psychology and spirituality

One of the core concepts and goals for this course that I'm taking is to grapple with the problem of integrating psychology and religion. Can it be integrated? Should it be integrated? I find these questions relevent and almost a relief. Doing a degree in Religions and another one in Psychology (it wasn't a combined degree) naturally made me ask these questions. I wanted to do a thesis on something within this issue. What's the history? Why is there a separation? What's happening now between the fields? I could even see the practicallity of the issue. There were classes that I found exciting because of the prof's seeming personal integration. Some prof's in Religions would totally discount Psychology and others had such a personal demeaner that you felt, even in their teaching style, an integration. (If this all sounds confusing it's because in my head it is confusing too. I can't get it out right) So you can imagine what I feel like coming to a class that focuses on these questions. Unfortunately, instead of answering them, we are just provided with multiple answers and are told to explore and grapple... great. I don't have any answers of my own yet since I'm already behind but I have been reading a bit and already find it really intriguing.
The book I'm reading is called Psychology, Theology, and Sprituality by Mark R. McMinn. As the book title shows, his idea is that integration in counselling comes when you have an understanding of not only psychology and theology but also of spiritualy. He says that spirituality is the 3rd leg of the tripod that counselling stands on. I totally get that. Well, not really but it does make sense to me. The profs that seemed to integrate were the ones who had a great understanding of spirituality. This scares me though. How is my spirituality? I find spirituality interesting and I would love to grow in spiritual formation. And these quotes scare me even more:
"Thus, the Christian counselors best prepared to help people are those who are not only highly trained in counseling theory and techniques and in theology but also personally trained to reflect christian character inside and outside of the counseling office. This character cannot be credentialed with graduate degrees or learned in the classroom; it comes from years of faithful training in the spiritual disciplines..."
Yikes, get me out of here. I am NOT qualified!
And then, at 10:15 we stop class for the weekly chapel that takes place every Thursday. They actually stop classes so that the M.Div. students can go. It is a small chapel since there are not many of us at school everyday. We sing a few songs and then the Dean comes to give a little talk since it's her turn this week. She says that she is going to be speaking on Moses and his responses to God's calling. His responses were laid out in 4 or 5 clear points (obviously not CRC or there would only be 3) and God's responses were also laid out. I don't remember exactly what they were but it basically came down to Moses saying "me? I'm not qualified" and God saying "I am who I am. That's what matters. I know you aren't qualified in all the areas but I will provide. You have my authority and you have my words."

Winnipeg - Part 2

Sunday afternoon blues seems worse when you are returning after a week of vacationing. I still have tomorrow though, so it's not too bad. At first I was disappointed when I heard that Alisha was having her wedding out here but now I'm so glad that we were forced to come here. I love the people. I love the opportunity to come see more of Canada. We've gotten a lot closer to our family out here and I'm already looking forward to the next time when we're all together.
Friday night we had a pig roast at Yvonne and George's. It was sooo good. These women are known around Winnipeg as the sisters who know how to cook. They even have a bit of a catering business. Well we had brown beans, coleslaw, the pig, and some great desserts. Oh, I was sooo full. And of course we had endless supplies of wine that Opa made. He made piles of wine for the wedding and it turned out that they weren't allowed to use it there. Well, we couldn't let it go to waste right? oops. No, I was actually really good. Saturday was such a crazy shuffle. You know how bad things happen in 3's. Well, I think there was more than 3 bad things that happened for Alisha's wedding. What a crazy day. She was really good with it all though. First of all, the family all returned on Sat. night after the pig roast and found out that their sewers had backed up. oh nooo. The plumber actually came that night and at midnight was roto routing the pipes. bleaaccchh. I'm glad we weren't staying here. Oh, but before all of this, the cap of Alisha's root canal came off on Thurs. night so she had an emergency dentist appointment for 4:00 on Friday afternoon... just before the rehersal. The next morning, back to the day of the wedding, everyone woke up early for the makeup appointment. The girl that was coming insisted that the appointment be at 7:00 so they were all up and waiting and SHE DIDN'T SHOW!!! Alisha tried calling her but for some reason the phones wouldn't work. She ended up calling on a cell phone and the girl said that she had a headache so she wasn't going to come. What an excuse. I think that's pathetic. That could really mess things up for a bride. So someone called the phone company, someone else called A. Michelle to come and do the makeup and the girls were all carted off to their hair appointments. Dan and I came to the house here after all of this. The house was empty, but a mess. The phone guy was out on the ladder repairing the wires that SQUIRRELS had eaten through!! I cleaned up the house and started organizing when I realized that no one had had anything to eat that morning yet and a hungry bunch of girls were going to come home in a minute with no food at all in the house. Dan was gone back to Wes and Lindas for a sec. and I would have called him to ask if he could bring back some food but the phones weren't working, right. So Dad and I went out quickly to buy some bread and fruit. While we were gone, the bride came back all done up and wanted Dad to bring her to get her pictures done with the groom but alas... we missed it all. Dan and Britt had to bring her away... and still with nothing to eat!! The rest of us all had a relatively normal day after that. We all got ready, did the family pictures and all that and enjoyed the wedding. Oh, except for the someone forgetting to bring the wedding register so they didn't technically get married at the church. The reception really was the most memorable part of the day. The dance floor was constantly full and of just Dan's family. It was a blast!! We all danced the night away while Opa and Oma sat there watching and enjoying seeing all their kids having fun. I didn't have any wine. I enjoyed being bloated with beer instead (never as good a wine). Dan was the entertainment. Lets just say it was his turn to have a few too many.
Today is the day to say good-byes since we leave first thing in the morning. Dan and I are going to see "Little Miss Sunshine" in the theatres with some cousins and aunts and uncles and then back to Alishas to hang out with our family here for the night .
I'm looking forward to seeing how our animals made it. I want to see if Chloe ever calmed down at Mike and Arlenes (their dog didn't like her). I wonder if the chickens stopped laying because of the new place. And the goat!! We'll see if Mozz ate all of Arlenes gardens.

