...Walk to School....In the Snow....Up hill...Both Ways

Well....maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration. But we have all heard this haven't we. As many of you may know, I am in my fourth week of a temp job at a Plastic Surgeons office. Yes, for those who know me well, you get a good laugh. As I was walking to work this morning with shoes on in the light snowy mix on the flattish streets of the city, I could not help but to think how this temp job has shown me the many faces of living here.

The walk alone has opened my eyes. I walk from the west side of Manhattan to the east side. Some routes take me by the quiet Gramercy Park. Other ways take me by the biggest middle school in our district....2,000 children in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. My favorite way is to walk through Madison Square Park. It is the half way point of my walk. There is a clock on a building that I can use to gauge my speed. And it has trees and green grass and now some daffodils. I love cutting through there because it becomes my "Calgon, take me away" moment of the day. On sunny days the shadows of the trees create the neatest pattern on the sidewalk. While on rainy days, these same trees are reflected in the pools of water. In the afternoon, children are out laughing and playing. The dog park is busy with its own set of patrons. It is a wonderful part of my walk.

Another part of this walk takes me across Park Avenue. There is a reason why Park Ave cost so much in Monopoly. This is the "upscale" part of the walk. The buildings alone stand out with their detailed architecture. Drivers wait for there people to call it a day...or maybe it is to take them to their next appointment. The Hurricane Club's windows are covered so elegantly that I can only imagine how beautiful the inside must be. But, only one block away from Park life takes on yet another face. This street is filled with things from the Middle East. There are shops selling beautiful Saree's. An Afghan restaurant ordains one corner quite differently than the Hurricane Club. And of course there is "The Famous Original Ray's Pizza" on another corner. How quickly the street scape changes in one block.

Continuing on my walk takes me through "green areas" as they are called. Most of these areas don't have grass. It just means that these are areas where cars are not allowed to be. The areas I walk through happen to be close to the hospitals and for some reason attract more than the usual "strange" people. Needless to say, a comment or two is usually heard....not the comments you would hear as a female. These comments are off the wall comments that make me wonder what actually goes on inside a persons mind.

Most of all, my temp position has allowed me to see a different face to plastic surgery. I was under the assumption of tummy tucks, Botox, breast augmentations, etc.... what most of us think of when we hear plastic surgery. How wrong I was!! I am not saying that we do not have patients coming into the office for cosmetic procedures. But most of our clientele is not cosmetic. One of our surgeons specializes in children with deformities of the face and head. My heart can't begin to step into these families situations without my eyes tearing up. The road these families travel is unbelievable......yet each child that comes is so precious.  Other doctors do breast reconstruction for patients with breast cancer. These women have chemo appointments one day of the week along with our appointments another day. They come tired and worn down only to be comforted by a patient who is on the tail end of the journey. Again, as I sit and witness this act of compassion, my eyes fill with tears.

I never thought that I would be 37 and temping. But I know that there is a reason for me being here. This job has stretched me. I have had to adjust how I think about things and how I come to grips with ideas I am not comfortable with. I am not were I want to be.....teaching and working with youth. But I am seeing many different faces of people, of places, and of myself. So for now, I will keep my eyes open and take in all the different sights.

Half Way There

Wow! It has been a while since I last posted something. Brad is half way there. Where? We don’t know. But he is half way through his time in seminary. Hard to believe!! We are on the downhill side of the mountain.

This semester brought on new challenges that I have had to work through. I am learning to settle and be content in the present….to make the most of each day. If this year and a half went as fast as it did…..how fast will the next year and a half go? I remember sitting around the dinner table with friends last December and toasting them for being half way there. And now…they leave the community in five short months!! No way time travels that fast. How different our lives will be next year!!

I have taken this semester to look back in my life. The past lets me know where I came from and why I react to life the way I do. It forms my perspective and ideas about the way things should be….good or bad. I have had to wrestle with my perspective in order to determine if I am reacting based on my past experiences or on what I know to be true to who I am now. I find this a constant struggle as life stretches my beliefs and leaves me searching what it is I actually value. It is a constant work in process….finding out what works for me now.

