SU Communities

Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

    On Saturday I made a choice.  Still sullen and slow, I joined my friends in a fabulous breakfast at home of apple cinnamon pancakes.  This cheered me a little, but something still wasn't right.  My heart was weighed down by too many thoughts and feelings.  With too much on my mind I chose to get out of my thoughts and venture into the world instead of staying inside the house and locked in my head.  So I hopped on a bus bound for Pike Place Market, cameras in hand, leaving behind my stress and my homework.  I had no interest in reading about suffering or spiritual dimensions of post-tramatic stress disorder.  Sometimes, I have to forgo homework and study to take care of myself.  This was a day to explore, and explore I did.
    I walked meditatively through Pike Place listening, observing, tasting, smelling...the market is a fascinating place to be.  Tourists swarm all year round, flocking to the famous market, cameras ready for flying fish and the storefront of the first Starbucks.  I go for inspiration--to smell fresh flowers, fruit, and fish all at once; to hear four languges spoken in the same space; to watch the flow of people in a small area; to hear the song of a street performer; and to walk freely, without expectation.
        

    On this particular Saturday afternoon, I even encountered a famous president.  As I approached Starbucks, a group called the Tallboys were jammin' away at the entrance.  They played some mighty fine old time music with violin, banjo, and guitar.  Then, a tall thin man in a stovepipe hat walks up...he was none other than Abe Lincoln!  Honest Abe stayed for a few minutes to jam with the Tallboys and of course, pose for photos.


  
    It was an amazing weekend.  In fact, since I had class last Wednesday,  I haven't done any school work. In addition to the Saturday sojourn to Pike Place, I also ventured to the Ballard Locks that day, and Discovery Park on Sunday.  I ran 13.5 miles on Thursday and 9 yesterday (whew!).  Lovely thing to publicly admit on a blog, but I needed all of it.  On Thursday I submitted my resume to some jobs relating to campus ministry, and none are in Seattle.  Graduation is becoming all too real.  While I have loved my time at the School of Theology and Ministry, I am ready to move on, ready to stop being a student (I've been one for the majority of my life).  I think my adventurous spirit and love for Seattle will continue override the several hundred pages of assigned reading to soak up this city before the day I might be called away...

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Megan

    I'm staring out my living room window and something strangely familiar is happening outside.  After a week of unusual sunny clear skies, the clouds and misty rain has returned.  I had almost forgotten what a Seattle winter felt like...almost.
    So this quarter is shaping up nicely for me.  In fact, I suspect that this quarter and next quarter (my last two!) will both be excellent.  They are entirely focused on my MATS emphasis of spiritual direction.  It's simultaneously exciting and scary to be so close to graduation...it seems everyone wants to know what's next.  Good question.  One worth pondering, discerning...
    In this discernment, one of my questions to roll around, wrestle with, is about where to.  It's been three years that I have now lived in Seattle; the longest span of time I have lived in one city since I moved out of the Tri-Cities to college (in Indiana) nine years ago.  Over these three years I have found community...in my neighbohood, my church, and my friends.  I could stay here; I want to stay here.  But I also hear little whispers that might take me to new places.
    Hmmm....in the end, I'll go where God calls.  In the meantime, I have had some good contemplations about life here in Seattle and how much I feel this (place, friends, church) is home.  Home, however, is not just one place or family...after a year of living in Germany, I can call that home...a piece of me is there, too.
    So now as the dull blanket of nimbostratus clouds returns, meditate now on this picture below...one of the gifts of last week's high pressure that gave us a glimpse of that bright thing in the sky called the sun.  Another gift is the new park in my neighborhood, Fremont Peak Park.  Amazing viewing spot for the Olympics and spectacular sunsets.  This one was taken on Tuesday January 22, about 15 minutes or so after sunset.

peace,
Megan

   
Mysticism and Transformation.  It's an excellent class here at the School of Theology and Ministry and I encourage anyone to sign up for it when it become available again.  I enjoyed the fredom to be able to create my own prjoect.  I'm an imaginative person with creativity, but for most of my life I have denied that and listened to the inner voices of doubt who have at times shredded my self-confidence.
    Well, things are beginning to turn around, as this quarter I tapped into that creativity like I never have before.  The class was set up to explore different metaphors about mysticism throughout the ten week span of the quarter.  On the very first day, as I intently stared at the syllabus, I saw images...from the written word of many of the metaphors came a series of scenes sprouting forth from my mind, many of them of nature and from photographs I have taken.  And from that came the idea: these metaphors are rich with imagery.  Why not do a project using my pictures to correspond with the metaphors?
    The original idea was to order prints of digital images and assemble them in a scrapbook of sorts.  This was fine until I realized the awesomeness of my MacBook, a cool program calle iPhoto which has templates ready to create books.  I arrange it how I want and then upload the information via the internet to Apple, who in turn prints the book and mails it to me.  Sweet.
    The finished product took many hours to assemble photos in the template and arrange them sequentially.  I added some text, but little explanation.  It's amazing.  And the book itself is well bound with high quality of printing.  This is something I'm proud to share and have ideas to expand on the work.
    Now, I have shared many of my photos on this blog...some of those are in the book.  Perhaps I will blog more about some of the themes and share the corresponding photograph.
    Until then, may the rest of your Advent be restful and your Christmas be contemplative.  Take a step back from the rush of the culture and enjoy the gift of God's presence and promise.

