Chautauqua

I got a chance to get out of New Jersey and head 300 miles east back to Chautauqua Institution for the Fourth of July weekend. Over the past year, I have often been asked to explain Chautauqua to people. This seemingly easy task is actually quite difficult. It started as a training school for Sunday School teachers but has now become what Wikipedia calls “a non-profit adult education center and summer resort.” As I try to explain the place, people wonder is it an educational instituation, a gated community, a art and music school, a religious institution, an entertainment provider, a vacation spot? The easy answer is yes.

Yet, Chautauqua is much more than that. Each person will experience and define Chautauqua differently based on their reasons for being there. For me, Chautauqua is as much about the people and the community as it is about the place and all that it offer like:

*Deep feeling of welcome and homecoming as you drive through the gates

*Having a lane and lane partner who shares her paddles at Turner community pool

*Random conversations on beautiful porches

* Laughing children chasing rocket balloons on the Plaza

* Seeing a ballet on Thursday, Steve Martin on Friday and a symphony on Saturday

*Joining your voice with a congregation of thousand in the open air amp to sing “Holy, Holy, Holy”

*Using paper bags as cannons during the 1812 Overture during the 4^th of July Symphony Pops concert

*Lazy afternoons at University Beach reading, writing and sleeping

*Sitting on a porch listening to a lecture

*Ice cream with dear friends

*Making a big world smaller, and a small world bigger

*Children getting their faces painted on the porch

*Feeling connect to something that stretches back into the past and forward into the future

*”Street Musicians” made up of students from the symphony orchestra

*Feeling of peace while listening to Handel’s Largo on the organ on Sunday Night

*Unplanned conversations while wandering the brick walk

*Sunrises and Sunsets over Chautauqua Lake

*Music of the Miller Bell Tower

*Having a new place to call home and new people to call family

While all of these things are simply the experiences I can give voice to, Chautauqua is more that these things. It is a feeling, a sense and an experience. I wish my words could tell the whole story but they simply cannot, so I leave you with a few picture to attempt it.

For more pictures check out these albums:

From Summer 2010:

From this Fourth of July.

SPRING!

So I apologize for being such an awful blogger. It has been a crazy couple of weeks, great but crazy.

Three weeks ago (doesn't seem like it can actually be that long ago), I went to the Discernment Interview Placement (DIP) event for Young Adults in Global Mission where I found out I will be heading to Jerusalem/West Bank next year! I am really excited about this new opportunity! There will be more to come about this later and I promise to to my best to be better about blogging during that experience!

The next weekend my family was here for Easter. It was great to have them here and get to show them around, plus we successfully navigated NYC on Saturday! WAHOO!

This past weekend I got to attend and preach at a church that is a combined Lutheran/Episcopal Church. Huzzah Lute-piscs!

Anywho, I am pretty excited because spring is here and the weather is getting nice, which means open windows and chacos!

Happy spring to you all!

Power of Music

So one of the things I have discovered, or perhaps more accurately have been reminded of, this is year is the power of music to keep me sane and to connect people. After a long day at work, it is music that helps me calm down. In the moments when I am feeling homesick, it is music that helps me reconnect with the memories of people and places I love. During the downtime of this year we have connected as a group of interns through jam time and discussion of our favorite bands.

Over the course of the past two weeks I have had the opportunity to see three very different, yet equally amazing musical shows that have reminded me of the power of music.

On Wednesday, March 23^rd, I traveled with Clare and Alyssum to Paramus, NJ to see the Wailin’ Jenny’s. For those of you who don’t know the Jenny’s, they are a Canadian Folk Trio who have a low-key soothing tone. Check them out on youtube-this is one of my favorite songs- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc6HloRYZGc. They are an incredible gifted group of three women who’s voices blend in a way that you can’t tell what is the harmony and what is the melody. Aside from one violin player, they play all of their own instrumentals. During the first 4 songs, one of the women played 4 different instruments. Held in a small auditorium, with maybe 100 people present, the concert was low-key with a Q&A at the end. The three women answered questions about their musical inspirations and the meanings behind their songs. I walked away from this concert feeling a great sense of peace and joy.

