friend's is the purported skull of St. Valentine. Just in case you were unclear that it was St. Valentine from the sign nearby labeling it as such, make sure you note the lovely piece of tape across the skull, making sure you know just exactly whose bones you're looking at!



Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!