Definitions...

What defines you?

I've been wrestling with that question a bit for the past several weeks. What defines me? Is it how successful I am? Is it my sense of humor? My ability to sit with somebody in crisis? Maybe my ability to just hang out and have a good time? What is it that defines me? What is it that I allow to define me? Do I allow the world to define me? Do I allow my perfectionism... or the voice that speaks out of my perfectionism to define me? Who or what defines me?

I struggle with this question because at different times I have different answers. Hanging in my office is a towel that says, "Remember who you are." It's a towel because I am to remember that I am claimed by Christ, I am defined by Christ, in the waters of baptism. I know that... I know that I am Kate, a child of God. But in my weaker moments, in my times of doubt, I find myself trying to depend on me... to depend on what I can and cannot do. I define myself by the world... by the level of success or the level of failure. Or perhaps I should say that sometimes I define myself by the crazy expectations I set for myself which never seem good enough.

Advent and Christmas always seem to be a time of spiritual renewal for me... a reminder of who I am, of who defines me. It is not the world, rather a baby laying in a manger, that defines me. But how do we, how do I, carry this notion through the rest of the year? How do I constantly remember what defines me?

This is something that I ponder. Not only for myself but for my ministry. How do we as the Church remind the people what defines them? What defines us?

I continue to ponder...

Kate

You have new Picture Mail!

Odd...

There came a point last night when I thought to myself, "I'm getting too old for this..."

Last night we had a lock-in for our Sr. High students at Lord of Life and I was a chaperone. After some pizza, we went cosmic bowling until about 12:30 in the morning. I had the thought about getting too old sometime between 11 and midnight... just when I was starting to get sleepy. There were quite a few moments in that particular hour when I thought I wouldn't make it very far into the night and at only 24, I'm getting too old to stay up all night.

So I did what any other sane person in my situation (ok, so maybe sane people don't put themselves into the position I was in last night) would do - I started to consume mass quantities of caffeine. Soon I was doing alright and amazingly enough, I was awake all night and many people this morning told me that I didn't look like I'd stayed up all night at all. Many also told me that I looked better than the kids did (which I think was probably true... I think I felt better as well). Last night and this morning was unusual for me. I am usually seeking a bed around four in the morning at the latest and last night I felt pretty good at 4. I also felt pretty good at 6 and then again at 7... I started to zone out during Sunday School... but I was holding it together (at least I like to think so). So in some ways, I just needed to get through the initial sleepiness and then I was fine. Very odd...

I did come home after worship this morning and crash for a couple of hours. Now I've had dinner and I'm starting to feel pretty sleepy... probably in for an early bedtime tonight.

In other news things are going pretty well around here and I'm having a blast. Getting ready for Christmas and enjoying the Advent season. Plenty of stuff to do, to occupy my time. I've also had a good time in the past week or two hanging out with some friends and getting out a bit. Life's pretty good right now... even if I am sleepy. =)

Kate

Let It Snow!

I knew it would come eventually... snow that is. Everybody kept saying it... I kept waiting... but the last week in November was an absolutely beautiful week and while there had been a few other snow showers before then, there really hadn't been much to speak of. I started to wonder if the people here just exaggerated the amount of snow they get here.

Well, in some respects I still feel that I have yet to see a really good snow storm... but it's definitely here. Early yesterday morning we had a storm come through that left probably about four inches of snow when all was said and done. Most of it stayed around yesterday and last night but melted off today. But tomorrow promises a bigger storm. The prediction right now is to get 3 to 5 inches tomorrow and another 1 to 2 tomorrow night. We'll see how much snow we actually get... but when the forecast says the high temperature of the day comes at midnight... I know we're in trouble. =)

So that's it... snow has arrived and I'm looking forward to more of it.

Kate

What a Weekend!

It's been a wild past couple of days.

Friday was my day off and I was expecting to have lunch with a friend from Trinity. But the weather forecast didn't look good and he decided not to make the drive over from Toledo. There was supposed to be snow and ice... but it wound up missing us to the north. But we did get wind!

At noon on Friday the power went out. The wind knocked over a tree or something and both the church and my house were without power. So I went out for lunch and then bummed around town for another couple of hours. When I got home at 3:00 that afternoon, the power was still off. But within fifteen minutes of me being home, I heard a couple clicks and the water pump in my well turned on. I had water pressure, but no power in the rest of my house. After checking the breakers, I headed over to the church where we had partial power. The workroom had power and lights but the main portion of the office had no lights. We didn't have power for the phones or the server either so we had no internet.

Because I still didn't have power, I went over to a friend's house (they still had power) and took a movie I rented, Superman Returns, with me. We watched half the movie, took a break to eat dinner, and then returned to finish the movie. We got within a half hour of the end of the movie when their power went out! I stayed there for an hour and a half before heading home to see if I was still without power.

Before I could get home, Rob (my supervisor) called and asked where I was. I explained and he said he could answer the question about power at my house. He was at the church and knew that I didn't have power. So instead of spending the night at my house, I went over to Rob's (where they had power) and spent the night.

The next morning, we went to Cuyahoga Falls to elect a bishop. It was an all day meeting... a long, long meeting... Part of the issue was the time needed between the ballots to count the votes. They filled the time with presentations from a guy with Augsburg Fortress and showcasing some of the synod's congregations' websites. It could get kind of boring... but that's ok. The good part was that we did in fact elect a bishop. The next bishop of the Northeast Ohio Synod is Rev. Elizabeth Eaton. I believe that she was the best candidate out of the seven candidates the field was narrowed down to after the second ballot.

After the meeting, I ate dinner at Rob's house again and played with the kids a bit... then finally left his house around 10:45. Even as I returned home last night, there was a crew working on one of the power poles just across from my house. The night before, I had to go to Rob's the long way because they were working in the same area and had closed the road. It was nuts. But the good news is that I returned home and had power. Last night was the first time in 36 hours I was home for more than a half hour. =)

Today I had church of course and then went with our mid school students and a few high school students to sing Christmas carols at a couple of care facilities. I didn't get home until 3:45 and I was exhausted. I didn't go to bed on Friday night until 12:30 and then last night I went to bed around midnight again. Both days I got up at 6:30... so I was ready for a nap this afternoon and am probably going to bed soon.

It has definitely been a wild ride the last couple of days, but I have had a lot of fun. It was a bunch of fun hanging out with Rob, Kim, and the three kids the past two nights and even though the meeting was long yesterday, I did get to see several friends and faculty members from Trinity. I also have plenty of stories from Friday, which I might post at another time because this post seems to have extended into the length of a ten page paper. =)

Christ's Peace,
Kate