Dr. Molar's Office

One of my favorite places to visit in my school is the 4 year-old Kindergarten room. There is always such great learning going on. The kids are adorable, very funny, and super creative. I have had special moments with this class since the beginning of the year and I think they get excited when I come to visit too!

The K4's have an imaginative play area that changes focus every couple weeks or so. These last two weeks they have been learning about teeth and dental health. Their play area last week was Dr. Molar's Dental Office! I received a special invitation to get my teeth assessed from Dr. Molar; so I made a special visit to the dentist office. (For those of you who really know me and my feeling about dentists....these pictures will amaze you! :-) ) And now without further adieu...

Sr. Katy's Visit To Dr. Molar's Office

I traveled down to the K4 room and I came in and announced, "I have a tooth ache! Does anyone know what I should do?" Thankfully, several of the Kindergartner's came to my assistance and gave me some good advice. They told me to go to Dr. Molar's office! At that...4 kids quickly went over to the office space and got on the appropriate outfits.

One of the students led me to the office and told me that Dr. Molar would take good care of me. I was greeted by Dr. Molar's hygienist who told me I could sit down. She said the first thing she had to do was clean my teeth. She did an excellent job! Then she got the tooth counter and counted them. At first she thought I only had 21 teeth, but her assistant quickly reminded her that I was a grown-up; she told me, "Oh...you have 32." Then her assistant (who was at the computer) clicked a few keys and told me that the pictures of my mouth were on the "web page" (pretty high tech if you ask me).

Then it was time for me to see Dr. Molar. He came in and greeted me. He looked in my mouth and his hygienist said, "I'm sorry that you need to get all of your bottom teeth removed." Concerned I replied, "All of my bottom teeth? Wow...I'm a little nervous about that." She said, "Oh they'll grow back," and then smiled and said, "Oops, your a grown-up they won't. Sorry Sister."

The assistant at the computer acknowledge that I was nervous and said, "What's your phone number? I'll call your mom because you are nervous." I was grateful and replied, "Oh thank you. My number is 555-1286 and my mom's name is Jill." He dialed and said, "Hi Jill, Sister Katy is in our office and she's scared can you come?" He hung up and reassured me that my mom, Jill will come and help me.

Then Dr. Molar and his hygienist made sure that I understood why it was so important to get all of these teeth removed! They showed me all of my broken teeth on the X-ray. Then it was time...the hygienist said she'd hold my hand and that it would only hurt a little bit. Dr. Molar put on the special glove and he removed all of my bottom teeth.

I thanked him and everyone else for taking such good care of me. The office assistant made sure to show me the teeth that were giving me trouble. "We'll get those all cleaned up for you, Sister Katy," he said. (And you don't think they listen when they go to the dentist!)

Dr. Molar said, "Don't forget to pay..that's what you have to do when you go to the dentist." I asked how much it cost and they couldn't agree if it was $4, $2, or if I receive free dental care, so they had a little conference. Finally the hygienist said to me, "I know...because it's Sister Katy I think we should pay her for coming to Dr. Molar's office." I made sure to tell her she should run for President someday with that health care plan!

Wow...such great dental care...I left with 1/2 of my teeth missing and they were paying me! I was very impressed with the attentiveness and care of the staff there. If I ever have problems with the teeth I have left...I'll make sure to come back!

The End

And that my friends...is one of the JOYS of being a principal...those kiddos make my days!

Community LIFE--sharing LIFE together...

When people ask me what about religious life attracts me...I can name several reasons why religious life is a fit for me. Being committed to a common mission, sharing a common spirituality, being connected on a global level to our Sisters across the world...those are just a few. When I was in my initial discernment process, I made the distinctions: I could work and be actively involved in my faith without being a vowed religious. Above all of these components it was the aspect of community life; sharing LIFE together which made a distinction in my call to religious life.

