Hollywood Sign and Echo Mountain Hikes

I tried to get some hiking in before my life gets really busy and exhausting again. I hiked up to the Hollywood sign and up to the hotel ruins on Echo Mountain. Both good hikes. The Hollywood sign is not as nature-y as I prefer but has a nice view of the city. I went on both of these hikes by myself, which was nice. They gave me a chance to be with God is nature.

I had a particularly good hike up Echo Mountain today with God. God was able to speak a lot of good things to me through the experience. The trail was not too crowded so there were times where I could stop and be completely alone and listen to the sound of silence. Its very refreshing to listen to the sounds of nature after living in the city.

Recently I have been reading Henri Nouwen's Life of the Beloved. (I will probably do another blog post on the book). I was reflecting on what is means to be the Beloved. Over the past few months I have been trying to actively pursue and experience God's love for me in a deeper way. I have a hard time recognizing when I experience God's love. I have been trying to be more aware of it. I try to check in with myself when I feel happy or doing something that I enjoy and ask myself, "Do I feel loved by God right now?" There were definitely times on the hike when I was waiting in the silence that I could say, "Yes" to that question. More than that, I could feel secure and safe in God's love, I feeling that is not always common place for me. Praise the Lord.

There was a moment when I was looking up at the sky when I saw an eagle soaring (it may not have been an eagle, but it was an eagle in my mind so the type of bird it really was is irrelevant) when I thought, "Whether or not I ever become a theatre teacher or get married doesn't really matter. My job is what I do, my relationship status is who is around me, those things are not who I am. I am Beloved and I will always be that." That was a significant realization for me given how I have been feeling recently. I have been a little anxious about how to continue to pursue my career as a theatre teacher. But even if that never happens, it does not change who I am. Also, in the past few months, a lot of the shame that I have felt about being single has really been broken. Yes, I still want to be a relationship and get married, but I lot of that shame and pain about not having those things has been lifted. I feel more free from the burden of the world's timeline for marriage and a family is. Praise the Lord, because that can only be him answering that prayer for me.

This post ended up being less about the hikes, but praise God for the way be speaks and brings peace though nature. Here are some pictures from the hikes.

Hollywood Sign Hike

View of Downtown
Behind the sign

In front of the sign

Echo Mountain Hike

The hotel ruins

Echo Phone
Playing with the echo phone

2012 Hopes and Wishes

I do not make New Years Resolutions that I can not keep but rather hopes of things that would happen in the upcoming year. Most of these things are less about what I can do, and more needing God to do them anyway. They are more prayers of what I would like to see happen (although I acknowledge that I do play apart as well.)

In no particular order

-Have a full time job involving children

-Being connected with people who can vision for and guide me to next steps to take in becoming a theatre teacher

-Dating (maybe a relationship this year ;)

-Have more patience, energy, and excitement with my students

- To be a more creative and engaging teacher

- Have better rhythms of spending time with God and maintaining spiritual disciples in the midst of working two jobs.

- Watch less TV, pray more.

That's all for now.

2011 Review

At the beginning of the year I set some things that I would hope would happen in this past year. Not resolutions, but hopes for the year. Here is how those things went.

-Have a stable job(s) doing something I love with kids-Success! I have 2 stable jobs both working with kids. Hooray!!!

-Aprendo mas espanol- Fail. If anything, I think my Spanish has gotten worse.

-Get to know my neighbors- Eh, not great progress here. Maybe I know them a little better but not what I was hoping for.

-Visit my nephew several times-I think this was a success. I saw him several times throughout the year.

-Date- I went one one date a few months ago! I call that a success. Hopefully there will be more dating this next year.

-Get to know more people at the church I attend/get involved-Success. I feel very connected to the small group. I volunteer in the nursery, I lead Sunday morning prayer, and I joined the intercessors prayer team.

-Make fasting more of a routine in my life- Complete fail. I don't think I fasted at all, maybe once after our church's fasting season.

-Continue to learn how to cook more-I would call this a success. Not that I am a great cook, but I have widened my range of what I can cook.

-See more plays- Complete fail. I haven't seen any plays :(

-Learn more of how to care for the poor in LA- Ongoing learning process. Its hard to gauge success and failure in this.

I will probably make another list of hopes for this coming year in a future post.

Animal Adventure

At my afterschool job, I have been working on this play with my kindergartners for a few months now. This is the second play I have done with kindergartners. My first play was during school so it was a much different environment. I set the bar pretty high for them because I wanted to challenge myself as a teacher and I wanted to push them a little to see what they could do. Every student had at least one line that they had to memorize and and three students had about 5-10 lines. One of my most difficult students, who never listens and throws tantrums, ended up having one of the main parts. He really really wanted to be the monkey and he enjoyed rehearsing (he doesn't enjoy most of the activities that we do) so I thought it would be a good motivator for him to keep him involved. It was quite a feat just to get this kid to cooperate. The play is about a cat and dog who find 2 lost monkeys and travel around to different environments looking for the monkeys' home. In the environments they sang some very truncated songs with hand motions. I was very impressed with my kindergartners ability to memorize their lines given that most of them can not read yet.

