Autumn Adventures

I’ve been pretty silent on the blog, but I’ve been having plenty of adventures in these autumn months.

Canning my mom’s famous salsa with four generations of my family (Grandpa, Mom, Cousin, Cousin’s son)

I spent a few hours exploring ArtPrize in downtown Grand Rapids.  This was one of my favorite pieces, called Cascade.

 

I headed west for a couple of weeks.  First, I spent time with my sister and brother-in-law in their new home in Colorado.

Mary and I drove up to Independence Pass, about 40 miles of mountain driving from their house.

It was peak color season for the Aspens and their vivid gold against the deep evergreens was spectacular.  For anyone wondering, late September or early October is an excellent time to visit—the weather and trees are beautiful and it is considered “shoulder season” so things aren’t so busy.

Mary is talented and made a video of our time together.  It features lots of footage of mountains, aspens, their canine companion, a gondola ride, and me awkwardly crossing a footbridge.  You can see it on her blog.

Next stop: Laramie, Wyoming.  This was a new state for me, and it was like no other place I’ve been to.

My reason for going to Wyoming: visiting my friend Allison, her husband, and infant son!  It was so good to see them!

Back to Michigan: an impromptu lunch at Crane’s Pie Pantry with my mom—apple dumpling and apple cider…yum!

An afternoon hike to Hoffmaster State Park

Lake Michigan from Hoffmaster’s Dune Overlook

Saugatuck Dunes Hike

To celebrate Labor Day, I took a hike I’ve been meaning to take all summer.  I grew up going to the beach at Saugatuck Dunes State Park, but I had never really hiked there.  My trusty Best Easy Day Hikes: Grand Rapids, MI told me that there is good hiking, too.  So this morning I packed a lunch and set out.  I took the South Trail, which the book says is 4.8 miles and the state park map lists as 5.5 miles.

The trail on the way to Lake Michigan was mostly through deciduous forests on a sandy, but firm, trail.

Shortly before Lake Michigan, the trail passed through the foredunes.

Almost to the beach!

On the beach, looking north.  You can’t make it out in the picture, but I could see Big Red (the Holland lighthouse) in the distance.  After snacking on the beach, I started out on the return trail, which travels through the foredunes and then zig zags up through blown out dunes.  This part of the trail was harder than the first part!  But looking back at the lake, the views were beautiful.



This is now one of my favorite dune hikes in Michigan!  It has a more natural and remote feel than a lot of the parks (no stairs, for instance) and the dunes are extensive.  I’d highly recommend it to anyone who wants to explore the dunes and is ready to climb through a lot of sand.

Post at Fidelia’s Sisters (and other ways to read my posts)

1. Today you can read my writing at Fidelia’s Sisters, a publication of The Young Clergywomen Project, about learning to camp alone.  I remember finding this website while I was still in China but planning to start seminary a few months later.  I was searching the internet for information about clergywomen, because my personal experiences with them were few and far between.  That was within TYCWP’s first year and I was thankful to find out "I’m not the only one” through Fidelia’s Sisters.  Now that I’m ordained, I’m a member of the group and I have learned a lot from interacting with young clergywomen from many traditions—I don’t always agree with everything—but the breadth of Christian tradition has been a blessing.  I’m excited to have my writing join the story there!  And welcome if you have come over from there!
2. Lots of you follow this blog via my links on Facebook.  If you want to be sure to not miss any posts (either because I forget to post the link or because it is possible to miss things on Facebook), you can subscribe via e-mail and you’ll get an e-mail when new posts go up.  Find the “Follow by E-mail” box in the right-hand column and enter your e-mail in that box.  Or, if you follow lots of blogs you can use a blog reader, which collects all the new posts of blogs you read in one place.  I use Feedly, but have also heard good things about Bloglovin’.  I am a recent convert to using a reader, and can’t believe I waited so long—it makes it so easy!  Thanks for reading!

Personal photo of camping at Ionia State Recreation Area, September 2012. 

Sunday Afternoon Prayer: All Things Bright and Beautiful

Lake Michigan from a trail along one of the dunes
 at Nordhouse Dunes National Wilderness Area

I did a lot of thinking while I was in the woods this weekend. Besides my gratefulness to my mom, I thought about this hymn, "All Things Bright and Beautiful," a lot. When I got home I looked it up and discovered: "Cecil F. Alexander (PHH 346) wrote a number of hymn texts on articles of the Apostles' Creed. This text, whose biblical source is Genesis 1:31 ("and God saw all that he had made, and it was very good"), is Alexander's explanation of the Creed's phrase "Maker of heaven and earth" (Psalter Hymnal Handbook, from hymnary.org).
This afternoon, may we raise our voices to praise the maker of heaven and earth.

Refrain:
All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful,
the Lord God made them all.


1 Each little flower that opens,
each little bird that sings,
he made their glowing colours,
he made their tiny wings: Refrain

2 The purple-headed mountain,
the river running by,
the sunset, and the morning
that brightens up the sky: Refrain


3 The cold wind in the winter,
the pleasant summer sun,
the ripe fruits in the garden,
he made them every one. Refrain


4 He gave us eyes to see them,
and lips that we might tell
how great is God Almighty,
who has made all things well. Refrain

Source: Church Hymnary, Fourth Edition #137a

Personal Photo, June 2013

Thanks, Mom!

