"This moment, this place, these people. I must stick with this, try to make it work, not give up, not succumb to the urge to run away." The Rule of St. Benedict by Esther De Waal
- I've never had so much biblical teaching in my life. I feel like I'm trying to drink all the water spraying from the fire hydrant. I can't even get a sip.
- I have discovered a new sisterhood of women desiring to grow.
- Everyday, we sit for more time than we do ever in school. I am so interested in what we are learning that I refused to go pee because I am afraid to miss five minutes of teaching.
- Denver is most unlike a city that I have ever seen. I have never seen so many open spaces within the center of the city.
- Denver is also super flat. Since it's so near the mountains, I was expecting hills. Nope. Flat and then - BAM - the Rocky Mountains.
- I drink water like I'm in a tropical island here and my skin looks like the skin of snake. Pass the lotion, please.
- On 16th Street downtown, there are painted pianos. Someday I would like to come back and haunt that street.
- As much as the pulse of the city drains me, I cannot help but be completely enthralled.
- I once dreamed of having a hermit house in the middle of a deep forest where no one could find me. I realized that I shall never have that dream. I need fellowship and people as much as I want to believe that I do not. Goodbye, yellow cottage and friendly large dog.
- Fairfield Inn has a pretty excellent breakfast for future reference.
Now, I have a picture that I want to paint for you. It's a picture that has completely captured my imagination and thought. The time is night. The setting is 16th Street in Denver. My KBM family was debriefing after a time spent prayerwalking. We sat in a circle outside of Starbucks. I had the misfortune of sitting facing the windows of Starbucks. I much prefer to sit in a way that faces outside where I can see people. Yet, the way that the street lamps shown on the glass created a perfect reflection. I realized that I could observe the scene behind me clearly. Therefore, I watched. Almost outside of my sight of the glasspane, there was a painted piano. A boy sat at the piano playing a haunting melody. The sounds of the city created a percussion to accompany the song of the lone boy. People dressed in all modes of fashion crisscrossed in front of my pane of glass. Buses drove by. The illusion of the glass was hypnotizing. The people that I saw there were translucent. They were only real if I acknowledged the fact in my head. My mind grasped upon this thought and held to it. This is the way that some people choose to see the world and its occupants. We look right through each other. If we are made uncomfortable by the world around us, we sit in the safety of starbucks with our cardboard cupful of "experience" and refuse to see the people that walk by us on the sidewalk of life. I wanted a camera that could capture that scene before me in the storefront glass of Starbucks, but it's a scene that can be found in any place. I can find that scene in my own heart.