When I was in the novitiate, we were fortunate to have some classes in Franciscan spirituality. In a workshop on Evangelical Life (highlighting the uniqueness of the Franciscan charism), we learned that especially for those who are living vowed life as Franciscans, it is the relationship of community that is at our core. This is our energy force; where we are sustained, enlivened, and receive the energy we need to go out to minister and support our mission. WOW....no wonder I am so at home as a Franciscan!

As I continue to experience community life in many ways...my learning, integration, and love deepens. I'm starting to better conceptualize the integration that has already taken place these last 4 years of living in community and also articulate where I still need some work! :-) (G-R-O-W-T-H the ultimate in formation cliches...and yet so true I hate to admit it!)

So...what's important to me in community, as I continue to share life and this commitment of love with my Sisters? What have I learned?

What's important to me? It's important for me to live in a community where sharing LIFE in different ways is a priority. I have been blessed with this, in that in all of my different living configurations (and my groups with whom I don't physically reside) have committed to sharing LIFE; rather than living next to one another. It's important to me to have some balance between--shared group time and Katy-time. Even when it's difficult, I think it's important to be challenged and to challenge. Freedom is important, but also accountability. And finally...time to pray together and time to play together!

Community life...like any family or context has its ups and downs but it's that whole love thing again that helps me to say, "YES" every day. That is the best lesson I have learned so far.

So now that all of this reflecting is out...how about some pictures? I have had two wonderful opportunities to pray and play with my living groups! I thought the pictures and stories would be fun...

PRAYING--

My living group (the one I actually reside with) has formal community night 2 times per month. This includes a nice meal, longer prayer--sometimes with some sharing, and a meeting or check-in type gathering. We take turns creating the prayers so that we get a change to experience our different styles. I really look forward to our community nights! Our group (and I'm the worst offender) is very busy and often aren't all together the 6 of us, so this time together is sacred time; it helps us grow together as a group and keep that community life at our core.

Because this configuration of people with whom I live is fairly new...we thought it was a great idea to take turns telling our life stories. Sr. Jan went first and shared with us highlights from her life up until the present. To the right, is a picture of Sr. Jan's family; the left picture is of Sr. Jan...awww how cute! Sr. Jan grew up in Milwaukee and also spent some of her religious life in the "West" (more mid-west, but that's what they called it in community back then. :) ) and big part of her ministry was served in Chicago as a lawyer. Sr. Jan also had been a high school teacher and a campus minister. Sr. Jan told us great stories of her many experiences...she's spunky and tried some pretty great things in her life (even tap dancing)! Here is a video clip of Sr. Jan telling a part of the beginning of her discernment story:

Honoring our individual stories, hearing the histories of my Sisters, and learning how and why we come together on this crazy journey of religious life is always such a great experience of prayer for me. I also think it's one of those moments where you grow closer together as a group; we've begun to create a common history.

PLAYING--
My "other living group" is a group of Sisters whom we call the "White House Sisters"; they live in a white, farm house located on Alverno College's campus. I know I've blogged about the White House before, but I'm not sure that I've included pictures. I've known the White House Sisters for many years...since 1998 when I was an undergraduate student at the college. Long story short...I became an adjunct member of their living group in 2003ish when I began discerning (the second time) with the SSSFs. I'm usually with them Saturday nights for Mass and dinner and sometimes for other events too. For me...living religious life in the year 2008 means being creative in how one shares life with people. The White House Sisters have made me a welcome member of their group and I am so grateful to be a part of sharing life with them. Of course...we pray, share, discuss, and challenge one another too...another thing we do extremely well together is PLAY!