Recently my sister wrote this lovely post for “Papa Bear” (aka our dad).  I spent my Sabbath time this weekend camping at Lake Michigan Recreation Area, part of the Huron-Manistee National Forest between Ludington and Manistee.  While I was camping and hiking and reading on the beach, I thought about her post, and also that I didn’t only learn about the outdoors from my dad.  I learned a lot from my mom, too.

My campsite this weekend

Mom taught me that you always take your shoes off before you go inside the tent and you always sweep it out before you take it down.

Pizza tonka/hobo pie/sandwich cooked in a pie iron

Mom taught me how to cook not just in a kitchen but over a fire and camp stove.

Mushroom at my campsite

Mom taught me to spot the fungi and pay attention to details in the woods.

 

Reading at Holland State Park, August 2012

Mom taught me to read and to love reading (indoors, outdoors, it doesn’t matter as long as the book is good!).

Big Sable Point Lighthouse in Ludington State Park, April 2013.  I still like this one, even though Mom made us hike 5 miles through the sand to get there the first time (or so the story goes).

Mom taught me to love history and pay attention to lighthouses.

Porter Creek empties into Lake Michigan

Mom taught me all about the awesome state of Michigan.

White birch behind my campsite

 Mom taught me the difference between a white birch, white oak, and white pine tree.

On a hike in the Nordhouse Dunes National Wilderness Area

Mom taught me to be strong and confident so I can have adventures on my own.

Thanks, Mom!

New Lines to Womanhood

I recently read a review of the award-winning HBO show Girls in the April 2013 issue of Christianity Today.  The show focuses on an early 20s woman named Hannah as she tries to figure out adulthood—jobs, renting, friends, boyfriends.  It is a coming-of-age show, written and directed by 26-year-old Lena Dunham.  “What’s new about the show is that these women, like many real-life ones, are working from a rough script.  The lines that signal ‘womanhood’ are absent, coming later or not at all, or look quite different from the lines our mothers followed” (pg. 70). 

Like the author of the review, Katelyn Beaty, I also fit into the category of real-life women working from a rough script.  When I was younger, I assumed that I would follow those traditional lines to womanhood: I would meet a nice Christian guy (probably in college), get married shortly after college, buy a house (unless we were missionaries living overseas), and have kids.  I would work before the kids were born and maybe part-time after.

None of that has happened in my life, so far.

I don’t regret my life—it has been full of unique experiences I would have never had if my 13-year-old-self’s life plan had come to fruition.  But at the same time, I have had to figure out new lines to womanhood.  Maybe I should say I am trying to figure out new lines to womanhood.  One day at a time, I am living the life God has called me to and trying to find the lines.

To be honest, it can be a lonely and confusing place.  I don’t have that many role models.  There are portrayals in the media, Girls and Liz Lemon in 30 Rock come to mind, but TV show characters tend to hop from boyfriend to boyfriend, sleeping with them all.  That isn’t part of my life, but the church is a part of my life.  The church gives me stability when everything around me seems to be changing.  The church gives me a community of people who love and care for me, but also don’t quite know what to do with me.    

That’s why I am writing this.  So far in my life I have kept my experiences and feelings about being single pretty private.  I’ve only let the closest circle of my friends in.  But that needs to change, so I am going to be writing more about this part of my life in the future.  I hope to write about the joys, the sorrows, the practices I find helpful, and the habits that are unhelpful.

By sharing my story, I want the 12-year-old girls and boys in my congregation to see what life looks like if you don’t marry early.  I want the 22-year-old woman who just graduated without her Mrs. Degree to have hope that God has beautiful plans for her life even if they feel unconventional.  I want the 45-year-old married pastor to have a glimpse of what it looks like to be in this space and how he or she can be hospitable to people who don’t fit the mold.  I want the 60 year-old who never married to have the permission to tell his or her story, too.  

I want the church to warmly welcome people into community, no matter who they are.  Beaty asks “Are our churches places where women like Dunham can know and be known?  Where their ambitions and dreams are encouraged, not squelched or made to fit into old scripts of womanhood that don’t speak to them?  Where a story is told and retold that speaks to their deepest desires and orients them toward wholeness and self-giving instead of self-gazing?” (pg. 71).  I hope and pray that sharing more of my story can help the church to be such a place.  I hope that together we can develop and affirm many paths to adulthood. 

                 

Top photo by Wally Gobetz, used under a Creative Commons License.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/8416119593/.

Bottom photo is a personal photo taken August 2012.

Birthday Gift to Myself

This year for my birthday, I took myself on a little vacation.  I went to Ludington, a lovely little town on Lake Michigan with a great state park.  I stayed at the Abbey Lynn Inn, which was a beautiful historic home with wonderfully hospitable owners (and delicious breakfasts!).  If you are looking for a place to stay in Ludington, I would recommend it!  I did some hiking, hung out at my B&B, read, took pictures, watched the sun set over the lake, and just rested.  

I am thankful for the time and space to take some time away, breath fresh air, and come back more relaxed!