wilderness here I come

So tomorrow I leave for a wilderness trip.

But before I talk about that, how about photo journey of the past week in New Jersey:

Gardening with my mom. Basically I took pictures of pretty flowers while my mom did all the hard work. I realized that flower gardening may not be my thing. Maybe I'm guilty of the same romanticism of manual labor to which Ashley speaks. Or maybe I struggle with utilitarianism, since I seem to atleast have more motivation when it comes to vegetables...

This is the beginning of a carrot.

My mom lives for flowers. She works at a flower farm and absolutely LOVES it. The other day we went there, and as we were picking out all sorts of flowers, I asked her if she could give me some examples of the environmental benefits of flowers. "I mean, I know they are aesthetically pleasing and everything... but what else do they do?" Shame on me. I have a lot to learn.


This is the Jenkinsons board walk in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. Sometimes we come after dinner to walk around, look out at the ocean, and experience the hub of neon lights, funnel cakes, arcade sounds, and very interesting new jerseyan people.
Here's me on the beach just beyond the boardwalk. It was cool the other night, which was refreshing :)

I can ride my bike here. I can ride my bike a lot of places here, which is new to me, and makes me really happy :). My mom is originally from New Jersey, but this is only her second year here in Point Pleasant, since getting remarried to my step dad. When I come here, it definitely doesn't feel like home, but I've been getting to know the place a little better. Recently I started packing up a lunch and going for bike rides exploring all afternoon. It's become my favorite pastime when I'm here.

We got ice cream and walked around, just mom and me. I explained to her what "life stories" are like at Gordon, and then I asked her to tell me her own consolidated life story. It turned into a really long conversation that continued all the way home and ended with us sitting in the driveway with the car turned off for about 45 minutes.

I learned a lot about my mom this week. About her past, about her present, about her heart and how it so differs from my own. Frankly, about how very different we are in general. Sometimes it can be a source of confusion, frustration, or a kind of ugliness that surfaces from a strange place inside of me, which I always feel awful about. We both agree that ever since I was young, often I've pretended I'm the parent and she's the child. Definitely more evidence of the pride that is wrapped around my heart like a great big weed choking it.

Yet at the end of a full day, completely worn out, I fell asleep on her lap as she rubbed my back. And I remembered once again that she's the mom, and I'm the daughter.

This is my Aunt Nancy, hiding behind a bushel of peonies. She, my dad's younger sister, lives in South Jersey, and I spent half the week with her and her family. I love hanging out with her. She's hilarious, bubbly, beautiful, and generous. Although we're so different, there is a certain joy and comfort we find in one anothers' company.


Tonight we celebrated Grandma Voli's 83rd birthday.

...

Ok now for the camping trip. For those of you who don't know, the organization I'm working with this summer is called Caretakers of God's Creation. Their goal is to work with churches and the Christian community at large to help them recover their responsibility to the earth, recognizing that how we treat the earth is deeply connected to our theology and faith.

The trip is called "sojourn to sacredness: an ecological theological sojourn". quite the mouthful, eh? for five days we are going to be hiking and canoeing along the appalachian trail/shenandoah river and meeting with various theologians and environmentalists along the way to have conversations.

To say I'm excited is an understatement.

This week has been restful, but now I feel like the summer I've been so busy imagining is about to begin. The "internship" that I've been planning and constructing and watching grow into new opportunities this whole semester is now starting, and my prayer is that I will enter into it with openness to learn, and the hardest thing, humility.

That I would be fully aware of God's undeserved grace and faithfulness in giving me the opportunity to grow, to explore new and familiar places, to farm, to meet new people and to learn from them. I'm longing for the ability to offer it fully to God, for Him to move however he chooses this summer.

I'll be thinking of all of you this week. It is such a privelege to know what you are all up to, and to be able to picture you in your various adventures. You are very dearly loved.

Neens

ps. ashley you should get side bangs.