We wanted to do something really fun for 3 of the Sisters (Judeen, Joyce, and Marlene) who celebrated a milestone birthday in the last few months. We decided to host one of those "do-it-yourself" mystery theatre parties! It was a riot. Sr. Judeen and I cooked up a storm, everyone came in costume and played their parts amazingly well. It was just fun, fun, fun! We invited our friends Fr. Bill and Br. Paul to join us for this special evening. To the left (in character and costume of course) we have Br. Paul (Mark Lester--the "host"--serious and sneaky...very funny!), Sr. Marlene (Christine--a lazyish, spoiled girl...we loved her eye rolling throughout the evening), and Sr. Mary (Dorthy Mae--she was clairvoyant...and did a great job convincing us!) Then of course we had "Big Bill" the Texan oil man complete with cowboy hat and all! He was a hoot...and vacillated between several accents throughout the night; he had us laughing and laughing! Then there was Florence (Sr. Kathleen) and Candy (Sr. Judeen) with her beautiful blonde locks! Not the culprit of the evening's crime, but very convincing in their dedication to their roles. Finally, we had Sr. Liz playing the part of Roberta, Mark's best friend. Sr. Joyce was Eleanor...quiet and reserved...could we trust her? And me...in the dazzling red dress, playing the part of Desiree, complete with German accent the whole evening!

Here are some other pictures of the evening:

We even gave out some awards: Best costume (Candy), Best Actor (Desiree), and Funniest person (Big Bill)! And finally....the group shot.

Yes...fun was had by all. And...this is not our "typical" weekend gathering of having fun...usually it's a movie, game of cards, or an intense discussion. But celebrating is an important part of our life together too...and I'm not the only "Fun Nun" around! :-) Great experiences of community...and a little reflecting to go with it. All different reminders and recommitting that "Yes" for me everyday...

Praying, Playing...peace and all good!

One Fun Nun or One Fun Columnist?

I will be a featured columnist for the Milwaukee Catholic Herald's special insert geared toward young adults. It is called My Faith. For this issue they had asked me to rework a previous blog entry about transitioning and time for God, etc.
Here is the link: http://www.chnonline.org/main.asp?SectionID=24&SubSectionID=21&ArticleID=180&TM=85326.7

The next column will be in May...I'll keep you posted (ha ha no pun intended).

Ciao, Ciao!

Oil Lamps

Oil lamp--that became my image. The image that I had (all by myself!) after attending my first Giving Voice gathering January '07.

An oil lamp can theoretically burn continuously as long as the oil is replenished. Oil lamps give off significant amounts of light and more heat than a candle. They are used in many ritual and steeped with great symbolism. Oil lamps have a place in history and are often mentioned in Scripture.

Oil lamp...my image for a gathering of Women Religious, all under 40 continues to be present and vivid for me. It is becoming a profound symbol for my continued call to love as a woman religious. Theoretically, I can burn and burn continuously; as long as my oil is replenished from time to time. The "oil" changes; sometimes it's ministry, community life, deepening relationships, growing in my self, Giving Voice...there are so many sources for "fuel" of my call and my commitment.

The wick is my commitment to this life; my congregation, my sisters who have paved the road before me, who walk with me today, and who I will walk with into the future. Community is at the heart of my commitment, my call to live this life. My sustaining energy is fueled through my commitment to love in this way.

I am the flame. Burning with passion for relationships, integrity, justice, and mission. The nature of an oil lamp allows for the flame to vary in it's intensity. Sometimes I need more fuel; other times I am so saturated that my flame is out of control. A flame's existence in an oil lamp is dependant upon the wick and the oil. If a flame goes out, it is a matter of refueling rather than discarding and beginning again.

And God...well God is the bowl, the glass, the lamp. The fuel, the wick, the flame can't exist without God. God surrounds, contains, offers support and is conditional for existence.

Two scripture quotes jumped out at me when I was searching for some inspiration with the image that keeps on imaging. The first was 2 Samuel 22:29 "For you are my lamp, Yahweh. Yahweh will light up my darkness." The second, Exodus 27:20 "You shall command the children of Israel, that they bring to you pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually."

