Contemplative Silence

Today has been an absolute case of the song "Manic Monday". How can the second week of the quarter already be so hectic when I'm taking classes like Stress Management and Devotional Writing? It's truly a paradox. Stress Management happens to be one of my most stressful classes due to its enormous amount of continual busywork and I'm putting my vote in for a change of course title. "Stress Induction" is much more fitting in my opinion.

As far as Devotional Writing, I absolutely love the course from the get-go. We had our first meeting today and I'm the only health major of the four of us. The other three are English majors. The instructor exclaimed, "Oh well then! We are so well-rounded and diversified!" Glad I could help with the diversity. They should offer scholarships for that.

Our professor is introducing us to new ways of meditation and contemplative silence that we will then use in our writing. Anyone who knows me knows that I love this sort of stuff. After taking Early Church History last quarter I was completely fascinated with the idea of monasticism. Thomas Merton who wrote "New Seeds of Contemplation" lived a monastic life and wrote beautifully about it. Now, given that I'm truly an extrovert at heart I don't consider myself the best candidate for the monk-ish and completely solitary lifestyle. However, Merton is a proponent for the idea of solitude in the midst of community. Catchy, I might say.

Now here is the amusing part of my evening. The professor just had shoulder surgery and hasn't been able to drive herself for the last couple of weeks and so she needed a ride home. She is the sweetest woman but also the classic example of the ultimate introvert. Then there's me, the extrovert, fighting to volley a flat conversation with every lame conversation starter I can muster. So after a class discussing contemplation and meditation, I am amused to say that the car ride to her house was a complete rendition of "contemplative silence."

And in closing, I've just gotta say that yesterday on the mountain was an epic day of snowboarding. We got 3 inches of fresh powder with some fabulous sunshine and met up with some good friends by pure chance for an incredible day of riding. My favorite moment of the day was the ultimate crash and burn. Coming off of one of the black diamonds, Lauralen hit a mini-mogul offbalance in front of me and biffed as I tried to come to a screeching halt and biffed it as well. James and Jillany, right behind us, nearly miss us as we are trying to stop our tuck and roll, and plow into the trees. It was almost a 4 rider pile up amongst ourselves. Oh we looked so cool.

Oh and I woke up to miraculous sunshine at 8 am Sunday morning and beated out the house to go for a run before it disappeared. It was the first time I had run since winter started and what an incredible morning it was. Life is really good.