First Impressions

Good morning all!  I hope your Memorial Day is off to a good start, hopefully with coffee and a cinnamon roll or something.  I revisited my childhood with a bowl of frosted flakes with a banana.  Not that you care, but you chose to read this blog post.

Anyhow, when last you heard from me, I was preparing for the long trip that would put me in my summer location of Marshall, Minnesota.  I have since arrived.  And you know what?  I like this place.

On the trip up, I took a little side trip out to a friend's farm in rural Norfolk, Nebraska.  It was an absolutely gorgeous area, tucked back in massive rolling hills.  As I stood out on the little pond dock they had, I could hear cock pheasants crowing all around me, and soon began to see a few.  The family that hosted me were incredibly kind hosts, and I am super grateful for a place to stay over.

The following morning had me on the road.  After a stop for chicken livers at Cracker Barrel in Sioux Falls and a detour along Highway 23, I found myself on the campus of Southwest Minnesota State, checking into my apartment.  There were a few bumps along the way- a bad smell in the apartment when I first arrived (nothing some Glade couldn't fix), an AWOL trashcan (maintenance brought it approximately Wednesday), and wifi that wouldn't work for a few days (finally got that fixed, too)- but overall, I have been very pleased with the apartment.  We have a kitchen, a washer and dryer, and free cable, with an inordinate number of channels.  I have been more glued to the various sports networks and travel-related shows than I care to admit.  Note that I say "we"- I have two roommates.  Both are interning with the Schwan Food Company, which is headquartered here in Marshall.  I get along pretty well with both, though we are all three pretty different.

The clinic I am working in is great.  I work five days a week with somewhat variable hours (10-6:30 on Mondays, 8-4:30 on Tuesdays and Fridays, 9-5:30 on Wednesdays and Thursdays), and a variable patient load.  Last week, we spent about half of our time in the clinic, and about half the time at a local retirement community.  The caseload has ranged from farmers with bad backs to a young lady born without ACLs.  The people here are incredibly friendly, and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with them.

Now, of course, Minnesota is a great state to get outdoors.  I have done so.  There are miles of biking paths around here, and I have spent quite a bit of time riding around.  I haven't seen a ton of wildlife- some 13-lined ground squirrels (the famous Minnesota "Golden Gopher," for those of you wondering), and what appear to be very runty prairie dogs compared to those we have back in Kansas.  I believe them, however, to be more intelligent and ritualistic than their Kansan counterparts, as I found about 30 of them surrounding my car one afternoon in what appeared to be some sort of ceremony.  I'm still not quite sure what that was about.  I also encountered a partridge while hiking, which flushed directly in front of me and nearly gave me a heart attack with the racket it made whilst breaking cover.

Oh, yes, the hiking.  I visited Camden State Park yesterday.  I fished in Brawner Lake for a few hours, catching a handful of largemouth bass that were too small to be worth bringing home.  Besides, apparently the dam was breached a year or two ago and they lost a large portion of the fish population, so they are asking for catch and release only with bass.  Fair enough.

Anyhow, after a few hours of relatively fruitless fishing, I decided to try out the hiking trails.  The trails varied from rolling prairie to woodlands, and I certainly knew I wasn't in Kansas anymore.  Bellwort, waterleaf, and phlox were everywhere. The whole trail was surrounded with beautiful purple flowers.

They smelled heavenly, too.  I'll try to do a better job taking pictures.  I forgot to bring my camera yesterday.  Those are courtesy my little cellphone.

Today, I'm cooking some BBQ in the slow cooker and sharing a meal with my roommates, and hopefully venturing out to another local state park.  Hopefully I'll bring home my first Northern.  That's a picture I would be happy to take and post for you all.

Stay dry back in Kansas.  Keep praying that I would remain centered on what God has called me up here to do.  I'll see you all soon.

