The Left Way

If you’re feeling a little bored and have a hankering for seeing—or feeling—the world anew, give this a try: use your non-dominant hand (for most, your left) in everyday tasks, like washing dishes, opening the door, shoveling cereal, moving your mouse…you get the idea. Pretty soon, you’ll feel like you’re in kindergarten again, awkward and clumsy and wondering how certain things ever get done—how, for instance, do you get the last spoonful of cereal in your mouth when your left fingers haven’t quite grasped the finer motor skills of gripping the spoon handle just so, just the right way to scoop up the final flakes. Also, this makes you start imagining what being disabled is like…

The thing is, it’s not just your left hand that gets taken for a ride—your right hand feels awkward and off-kilter, too, as you switch your usual right and left-hand maneuvering combinations; your right hand takes over the motions assumed by the left, and vice versa. You can just see your neurons firing all sorts of synaptic links. (Hopefully, other links aren’t being severed. Tonight, I put our cordless phone back on its charger with my right hand, and missed it. Am I losing my right-hand capabilities?)

Such are the thoughts and actions possible when a full-time job or baby doesn’t occupy your minutes and hours. Ahh, the life. Other zany ideas welcome here.

Questions about job

What is most important to me? Learning to take care of a home, walk through daily life with people? Living close to family and friends? Friends move, I’m not that close to family…but maybe I can make the effort to reach out to family if I commit to staying here. I want to stay here because it feels more continuous than moving away to Kansas or Washington. Is there a big difference if I live in La Verne/Chino or Overland Park? Is it just the thought of moving again that’s overwhelming? I don’t think I should limit my search to 20 miles from La Mirada, but still…

Looking at Hillview Acres more closely, it looks like it would provide more counseling-y experience than L’Arche…

I think I want to commit to something, not just do something for a year or even two, and then take off. I want to commit to a cause worth committing to, a people, a place. In a word? Covenant.

How important is the suburban/urban/rural context decision? What about the level of interaction with peers? For this chapter of my life, what have you made clear to commit to? What are things I can want but trust you to provide, work out in your way, your time? What about the group of people to work with? Children? Abused? Adults with developmental disabilities? What have you given me a heart for? What can I grow in?

A good job-ing day...

Full of hope...

~job interview with a children's group home next Wed morn! Woohoo! Something nearby!
~got a call about a temp assignment, but wasn't confirmed...will back tomorrow.
~poked around Biola's job posting site, was excited about different summer camp counselor opportunities--not only in SoCal, but Vancouver Island, Portland, maybe even France! Probably too late for France, but pretty exciting the possibilities...
~applied to work at a Grille down the street, hoping for some cash in the interim...

also had fun catching up with good ole Vancouver friends:
~my friend Sarah, whom I hadn't connected with since I left, and just finished her MDiv!
~my old roomie Amy, who's moving in less than a month with the rest of the house to a place they got confirmed today! Woohoo!
-->both through Google Chat: not exactly on the phone, but opportunity to connect we might not have had otherwise...
~and dear friend Melanie on the phone. Good times! Ahh, she gets me...I'm not abnormal...or, if I am, we're abnormal together...

Ending with a scenic hike with dear friend Natalie...another friend who gets me...oh, and a Trader Joe's run with a chocolate truffle purchase...life is good...

Is May "Women's Month" or something?

In the space of one week, I've heard of four churches putting on: two women's teas and two women's conferences. Do they have some surreptitious network where they conspire about such things? Providence perhaps?

So...I was offered a job last week

I should've posted this sooner, but I was offered a job last week by L'Arche in Spokane! I wanted to ponder it more before I posted...? I guess I wasn't super-excited because it's not in SoCal, and the pay is hard to get by on...though a host of other benefits. I really liked the idea of getting to know people quite different from me, and learning to communicate in non-verbal ways, that verbal isn't the primary means of communicating...but I always love ideas, the reality is always harder--"iconoclastic," as C.S. Lewis would say. So, after deliberating and discussing with some friends, I decided the pay really wasn't enough for me now. So, I declined. But I applied to L'Arche in Kansas because the pay is better, live-able. Keeping myself in check, though, that I'm not doing this just for the money...

