It's been a bit of an up and down week around here, so here are the high and low-lights
**1**
For the last several years I've been following the story of a high school acquaintance of mine who was diagnosed with alveolar sarcoma, very rare form of cancer. She was a copy editor for the San Francisco Chronicle and when she was diagnosed they gave her the chance to write her story. The first part was published and the response was overwhelming. People from all over the country wrote in, connecting with Alicia's authenticity and frankness about doctors appointments, fear, grief, hope, faith and friendships. She ended up writing 17 more installments over the next couple years, having her story published on the front page of the Chronicle every time it came out, and even having it turned into a book. Alicia lost her battle with cancer yesterday morning, it had spread to her brain, her breasts, her hip, her lungs, and essentially caused her body to shut down. Her writing is truly remarkable, and if you'd like to read more, you can read an article that was published yesterday on the Chronicle's website about her, and there is a link at the bottom to her entire story that she wrote. NPR also did a story about her today and if you go to this link you can hear that, which includes soundbites of her reading her journal for an NPR interview she did a few years ago. We didn't know one another well, but we did spend a lot of time together starting a Christian club on campus, and in a drug/alcohol prevention club we were in together. I remember the day I met her as a sophomore, she was the only other Lutheran student in the christian club, and we bonded over sharing our relatively awful confirmation experiences with one another :)
**2**
My poor honey had a fever for part of the week, I think he's still recovering a bit, but it was definitely a bit of a lazy, lethargic week around here.
**3**
I had the chance to lead youth group again on Wednesday evening, continuing our series on relationships. This week I talked about listening, and how listening really is the foundation for a solid relationship with anyone in our lives. We talked about the things people do in conversation that drive us crazy, my husband and I did a couple skits to demonstrate several horrific things we have seen people do in conversation to us, and then we had them break up into pairs and practice different listening skills. They especially liked when I let them practice being bad listeners :) It's a topic I am very passionate about, and it was really fun getting the chance to help students think a little deeper about it.
**4**
On Tuesday as I was prepping my talk I had asked on my facebook status what people's pet peeves were in conversation--what people did to show they were bad listeners. The response was crazy, people went nuts sharing what drove them crazy in conversation. Among the top responses: texting while talking to someone in person and always immediately changing the subject back to yourself to tell your own story instead of asking follow up questions to allow the person talking to continue sharing.
**5**
Tonight is Messy Game night at our church. It's an annual event the junior high students throw for the 5th/6th graders (okay, jr. high students and their parents. and the high school leaders...) It's apparently impressive--by the end of the night most kids can't even be recognized they are so covered with chocolate, shaving cream, and other substances. I am supposed to be there, but oh darn, a high school student had a part in her school play tonight...so my husband is chaperoning the messy festivities and I enjoyed a play & am now home eating ice cream, drinking wine, and watching Gilmore Girls :)
**6**
I love being a preaching TA. I love hearing sermons, offering feedback, guiding a group of students in conversation about the sermons as they critique one another etc. But most of all, I love the other preaching TA's and our weekly time together. The 4 of us have worked together since September (a few of us go back to last year) and it's been so fun getting to know them and diving deeper into the world of homiletics together. The conversations we have each week are always so thought provoking, and remind me how much I love this particular field.
**7**
Last night my honey & I watched a GREAT movie from 1986, Children of a Lesser God, about a teacher at a deaf high school. It's intense, fabulously acted, and beautiful. It was nominated for best picture that year, and the main actress won best actress--add it to your netflix list :)
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