And Now to Write

These past couple of weeks, I've been reflecting on the questions I asked in my last blog post.   And this week, my questions to answer were "What do I treat as my primary identity?  Why?  How does it manifest?"  I knew this series would take a lot of introspection to answer.  Thankfully, an activity in one of my classes jump-started the process for me. As a "get to know you" exercise, all of us in my Translational Evidence and Theory for Practice class were asked to draw and share a pie chart of who we are.  I'm a pretty visual person, so I liked the concept of the exercise; however, it had a flaw.  It doesn't take having a math degree to know that all the "slices" of the pie chart have to add up to 100% and that there cannot be overlap between said slices.  If you give Jack and Diane two slices of pie, you don't tell Diane that some of Jack's pie is also hers and Jack that some of Diane's pie is also his.  They will give you w

Around this time of year, it's pretty common to hear people talk about their New Year's resolutions.  What they are, how they've already fallen short but are trying again, how long they think the resolutions will actually last, etc.  And then there's the group of people who boycott New Year's resolutions because of how they rarely make it past the one month mark.  I guess you could say I'm half-boycotter and half-resolutionist (sure, that can be a word).  Instead of choosing a goal like "exercise five times a week" or "wake up at 6:30 every morning," I choose a word to focus on for the year.  For example, the first year I did this I chose "humility" with the intent of growing in that virtue.  This year, my word is "everything." I know, it's an odd choice that sounds extremely vague.  The idea came to me while reading and reflecting on an Advent devotional centered on Mary.  While the devotional definitely emphasized

What a year!  2018 had so many ups and downs, mistakes and lessons learned, beginnings and endings. Following the lead of many others on Facebook, I thought I would share some snapshots of my past year.  However, I want to do so in a slightly different way.  Next to each major event, I'm going to add something I've learned from it. Started off 2018 with a mission trip to San Lucas Tolíman, Guatemala with friends from my Newman Center and University Lutheran. What I learned: the story of Bl. Stanley Rother  who served his parish in nearby Santiago Atitlán during the Guatemalan Civil War, knowing it would lead him to his death. Also learned how fun it is to ride standing up in the back of a pick up and how terrible it is to have amoebas. My Grandma Wiskow passed away in February, suffering from the effects of her second stroke the previous summer.  While I still miss her, especially at family gatherings, I know she's where she has longed to be ever since I was a fres