My sister, Sarah

I have a beautiful little sister. Her name is Sarah and she is doing an environmental science internship in Kenya. She has a blog (which, ahem, I did help set up) and it is moving, heartfelt follow of her trip, her experience and her growing. If anyone needs inspiration, excitement or is bored, please go to this blog.

Winnipeg - Part 1

I guess I've been here for two days now and I still haven't written anything. Oops. Sorry.
We got here around 6ish (I think) and came to Alisha and Franks. They have a stucco bungalow house in a subdivision. It's nice. Alisha and mom worked on some gardens earlier this year so they've got some nice flowers around. Subdivisions here are backwards though. The frount of the house has a walkway up to the house but now driveway. The driveway comes up behind the house from an alleyway. I think its some crime prention strategy. We had a great dinner of BBQed chicken on buns. Instead of heading to A. Linda and U. Wes's the first night we all crashed here. We all slept "in a candy". (I guess Alisha once said "we are all in a candy" when the whole family was together and the phrase has since stuck). The next day was all a kerfuffle of driving around, visiting and not really doing much. I did buy a pair of pants though. I have come to love the GAP just because they make a "tall and lean" cut of pants. So expensive though!! We even shopped around. Places just don't make long jeans for less than $70. We went to U. George and A. Yvonne's place for soup and cookie making. I should take a picture of these cookies because they are awesome. They are being made as the wedding favours. A. Yvonne is such a wonderful person. I want to be like her. She's got a beautiful kitchen because she's an amazing cook and baker. Plus, she is an amazing quilter. She's the Wikk equivalent of A. Anita. And their house is beautiful. They moved out here a couple of years ago and built their own open concept house. We slept at U. Wes and A. Linda's last night. It was awesome. We had our own room, just relaxed with cousin Kristen and slept great!
This morning A. Linda, Britt, A. Michelle and I went for a power walk/tour of the city. We probably walked for about 6 km. 2.5 hours. It was good though. I wanted to see the city, some cute parts of town and the tourist things. We stopped at the legislative building, took a tour of it, went to a trendy street and then walked to "the forks". This is where the Red River and the ____ River intersect. What a trip. The wedding party girls all went to get their nails done this afternoon so I decided that us guys were going to have a spontaneous happy hour. We went out and bought some beer and ceaser supplies... mmm. And here we are. Dan just opened a Moosehead with his ass, David Grey is playing in the background and the girls are trickling in with beautiful nails done. ... Sorry about the spelling mistakes. It's happy hour. :)

Books

Wow, guys. I got so many really nice, reassuring comments from that last post. I must have made it sound really difficult and brave of me. I should read it again.
I haven't had much time to really think about it since then (work and camping occupying my time since then) but I'm looking forward to going again. It really wasn't that big of a deal looking back on it. It was fun figuring out how to get there. I feel pretty confident.
I love Prof. Stephenson. She mentioned that I should tell her what my book list is for this course and so I called her up to see if maybe she might have some books. She had two out of the four books that I need plus she sent me away with 2 extra books that I would be interested (and would help for the paper) and a promise for a tea date with her when Dan and I get back from Winnipeg. And I'm not even her student anymore!! Isn't that awesome? I love that lady. She really is a personal mentor.
About Winnipeg, Dan and I are going there tomorrow. Dan, his family and I are all going because his sister, Alisha, is getting married there this weekend I've gone from excited, to nervous back to really excited again. I was nervous just because of the work and class that we'll be missing when we're gone but I'm super excited now. I really want to see more of Canada and Winnipeg is always on the CBC (radio one). They've got some good music coming from there. Dan likes all the COPS episodes coming out of Winnipeg too. Or is that Edmonton. :) ha ha ha.
Anyways, now I've got lots of books (plus the ones that I picked up from the R. Library and the novels I'm going to steal from Hannelle) to pack for the trip. Like I'll get any reading done. It's worth a try. And it will be good reading too. I like Mom's comment about how I can now really focus on the one course. I totally agree. I think I might be able to get a lot more out of these courses taking them part time.
Off to visit with Hannelle.... thanks for keeping up with what I'm doing.