The future holds too many uncertainties. I am the type that loves to put my hopes and dreams into what the future might hold. They key word is MIGHT. I am learning that the future holds possibilities that I cannot even fathom. If you would have asked me five years ago where I would be living today, the answer would never have been NYC. In fact, I would have had some sarcastic remark to follow up such a foolish idea. But here we are. AND what an experience it has been.

So, who knows where we are going? But for now, we will live for the moment.

Where I live...

I live in the city. Not just any city though. I live in the city people dream about. I live in New York City. I used to live in the suburbs. I miss the stars, the sunsets and rises, the land, and the sounds of rain on a tin roof and bugs at night. As much as I love the suburbs and country, there is also something about the city. The sounds of the subway train, and the feeling....cradle, rock, rock, cradle, rock, rock. The way the snow falls and the wind blows out of Old Man Winter's icy lips. It is a though snow flakes are just something he makes in all of his spare time...individual, beautiful, and unlike New York, but as beautiful as the country.

By Addison Jones

The Return Home

I haven't posted anything about our summer yet. It keeps bothering me. I don't know what to say except it was fantastic. Addison, Parker and I left New York in July to return home for 5 weeks without Brad AND three weeks with Brad. During our five weeks alone, we had a blast. Two weeks were spent at Camp Mikell....our favorite place in the world. One week was spent at my family's lake house with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Two weekends were spent in Jasper with grandparents, an uncle, a great aunt, and birthday friends. Then there was time with family friends. We swam and ate and hiked and ate and tubed and ate and laughed and ate and relaxed. Did I mention that we ate? It was a time of what summer is all about.

Brad joined us in mid-August which was a welcome relief. We continued our time with friends and family upon his arrival. It was so nice to be with the ones we love and miss throughout the year. Our trip concluded with Labor Day weekend at camp. We could not have asked for a better way to end our time home. We left with plenty of mosquito bites and a soul that had been replenished with a healthy dose of loved ones. The drive home was uneventful. Three days after we arrived in New York.....school began. We had returned home.

It is weird to type that......we had returned home. As we enter into our second year of seminary, we begin it with a sense of this is our home. Yes, I still say I am going home when I go to Atlanta. But New York City is my home too. It was wonderful to walk into the community and see the faces of the friends and loved ones here. Returning to New York made me realize just how much I missed GTS over the summer. Wherever the summer had taken our friends, I longed to know how everyone was doing. Facebook can only update you with so much.......a conversation while walking to the mailbox is much more enlightening.

As this year began, I realized the growth that had come from the past year. Our family has had to let go of so much in order to be a part of this journey. Yet, we have gained so much by letting go. Experiences, strength, friends, community, etc. have all come from the ability to let go and step into the world of uncertainty. I have greeted this year with with the willingness to explore life through a "new set of eyes". In this exploration, I hope that I can begin to understand the path before our family and before me as I heal from the "blisters" of the past adventures. The journey ahead is never known.... nor is it ever easy. But once I finally make it to the mountain top.....I will be met with an amazing view and a peace that surpasses all understanding!

St. Francis Day

Today, we went to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine for the celebration of St. Francis. This is the 26th year the cathedral has invited anyone to bring their pets into (and I truly mean into)the service for a blessing. This service attracts an estimated 3,000 people. Members of St. Savior (the parish worshipping within the cathedral) are able to reserve places to sit while anyone else gets to wait in line in hopes of getting a seat.

From our perspective, it was a packed house. The building was fuller today than it was last Easter (which breaks my heart). They do this service up big too. The Bishop of New York is there. Several singers and singing groups perform. Dancers lead in the processional. The congregation does motions to a song. Parts of the service are made to sound like wolves and hump back whales are somewhere in the building trying to worship. At the end, the is a procession of animals......anywhere from camels to llamas to reindeer to bunnies to chickens to monkeys....you name it!

