http://www.embody.co.uk/labyrinth/online.html#

Check that link out. It is an interactive online labyrinth, a spiritual exercise with a lot of symbol and ritual and meditation. This online one is taken from a church in the UK. I just thought it was neat.

Anyway, so....life. I read other folks' blogs and they are often so profound or filled with eccentric stories about the city they're in. I feel like I dont have that to offer lately. Although DC remains the crazy city it is. I am thankful for small things today.

1. A man saw me carrying a mail bin putting scratches in my hands this morning it was so heavy and he offered to carry it for me up three flights of stairs in th DC Convention Center.
2. Last night I got to sip Malibu/Orange Juice on a rooftop bar with a good friend who just got a new job (assistant editor for Middle East Journal--how do I know these remarkable people??)
3. I am in love with my coworker's dog, Solea, a hairy black lab who loves me very much too. SO much that she starts whining and banging her tail on the ground and rolling onto her stomach when she sees me coming. What have I been missing all these years? I need a dog ASAP (well, after Princeton dorms) because they make me feel lovable just for something as simple as touch.
4. I am really enjoying Wicked and in general fiction is very soothing to read lately.
5. My dad wants to take me to a concert with his college roommate Tony on Friday. HA. So cute.

I realized something last night. There are two fundamentally different kinds of people in the world. Based on their experiences, a person may either approach life honestly thinking that they will prosper and everything will end up ok even through trials. I am that kind of person and my blessings have given me reason to be. But I have several friends who are different. They expect life to be really hard and to put them through hell and the exception, even miracle is when things work out well. I guess I never realized how many people wrestle with that worldview. It is not wrong. Not at all. Just hard. Is it realistic? Am I the one who is deluded?

Sometimes I fear I will not be able to be a good counselor one day if I have experienced very little despair yet in my life. I have struggles with self-esteem and worrying too much what people think and hurts in my past but still....Can I relate to those going through a lot more and will people trust me? I suppose many friends would say just wait. I'll have all the negative life experience I can handle because everybody does. I don't know though. I still don't think that way. Maybe, even if I run into more really hard times, there's something in my spirit that never will.

Seminary is going to be really good for me.