peaceful turbulence

My soul is stirring.  My imagination, unrestrained.  I am sensing a crossroad and I am feeling the flutter in my heart as I meet it.  I am being stirred by my commitment to live out my life with passion, intention, energy and a peacefulness that will outlast all twists, turns and turbulence along the way.

I have peacefully resigned to letting go of the destination by focusing on the day-to-day journey. A decision and philosophy that has liberated me from the angst of my inability to control each detour.  I have shifted my energy into pouring my heart and soul into each day, making each decision a loving and intentional one - a draining process that needs a tremendous amount of thought, focus and time. My soul is stirring. My passions are evolving. I am sensing a crossroad - one that may lead me down a different path than I am currently taking. 

I don't know how to do it all. I know that the amount of energy required of me to fully express each of my passions is too much to do it all to my standards. So, I am peacefully resigning to that turbulence that I feel is settling in. I have faith that with each dip and jolt the turbulence provides, a new sense of awareness will come over me. And as the clouds part, even for a split second, I will have the vision that will guide me in the direction I was meant to head toward. 

But until I arrive at my destination - if one truly even exists - I will enjoy the butterflies in my stomach that are meant to remind us we do not need permission to be giddy along the way. 

This was the view from my window seat on the airplane as I watched the sun set -
the same sun I watched rise over the ocean only hours earlier. 

Have faith in your process. Do not let the fear of the unknown overshadow the giddiness and energy that fear can provide.  And may the gratitude we've felt and expressed this week become a trend in our thoughts and in our words. Let us go forth together to love, serve and honor one another today and all the days to come.

Being Thankful

"It is not happy people who are thankful - it is thankful people who are happy."

This year we added a new Thanksgiving tradition to our already-stuffed day - The Minneapolis Turkey Day 5K. We couldn't have picked a better year to start it; the weather was gorgeous. We trotted for 32 minutes, dodging in and out of strollers, dogs and fellow runners/walkers. We ran with my dear friend Kerin and her family and celebrated Mike & Kerin's first official race. Of course the celebration called for a post-trot Caribou. 

We are lucky that our family traditions do not overlap too much as we celebrate over lunch with Mike's family and dinner with mine. We have a feeling at some point we won't be so lucky so we are going to enjoy it as long as we can! 

Lunch is always served at half-time of the first football game - timing that is everything but coincidence. 

Mike always has his place set up for him outside on the front lawn. This year, however, Bob. was naughty in a family email exchange and therefore was set up outside, too. I was sitting in the kitchen when Mike's aunt got a call from the neighbor across the street asking what whoever was sitting outside did to deserve that. It happens every year and it never seems to get old...

We continued the Rohde tradition of playing a little cousin football. You know it's a perfect Thanksgiving day when we are outside in t-shirts. My team won this year, by the way. No big deal, though.  

Our day kept getting better and we headed to Medina for a very different but equally great celebration with my family. I only have two cousins so it's a much smaller crowd but now that we are all older, my mom trusts us enough to bring out the beautiful china. The table is set so nicely - it is one of my favorite aspects of my family holidays. 

Marcia (my dad's mom) who lives in Florida, came back to Minnesota with us. 

It was her first time meeting her first great-grandchild. She seemed to enjoy it.

Cousin Max playing with "the turkey". 

Pumpkin spice muffins my sister made - a must continue tradition! 

Let the countdown to Christmas begin...

Let us live each day with the spirit of Thanksgiving so that our gratitude for all of whom and which we are thankful does not go unknown and without celebration. 

Graffiti16, Farewell Milwaukee & O.A.R.

I love music.  Particularly anything acoustic. It reminds me of sitting in the 'underground' coffee shop on Wednesday nights in college, listening to traveling bands make their rounds throughtout colleges all over the county.  I met some of my current favorites on those Wednesday nights - Blu Sanders, Matt Wertz, Ellis... And after last night, I can add three more to my list.  Mike & I went to the Cities97 Sampler 23 Release Party at First Ave in Minneapolis, which is one of my favorite venues. So many great artists have played there - most notably for me, of course, was the Hanson concert two years ago. There is some incredible history there.  Anyway, it was very random...one of those neat perks to his job - VIP passes from a sponsor of some sort. It was such a chill night. We stopped at Jimmy Johns & Caribou off of Penn Ave (which is always oddly busy, by the way) and then headed to First Ave.

Graffiti16 was first, followed by Farewell Milwaukee and the O.A.R. They were all great but I particularly loved O.A.R. We had a great time, listening to beautiful music, chatting with some of Mike's work buddies. If you ever get a chance to see a concert at First Ave, do it. Speaking of...December 1st Chris Kluwe's band 'Tripping Icarus" is playing there. You should all join us! :)

Look at this awesome venue...

Farewell Milwaukee 

O.A.R.

My Topeka Travels

I just returned home from the capital city of Kansas. Topeka, meaning "to dig good potatoes" is a pretty direct shot straight south from good old Northfield. My great friend and co-worker Glen (or Doug as my family often mistakenly calls him - have no idea why) and I made the drive down and had a blast along the way. We visited 2 Universities (Washburn & Kansas), explored 3 cities (Topeka, Lawrence and Kansas City), drove through lots of random cities, ate lots of bad food and made a few pretty cool friends from Gustavus.

The purpose for our travels was the 2011 UMR-ACUHO Conference, which is the Upper Midwest Region of the Association for College and University Housing Officers. It was hard to beat last years UMR conference in Minneapolis, but we made the drive and had a blast along the way. Most of my favorite memories from the weekend were the car rides to and from Topeka and our dinners out but we did have a few really interesting sessions at the conference.

It's always interesting to hear what our colleagues from all over are up to at their institutions but sometimes I find it hard to connect to their mission. I'm not sure if it's because I'm not a "true" housing person or if my passions are just a bit different within the context of student affairs. But I was attending a session on how to engage men in meaningful conversations and I found myself feeling very much on the outside. Before the session began, the presenters explained how they identify as gendered beings. The female presenter identified herself as a cis-gendered non-conforming female. (Cis-gendered is used as an adjective in the context of gender issues to refer to a class of gender identities formed by a match between an individual's gender identity and the behavior/role considered appropriate for one's sex.) The non-conforming label came in as she described how she dresses less femininely and denies some of the socially constructed labels women are taught and therefore is non-conforming. She explained further that because she was not wearing a skirt and high heels, she was non-conforming. They continued to describe the labels that have been created for the spectrum of masculinity and femininity and I found myself very confused. And a bit frustrated. Depending on the day, I have a very different style. I wear a skirt when I feel like it and love to get dressed up once in awhile but much of the time, I'm wearing some kind of athletic wear. According to their labels, I don't fit nicely in any little box. I identify as a girl 100% of the time yet I don't really belong anywhere on their scale. I was so distracted thinking about how it seems that those who fight labels and feel excluded are often the ones creating more of them and in turn, excluding what I consider the norm. I'm about as biologically and physiologically normal as they come yet for some reason that seems abnormal. You're either male, female or in-transition, right?! Maybe I'm missing something...

Anyway...other than that, I attended a couple pretty good sessions about grant writing, becoming a better advisor, synthetic drug use and vandalism. It was a beneficial weekend and we are already looking forward to Wisconsin Dells UMR 2012 next year!

Here are a few Instagram pics from the week...