And this year, right there on the altar beside the Bishop of New York was my husband Brad. Sorry to be so boastful...but it was cool. AND the one thing he asked for was a picture of him on the altar. Guess what?!?! The camera died!!!! God's funny little sense of humor. So, I have made a little clip of some of the pictures we were able to get. Notice that my view through the service was of a parrot. There is a man holding a goat as well. And Brad is sitting by the Bishop (you can only see the back of their heads!). The videos do not begin to capture the power of the music or the beauty of the dance through out the service. The whole thing was incredible. Enjoy what few shots we were able to get!!

Carlos's Bake Shop (Hoboken, NJ)

So for those of you who are into the show Cake Boss, you know what I am talking about. We ventured beyond the walls of the city to Hoboken to just possibly get a glimpse of Buddy (with no luck). But we did get to see his nephew (Mario's son). After waiting in line for about 20 minutes, we entered the bakery which was a packed house. We got our goods (3 chocolate chip and M&M cookies and one lobster tail) and left to eat them on a pier overlooking the city. Over all impression of the day:

PATH Trian to get there: Two thumbs down (little confusing for first timers)

Wait in Line:

One thumb up and one thumb down
(there were some good laughs while waiting)

Number of people in the bakery: Two thumbs down

Baked Goods: Two Thumbs up

The view of NYC from NJ: Two thumbs up

Watching Buddy's nephew bump into Addison after she took a picture of herself in the bakery mirror: PRICELESS

Rewind (written in July)...

For many reasons, May came and time flew by. With May came the end of the second semester. Finals came. And finals went. Graduation snuck up on me in a way that I was not expecting. The hype around the end of the year was wonderful and festive. There were appreciation dinners and ice cream socials to attend. The reality of the first year being over was something to celebrate. We had made it and it felt good! Then graduation came. With this came a lurking feeling of change. A third of the students were going to move on. Suddenly, we started to see moving vans and began to feel the Close empty out. I found myself grieving the change that was happening ever so slowly. Each day brought one more person moving on to the new journey ahead. Once again, change slapped me in the face. I was faced with the realization that this is not a word that will be eliminated from my vocabulary any time soon. In fact, I am beginning to wonder what part change plays in the process of our journey.

June brought much activity. Addison’s play ran us like nothing before. The two weeks before opening night was filled with rehearsals that began in the late afternoon and ran until 8:00 that night. Dress rehearsals required hair and make-up to be done. She had many late nights getting to bed. Bruce, Kitty, and Stuart arrived the Thursday of opening night only to see Addison briefly while she was whisked off to the performance. Friday, Mom and Dad joined us. With a house full of guest, I was like a ping-pong ball. It went something like this……Take Addison to her performance…… Try to visit with everyone…… Relax some (Ha! Ha!)...... Meet you where…… Take Parker to baseball…… What is for dinner? ...... Go get Addison…… Watch Parker’s baseball game…… Go back to start and repeat…… Needless to say, when I finally got to see the play, it was amazing. Addison did fantastic!! I was once again filled with awe watching her perform. She just seemed so natural on stage.

While Addison was busy with the play, Parker was busy with baseball. He had practices on Friday evenings. Usually, Brad and Parker would bike the 2 ½ miles to the field while Addison and I would take the train (her bike was stolen earlier in the year). On Sunday’s, it was back to the field for the game. His season ended with three hard losses. BUT, he came away from it still loving the sport and looking forward to next year. On the Sunday that all of the parents were in NYC, we ventured down him play his last game. He scored twice and had a fantastic game.

Addison and Parker got out of school for the summer on June 28th. This gave us a few days before we left for Georgia to have fun in the city. We went to the Bronx Zoo and Brooklyn Botanical gardens. Both of these trips with did with a family we have become great friends with. It is so neat to see these parts of the city. They are hidden jewels.

Brad began his CPE (this is where he is a Chaplin in a hospital) in June at Beth Israel. He has enjoyed his group and the experience so far. Due to him having CPE this summer, he will not be coming to Georgia to meet us until mid August. It has been hard for him knowing this is where we are going to be for the summer. But, he has been very good about it.

So here we are……in Georgia! Home sweet home!