a search for authenticity
Dan mentioned a few days ago that we obtained some new websites: one for Dan and and one for me. Dan is using his for computer stuff and I will be using mine for health related stuff. I set up a blog that I will hopefully update daily along with various health related links. I hope that the site can become a valuable health resource for many.
Well, I made it through my first week at Gold’s Gym. It was a really great first week. I hope I continue to have the same success with gaining clients. My schedule is pretty full for next week. I hope I can handle it.
I have a new addiction and I must share it with you! I spend so much time looking at this website.
Can you blame me with pictures like this???
By the way, if you ever want to get me a gift and at the same time make Dan really mad, get me a cute little puppy (please keep in mind that I’m slightly afraid of big dogs).
Could the Gilmore Girls be coming to Richmond?!?!? Read more here.
Last night Dan & I went to ADR. While there Rock talked a little about us being creative beings. This is an idea that I have been pondering on for some time. I was reminded of a blog post that I wrote nearly a year ago while Dan & I were meeting regularly with some wonderful friends in Maryland. I don’t want to forget these ideas and questions of creativity & spirituality. I want to explore them, and not by myself.
I’d love to explore and experiment various spiritual practices with a group. Expressing creativity in a group is one thing I’d like to explore. Our normal evenings involve studying and commenting on something written by someone we never met. All the songs that we listen to or sing were written by someone else. Yes, at times their words express just what my heart could not put together, but I wonder if my heart has never really tried to put the words together because it knows that someone else will.
In my current group (and much like other groups I’ve been involved in), nearly everyone was raised in a christian home and at some point in life felt like we know everything. We are not arrogant, we are bored. Everything seems to be the same. Maybe it’s boring because what we study, sing, and practice was created outside of us. It is all trying to work from the outside in, and doesn’t always get to our core. Unlike things that are created by us, that work from the inside out. I really believe that there is much to our spiritual life that we miss out on because we are so dependent upon the works/thoughts/expressions of others. I’m not just talking about our personal spirituality, but also in a group. I wonder what spiritual initmacy would form if creativity was experimented with in a group setting. Shared creativity. Creating things as a group, and as individuals for each other. Experimenting with group writing, or creating a piece of art together, or reading reflections written by individuals in the group.
I know that in reality this sort of stuff could be very akward and it could be impossible to convince others in a group to go along. Tapping into our creative parts is sometimes hard, and trying to share that with others is scary. I don’t know how to get over the fear because I struggle with it a lot in my writing. Maybe it is important to realize that often the process of creating can be just as valued as the end result. So the painting of Abraham and Isaac at the alter doesn’t turn out the way we had envisioned, but the time of creating made the story come alive and brought forth a new understanding of how we value “things
This is my inspriation today as I start work at Gold’s Gym.
Dan is on his way home!!
Thanks to everyone who kept me from being alone every night that Dan was gone! Special thanks to Mary Fran for a great time at the Hill Cafe.
I went to Gold’s today to fill out paper work and while there I saw two people I know (including one of our neighbors!), which is pretty cool considering that I only know like 15 people in Richmond. Needless to say, I’m feeling pretty good about this job.
Pip is the stray cat that lives on our porch. I have a cardboard box on our porch for her “house”, but the it is about to fall down, or be blown away. I would love to replace it with this:
However, I’m sure Dan doesn’t see this as a priority right now.
I got a job! I am the newest personal trainer at Gold’s Gym in the Fan. I start tomorrow. I’m not so excited about training again, but I really like this gym and the management. It should be a fun place to work.
In other news, what is up with the wind today?!? There has been a few times that I thought our house was going to be blown down the street.
Whenever I experience a big change in life I learn a lot about myself. Living in Richmond is giving me lots of opportunities to learn more about myself, some good, some bad. Let me share a not-so-great thing I am learning about myself.
I’m realizing that I don’t have a clue on what it takes to share life with others, especially with other Christians. With a group of people, how do you get to the point where everyone feels comfortable sharing their physical (daily), emotional, and spiritual lives with each other? How do I let myself open up and share? I don’t want it to be a forced, difficult labor. Can’t it happen naturally? I know that is has happened naturally for me in the past. The process is even more complicated for me in Christian groups because we try to share a spiritual life before the daily and emotional lives are comfortably shared, before friendships are developed.
Here we are in Richmond, meeting new people. We’ve met some great people and are trying to develop friendships with them. Most of the people that we have met are Christians who we met at a couple of churches being started. We see these new friends on a pretty regular basis at their gatherings. As to be expected, at their events people share their spiritual life and worship together. But, I am learning that I don’t know how to do that with people I barely know. Without emotional intimacy it feels fake to me because I won’t allow my spirt to participate in the worship. I won’t allow my lips to share my stories. I will let my ears hear the stories being told, but my mind is busy wondering what is wrong with me, why can’t I share in the experience? Dan can share. He jumps on in. Where I want to develop a friendship before sharing my spiritual life with others, Dan is the opposite, he is sharing his spiritual life in order to develop a friendship. His way does make sense, but for some reason I don’t work that way.
So, if you are part of one of the churches that Dan & I are becoming friends with, this is why I get quiet. It will probably take me a while to learn how to share my spiritual life with you.
Last night we had friends over for a game night, which was a lot of fun! However, one of our friends, Adele, came in and told us that our possum was was back! I freaked out and had to go outside and see for myself. She was right, on our porch, sleeping in the stray cat’s box was our possum!! So, I immediately tried to convince Dan that we should bring in the stray cat to protect it from the possum. In the midst of fear and worries Adele handed me a little card full of facts about possums. She got the card off of the stuffed possum that she had placed on our porched just minutes before.
Pranked.
Here is the possum on the porch.
Audrey chillin’ with the possum, thinking of ways to get revenge on Adele!
Prayer beads are something that I’ve never used before. But a few months ago I was inspired by the Urban Abbess who made prayer beads with her children. Last night I finally made my own strand of prayer beads. Instead of following a scripted prayer for my beads I came up with groups of people that I want to pray for on a regular basis. These groups include Richmonders, those living in Church Hill, those who come into our home, my friends, and my family. For each group I pray for love, peace, liberation, transformation, and their dreams. My prayer beads are very simple, but I look forward to using them daily to guide me.
This week has gone by kinda fast. I had a few interviews with local gyms, no job offer yet, maybe tomorrow. I would like to start working next week. Until then, I’m going to live it up!! Leslie came into town to visit for a day. We had fun as I showed her and her friend, Cara, some of my favorite places in Richmond. Tomorrow will be full of fun as I try to get our cat, Audrey, and a stray that lives on our porch, Pip, to the vet….at the same time. Audrey doesn’t really like car rides, her cat carrier, or Pip. Pip has never been in a cat carrier or a car and thinks Audrey is her friend. Luckily the vet is around the corner. Then on Saturday we will be having our first Richmond Game Night!!!!
Pink everywhere…..my sister found out today that she is having twin girls!!!
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