.christmas joy.

So I haven't updated in forever. It's finals week. I need to finish writing a reconciliation ritual for high school students. It's due, well, sometime today. So in the mean time, I am posting a delightful little moment of Christmas joy that makes me smile:

(my favorite part is the child sheeps...)

beginning again

Ok, so maybe I haven't been on here since May. It was a crazy end of my time in Denver, crazy summer, and crazy start to my life in Boston. There won't be an update on Romer Wedding Bonanza Part II because at this point, I feel I have way more important things to blog. There WILL be some new posts soon with photos of my new places and other fun things that have been happening in Boston. I need a new camera, so right now my fancy new phone will suffice. Pictures seem to be pretty decent though :-)

So I have been in Boston for a little less than two months. I am a first-year Masters of Divinity student - one of five females in this year's class. Out of maybe 30 total. I am working part-time with admissions helping prospective students as they inquire about visits and other questions. It's not too busy, and I am learning an awful lot about the other side of admissions, as opposed to being the applicant.

I am absolutely in love with my classes. Well, most of them. Fundamental moral theology is way tougher than I anticipated, a TON of reading each week. I have been taking my reading to a Browns bar with me on Sundays to watch the game, do my reading, and then walk down the street to church! It's challenging in a good way, and as much as a 20 page research paper makes me feel ill, I am excited about my topic -- love under stress. We'll see how this goes!

Disputed Questions in Contemporary Theology - less difficult than I anticipated. We examine current debated questions and then look at a middle ground. For example, last week I presented on the role of religion in peacemaking while someone else presented on the role of religion in violence, and we spend class sorting out the two ends and working towards the middle. We will be presenting soon on issues of our choosing so that will be interesting to see what people come up with.

Intro to the New Testament - I love this class. Less participation than my other classes, but I feel like I learn so much. My professor is fantastic and really know his stuff. I feel so lucky to get to study under the people I do.

Theologies of Reconciliation -- BEST. CLASS. EVER. There are six people in the class, half of them priests, all from outside the U.S., the other half women. One of the women is from Andover-Newton and is an intentional interim pastor for the United Church of Christ. The other woman is from Harvard Divinity School. There is so much diversity in our tiny class, and the course itself is incredible. It's focused on forgiveness and reconciliation and it's just amazing. We've done workshops on cultivating compassion and empathy, classes focused on restorative justice, classes on the rite of reconciliation. We get a lot of lectures from other professors which is great, including people from other schools in the BTI (Boston Theological Institute). The BTI is the consortium of all the theology schools in Boston (thus the students from Havard and Andover-Newton). They do a lot of work in forgiveness and reconciliation, and I discovered they offer a certificate in Religion and Conflict Transformation that I could earn while getting my MDiv. My professor said he was going to suggest it to me, that I seem like a real natural for it. I am still looking into details but it seems like SUCH an amazing opportunity!

There are still plenty of challenges at school. I am meeting wonderful people and am quite happy, but sometimes it's so easy to miss the people who already know you so well. Course content seems to be harder than course work. My classes leave me with a lot of questions to puzzle over, which is a good thing, but also tiring at times. Occasionally people in class say stupid things that make me want to slam my head into my desk, and I try to remind myself they are also a child of God and responding sarcastically is not why I am here. Sometimes I become so acutely aware of how much the Catholic Church pushes back on me just because I am a woman. I am here on scholarship, but so many of the men in my program are seminarians and not paying for their schooling. I don't want to be ordained, but it would be nice to say 'no, thank you.'

Then suddenly I find myself at our weekly liturgy on Thursdays, serving as a Eucharistic minister and feeling totally overwhelmed witnessing the Body of Christ in my school. I find myself with genuine feelings of loving towards people who I don't agree with on many things, but I keep discovering all the beautiful things in them. I fall in love with theologians I have never met. All the while, challenges and gifts included, I find myself falling deeper in love with God.

It is good that I am here.

Romer Wedding Bonanza Part I

...and yes, come July there will be a part II! My biggest brodder, Nathan, got married last weekend!! I got to take a nice break from Denver and head back to my beloved Ohio and spend some high quality time with the people I love the most! I did not have my camera with me since my battery charger hates my guts, but luckily I have nice relatives who I can steal from!

I got into Ohio and Thursday evening, and got to hang out with the groom and his pals all day as everyone else showed up for a little cookout! We fried things. Wings. Cheese. Pickles (YUM!)

Me and my TWO sisters :-)

It was a bit rainy, so we stuck to the garage...

Yay for sisters!

Nick got a little sweaty and had to hang out the window on the way to the rehearsal. Because my brother is actually part dog...

My Uncle Tom and baby brodder "Deemus"

Nick and his lovely girlfriend Beth

Hey look who made it from South Bend!!

Weddings > The Hurt Locker!!

A sisters picture before the ceremony

I was tearing up before she even walked down the aisle. I was bawling during the vows!

It's amazing how all the 'grown' boys were obsessed with the bubbles...

We had a delightful party bus to drive us around for pictures pre-reception. Clearly, we had a miserable time!

And may I now introduce you to the world's classiest wedding party!

Jack and Nicole switched shoes....

Tip of the iceberg... (we had already taken photos at Cleveland Browns Stadium :-) )

The swords were an impulse purchase when we made the party bus stop at Walgreens for Red Bull and a potty break. I won!

Lady-like, isn't she?

"I just feel more comfortable and relaxed in my Brown's jersey." -the best man before his speech

Dougie and the Nan, best parents ever

Pink shoes!!!

