Two weeks are behind us already. fourteen weeks to go. Just kidding. This semester has been markedly less chaotic and full than other semesters have been in the past-- which has been a great relief. Sometimes, I catch myself feeling a bit like I'm still in "break mode," and wonder who this relaxed person who is who has time to clean the kitchen occasionally. It seems strange to think that after tomorrow and the next day, it will be February and my 22nd year will be finished in just 14 more days.

I've been thinking some about the minute threads of existence that make up the entirety of our lives. I've been thinking about painting the pattern of life and history on canvas. I've started reading Eugene Peterson's "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places," (thanks Robin!) with a friend and it's gotten us to thinking about all the little stuff that God is in and how important those little rituals are to our lives. I don't know if it would be honest to say that I've been enjoying those little things more these days, but I've been thinking about ways of capturing them, that's for sure.

I am in the last stretch of my education Practicum and I've been spending a lot of time about 20 minutes from home in a very large High School and I'm getting excited about building relationships and collaborating and dressing professionally again. I was late for painting today after forgetting my house keys and taking a 30 minute walk home from campus and I felt free from that nagging sense of failure that often accompanies this sort of irresponsibility-- lateness and all. I simply walked in, set up my paints and got to work. I don't feel the same pressure and am really enjoying the freedom to be creative and free and loose with myself and my art-- I feel like this sense of "enough-ness" is the thing that is going to keep be creating after I get out of school--- not the terror that be used to be the motivation.