My first class

I had my first class and I was late. oops. I came for the orientation and was late for that too. I can't seem to figure out how to make this trip go faster. I tried two different routes. I think the third time will be a charm. Less transfers, same time in the morning. Waking up wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. I even made myself some fried eggs on toast with a coffee to go. I got to class about 15 min. late. In the class, the professor mentioned he doesn't want anyone to be late to class but afterwards, when I said sorry and mentioned that my commute started at 5:00 in the morning he looked like he felt really bad. I'm still looking for fellow commuters.
Class went well, nothing big. We just went over the syllabus and had some class discussion. Turns out, every Thursday, in the middle of class, there is a Chapel service so our class breaks for that every week. That was nice. Different though. There are some crazy different people here. All sorts of ethnicities and denominations. It great. It's going to be interesting and stretching.
I should go though. It'll be a long commute home and I still have to buy some school stuff.

T University college and Seminary

Orientation Day. On Wednesday I had a $70 orientation all day course that I had to go to. I was kinda cynical about it since I didn't feel like I needed an orientation. I can figure it out on my own. But i also know that these things can be helpful for other reasons. According to Dan's luck, our car just happened to break down for the week too so the plan to drive up for the 8:30 start time was kaboshed. On Monday night Dad W. helped me look up the public transit and figure out how in the world I was going to get there. The schedule to get there at 8:30 included getting up at 4:30, almost missing a bus, walking for half an hour, transferring 3 times, getting a bit lost and finally arriving an hour late. It didn't matter though. I really did have fun with it though. I felt like I was an adventurer again. Who needs to travel to other continents? It made me excited to do this every week for my Thursday class. I talked with lots of other people that were commuting from much longer distances than I would be and got lots of advice on which transit systems would be faster. One of my favorite pros of the day was the encouragement that I got from other people. When I think of the logistics of where Dan and I live, how hard it will be to get to school, and the amount of time that it would take to get my degree (3-6 years) I wonder if I really should go there. Is it a waste my time? Is this really what I should be doing? But then, when I read about the program and look at the courses that I will be taking I get really excited about it. It is really the direction that I want to be going in. And the people that I met there all had the same types of experiences. I find a lot of people think I'm crazy for going to a school that far away and then I start to question myself and feel silly but the people there all confirmed the importance of this.
The amount of time before I graduate and then even get registered makes me impatient a bit but I had a little brain wave last night when I was discussing it with Mom and Sarah. I think I'm done waiting. When I think about my life, I've always thought that I'll start it when school is over. For now I'm in limbo. I'm working at a part-time temporary job and waiting for school to be finished before I find something I love. I'm waiting for school to be finished before I start my family. I'm waiting for school to finish before I settle in to my life. I don't think I should anymore though. Even if I was going to school full time I wouldn't be done for another 3 years and I don't think that I will be doing that. My job is good for now and where we are living is good but I think I should start approaching my life differently. I should be living a fulfilling now which will include going to school. Sure, I've got plans but I'm not going to live waiting for that time. I think that means some active job searching.

Ingersoll, Sept 8-10

Here we are again. I feel like I haven't seen these people in ages. It could be because of our unavailability lately. I'm hearing grumblings about how impossible we are to get a hold of lately. Yes, we're busy but I can't even think of what it is that we're so busy doing. We work... and I don't know what else. There's a whole post coming about my day at the new school.
Oh I love coming to Ingersoll. Its a mix of a whole bunch of things. I could be in the middle of the craziest busy schedule, that includes coming here, but as soon as we get here the schedule stops. Life pauses and the only thing that we do is whatever we feel like. It could get a bit boring for Dan but this weekend he has a bit of a schedule (firearms re-qualification). I love the people. Sarah is home for the weekend before she goes to Kenya. Yikes, Kenya! She's got a blog started up for that if you want to check it out. It's not really up and running but it should be by next week. It's like a bed and breakfast here. There's a lot of relaxing.. a lot of eating... a LOT of talking... and this time, not too much drinking. Dan's cut me off.
I was done working by 2:00 and so we got to town nice and early. Early enough to drop in quickly on mom's grade 1 class. She has a great class this year. They are super cute passive good kids. After Dan suggested that you should eat boogers on "green" day and got in a tiff with a little girl about what her name was we left and got home while Dad was finishing up mowing the lawn. It was just enough time to unpack and relax before Cass and my long lost sister, Sarah, came home. The night has been a loud tornado of fun since then. We ate supper, went out for icecream and had Wilma over to show us pictures of the latest grandchild.
Tomorrow morning we're getting up early to get Timmies and then go grocery shopping. I'm looking forward to it but at the same time, right here and now, by the fire, sipping a drink and enjoying the internet (finally!!) is wonderful. I love it.