Five days later, on Sunday afternoon, I got the opportunity to see STOMP with two of the children from the Jubilee Center and one other chaperone. STOMP is a totally different experience from seeing the Jenny’s. Where the Jenny’s are low-key and quiet concert, STOMP is an energizing, up-beat and fairly loud concert experience. For those of you who don’t know STOMP, they use the body and ordinary material to create a percussion based physical theatre performance. Check them out on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu15Ou-jKM0 . It was an incredible experience to watch the performers create music and tell a story using common household items like lighters, newspapers, garbage cans, plungers and so much more. I walked away from this concert feeling energized and on fire.

Finally, two nights ago, on Friday night, my housemates and I headed to NJPAC to see Spamalot, which is the musical that is lovingly ripped off from Monty Python’s Holy Grail. This is the second time I have seen this particular show but it was great to see again . Once again this was a very different type of show from the first two that I had seen. In true Monty Python fashion, Spamalot is a comical story without much of a plot but definitely a story with a point. I laughed so hard I cried, and enjoyed every minute of it. I walk away from this show with a childlike joy and my cheeks hurt from laughing so much.

As I look at this three very different musical experience, I am struck by the similarity of them as well. Each of these groups have taken their unique talents and combined them together to share some part of the human story. Each story is told in a slightly different manner and through a different medium but embedded in each of these performances is the story of love and joy, struggles and challenges that everybody can relate to.

Piecing Life together

So I made a skirt yesterday. When I started, I had only intended to get the pattern and the fabric cut so everything was ready to go. Then, as I sat looking at the pieces I decided to just go for it and take the day to put it all together. After all, how hard could it be, it was only 16 pieces, plus I had detailed instructions to walk me through the process step by step.

However, it didn’t take long for me to realize that the instructions where not nearly as clear as I had hoped they would be. Ok, so I didn’t even make it through the first step before calling my mother. It take long before I started to attempt to figure things out on my own, completely scrapping those detailed instructions.

Six hours later, along with some mishaps, seam ripping and two more phone calls to my mother, I had created a skirt. Throughout those six hours I had a lot of questions about whether it would ever turn out or if I had embarked on a completely worthless journey of attaching random pieces of fabric.

As I sat admiring my finished project, I realized how much this process of creating a skirt much resembles my life these past couple of months, and even years. As I have embarked on a variety of different journeys I have gone with a detailed plan in mind, each time I have had to scrap the plan, and pull the pieces together in a creative way. Each time it has created something that I love and I am proud of.

My year with the Episcopal Service Corp and NEWARKACTS is almost over and I have had to start figuring out the pieces of the next part of this journey. While I enter this year with plans, those plans have been scrapped and new pieces added.

The new piece added is that in August I will be starting my time as a Young Adult in Global Mission through the ELCA. I will be placed in either Jerusalem/West Bank or Southern Africa. I go to Chicago in April for a discernment event to interview with the countries and to find out where I will be going.

I am excited about this next adventure in life and can’t wait to see which pieces it will give me to add to my creation.

Hey there-It's me again!

Abandon hope all ye who enter here because we've got too much stuff to do to be ready for the future to be sitting around hoping

(StoryPeople)

Hey All-

So I apologize for possibly being the worst blogger ever. It has been a crazy couple of months since Thanksgiving. I wish I could catch you up on all that has happened but for right now I want to share with you some excited happenings from two weekends ago.

Two weekends ago, Jan 13-15, I attended the ELCA’s Glocal Missions Gathering in Chicago. No, that was not a spelling error. Glocal=Global + Local. Heading in I didn’t really know what to expect. After the first night, I had a bit of a better idea but it was still unfolding.

“Glocal Events” are held in synods all over the states. These are events are a chance for these synods to talk about bringing global missions to a local level and the ELCA’s philosophy on mission.

The gathering I attended in Chicago was a chance for people who would possibly be involved with the upcoming events to connect. It turned out to be a fantastic networking and connection opportunity. I spent a lot of my time talking with three alums from the ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Missions (YAGM) program and we talked about everything under the sun.

One idea that we spend a fair amount of time talking about was trying to figure out how to start getting young adults more involved with their faith and the church. In some ways it was a very draining and depressing conversation. We have all heard the question, and many of us have wondered it ourselves- “where are the young adults in our church” and “why aren’t they more involved.” There is a seemingly easy answer to this question-“We are right here and there is no space for us.” This answer is incredibly easy, but it leaves us with few options and no responsibility.