The last week of rehearsals was a little bit rough. Rehearsing the same thing over and over again requires focus and disciple which 5 year olds do not have. There were a few of them though, I tell you, that would give 100% with every hand motion, in every entrance, in how they said their lines, no matter how many times I made them do it. Stars on the horizon here. I was nervous about how it would come together. I have seen a lot of shows come together at the last minute as the kids get serious when they have an audience. I knew they would remember their lines and the songs, I was just worried about their volume and the transitions.

I was actually pretty calm on the day of the performance as I am usually frantic and stressed. (Can only be the work of the Lord). I didn't even try to do a run through. Either they knew it or they didn't at that point. It didn't quite come together the way that I had hoped but I learned what I need to do differently next time. At first, they froze a little like deer in the headlights with the audience. I think it was a bit overwhelming having so many people staring at them. They were pretty quiet, and I had to lead them on and off stage more than I had hoped, making it look unprofessional. But I have to remember that they are 5 and it was probably one of their first times onstage. Their costumes looked cute though. I got a lot of good feedback from the parents who really enjoyed it. It just didn't quite live up to the standards that I had for it. But it was good experience for me to put on an actual performance, and really who tries a play with kindergartners? I do, because I know they can do it. I can't post pictures of the kids for their privacy, but here are some pictures of some of the animals masks that I made for the show.

The jellyfish were my favorite They looked really cute. And yes, that is a shower cap, but doesn't it work for well as the top of a jellyfish!

The Holiday Season

The holiday season is always a mixed bag for me. On one hand, I do love a lot of Christmas traditions. I love the lights, songs, family camaraderie. On the other hand, the holidays can be a very stressful time. The consumerism of this nation drives me up the wall. I think this line from a commercial pretty much sums it up, "But if it looks the same, how will people know that I upgraded?" The Lord really needs to bring his judgment on this nation by how we behave around Christmas time. It's really disgusting. I went out this weekend to a shopping center and almost lost it. Two people snaked my parking spot and then when I finally did get a parking spot, I got yelled at because someone thought I stole their spot. After that, I was like, I need to leave or I am going to turn into one of these crazy people. Now, I am not trying to say that I am better than all these people. Obviously I can lose it too around the holidays too with the parking madness. I buy gifts for my family. I haven't figured out how to navigate this season with justice perfectly either. I am very much apart of this consumer driven culture as well. I feel stressed, lacking time to get everything done, and feel like I am missing out on anticipating the birth of Jesus. I am in need of repentance and forgiveness for my behavior as well. Lord would you break this hold that materialism has on this nation.

I also think that it's interesting to think about holiday shopping with the juxtaposition of Occupy Wall Street. Now, I am in general I am a very uninformed person, which is terrible, I know. But it seems that people are willing to protest the rich hording their wealth, but we are not willing to take responsibility for how we contribute to the problem of greed. Now maybe the people protesting are not the same crazy shoppers at the mall, but I think the general American public would support the movement of Occupy Wall Street but not want to give up their holiday shopping either. I say this living in LA, so I realize I have a skewed perspective on the nation. But don't these two things happening almost simultaneously seem strange?

Turkey Crafts

This was a Thanksgiving Turkey craft that I did with my students. I was actually really excited about how they turned out. I thought they looked really cute. Another use for toilet paper rolls. There is just so much you can make with them.

Thankfulness

In the midst of it being a tiring week and emotions flying around, I thought it would be good to reflect on things that I have been thankful for in this past year.

This year I am thankful for

-being fully employed finally. And having 2 jobs that I get to work with kids

-my adorable kinders. They bring me so much joy just to see their cute little faces

-being able to put on a play with my kinder soon

-teaching theatre at my summer camp this summer

-leading When Justice and Peace Kiss and being able to perform

-my beautiful nephew that I get to see in a few days

-my family that loves me and supports me, I am really thankful to be close to them

-my roommates that teach me how to eat healthier and pray with me

-men in my life that care about me

-what I have learned and been inspired by through Inner City Arts

-being able to understand more of how I experience God's love for me

-my bible study that encourages and love me

-the cuddly kids in my bible study who let me read to them and tickle them

-a car (after getting into a accident and having to buy a car, I take it for granted less)

- that friends of mine are finally able to adapt two children that we have been praying about for years!

-the cockroaches in my kitchen have been fewer recently

-my church that values caring for the poor and being a family of faith

PS Sorry that my blog posts have been so sporadic. Working full time has left me pretty trained so far.