better than ever

So, I threw my cell phone in the washer two weeks ago. Then my computer developed internet connection difficulties which still have not been resolved. Then I was out of the state for a week. My only available land line and internet connection is at work and I have not been there for over a week. During that week, I’ve lived out of a car, the pack on my back and the hospitality of old and new friends and family. Loosing connection hasn’t necessarily stressed me out—in fact, it has had the opposite effect. Necessary communication with my professors and others about pending projects and important life events, etc, have been possible through narrow windows of grace. There’s been a sort of peace and calm that has settled over me as I’ve received this as a Sabbath that the Lord has sovereignely provided for me. I’ve had a lot of time to pray. I feel full and satisfied. My spirit feels tangible to me again. I feel like I can rely on it again to guide me without the interference of over processed noise coming from my head and my feelings. Even though my weeks have been jam-packed with going here and there and doing things and I caught a nasty cold, I feel calm and content and a peace that hugs me only as the creator of harmony could.

As for my extended week off...Why? What for? Scoping out the future. Adventure. Surveying the scholarly world. Picking at and testing connectivity points with my faith/heritage against my growth/education. And as always stretching the dichotomies between the two worlds I hold within myself to an eeking, screeching, tensile stretch, just to test and toughen myself. I’ve been in Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Virginia and drove through every state on the way back with my sister—all in time for Thanksgiving Day. It all started on Thursday with no sleep the night before and a very nice nap on a flight out to Dulles where my sister picked me up and took me to Mt. View in Virginia. The next three days was a juggling match between the busy bustling DC belching out its scholars and philosophers in fancy hotels with plush carpet, chandeliers and evening parties, for higher society of course—and—the calm, natural beauty of the Virginian mountains and valleys seen from the bay windows of a quaint nursing home, staffed by young twenty-year-old Mennonites, tending to mostly mentally diminished elderly. I’ve been allowed...(gasp)...encouraged to delve into the metaphysical reaches of my mind but then in the next breath drawn into the simple, beautiful harmony of the songs and exuberant laughter at my sister’s farewell gathering. But that wasn’t yet enough. I had to make a few stops in PA to investigate and evaluate the theological education at SMBI our token school of higher Christian education and then off to Lancaster to hunt for a covering maker/seller and a visit with old and new friends. By then, I remembered that I had forgotten to take my vitamins or sleep much at all, as I sniffled and coughed the whole way home, taking turns sleeping and driving with my sister. I kept a log of my expenses. I think perhaps it would be interesting to post it...later though. My connectivity obligations have been challenged and I have submitted. Most people know that I’m still alive.