Worshipful Mediocrity

When I started seminary in 2007, my professor shocked me. He started the first day of the first class with this warning: “Some of you will not get an A in this class, and that will be a sin because it will mean that you didn’t take the class material seriously or work heartily as…

Calculus

Asymptote. Logarithm. Derivative. I have not seriously interacted with such words in over a decade. And yet here I sit, in my brother’s undergraduate Calculus class, listening to a lecture filled with mathematical jargon. I watch as the professor — displaying an infinity necklace and a love of numbers — goes over the quiz, engages with questions,…

Time, Energy, and Money

You have a few resources always at your disposal. These items are frustratingly limited: time, energy, and money. At most, you can have two of these resources at a time. Sometimes you have just one, but very rarely do all three show up concurrently! When you are young and fresh you have scads of energy…

Quiet Hour

My life needs a quiet hour. I am continually prodded for more productivity, accomplishments, efficiency. Much of this prodding comes from within my own head and heart. There are very few voices in my life telling me to stop. Rest. Just be. I need more of those voices. I need a quiet hour. Every day.…

Life Margins

Leviticus changed my life. No really, I learned a valuable agriculturally-based life lesson from Leviticus last week. Lev. 23:22 reads, “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the…

A Pound of Life

Most of the patients I work with have negative ages. They are premature, born months before they were “supposed” to be. Thrust from the safe, warm, dark, cozy wombs, they are ill-prepared for the world. Developmentally, I must think of them and work on skills that are fitting for a baby at 6-9 months gestational…

Know Why You “No”

I hate saying no. I really stink at it. I detest feeling like I’ve let others down. I have to work myself up to near-frenzy to get the words out and I typically feel remorse about it afterward as if I’m single handedly crushing someone’s spirit through my negative reply. I struggle with this. It’s…

Exploring the Everyday

“Oh, Miss Kelly, let’s do more exploring! I love exploring with you!” This guy, Valor, makes my heart happy. We went out to eat in quaint, downtown New Bern and then wandered around the downtown area. He held on tightly to my hand and we walked, and looked, and took the road less traveled. We…