life on the beach

i just got back from a week at the beach with 51 high school kids. we supervised, gave advice, led discussions, made up prayers, made up songs, played in the ocean, and strengthened relationships. i had so much fun, i never wanted to come home. i've worked with most of these kids for the past two years and i love them as much as i love my family. they're not always my favorites, but like family you love them anyway. the youth group was important to me as a high school kid, it gave me a community that offered unwaivering support, encouragement and love. and now as a leader i get to provide that community to the kids i work with. when i tell people i spent my vacation with a bunch of teenagers they usually say some variation of 'better you than me' and i just laugh and say 'it's really not that bad. they're good kids and we have fun'. and then the other person says 'i'll take your word for it' and chuckles. no really, i've had that conversation at least 30 times in the past two years. so why do i do it. why do i spend what precious little free time i get from my job hanging out with teenagers? at the end of the week on the beach we sit in our small groups and go around and tell each other why we love each other. and the kids and adults do it. no matter how uncomfortable you are, you still love it.we laugh, we cry, we take breaks to stand in the ocean and this year we ate cookies. you get through it, and when it's over you feel so much more connected to those kids sitting around you. one of my favorite kids, who i've had a few times in small group over the past 2 years was in my group this year. and he told me i was an 'awesome leader' and that i had helped him learn things about himself that he wouldn't have otherwise learned. that is why i spend my vacation with teenagers. because under their facade of tough guy jock-ness they're softies, and you get to see that vulnerability and encourage them to go places they wouldn't normally go. i've often said that you don't learn anything when you're comfortable. these kids push themselves into uncomfortable situations because they know they're in a safe, loving community. there is no better place to screw up than our youth group. because we will love you before, during, and after you've screwed up. and you will learn things you never knew before.

hello!

i'm back from the beach! nice and tan, not that bugbitten, and much more relaxed than i was when i left. we had a great time, i'll write more about that soon. probably tonight. i'm trying to get back into the swing of work, checking my email (ugh) and voicemail (double ugh). i hope you all had a great week and i'll post more about the beach and hopefully some pictures tonight :O) r

hanging with the horse till the 28th

no really, one of our kids took this picture on last years trip :O)

have a great week!
love and hugs
r

random schmandom

* my sister will be home next week!! granted i won't be here to see her, but she'll at least be in the united states! wahoo!!
* i'm off to the beach on sunday! hanging out with 51 high school kids for a week in assateague island md
*the prozac is good, but making me a bit dizzy every once in a while. however if that's my trade off for emotional stability, i'll take it.
*i'm totally exhausted. i've been working on the programs for the kids for next week and it's been stressing me out, which affects my ability to fall asleep at night. so i'm super tired. hopefully tonight i can get to bed earlier.
*i was listening to the local AM radio station yesterday on the way to work and the hosts were talking about nuclear energy and how both presidential candidates are pretty clear that we need to reinvest in it. and the announcer guys were like 'well until we have a type of energy that produces no waste, that's what we should go with'. um. mr. announcer and mr. announcer, i'd like to introduce you to my friends solar power and wind power.
*i MUST do laundry tonight. i cannot laze about the house and be sleepy. must. wash. clothes. and muuuuuuuust make list of what i'm packing for the beach.
*it's been sparsely populated at work all week and so i keep thinking it's friday. but it's not.
* i got yelled at and hung up on by a client yesterday. sigh.

oooh and the most exciting thing ever! THE CELTICS WON!!!!! sorry nate, but i LOVE rondo (he went to UK!) and kg. GOOOO CELTICS!

i think that's all. i'm trying to get all caught up with my work so that when i come back from vacation it's not overwhelming. happy thursday everyone!
hugs. r

thanks usher!

hey everyone, usher thought he'd lend us hand in the whole debate of why some people are attracted to members of the same sex. biology? genetics? bad childhood? naw, it's just pure supply and demand:

"Women have started to become lovers of each other as a result of not having enough men."--Usher

thanks for clearing that up!

