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Leaking Gold

God loves us so much that he allows us the freedom to choose our paths. As humans, born with concupiscence, our inclination to sin, we are fragile. Just like a piece of pottery, the wear and tear of life, overtime starts to take those tiny cracks in our holiness and make them bigger, wider, and more visible. Like a broken vessel leaks water, we leak grace.  Our brokenness is a reality and eventuality. Because of original sin we have no choice but to inherit a weakened nature and attraction to sin. Since God meets us where we are, He devised a plan that uses our very brokenness to become even more beautiful. However, God has a vision for each and every one of us. His plan for us to become not broken, but whole. The best version of ourselves. In Japan, there is an art form called Kintsugi. A broken vessel instead of being thrown out, is taken and repaired by an artist. The philosophy of Kintsugi is to use the history of the vessel and its brokenness and instead of hiding it, the arti...
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Productive Struggle

I went to a professional development session recently about productive struggles within a classroom. How allowing my students to falter a bit and figure out how to gain their “footing” back is more beneficial than handing off the answers.  This particular session was given to all of us elective teachers. So this former math teacher is trying to tell a bunch of fine art teachers and coaches about how to use the discipline of struggling as a way to strengthen and deepen a student’s knowledge. Most of us chuckled and made comments to our comrades under our breath because we live in that model every single day. Watching our students waver, and pick themselves back up. Only stepping in when absolutely necessary.  Tonight I was meal prepping for the week and it was all going wrong. I was trying to boil lasagne noodles that aren’t supposed to be boiled so the water was attacking my stove, I had a fight with the oil in the pan I was cooking my sauce in that sprayed stuff everywhere… n...
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Shall We Dance?

Growing up, I was enthralled with all things musical theater. Singing, Acting, and Dancing. Watching my friends and then my younger sister being placed into dance classes always plucked at a little twang of jealousy. Swimming was the sport for my family... and for 11 years it was a constant for me. Eventually, though, I made it onto the dancefloor in high school. It started with taking dance as a P.E. credit and then rolled into my experience on the stage. I got good fast. What attracted me to dancing? The freedom? The expression? The vulnerability? Choir did the same to an extent in those categories for me.  Then my musical theater friends dragged me to a swing dancing event. I already knew how to two-step and that was always fun... but something about the unspoken conversation during a partner dance at a swing dance was unlike any other. Pushing, pulling, twisting, jumping... all of these commands given and received without words. A different energy fills the air at these events....
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The Little Things

LOCKDOWN! LOCK! LIGHTS! OUT OF SIGHT!  I sprint down the hallway of my choir room to check the hallway and lock the door, not thinking. While running back, reaching out to turn off hallway lights along the way, my retractable keychain hits my lip. In the main area of my room, 28 middle school boys are staring at me frozen. I yell at them to get behind the risers breaking stride briefly to shut the last two light switches off.  Thank God my voice started coming back today.  Heading towards the spot I always take behind the risers, (the only space visible to anyone who enters the room), I trip over my piano bench from the sudden dark and miraculously keep my footing.  Thank God I wore my high tops today.  Okay, next task. Checking off in an app who is safe, absent or missing.  Thank God I charged my phone last night.  One of the seventh graders who usually fights me on everything, today wanted to check for their inhaler with the nurse. After a brief argu...
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