how it is with me these days

I feel very positive about the year ahead. The semester has gotten off to a very good start. I like all the girls I have on my wing this year. I took eight out of ten of them consignment shopping last week as a wing activity, and that was of course very fun for me. This Thursday we are having a movie and cookies night, and Friday they are hosting a dance with a prison theme-- interesting. The 1st floor girls are known as the "dungeon girls" for being on the lowest level of the building, practically in the basement, since Schneider Hall is built into a hill. They are playing off of their dungeon image for the dance.

I feel so much more productive now than I did during the summer. I finally feel like I'm becoming a disciplined person, like I'm breaking free from laziness forever. It is an amazing feeling. I am getting a lot of work done on the days that I work, not procrastinating or shying away from working and building relationships with students and interacting with parents. In my free time, I'm reading quite a bit, riding my bike to places I need to go instead of lazily taking my car, keeping my room clean, and truly taking my days off. I've found that it is very important for me to have my personal time, at least somewhat separate from my work time, to regain energy and motivation for work.

Every Tuesday, which is one of my days off, I spend the evening at the house of my friends the Burts, where the Holy Apostles Orthodox Mission of Bowling Green meets informally for a meal, prayers, and a Bible study. We have recently been looking closely at the Beattitudes and how they sum up the teachings of Jesus. It has been good and thought-provoking study. I also have a lot of friends in that group, so it is nice time spent with people away from the Academy.

I am finding that my entire orientation has gradually been changing as I learn more and more about Church history and Eastern Orthodoxy and as I attend liturgy (the Orthodox worship service). It is a slow and difficult journey, but I believe I am finally arriving in the place that I belong, in what I have come to believe is the true Church- the Body of Christ on earth.

I am drawn to the beauty and sacredness of the worship, Orthodoxy's continuity with the historical Church and Judaism, its theological soundness and the fullness of its teaching, and its unity. All these things that have been drawing me to Orthodoxy are things I do not find in Protestant traditions. In fact, the lack of these things has been turning me away from Protestantism for some time now. One of my main impulses for this movement towards Orthodoxy is my ever-growing disillusionment with Protestant forms of worship and theology.

I know this doesn't make much sense at all to many of you, but I thought I would begin to share some of these feelings I have been having for quite a while. If you want to learn more about Orthodox Christianity, which traces back to the Apostles, one place to start would be the Orthodox Church in America website. You can also listen to Orthodox music and pod casts on Ancient Faith Radio.