so

yesterday when i was driving home from my parents house i heard a debate on npr. the people were debating legalizing a system where you would be monetarily compensated for donating an organ. apparently there are lots of people out there who feel like you should be able to just pay for an organ if you need a transplant, instead of waiting for one to be donated. the argument being that then you could just get one when you needed one and wouldn't have to wait or potentially die on the list. the argument against is that it will essentially price people out of getting transplants, and that it wouldn't increase the number of donors anyway. now i'm not sure about all the details, i'm sure there is more info on the npr webpage and various places on the internet. but from what i did hear, i think i'd be really ambivalent about supporting cash for organs. dad almost died on the transplant list. if they hadn't done the first surgery (on a thursday) the doctors said he wouldn't have lived through the weekend. his liver wasn't functioning really at all and his kidneys were starting to fail, and his blood sugar was out of whack as well. dad had three false alarms, three livers that they considered, that dad went to danville, got ready for surgery, and then the doctors said no. the fourth liver was his first transplant and his fifth shot is the one he has now. all of those livers came from donors. none of them were compensated, and in my dads case, he needed an entire liver so his donors were deceased. in america we have a system where the wealthiest members of our society get the best of everything. so why would this make transplants any different? the rich already have better health care, so now we'll price the poor out of organs as well? it just doesn't sit well with me. one of the debaters brought up blood donation, and that in america and in england they used to pay for blood donations. then england stopped the compensation and america still had compensation for a while, and england was getting more donations uncompensated, than america was getting compensated. so we switched to a non-compensation system and that's where we still are today. incidentally dad used upwards of 30 units of donated blood in his transplants. it's an interesting debate, one that i'm sure will continue and hopefully will get some more press and more voices to contribute. what do my legions of readers have to say?

UPDATE: here's a wall street journal blog about cash for organs

dawn wednesday...

for the week at the beach we'll be sneaking in some prayer/meditation time for the kids. it's something we do each year, but this year we're going to work a little more intentionally from thomas merton's 'a book of hours'. that book gives you a little sequence of prayers or meditations for four times during the day, dawn, day, dusk and dark. there are a bunch of different readings for each time, so we're not going to do all of them (obviously) but i'm working on doing some of them each day and hope that when i'm on the beach i can do all of each time for the whole week. we'll see how it goes! the following section is the prayer we're having our kids read wednesday morning, since most of you will read this wednesday morning(ish) i thought it was appropriate. it's good stuff! stuff i'm finding i just absolutely love reading. i hope you enjoy it! i think i'll probably post some readings and maybe some reflections later that day or the next day. we'll see. for now, enjoy your first dawn wednesday reading :O)

Sunrise is an event that calls forth solemn music in the very depths of man's nature, as if one's whole being had to attune itself to the cosmos and praise God for the new day, praise Him in the name of all the creatures that ever were or ever will be.
I look at the rising sun and feel that now upon me falls the responsibility of seeing what all my ancestors have seen, in the stone age and even before it, praising God before me. Whether or not they praised Him then, for themselves, they must praise Him in me. When the sun rises each one of us is summoned by the living and the dead to praise God.

yikes

i can't believe it's been a week since i blogged anything!(apologies to my legions of devoted readers) i took off friday and monday and have been dog sitting and working on programs for the high schoolers and being hot. here in the north east it's been 90's for quite some time. so i've been hanging out in the basement,with a fan. and a 6 pound pomeranian. he's the one in the picture with his new alligator friend. my brother and sister in law were doing stuff at their house and so i got to hang with the dog. i will blog more later today :O) but it's off to therapy and then to let the dog out then back to work. happy tuesday!

best. bumper. sticker. ever.

so i stopped at the local mcdonalds to grab a soda on my way back to work today and there was this big ol dusty ford in front of me with a square black sticker in the middle of the end of the bed and the sticker said

BUSH
like a rock
only dumber

needless to say that was not what i was expecting the sticker to read. hahah. how fun. oh and i was on the vanity fair website looking over that bill clinton article, and they have a bush countdown clock on their site. sigh.

happy tuesday! and happy june!