Well, here is my first post to my first blog. I first found blogs as links from the Lectionary website and starting reading to get inspiration for my sermons. This is just one more example of how things are all so interconnected in life. Who would think that one simple conversation in a grove in Wisconsin would lead to a whole new life in a few short months? Coming to this rural area was intially a decision of some logic (a way to reduce student loan debt) but a whole lot more faith. Leaving a life I'd been building for twenty years to start over in place I'd never heard of made so little sense in many ways, and yet it has been one the most transformative experiences of my life. I was back in St. Paul a few weeks back and it hit me as I was driving on the same road I took every day just how much change has happenend in such a short time. There are so many little tendrils that have come from this transplant. One of the biggest is discovering that I have so much more courage than I ever suspected. When you move yourself out of your context things get reduced to the basics and you can find, if you are willing, who you really are underneath all the habits and things taken for granted. I told my friends that first year was all about "sit down, be quiet and wait." The second year has been about life choices based on the things learned in the first one. Finding community, answering a call, taking risks and chances, reaffirming the basic and important things--love matters, commitment counts, atachments are futile, conscious witness will carry me through a lot.