Sunshine, rainbows, and ponies.

While you were all handing out or collecting candy, I was busy writing discussion questions for a book on signature sins. It's a really well written book that looks at our temperament, our struggles with sin that are unique to who we are, our past experiences, and how contemplative spirituality can help us to address the sins that cling so closely. I'll let you know when it comes out. (Oh...wait...let me clear something up. It's NOT my book, but the book of the professor for whom I've worked for the past four years.) But, doing so does not make me a cheerful gal. Everyone else eats candy, I contemplate sin. I guess that fits more with Reformation Day than with it being Halloween. Calvin was a sucker for gluttony, and so am I, so skipping the candy might be a good thing.

In the therapy office today, it seemed to go exceptionally well. Clients that never talk, talked. Clients that are never quiet, were quiet. And clients that considered leaving therapycame in and told me about their misgivings. That's all any therapist can ask for in a given day. It felt like sunshine, rainbows, and ponies. I never would have thought that a profession that leads me to sit with people in their various pains, false selves, and suffering could be so life giving. The honor of sitting with another in love and truth can be as uplifting as it can be full of despair. I wouldn't call the struggles of my clients uplifting, but to see that an hour a week gives some of them hope to keep fighting, changing, and growing, is a relief. It emboldens me to the goodness that we can taste in this life.

It's a busy day, and I am still working on things. I must go. Just know that there is hope, even for those of us who think we are lost causes.

Sandra McCracken and Derek Webb

We saw the pair of them in concert last night. They were playing at two venues close to our home last night and the night before. Although it was the best choice for us not to, I still wish we'd gone to both shows. Derek Webb's music, specifically, has been such a big part of my own journey and gets so much stirred up in me. Maybe he gets the Holy Spirit stirred up, it sure feels that way.

What stands out to me the most, however, are the ways in which Derek's music really speaks in such honest ways about marriage. Watching him and his wife Sandra on stage, it's so refreshing to get a snap shot of a couple who seem to live and fight together so well. I think couples often fail to acknowledge that how we fight is one of the most important aspects of how we love. I continuously learn this about my own marriage every year.

Here are some of my favorite lyrics that Derek Webb has about marriage or relationships. Do you have favorite lyrics on this topic? or favorite Derek Webb lyrics in general?

"Reputation"

i've got a reputation with everyone
but i don't want one with you
i know you know me well enough by now
and you're loving me as well as you know how
but i need one more chance to let you down
'cause no one else will give it to me now

with you, i'm so glad to get into a bad situation
'cause nothing makes us close, nothing like a little incarceration

I Wanna Marry You All Over Again

I wanna buy you an old upright
I wanna accidentally stay all night
I wanna read the Bible and I wanna make out
I wanna marry you all over again
I wanna fall in love and say we’re just friends
I wanna race you all the way to Kansas City

I Hate Everything (But You)

baby don’t give up
we’re the kind of folks who will always live
right around the corner from something big
yeah, yeah, yeah
so baby come on home
you can be the girl on my telephone
and will be your lion made of stone
yeah, yeah, yeah
come on home
yeah, yeah, yeah

(chorus)
it’s been one of those kinds of days
and i feel so out of place
and i hate everything, everything
i hate everything but you

Things I hate...

Party invitations that say, "Unless I hear from you, I expect you'll be there." What? The fancy way of saying that is "Regrets only."

Schwa? Don't be putting things on my calendar for me.

NaBloPoMo

Or, National Blog Posting Month. Starting November 1st, I will be publishing at least once a day for the entire month. I don't promise to do much other than to show up, but considering that it's the middle of internship season, that's promising a lot.

I promise to try something a little more new and innovative than telling you what I did that day. I am going to shamelessly use the inspiration of others, and tell you about a few things that have been on my mind as I work at a new clerkship site, go through this internship process, and after I've secure a couple interviews (I'm being optimistic.) I may post some of my essays from the application process. But...I might just wait on those.

Should you want to join me, go get your own little lolCat badge over at NaBloPoMo Oh, and go pick on my husband because he doesn't even like LOLCATS. What's wrong with HIM?

A Michael Scott Moment.

This has got to be the most inane, asinine example of a politician hiding I've seen in quite awhile. It's like watching an episode of The Office, only without the funny.

[h/t: blurbomat]

Serendipity

Today, I decided that I needed some time to sit and just be. I've been working hard on practicum and internship applications and some writing projects, and I felt overloaded. Well, class seemed to be the easiest thing to let go, so I decided not to go today. But, then I got an email, and class was cancelled because the prof is sick.

I think there have been 3 cancelled classes in the past 5 years of my graduate life. :) And now I can still skip another day.