The harder, but perhaps more accurate answer is, “we are right here and we are going to try to make space for ourselves.” Rather than trying to squeeze into a definition that is to small for us. We are going to work to find space for ourselves and connect with each other to bring out faith out of the church and into the world around us.

This is an answer that a really awesome and inspiring group of people called “The 99 Collective” are offering. Check them out here: http://the99collective.com. They are a group of young adults who are working to help their fellow young adults reconnect with their faith and help connect these young adults with other young adults. (*Disclaimer* I feel like this previous statement does not quite do justice to the amazing things that these guys are going to do so you should check out their website and follow them on Facebook to get a better idea and get involved.)

One of the things I particularly love about the 99 is their focus on telling the stories of people. They believe, and know, that each one of us can be, and are, a part of this movement and that we are indeed better together. That this is not a time to sit around hoping but to come together and start creating a better future by creating a better today.

Thanksgiving!!!

Every time we remember to say "thank you",

we experience nothing less than heaven on earth.

-- Sarah Ban Breathnach

As Thanksgiving nears and I prepare to leave to spend some time at Chautauqua, I find myself doing a lot of reflecting on the adventures of the past year and the many opportunities for adventures in the year to come.

This past year has been one of change and challenge but also a lot of things to be thankful for.

· I am thankful for the Jr. Boulevarsity and the community we formed watching 16 & Pregnant and eating PB and apples

· I am thankful for the communities that I continue to be a part of from a distance.

· I am thankful for the growth of Interfaith at Luther and the opportunity to have been a part of that.

· I am thankful for the opportunity to be a part of the Chautauqua community for the summer.

· I am thankful for the people who pushed me outside my comfort zone and help that area become my comfort zone

· I am thankful for the Chicago Center and their commitment to cultural learning

· I am thankful to have been a part of IFYC and One Chicago, One Nation

· I am thankful for families, both the one I was born into and ones that I have formed.

· I am thankful for Luther College Campus Ministries and the fantastic staff there.

· I am thankful for intentional community.

· I am thankful for shared laughter and tears.

· I am thankful for affirmation that arrive when most needed

· I am thankful for pen pals.

· I am thankful for my CERP, and to have her back in this country!

· I am thankful for communities with wide open arms

· I am thankful for the challenges that have made me a stronger person.

· I am thankful for friends willing to spend their fall break taking care of me and visiting me in NJ.

· I am thankful for the giant paper people hanging on my wall.

All in all, through all the tears, laughs, challenges, comforts and growth provoking of the past year, there have been a lot of things to be grateful for.

Proper Steps

I only do this until I get dizzy

& then I lay down on my back

& watch the clouds,

she said.

It sounds simple

but you won't believe

how many people forget the second part.

~StoryPeople (Proper Steps)

I sat there watching her get frustrated. The computer was running too slow and won’t do what she needed it to. It was a struggle I had watched several times in the past. Then I asked what seemed to be the obvious question “Have you tried shutting down the computer lately?” and the response came “I don’t like shutting things down.” With that comment, I started to laugh. Not because of any humor in the actually statement, but more because of the irony in the situation.

At the time, both the person uttering these comments and myself had been sick off and on for a period of time and where not running at full capacity. Much like the computers that were not running at full capacity because we had not recently shut down.

Having been in Jersey for almost three months, things have been a bit crazy and a bit draining at times. Working with kids every day, forming a new living community and learning the layout of a new area has meant a lot of time getting dizzy and less time laying down and watching the clouds.

In the past month I have had two fantastic opportunities to watch the clouds. The first was hanging out at Camp Carol Joy Holling in NE for the CSLYOPs conference.

The second was this past weekend we had a retreat as an intern group at Bradley Beach. It was an opportunity for the 8 of us to be in a place together for an extended period of time. We got the chance to run around the beach, play sports, sing songs, and in many ways simply be with one another. It was simply a beautiful place and a fantastic time. A great chance to take the proper steps-lay down and watch the clouds.

If you would like to pictures of our beach adventures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074671&id=59203733&l=3780a79154