My legs are asleep. Can't count how many times that's happened this week.

Drawn by something bigger than myself...

So, I think the exciting, hope-giving thing about this job opportunity is that it makes me think there's a place for me in SoCal after all, a place where I can fit, contribute and become more of myself; aka, to be my own person (somewhat independent) in community...which means, that there may be a home for me after all, now and possibly long-term...

I just submitted my app! Woohoo!

Ohmigosh, I've never (for a while...) been so excited about a job!

So, an acquaintance suggested I look up jobs on Biola's job posting site, and I checked it today and got SUPER excited! I've barely been able to contain my joy! It's a case manager position in Bellflower to help those at risk of homelessness get stable housing! When I read the job description and qualifications, I could hardly believe it! It seemed to match both the skills I want to sharpen (ie. counseling) and my experience (liaising with different groups, working with the homeless) thus far! Like my last 6-10 years has tailor-made me for this! I don't want to presume, so I'm praying for trust and faithfulness...please pray for me, too.

I was also really excited to see that it's nearby (I might not have to move), that the church in Bellflower is quite involved (which encourages me that the kingdom is alive and active in SoCal!), AND it seems meaningful to me because it's in pursuit of justice. Woohoo! Ok, maybe I should wait and see if I get the job, and then celebrate...but it has been immensely hope-giving for the last 5-ish hours, that such jobs and contexts exist! And hope is incredibly motivating and joy-giving...and making me do a little skip and hop every now and then...

Ok, Imma gonna go to bed now. Peace out!

Must Reading!

Inspiring, needed words...

http://www.simainternational.com/faith_resources.cfm

Take a few minutes to read, "Is Giftedness a Luxury?", 4th article from the bottom, by William Hendricks. Well worth your while, might even take you for a turn...

Grateful bummer

Spokane, Washington--I might end up here!

Well, all this wondering and pondering about teaching in Oakland is over--I just received an email gently un-accepting me for this year's cohort. I have to say, it's one of the few, if only, times I'm grateful to be rejected! :) Yesterday, I pretty much reconciled myself to the fact that teaching children in the inner city in a public school might not be the best route for me in this stage of my life.

So, on to possibilities that hopefully mesh better:

~I've been recommended to L'Arche in Spokane, Washington. I should be hearing from them next week for an interview. I looked up some photos there, and it looks gorgeous! I might be back in the Pacific Northwest!
~I heard from the Kansas church that their other candidate has been delayed in interviewing, so I won't know for another month maybe if they want me! At this point, I'm cool with that, so I can think it through more...
~An acquaintance in Portland suggested her workplace, that coaches college students, to me! It sounds like almost too good to be true!

As I talk with more folk, a few things in this limbo, interim, transitional time is certain:

-->pray
-->get anchored to a church
-->pray

And of course, success inevitably follows!

What you cannot not do

"Remember, giftedness is not about what you can do, but what you were born to do, what you love to do—indeed, what you cannot not do." William Hendriks, Is Giftedness a Luxury?

Unique and unrepeatable grace

"We rejoice and give thanks for every community member, knowing that each life is a unique and unrepeatable grace."

Spied on L'Arche webpage for Seattle...worth chewing on...

How picky can you be?

When it comes to choosing a job, can I wait to feel uber-excited? If I don't feel that, does that mean I don't care? Do feelings come later?

Church Personals

Why don't we have this?

Wanted: a church that:

~strives to live out community daily (even better, though perhaps nearly impossible: if most attenders live within walking distance)
~knows what it means to be Korean-American
~reveres Scripture without worshipping it
~is holistic: believes both body and soul are good, part of God's creation, to be honored
~cares about reaching the marginalized, and does something about it
~welcomes people from all walks of life by its DNA
~hopes in the coming of Jesus while inviting the presence of the Kingdom

If you fit this description, can we meet?