Call it dorky or at least slightly nuts, but I love the idea of getting to start fresh.

New room, new ideas, new students.  It’s exhilarating!

I suppose I could draw a deep, spiritual implication and applications about new beginnings.  For the record, there are so many.  But today, you can do that.

I’m going to enjoy a chance to be new again for a time.  Perhaps you look forward to a fresh start in something or recently experienced one of your own.

It’s a beautiful thing, treat it as such.

So today, if for nothing else, be thankful for your beginning.  Be thankful for the time when you started this life and the sorrows and joys that are included therein.

going on field trips

learning to subtract and regroup

my birthday (apparently, the “surprise” party gave them great joy)

Pajama Day

learning about capacity and weight (I didn’t make this up)

read aloud

money

handwriting (ok, I made this one up.  All my kids complain about handwriting)

learning new songs as a class

praying for each other

Next year won’t hold the same experiences that this year did.  There will be new ideas to explore, concepts to teach, people to meet, things to learn.

I’ll miss this year’s crop of second graders.  They bring so much joy to my life! Look for a few upcoming posts with gems from my collection of second grade humor.

Over the years I’m sure I’ve given over a hundred dollars in late fees and fines.  But still, I love the library.

This summer I had the opportunity to read with a freedom I had lost while in college.  Works of fiction and nonfiction came alive as I scanned the pages, looking for new ideas, words and stories to experience.  Books allows a sharing of experiences, be those true, in the case of nonfiction or imagined and created, in the case of fiction.  Some might say to read is to escape from reality.  Rather, I think reading is a time to experience situations, emotions and events that perhaps we may never encounter.  While reading, I seek to gain a better understanding of the human condition based on what I’ve read.

Let me say, this was my World War II summer.  Last year I spent many of my non fiction choices on the Civil and Revolutionary War.  This year, inspired by watching the miniseries Band of Brothers, I read great selections from Stephen Ambrose, Ken Burns and many of the men who served in Easy Company.  Ambrose’s book, Band of Brothers is the basis of the miniseries and well worth reading.  Major Richard Winters tells the oft forgotten details of a harsh time in our world with an elegance and grace not often found in modern biographies.

While reading these true accounts of life in a world totally different from my own, I couldn’t help but wonder, “where have these type of men gone?”

A different set of values and standards ruled this generation and reading their stories left me wondering about our times, struggles and values verses theirs.

I also dedicated my time to reading a few works of classic fiction.  Starting my summer with Willa Cather’s O Pioneers, Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and working through Jane Austen while at the beach.

Mixed into the lot was a book on yellow fever in America at the turn of the century, a true story of life on an Iowa farm during the Great Depression, a few works by Tracie Peterson and Tolkien’s The Hobbit (which I have tried to read since February).

On my list for the rest of this year are a few theological pieces by Dr. Stephen Nichols (a prof of mine from college and an excellent theologian and writer), Humility: True Greatness by C. J. Mahaney and perhaps any suggestions you might have.

Have you taken time to enjoy a book (or two) recently?  Why do you choose the books you read?

Like many recent college graduates, this year (tomorrow in fact) marks the beginning of our first real job.  Years in the making, we step up to becoming teachers, writers, engineers and just general workers-at-large.

A year from now who knows where we will be.  Many of us will have moved up and on to new and exciting challenges.  Some of us will remain, both gaining experience, confidence and knowledge that will never be found sitting at a desk.

Maybe your first job came years ago, or perhaps you are still waiting for it.

In the life of our jobs, many of us will have times of frustration or disappointment.  Many of us don’t need a new job to teach us that.  But take heart.  Even in the grief that often surrounds employment, our joy in work is that our purpose is not our own, nor is our work in vain.  As Paul told the Colossians

“Whatever you do, work heartily,as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

Be encouraged in serving Christ as your work, be it in a new job or one that is well seasoned with time and work.  Finding a job is part of becoming an adult, but maintaining an attitude like Jesus while working is the true grown up trait.

1. new school supplies
2. cool summer evenings
3. homegrown peaches
4. crickets chirping in the dark
5. dear friends

It often seems that the shifting of the seasons draws causes me to become introspective about my time. This last leg of summer leaves my wishing I had done a few less activities and taken a few more meaningful moments to be purposeful about my plans.

