Sorry for the long silence. Life gets in the way of writing, though there wouldn\u2019t be much to write about without it. I\u2019m back, so come visit if you\u2019re not too put off by the summer (blogging) blank.<\/p>\n
June and July were crazy with teaching, many house guests, and a trip to Tohoku. I posted grades July 20th<\/sup>, and left the next day for the States. After a week in Chicago to start a two year program in spiritual direction at North Park, I hit the ground running and felt like Sister Lawrence in the kitchen of the Akagi Bible Camp where I cooked for the month of August. I arrived back in Tokyo on August 2 and served dinner for 30 at camp on August 3 after doing the shopping on the way up the mountain. The jet lag was a little extreme, hitting as soon as I sat down to eat dinner\u2026I don\u2019t recommend that kind of pace, but God provides strength when needed and wonderful coworkers.\u00a0 A quote offered me much food for thought during long and challenging days in the kitchen: \u201cThere is nothing- no thing, no person, no experience, no thought, no joy or pain- that cannot be harvested and used for nourishment on our journey to God.\u201d (A Tree Full of Angels<\/em> by Macrina Wiederkehr)<\/p>\n MY vacation has finally started. The last two days with the kids off to school I did the online orientation for distance learning- talk about feeling like an old dog trying to learn new tricks. For those of you in my age bracket, you might find this YouTube clip rather funny; just try not to call me Ansgar.<\/p>\n