A bit of an update....

So...I kinda dropped off the face of the blog world for a while, as I found myself immersed in the world of wedding planning, and full-time school and part-time school work and writing a musical (bad punctuation intended).

1. Wedding planning
Things are actually going quite smoothly, and not as "hair-pulling-out-stressful" as some people warned us it would be. I guess the fact that we both want a simple, yet meaningful, wedding is helpful, as well as being willing to make compromises and sometimes sacrifices. I have learned a lot about how to work a marriage through this wedding planning, and for that I am thankful. I have also done my best to not be a "bridezilla", and I think I have accomplished that (although Will may have another version)

2. Prison Visit
A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to be a part of a 3-day Alternatives to Violence workshop at Grand Valley Institute for Women, where I participated along with 12 other inmates in the activities and discussion. For those of you that don't know, I am interested in going into prison ministry someday, so that was an excellent experience for me. I met some wonderful women (some of which I think don't belong there) and learned a lot about the prison system, through the eyes of inmates. There were many touching moments, but I will just share a few:

-when one woman cried in thankfulness that visitors take the time to come and be with them, to show that not everyone has forgotten about them and written them off as evil hardened criminals
-when one woman took the time to explain the hardships of prison life, trusting me with personal information
-Being there when a woman's grandson died, to see the shared mourning in that loss, to see that when a tragedy occurs, all the women feel it as if it happened to them, because it could have happened to them
-Seeing the women dumping buckets of water on each other in the courtyard, on one of the hottest June days
-Being reminded of how easy my life is: going from a feeling that I have no place working with criminals because I've never lived a life of hardship like them, to being reminded that all I need is a heart for it, a listening ear, arms to embrace, words to encourage, and a prayer to share (if requested)

3. Berry Picking and Jam Making
Will and I went strawberry picking on Canada Day, and then made strawberry and strawberry/rhubarb jam together. Another experience of working together (along with musical writing, sermon preaching, babysitting, supper preparation, wedding planning etc) that reminded me that Will is the best life partner I could have found for myself (sorry for the unexpected cheeziness...but it's true)

4. Odds n' Ends
Just been thinking about how crazy my life has become! Within a 4 month period from now, I'll have given my cats away, I'll be married, moved to Tavistock, looking for full-time work in the Tavistock/Stratford area, looking into a long-term MCC placement, finishing up our musical and looking for actors and a theatre to put it on in! There is no amount of exclamation marks I could use to express this craziness and excitement(and there's a limit to exclamation mark usefulness, anyway)

That's all for now. Aside from all these things, I'm still in school full-time, and I have some homework that beckons.

   [ posted by Anabee @ 10:36 PM ]