We can do more together.

What does being a part of a community mean to you?  I have been a part of a number of communities over the years: PLU, my FLBC camp family and my LVC fellow volunteers are among the richest community experiences of my recent years. When we are united by something bigger than ourselves, we are woven together with a common thread that provides a very unique human connection. 
 
This Sunday at Holy Trinity, we talked a lot about community in the context of the Good Shepherd story from John's gospel.  The word that kept reappearing in the sermon was to gather.  Thinking in terms of gathering in a community of faith makes it feel less institutionalized. The Good Shepherd gathers his sheep together, he doesn't organize them.  When we gather, we are pulled together with a voice that tells us that we are enough, and we are called to an abundant life.  Our lives are made up of a series of choices of how we will spend our time, our money, and what we prioritize.  These choices become competing planes for our identity.  Too often, we focus on what we are lacking to complete our life checklist.  It seems like no matter what we do will never be sufficient; as individuals we can't do it all.  And that is the beauty of community!  When we are strung together in the communities that God calls us to, we are enough, we can live more abundantly.  When we gather in community, we can do more together and we can be more creative together. 

When I think about the most significant identity development that I have experienced in my life, it always seems to occur within a community setting.  This year has been a time of incredible internal growth.  My Twin Cities LVC network consists of 18 volunteers who are incredibly passionate people.  It seems like every conversation leads me to new questions and helps me seek out my own identity of who I want to be in this world.  Working with these volunteers reminds me that while the work can be exhausting and the impact might feel small, we all have something really powerful to contribute. As our pieces come together, the work of the whole community is what makes a difference, here in Minneapolis, in Minnesota, in America, and across the globe.  One of my last blogs touched on the big questions of service work that keep me awake at night sometimes, but I feel energized by the communities that I work in, and find hope as I watch small pieces come together to make one beautiful whole.

I really believe that gathering makes us who we are, whether we are with people who are like us or those who are different from us.  Being in community with others helps us to discover who we are and illuminates the change we can make in the world.

April: the most wonderful month of the year

 Spring is hands down my favorite time of the year. Maybe it's because I am an April birthday girl, but there is something really special about the return of warm weather, the transition from brown to green, flowers popping up out of the ground...I love it all.  This April meant the coming of several visitors, lots of great happy hours and potlucks with friends, many bike rides and the start of my 23rd year of life! Here are the highlights:

Laura Pahlmeyer, one of my dear PLU friends came to spend part of her spring break with me!  We did some adventuring around the city and went to Hunger Games, but it was really wonderful to just catch up on recent happenings in our lives and share our thoughts on the direction we hope to see our lives go.  She is the best, it was great to have her here for a few days!

A couple days later, Dad and Courtney came for Courtney's spring break.  I was so happy to have them both!  After their visit, I was given the title of a drill sergeant host.  I tend to pack in as many things each day as I possibly can, so I wiped them both out at the end of their week...sorry guys! But if they never come back to the Twin Cities, they have seen my top 20 spots, so I would say their visit was a thorough one.  They came to volunteer at Open Arms for a couple of days, so now they both know what my day to day life is like.  We also went to Northfield,  St. Peter and Decorah, Iowa so Courtney could complete her Lutheran college tour of Augsburg, St. Olaf, Luther and Gustavus.  I have friends that went to each of those colleges, so I enjoyed getting to visit them too.

 

We also enjoyed a visit with the Miller family in St Peter.  It has been years since we both lived in Richland, so it was fun to catch up.

 

 Shopping at the Mall of America, walking around Lake Calhoun, lots of great restaurants, and good family time made the week a great one.  I miss them already!

 

 Easter was a special one this year.  Snow Grandma's cousin, Marie invited me to spend the day with her family. I went to church with them at the Episcopal cathedral downtown for a beautiful service, and got to meet about 25 members of extended family on the Gjerde side.  Very special to connect with the Minnesota side of the family!

 Easter evening was spent with Laura and her parents.  We made enchiladas, ate key lime pie and played a few board games.  No Easter egg hunt this year, but I had a great time.

 One of my favorite things about spring is the return of daylight late into the evening!  I love that it doesn't get dark until 8:30 now!  To enjoy it, we have had a number of barbeques, potlucks and cookouts, while eating on the porch.  Tuesday night porch parties with friends Pieter, Geoff and Laura are becoming a regular weekly occurance.

I turned 23 on April 20th, and had a great celebration as my first birthday out of college. It fell on a Friday this year.  My work had a staff happy hour at 2, and a staff and board of directors meet and greet party at 4, so I had several hours to celebrate with my wonderful staff. One of our bakers made me an incredible chocolate-peanut butter cheesecake, which tasted like heaven.  In the evening, my roommates threw a Titanic themed birthday party (as this was the 100th year anniversary this year).  We all just went to see the movie in 3D last week, so we were feeling ambitious to dress-up and enjoy the music.  I dressed up as the Heart of the Ocean and almost everyone else dressed up as someone on the ship!  We had a blast.  I have such fun friends here!

 The end of this month has meant a lot of time experimenting in the garden as well. My roommates and I put in several hours in the last 2 weekends pulling all the weeds and transforming our backyard space into a workable gardening space.  Spending some time at Open Farms (the organic farm that is a part of Open Arms) in the last week has given me some new insights into making our garden work. I am hoping we have some luck growing vegetables this year!  We spent all of Earth Day biking and gardening to celebrate. 

I love spring! Looking forward to more warm weather in the coming months.  Hope this spring finds you well!