The Threshold

I'm sitting at my kitchen table with a bowl of oatmeal (with blackberries- my favorite) and a cup of coffee.  It is absolutely beautiful outside with the sun coming up.  It's a cool morning, by May standards, but it promises to be a lovely day all the same.  Worth noting is that Kansas is currently cooler than my summer home in Marshall, Minnesota.  And unfortunately, my summer home is part of the reason I'm not paying as much attention to the lovely day as I should be.

Packing and cleaning are stressing me out.  You don't realize what you can't find until you start looking for it (to this, you are undoubtedly saying, "No, really?  Why am I reading this guy?").  You also don't realize how much trash you harbor until you start  moving trash out of a room in order to find things that you actually need.  I'm also seeing time as a commodity right now.  Seven to eight hours of work over the last couple of days are all I've been able to put into my bedroom so far, in part because of other important things I've needed to do, such as moving furniture, beginning pre-marital counseling, and getting my finances set for the summer.  I've also tried to give myself some rest and relaxation- this is, after all, my only week "off" before starting my summer clinical internship in Marshall.  So I think I'll try my luck fishing this morning/afternoon for about 3 hours or so.  Hopefully I don't pay in stress sweat.  I still have a lot of things to pack, a box of books to locate (likely misplaced after last summer's clinical), and a bicycle that needs checked out by someone who knows what they are doing.  I'm somewhat apprehensive about how much money I'll need to put into that sucker, but it will be a ride (hopefully) this summer that will save gas and make for easy entertainment.  Not that I won't already have plenty to do.  But sometimes, a mindless, outdoor activity is what I need to recover, and I have no lawn to mow or garden to tend.

So, again, picture painted, I'm sitting here, tired, and a little stressed out.  Beyond the prep work, there are unknowns out the ears.  Will I mesh with my CI?  What are the business standards at my clinic?  What kind of roommates will I be paired with in my university housing?  Will I find community in Minnesota?  Will my budgeting prove accurate (aka, will my funds last?)  But there was a little reminder that I didn't need to be so stressed.

http://solidjoys.desiringgod.org/en

I am far too focused on details that frankly just don't matter.  It may seem that they do.  But I'm not going to starve.  I'm (most likely) going to make it back to Kansas.  My focus shouldn't be on this experience as a weird vacation or even something I have been forced to do (I did choose the location, after all).  Even though Piper's blog doesn't necessarily speak directly into my circumstances, it is a reminder that I simply need to center myself.  I'm not seeking things that are above.  I'm merely seeking to keep my head above water.  There is a difference.

This summer, God has a plan for me.  I don't know what it is.  I would hope the plan is that I will treat a lot of patients, thus showing them God's healing grace; I will find a small community of believers that challenge and encourage me; and I find another individual that perhaps doesn't know God well whom I can invest in.  But those are expectations; and expectations of such a nature are dangerous.  What I should really be expectant of is that God will do with me as He sees fit.  My expectation should merely be that God will ask me to do something; in no way should I attempt to predict what that something will be.  All I can do is whatever the next thing God wants me to do is.

Today, that looks like listening to a Timothy Keller message while doing the dishes.  It looks like packing like crazy between fishing and running my bike down to get looked at.  It looks like posting this blog, which is an opportunity for the rest of the world to see the way I mentally process things.

I want to add, as well, that I will be continuing to update this blog over the course of the summer.  I will be posting at least weekly with photos, stories, thoughts, all sorts of things.  I might bring some physical therapy insights to the table.  I will hopefully be bragging about the giant Northern Pike I catch (a dream I have had since I was a little kid).  I will probably share what the Lord is doing in my life.  I will tell you all about my unusual\ experiences, ranging from weekend trips to dining experiences to probably some general commentary about where I am.  If any of that sounds interesting, or if it doesn't but you love me enough to read about it anyway, feel free to check out this blog.  I'll post links to Facebook and Twitter, so don't hesitate to check them out.

Enjoy your Wednesday, ladies and gentlemen.  Rest in Him, even when packing has you ridiculously stressed out.