All of the Romer grand-girls, minus two

Clearly everyone had a terrible time.

Especially my mom...

Congratulations Nate and Catherine!!

community

First of all I want to include a general update for friends/family that I don't get to talk to as much or that I am not friends with on Facebook. Around this time last year I was accepted at Boston College for their MDiv program with a full scholarship, conditional upon me completing a year of service first. A few weeks ago BC had myself and other students come out for a two day visit, basically for us to get a good feel of the school, of the city, and essentially make sure we really want to go there. I had an amazing time, met some great people (and some people I would not be sad over if they decided to go somewhere else...), LOVED the class I sat in on and even got spend some time with my sister Lynne who came up from NYC for the last night I was there. I have since sent in my deposit and will officially be starting at Boston College in the fall :-). Sort of a longer update that I had meant, but hopefully this will lessen the number of times I get asked 'So are you still going to BC in the fall?' at my brother's wedding.

So onto what I had intended for this post: Community. And not the show on NBC, although I do highly recommend it to everyone (thank you Garrett for getting me stuck on another awesome show). Community is one of the most important parts of my year of service. It is incredibly important in all parts of my life, and was a huge factor in why I am choosing to go to Boston College. Seeing that the STM at BC does not schedule any classes from 12-3pm every Thursday so that everyone can go to Mass and then have lunch together astounds and impresses me. Even more than that, it calls and beckons to me.

If I were asked what comes to mind when someone says "community" I would have lists of words to spit out. Home. Safe. Hard. Joyful. Frustrating. Beautiful. Motivational. Transforming. Powerful. Tears. Laughter. Learning. I really could just keep going.

Community has certainly been exceptionally difficult this year. There has been a lot of tears and frustration, and even at times, a temptation to just leave. Having bed bugs a few weeks after moving into a house of ten people who don't know each other can create a lot of complications that there might not be otherwise. The ten people who found themselves together are certainly an awkward bunch. Everyone in my community this year is SO DIFFERENT. Not bad, not weird, simply different. It has certainly contributed to some conflict. With ten vastly different personalities coming from ten backgrounds that have some but not a lot of intersections, there are plenty of places to find disagreements. Living at a new site that has lots of work to be done on it and no history with the program for us to connect to has made all of our difficulties just a little bit tougher. But for all of our trials and differences, I am eternally grateful.

It is easier to love people you get along with, or people you have a lot in common with. Love isn't always easy, but quick connections often means not having to fight to love. CoHo has fought to love. We have fought through disagreements on chores, alcohol, movies, composting, fun night, prayer, toilets, bed bugs, vomit, strangers, you name it. Sometime in the past couple months, I couldn't tell you exactly when, the dust settled and we just kind of settled along with it. Truthfully, it's difficult to describe. Things stopped being as difficult. Community meetings had less fighting and we found ourselves choosing to be together most of the time. Not an active choice, but a much more natural one. We eased into one another a little bit more. It's not still perfect and we still have conflict, but conflict is different when you are able to trust that the other person loves you regardless. That love that we've fought for and with has helped me grow in incredible ways. We needed each other to get where we are. I truly believe we love each other. I also believe that we wouldn't love each other in the way we do if we hadn't fought since we arrived in August. We battled through differences and came out on the other side choosing to love one another. Many of us have commented, in passing, that we are so much happier now. We watch movies, have spur of the moment dinners out, and plan trips together to get out of the city (see post on Boulder below...). I feel that we are a true community, in much more than just name.

Community is important to me, and my time this year has helped me grow. I love CoHo so dearly. I will sorely miss them when we have to leave, but am lucky enough to take all the love I have and everything I have learned from them and take it with me into my next community.

Spring has sprung!

Spring time has come!! Occasionally we still get a bit of snow in the mornings (no, I am not kidding) but it mostly melts by the afternoon and I don't really need a coat walking home! It's sunny most days, which makes me a very happy person :-)

To celebrate spring and to just get the heck out of the house and the heck out of the neighborhood for once, CoHo decided to take a little trip up to Boulder! We did some thrift shopping, where we almost adopted this nice grey kitty. We figured our directors would not appreciate us bringing home a kitty, let alone a thrift store kitty, so we left it behind :-( Granted, one of our housemates is allergic, but it would have been fine!

We headed up to Pearl Street and had ourselves a super fun evening!

Animal hats!!!!

I really liked this bookstore a lot. It had one of the more interesting floor plans I have ever seen and I literally almost got lost...

Awkward sweater.

FINGER PUPPETS GALORE! I really liked the llama one, and also the pink panther puppet. But no puppet was as great as...

HARRY POTTER FINGER PUPPET!!

This jazz duo was pretty young but really darn good. I was on my way out of the bookstore when I realized it was them playing and not just a recording playing in the store.

Last time I had seen someone juggle fire, they had accidentally hit a clothesline above their head This guy fared much better.

**Important note: All photos taken by the amazing Danielle Fenske!!

parents. and skiing :-)

My parents came into town a couple of weeks ago, which was really wonderful. You can tell people all about what you are doing, keep up (sort of) a blog about your year far off in Denver, but it's much better to have people with you to see exactly what it is you're doing every day.

They came to Metro CareRing to help out some, and also helped out CVV with our spaghetti dinner fundraiser for our immersion trips. We had drinks with some of the CVVs, a really nice dinner out and then on Sunday SKIING!!!!!!!

The other awesome part of getting to ski with my Daddy? I got to bring Angesota with me too!!