Tune my heart to sing Thy grace.

The close of the summer is always a bit sad - back to school, back to work, back to routine, back to whatever schedule keeps you busy. But this year I am looking forward to what the year has in store. I just got home from camp a few days ago and moved into my sister and brother-in-law's house and started looking for a job. My plans did not include camp this summer, but God sometimes works in mysterious ways. Initially I was anxious about being in the middle of nowhere when I should have been looking for work back at home, but God was teaching me to trust this summer. Many dads at camp were interested to hear what was next in my life and so many offered help and connections in my job hunt. It was immensely comforting to know that even though I was working in the middle of nowhere in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, there were dads from the Chicago area that were willing to help. Trust. I'm learning how to trust.

At the campfires this summer, we decided to make Come Thou Fount a regular song. First of all, what a beautiful song. The words are poetic and oftentimes, I think people are turned away from hymns because they do not understand the meaning. One reason I love hymns is because they are not so easily understood at first and there is more depth in the song and it takes greater concentration to understand what the writer was striving to express. "Tune my heart to sing thy grace." That prayer is not asking God to change one's situation or a longing for wants or needs, but a prayer to change me, adjust me, so that I can sing of your great grace right where I am for all that he has already provided. I love that. That became my prayer this summer and I was at peace - not worrying about what lies ahead, finally getting a glimpse of what it is like to trust and letting praise seep into my heart and soul.

Gretchen

Saturday afternoons, publications, & a cup o' joe.

I just submitted a paper for an academic journal. What?! After last semester, my professor was talking to me about publishing my paper on Dayton's Dept. Store and presenting my research at conferences. Well, I have presented it at one undergraduate conference, placed 3rd in the Library Research Prize, and am now attempting to have it published...finally.

Part of me wonders what will happen after graduation, like some academic withdrawal or something. Was it challenging for you to no longer have homework or classes where you knew you were learning valuable lessons, even perhaps life lessons? More school is sounding way too tempting right about now. When I get back to Minneapolis this fall, I think I'm going to start studying for my GRE's - just to feel like I am taking a step and who knows, maybe other plans will fall into place before taking it or I will be glad that I did. I recently watched a sermon given by Bill Hybels on stronger faith. He was talking about how we have so little faith in big things, but it is taking steps in the small things that leads to big things. I don't know if that made any sense, but it resonated with me. I have no confirmation as to what I am supposed to be doing, but at least I feel like I am taking the next step. Who knows, maybe it will lead me to decisions and opportunities I wasn't expecting.

Happy Saturday,
Gretchen

Pet Peeves and other things.

So I have this pet peeve. Whenever people mix up their relations by calling a first cousin once removed, their second cousin, it kind of annoys me. It seems pathetic, as almost all pet peeves go, but it really can irritate me. Probably because I am about a generation off entirely on my mothers side so I had it all straightened out as a little kid. Try explaining to a little kid that their first cousin is in their 40's, and their kid that happens to be about your age, is actually your first cousin once removed. ;) So, I have spoken and let you in on my little secret, so you won't have to hear of it again.

It has been quite some time since I have written, mostly because I felt that all I had to relay was boring news about school and stress, Dayton's, and my love for learning. But I thought it important to update this space since I have been up to very different things this January. While I was on an adventure last January, roaming around England, France, Belgium, and Germany, this January I traveled to one place: my hometown, Langdon. There was no need to take a class this month, so I took what could possibly be, my last long stay at home. It's different coming home after you have moved out. All of a sudden, whatever independence you had, which was little, kind of disappears as you are no longer entirely on your own, but there are three people with ideas, opinions, and their own way of doing every little thing. While it has been good, it has been different. My mother and I cleaned out some closets and other spaces that seemed to draw in piles, drank coffee, watched movies, visited old friends [by old friends, I don't necessarily mean that we have been friends for a long time, but rather, they are old. ;)] and I read, for fun. For some time, I have wanted to read Anna Karenina, but have never had the time to delve into that book. I kept putting it off, thinking that I would have more time during Christmas and J-term of my senior year. Well I started it. But as soon as I did, I wasn't really in the mood to start something so large that would require I page through the notes extensively to read of political and social culture foreign to me. I have been powering through though, and am becoming more interested the farther I get. Hopefully I can stay interested and focused when school work piles up soon.

I just thought of another pet peeve. I hate bunk beds. I hate making my bunk bed at school and I absolutely detest making the bunk beds at home. Today, I finally crawled up to the top and tried to straighten the sheets as best as I could. The problem is that there is no making a bunk bed perfect; it simply cannot be done. I give up. Someday when I have my own place, you will not find a bunk bed.

Now I'm done.

On a positive note: I have an internship! And two interviews this next week! Decisions are looming...