thanks for askin'...
hey, nice to hear from you guys.
sula, when are you leaving with the Peace Corps?? I wasn't sure you'd be around! 'Scuse me while I scroll around to find out what you're studying...
It's been some year: Somebody up there changed the movie I'm in, and I'm just trying to keep up with the plot, you know? I was at a union conference back in May, and approached the Communications guy about contributing some writing. He's a cool guy, social activist, experienced in the labour movement, writer... and he's the guy I'm moving in with. Hey, when it's real, it's real, you know? I don't dither with that stuff.
The week after the conference, I got my acceptance to the School of Theology -- even though I knew in my heart I'd get into the Master's program (I don't have an undergrad degree), well, I just needed confirmation that God sent the School the same message. My guy is utterly supportive of my plans for ministry, even though he isn't a churchgoer; we even found a big apartment right on campus! Even as life got richer, it's getting simpler. Now I'm less financially constrained, I can work less than I thought I'd have to...
I'm splitting my First Year into two years, partly so that I can eeeease my way back into academia after 17 years, and partly because I need to earn money as I go. And because the blend of the working life and theology is key to my personal philosophy and to my ministry as I envision it.
Funny thing about finding my mate at this auspicious time... When I heard the Call back in January, after the initial shock of recognition, I was like a woman in love -- I'd found my Spouse at last, accepted His proposal, as it were, and my life was like a sea of joy. Every day I was listening to Everlasting Love (often on repeat, I confess), celebrating my new life along with Bono's giddy shout-outs. I've been single for three years, feeling out my true heart, and in "coming out" as a servant of Christ, I found it.
Then I met Tom. It's as if I finally found my place in my community, turned from inward contemplation to outward service in the world, and found a partner there to join me. He's a profoundly compassionate man, and teaches me (although he avers) by his example...rather as Bono has, actually: by "becoming the change you want to see in the world." And for all of this, I am not rocked by these wholesale changes in my life, because Christ is my rock, and in him, nothing changes -- nothing more than the clothes on my back or the seasons outside.
I am much blessed. Just as Bono got to thank Eugene Peterson, so someday I will get to thank Bono. Hopefully across a conference table at some global gathering of church activists, amen.
reclining in the East Coast sunshine,
Deb D