Eras

Several eras have come and gone in my life. One is happening right now. With the ending and beginning of eras it is rarely a thing of surprise. I usually see them coming from miles and months away.

Today is my last day working at ISF and I am sad. I will not miss the poor pay. I will miss the people and the atmosphere. I love the people at ISF. I love the earnest endeavorness of them and the heartfelt love that most of them exude like a natural odor. I love the atmosphere of compassion. The sentiment that hangs in the air that says, "We love God as best as we can, but we are not satisfied with our best, so through his love we will love him better. By his grace we are made whole and the miracles of our lives, though painful, can glorify this wonderful being who wraps us with his love."

Today, in just an hour, I will go and meet one of my mentor teachers. Next week I will have a new batch of students to love and care for. A new bunch of young lives to pour myself out for. Most of these lives will probably be a lot more broken than the lives that I encountered at Whitter Christian. Loving someone who is hurt, or damaged is so much harder than loving someone who is whole an well because that someone who is hurt has a lot more needs. Some people who are hurt are like dogs and just want their ears rubbed and are joyous at the thought of you scratching their itches. Some people who are hurt are like cats, who may be purring at your administrations, but will randomly bite or scratch you. And sometimes, hardest of all, there are the people who I desperately want to help but have no idea how to. Those are the God people. Those are the people that I can only pray for and go on living with as best as I can. I know that those ones turn out well in the end because that is what the first two years of my marriage was like. There are people who simply do not make sense to me and I cannot communicate well with them, and those are the people that God shows me his glory through because I never cease to be amazed at what he does with them and how well he knows how to love them. (Nothing impresses me more than seeing someone do something that I can't. It would have impressed my socks off to see the universe made. There's little me, sitting there. "Hey God! Check it out! I'm so cool, I can stack these blocks up and knock them down!" "Hey Rho! Check it out! I'm so cool, I can stack these planets up and spin them in a circle." "Wow God. That is pretty cool. Teach me how?")

But with all of this I have the comfort of reading the Bible and getting loved on that way, reading "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" to stay humble by perspective, and knowing that everything is going to be alright. Plus, just 'cause I'm not working at ISF anymore doesn't mean that I have to leave all my friends there as well. Nope. I'm taking my friends with me!

I fly through the air with the greatest of ease . . .

Well my friends, the adventure of my life continues. I am now a high-flying trapeze artist! Yes, I am actually being honest. I have flung by my arms, my knees, and even been caught by another person whilst I was soaring through the air, and then I repeated it several times. I have done flips while I dismounted the bar. There is nothing like it in the world. Screw teaching, I want to fly the trapeze. (Or maybe I’ll teach to support my trapeze habit?) And wanna know something cool? You really do fly through the air with the greatest of ease. It’s much different than a rope swing and much easier than going across the monkey bars. I have never done anything like it before in my life, but I hope to do a great deal like it again. It is wonderful. It is spectacular. Everyone should be so lucky as to fly on the trapeze!!!

Thank you so much to Monica who invited me along in celebration of her __th birthday. It was the coolest party ever. Thank you to my Dad who taught me to love the adrenaline. Thank you especially to my Mom who wouldn’t let me fear of heights stop me from playing on them. Thank you to God for the trapeze and the physics that make it so fun!

For any of you in the L.A. area, Hollywood Aerial Arts (which you can find at www.hollywoodaerialarts.com) is a great school where they get you up on the bar and doing all those great tricks your first time out. I highly recommend it! It is the best fun ever!

Also, for those of you who I know personally, if you want to see video or photos, let me know - or better yet, if you want to go with me and try it for yourself, let me know!

My very education mother

My very educated mother just served us nine . . .

My very educated mother just served us nine.

And that is all. No more planet Pluto. Pluto just doesn't have the umph. Although, in my opinion Neptune doesn't have enough umph to be a planet either because it is not gravitationally strong enough to either capture Pluto as a moon or kick Pluto out of its orbit. If Pluto doesn't get to be a planet because it is lacking in the mass/gravity department then Neptune (who is lacking in the same department) shouldn't either. And what's with the definition of a planet only applying to our solar system? So if Pluto happened to orbit one of Orion's stars then it would be a planet but because it orbits Sol it's just out of luck?

Reasons for kicking out Neptune as well (since we are at it and not including prior arguments)

"My very educated mother just served us." is a much better sentence than, "My very educated mother just served us nine."

and 7 is the number of perfection, so if we are going to be kicking off hulks of matter than we might as well make the number of planets match the number of days in a week and be pleasing to Hebrews while we are at it. Right?

At any rate, I now have to go through all my sci-fi books and scratch out all the references to the planet Pluto. What a nuisance!

On the up side of things, it does make that Planets symphony make more sense . . .

what I do on vacation for fun

Geometry terms meet religion

Heaven is a plane.
Mormons say that humans are lines.
Agnostics say that humans are line segments.
Christians say that humans are rays (although all of our lives contain angles).
For humans that have yet to die, the gospel appears to be a postulate, but once we die we will realize that it is a theorem.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Isn't it just too funny?!

so I've been busy for a while

and now I am going on vacation. Today was my last official day as a secretary. ever. From now on I do believe that I will be other things.

I have really enjoyed working at ISF because it was good for me, gave me a great environment to grow in, and I have come out of it with great and wonderful friends. I wouldn't trade my time working there for the world ... but I wouldn't go back there for the world either because it is time for me to move on.

Next week my last semester in my Master's program starts. This summer has been a lot of work, and I am desperately tired from it, but it has been really really good as well. Now I get to go to Morro Bay and relax with my family.

Speaking of family, my dad is getting much better. He can actually walk again (praise God!) albeit with a cane. I am so thankful that he is healing.

I would also like to announce to the world that I am truly convinced that I have married a real man and I am so proud of him and what he is becoming. I am excited at the choices he is making with his life and I am honored to be his wife. It took us a long time to get here, but I respect and admire my husband. I always loved him, but now I really look up to him. I am glad that he is a true man.

Well, that's enough for now. Be happy for me, my life is better now than it has been for years. The Lord is providing for me and giving me rest. May he be praised forever.