April Digest

Oh April, I can't say I'll miss you. This month has been full of digging in (both literally and metaphorically speaking) and getting work done. I spent most of the month taking care of my least favorite adulthood requirements (car repairs, dental work, and figuring out health insurance) and my free-time was spent in our community garden. We've had tons of rain, followed by very sunny days, so the weeds have literally grown two feet tall in the past month! Still, we've made a ton of progress and it's been a great source of joy for me this month. This is my last full month in Atlanta until next February, which is pretty hard to fathom. Less than two weeks left until I head up North for the Summer!

What I'm Learning

I took Hebrew my first semester of Seminary but put off the Exegesis class for a full year (whoops). In the meantime, I suffered through Greek school and phoned it in for my Greek exegesis class, so it really wasn't a huge surprise that I didn't pass the Presbyterian Exegesis Ordination Exam when I took it in January. I've been in the Eighth Century Prophets class at Columbia, so I've been re-learning all my exegetical skills. Thankfully, it's definitely been working because I'm in the midst of the Ordination Exam again and even though it's in Greek again, I feel much more confident about it. In fact, I'm actually kind of excited about it! Who'd have thought that could be?! (and yes, I did chose Micah 4 for my final paper because of Hamilton, because of course I did).

What I'm Writing

I've been in a class on Intercultural and Interreligious Intelligence and for my final project, I created a curriculum for a white upper-middle-class church about changing the world, one relationship at a time. The program is based on building relationships and doing small acts to change the world for people around you and for people of different backgrounds than you. It's still a work in progress, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to do something with it someday.

What I'm Eating

One of my favorite springtime meals is Quinoa Burrito Bowls. I love the lime and cilantro in the beans and quinoa and topping it with all my favorite toppings. I've been making these for years and I had so much fun making them with Leslie. My love for all things glutenous runs deep, so I always enjoy making something she can actually eat! 

What I'm Watching

It's no secret that I love good television. I have more than enough shows in my regular rotation, but I accidentally got hooked on Timeless this spring after seeing someone gush over it online. I binge-watched season one in a few days and have been loving season two. It's a clever show about time travel and rewriting history starring fantastic female and non-white characters. It's one of NBC's shows that may or may not get canceled, so I have my fingers crossed that it gets another season. You can find the first two seasons on Hulu. 

What I'm Listening To

Kate Bowler's book Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I've Loved came out earlier this year and she started a podcast on the same issue. Kate got diagnosed with stage 4 cancer as a young mom and has been living with the diagnosis ever since. Her podcast is one of the best I've ever listened to (which is really saying something). It's about a hard topic, but it isn't hard to listen to. She has one of the most soothing voices! If you care about people in your life who are going through hard things, I can't recommend it enough. 

What I'm Preaching

I had a big Earth Day weekend this month, which is very fitting for this season of my life. I've been the president of SAGE, the environmental club at CTS, this year and care deeply about creation care and environmental justice. I won the 2018 Dabney Dixon Creation Care Sermon Prize and got to preach at the Earth Day chapel at Columbia. I also preached at Pulse on Earth Day and you can read it here or listen to it on Apple Podcasts. The recording is worth listening to because you can hear some of the introduction and conversation with the congregation that I love so dearly.

What I've Been Up To

With CPE (chaplaincy internship) and Study Abroad for the next 9 months, I won't have any opportunities to earn money, which is pretty hard to fathom. I'm grateful for what the rest of this year will hold, but it's meant that I've had to work as often as possible this semester. I've taken every babysitting, housesitting, and dogsitting job that I could to earn extra money. It's been pretty tiring and has meant that I haven't been doing anything particularly exciting on breaks or weekends. It seemed worth mentioning because I housesat for more than half of the month of April.