Year one down; CPE begins today!

I haven't been as diligent about writing as I'd like to be ... of course. I should have been able to predict that! At any rate, I have finished my first year of seminary, and today I begin ten weeks of CPE (clinical pastoral education) at Goodwin House, a retirement community in Falls Church, VA.

This will be a full-time gig: no sneaking home between classes to take a nap. In some ways, I imagine it will make life easier. My schedule will be pretty well dictated for me, so my priorities will be clear. But I may have to mourn the loss of that free, open schedule I had during the school year. Even at my last job I got to set my own priorities and structure my own time. This will be pretty well regimented. But we'll see ... there's a lot I don't know yet.

I am also losing my daily afternoon schedule with Sarah. We have arranged sitters for every afternoon, from the time she gets off the school bus to the time one of us gets home from work/CPE. It wasn't always easy being solo with Sarah nearly every weekday: there were lots of fights about how much homework would get done when, etc. But we did have a routine, and we'll both miss it. Things just keep shifting and changing.

I observed in my job at St. Thomas that about once a month I had to do something I had never done before. That's still the case. I think that's a pretty healthy environment in which to flourish. So here I go with some more flourishing. Please pray for me!