Last week I spent some cleaning going through old things at my parents' house, keeping a few, throwing most away/putting them in bags for donation. Going through the clothes (mostly college stuff) I was amazed how much I used to buy large / x-large on purpose! A few items were sentimental, but eventually did make their way to the donation bag i.e. my REM t-shirt from when I was in Ireland on a mission trip. We had walked around before one of their concerts that day with signs with Bible verses and found people to share the gospel with.
One thing that struck me was how much I had changed and how much I had stayed the same. Reading through an old junior high diary (never managed more than a couple entries a year) I saw how down I was about myself: "I've been feeling depressed about myself - I have terrible posture, less than average face, yucky skin (all over), blah teeth and I'm fat!!! 114 pounds! I'm also really out of shape." I'm sure I don't look all that different than then (March, 1988) but I'm glad that I'm more content with who I am. Another thing that I found that I thought was telling was an award from a church 8th grade appreciation night. The planning committee had apparently decided I was "most likely to become a dean at Yale." I guess my university bent was apparent early on!
I had some good lunches, dinners and tea times with friends while I was home. It's nice when you have the time not only to catch up on each other's lives but also talk about interesting things. At dinner with Tanya somehow we got on the topic of divorce. She shared that she'd read a chapter or Richard Foster's The Challenge of the Disciplined Life : Christian Reflections on Money, Sex, and Power that had a chapter about marriage. He viewed divorce as beyond a last resort....you don't cut off a limb lightly, but thinks we have made things too black and white i.e. "only under adultery". He points out that in that culture only men could divorce and if he did he pretty much left the woman to a life of prostitution. There was another point about the woman at the well but I can't remember what it is anymore. Foster also suggests that since the purpose of marriage is to glorify God, if a marriage can no longer do that (what does that look like I wonder?) then it is better to divorce (Tanya admitted she may be putting words into Foster's mouth). We talked about how such a definition doesn't glorify divorce but seems to allow more latitude for it and perhaps less judgment. We also talked about how divorce still leaves women worse off economically, etc. Hmm, I'll have to get the book.
Last night's Grey's Anatomy was all about how we all need someone to be there. In one scene of the doctors puts two preemies together in the same incubator (I have a feeling that's not the right name) and the sicker one stabilized. I can see that - I think I generally sleep better with my sweetie now than by myself. :)
JetBlue's DirectTV is dangerous - on the way to CA I watched Fear Factor and Trading Spaces for multiple episodes in a row and on the way home it was America's Next Top Model.
Don't watch the new Pride & Prejudice - I went with my family and cousin Tina and we didn't like it at all!
From my cousin Jessica's wedding - me with Mom and Dad:
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