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Megan

    i am in awe and alive in the mystery of advent.  but in our waiting for the coming of christ, how do we live this out--truly live--in the chaos that envelops this mass consumer information soaked culture?  my life is well plugged into technology most of the time (except for television), but i do need to unplug and de-clutter.  however, there's something going on here, something mysterious and radical.  new generations are engaging with god daily through technology.
    one of my post-fall quarter projects is to write more blog entries, not only ones more meditative in nature, but also more theologically reflective.  this one is a culmination of recent ponderings and a recent conversation with my roommate.  i also happened to read the most recent school of theology and ministry newsletter, "table talk".  the new dean reflects on the struggle that many seminary students face--how to establish community and engage with each other when we are surrounded by loads of information.  he writes, "As data swamps around us, people of faith need habits of hanging on to our humanity, staying rooted in the stories of our lives.  But, how do we cling to this basic humanity and not allow it to become drowned out by information?"
    indeed.  my post-modern pondering, however, is going to drift onto another stream.  take, for example, wikipedia. (referenced by the dean).
    i happened to borrow an advanced copy of tony jones' new book, the new christians: dispaches from the emergent frontier.   i reccommend this book when it comes out for anyone interested in the emerging church. (side note: in it you'll read a section on church of the apostles and our liturgy of the people) jones make an excellent point about wikipedia and relates it to the emerging christians.  the people collectively add and edit information.  thus, experts and the masses can interact and edit together.
    there's a value in wikipedia that the school of theology and ministry shares at its core.  think of it this way: wikipedia as communal collaboration of information from people around the world, gathered around one massive table--rather than from a handful privileged and over-educated white men producing the knowledge for us.
    access to information and the spread of it no longer rests in the hands of a few white men.  i am given the power and permission to edit the entry on fremont in seattle.  this is my neighborhood.  someone born, raised, and residing on the east coast cannot fully understand this neighborhood like the residents can.  so why would one trust their article more than mine?
    and yes, there is a danger. relying too much on wikipedia is not good either.  as the internet spawns radical creativity, it also is the source of stupidity of humanity.  but consider this: inaccuracies are forever printed into scholarly works as well.  wikipedia is constantly being edited, constantly receiving the gifts of millions of people.
    there is a challenge here.  a calling, if you will.  the calling is this: trust.  in my spiritual direction classes we say, "trust the process."  what if we apply this to the wiki project?  furthermore, what if the church trusted its youth to collectively and creatively articulate their faith, whether it be via liturgical arts and worship, or wikipedia-like model? or how about something like open-source theology?
    there's a shift happening here--from a model of a learned pastor down to the people toward a model where the church communally walks together in faith, and the pastor is but one learned source. what if the church embraced this rather than fear it?  some of the best homilies i have heard lately have emerged from the mouths of twenty-something students honestly engaging and struggling with faith in their daily lives, and not--as many cradle christians might expect--from the mouth of a pastor.  this doesn't mean the pastors are less effective in their jobs.  rather, they have stepped back and work in tandem with the laity to struggle with this complex faith we call christianity.
     the younger generation approaches authority with a hermeneutic of suspicion.   we are constantly bombarded with advertisements whose sole purpose is to get us to consume more, to buy more--to use whatever product can be sold. we are bombarded with images from the media.  this is a generation that has the availability of multiple sources for news, etc.
    so how does one navigate these free-flowing and at times overwhelming waters?  sometimes i do feel overwhelmed by the amount of information that flies at my head.  but i am learning to meet god in this chaos.
    right now for me, it might mean less aimless internet time and more time spent blogging  :)  (or journaling) writing does, indeed, renew me. i am using the means of technology to do some intentional and spiritual reflection.
    another way my church community engages with the liturgical season is through mixed cd's.  my lent was rich with reflection through song and meditation that i took with me on the bus...so that even when the loud noises of cars and the hustle in downtown seattle, i am praying.
    in our praying, in our worship, in our theology...we now have a portal to a vast and rich encounter with others on a virtual table.  it's not a substitute. it's not the only way.  but it one way to engage god.

   
in advent we come.  we wait. we look for christ.
    as i wrote in my previous entry, there are spaces to meet god this advent.  but perhaps it's time to open ourselves to meeting god in this crazed age of information.  or maybe not.  it takes discernment.  when is it time to unplug and when is it time to jump into the foray?  good question.  it's one worth pondering, as i agree with the dean...it's about claiming our humanity and not losing this identity...the I AM....

peace,

Megan

My heart hungers for something beyond the touch of human hands or the sight of human eyes, beyond the senses to what the soul can feel.  Year after year I see the leaves change, see them fall...I hear the rushing of not-yet-fallen leaves in the wind and rustle of dead leaves under my feet.  This I know.  Why, then, do I return to wonder every year, as if the whole show never was performed before my eyes?  Even more, I become consumed when I am a player in this unfolding drama.  I, too, change.  I, too, am creation. To fully experience the autumn is to observe and to live and become lost in the mystery.  It is one of those moments I know I'm alive.

    Renewal on the first day of class can only last so long before the chaotic scramble of life catches up.  To make up for my lack of writing during this time, I will just say that classes are well even when I am drained--but I am in constant need for renewal so I do not burn out.
    Today in between classes, I walked alone around the beautiful autumn-filled campus with my camera.  I became alive with the season in preparation for my Mysticism and Transformation class.  Below is a secluded spot behind the Garrand Building you may or may not know about.

So tonight, I pray this picture....





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Megan