Besides looking back, it’s a time to look forward, to plan, to change. Setting goals (and keeping them) is a struggle at times. But more than other times, I find this new chapter of adult life to be one that offers stability where in the past I only found chaos. So here’s to seeking godliness (in my speech), balance (in my time) and contentment (in my life) in the time to come.

Are you renewed by the shifting of the seasons?

All around me people are oozing love.  Dating, getting married, having babies…love is everywhere it seems.

As I look at these couples I see something.  Not always are they completely agreed on all things.  Most often in fact, they each have their own special elements that make them complimentary.  Each of us has our own special brand of crazy–that is, the way we interact and function with others.  Not to say that each of us is crazy, but for who and what we are, there is someone who can, in their essence, make you make sense to the world.  And make the world make sense to you.

They are the chill to your crazy.

Think about it this way…I have a great friend who is now married to equally great guy.  However, when we first met said guy, he made NO SENSE to me.  I didn’t get his sense of humor or why said what he did.  But she, she translated who he purely was into a more understandable person.  She made me see really who he was so I could appreciate the person he is.  She was the chill to his crazy.  And he too, served to show the world the best side of her–a side that most fail to see and very few truly appreciate.

So…I guess it matters less about height, eye color or sense of humor.  It’s more that, hey, this world won’t be able to understand me without you.

Yesterday I got two phone calls before 8am, waaay before.  Both were schools calling to ask me to teach for the day.  Both callers got the same answer for me, “no.”

To get the full effect of this story you need to know that two weeks ago my assistant manager at the hardware store where I work told me she would be away all this week and would need me to work everyday.  In good faith I said, “sure, I’d be happy to help.”  (read: I have bills to pay and more hours = more money.  I wasn’t going to turn that down)

Yet in the back of my mind I knew that I might possibly get a call to substitute teach.  And…I love to teach.  It’s more than just what I went to school for, it’s what I love.  I love to see anyone go from confusion or ignorance to understanding; being part of that is truly special and unique each time it happens.

When the first call to teach came in I had to make a choice.  Do I:

1) call my boss and just say, “I can’t come in”

or

2) do I suck it up and say no to what I really want to do?

Answer= option 2

About 50 minutes later the second call wakes me up and I am faced with the same dilemma.  Same questions, same answer.

I get to work and spend a good two hours being bummed that I’m mixing paint and not reviewing the “nines times tables.”

Today on my lunch break I get a call from one of the schools.  They want to know if I can sub next week.  Answer: yes!  I’m free of the hardware store on the two days.

Why am I telling this story?  Because last night I wrote that I wanted the choice I made to be an evidence of my trust in God’s faithfulness.  Being at the store was not what I desired, but I was content.  And today I was watching and I saw a glimpse of what God does with that faithful, trusting contentment.    Thanks  for reading this.  Today was a good day.

Wouldn’t it be better to simply live in the moment; to live this time in the best possible way and be content with this stage of who we are?

This conversation developed from my statement that at first, many of my friends were getting married and now many of them are having babies.  Not necessary a discontented statement, be certainly one that expresses a left behind type of  sentiment.

This discontent is at odds with my claim I trust fully in Christ and his control of my future.   In all, I do believe this fact, I just need reminded from time to time that my words and actions have betrayed me and my focus needs to be reset.

I was pondering (yes, I often ponder).  And yes, that it IS much more enjoyable to live and concentrate on being content with the now, with this little section of life rather than mentally postulating what the future might hold and how that fits into my often skewed desires.

Easter, is without a doubt, my most favorite holiday.  More than New Years, Easter seems like such a new and reviving time.  To recover from the past year and set a course towards the coming days.  I’d rather make an Easter resolution than a New Years resolution, anyway.

Maybe this feeling of new life comes from the change of the seasons from winter to spring.  The snow melts away and thanks to that run off, green seems to drip from all living thing in creation.  The newness of plant life exemplifies the newness of humanity.

Or maybe, it’s because as a Christ follower, Easter is the ultimate clean slate for my life.  It was the time in history when we, as humanity, got to start over.

I like clean.  Clean rooms, clean cars, clean air, clean soul.  Easter reminds me that, not just for a moment, but for all times, I have the offer to have  a clean soul through the mercy of God through the death of Christ.