The first was is great, but my reaction is more, "Aw...that's nice. DUH." I still like it but the juices weren't flowing. Now citation from Exodus struck me, especially after my weekend with Giving Voice. If I take out the "You shall command" part (which makes me cringe) and reframe the meaning of "children", it struck me that the younger members of the itinerant community were in charge of bringing the fuel for the light--a light which was supposed to burn continually.

We, among the youngest religious women in the country, were "in charge" of bringing the fuel to this gathering. Bringing the fuel together to better understand, build bridges, develop relationships...all to ignite a passion and deep love for our commitment. Without it, this lamp could not burn continually. Wowie.

I want to blog about my weekend with Giving Voice, post the crazy pictures and tell some of the stories. I will do that this coming weekend. I'm so wiped out (reentry is exhausting!)

For now...I need to sit with my oil lamp and be grateful that I have been refueled.

Snow Fun...a retreat day...and a New Year's Eve party

Yikes...here I go getting behind again--seriously...New Year's eve?? C'mon Katy...let's get back with the program here.

It's 11:00p.m. and I've finished packing for my trip to Florida tomorrow! There's good news and not so good news. Good news--Florida, 80's, sun, ocean, fun, prayer, time with some of my other "young nun" friends. Not-so-good news--My plane leaves at 6:00am YES IT LEAVES AT 6:00!!! I have to be to the airport by five which means, rolling out of bed at 4:20 to get into the car by 4:32 AM. It's crazy...but I can sleep on the plane.

Okie dokie...I still have to finish my posting from Christmas vacation. We had a wonderful snow over break. It was big fluffy flakes and wet heavy snow...perfect for Snowperson building. So I announced to the Sisters I live with, "Who wants to build a snow person with me?" After a few chuckles...I had two takers: Phyllis and Deb (Deb pretends she doesn't like cold and winter, but I think she secretly loves it. She's even smiling in some of the pictures! ) Look at all of that beautiful snow! I LOVE this kind of winter!

Here's a nice shot of Phyllis, Deb, and me after her figure was constructed. And below she's getting a little face lift.

Finally...our hard snowy work or hard snowy play as I see it. Isn't she cute??? We named her Sis.

Now...to the right is Sis' most recent picture. Please avert thine eyes if you are easily startled by Snowperson transformation. Poor Sis; this is what we call a major melt-down! Ba dum bum...

Onto my other Christmas vacation occurrences...I just may finish with Christmas break and then be able to update you on the beginning of the next school semester before my Easter break!

One of the best things I did over Christmas was take a retreat day for myself. Remember that whole balance/integration/yadda yadda whohah that I'm always talking about??? Well...I did it. I knew I needed some SPACE and I knew I wouldn't take it if I were at home (way too many things to distract me). So I went to my spiritual director's studio (not only is she a fantastic spiritual director she is a phenomenal artist!) for the day and retreated. It was WONDERFUL--not necessarily in the clouds open, clarity floats into my being, and I leave accomplishing everything I wanted to in 6 hours kind of wonderful (Hmm...do you think maybe sometimes I set unrealistic goals??) but wonderful in the sense that I knew if I didn't take some Katy/God time I was headed for my own type of melt down. So...there you have it Yay for me. (Ok...I'm totally laughing at myself as I type this...it's great how I can write about something that happened almost a month ago with such positivity!)

It was just a one day-er; so I didn't bring a lot of stuff-just my mandala journal (and colored pencils) and my regular writing journal. Stella has all of these cool little cards and stones with words on them...usually I get to pick one at the end of our session and that's my focus word for the month. So I started by picking one; I'm a super tangible person so these little tangible reminders that that darn spirit is always working is good for me. I do my little angel cards at home most nights before I go to bed. Anyway...SO I PICKED the DARN STONE that said, "Release" on it. When those things happen, I usually try to put the stone back before Stella sees it, considering she wasn't there...I was stuck with it. Can we say SPIRIT?

Then I put on some nice music and I wrote in my journal for a little bit to remind myself why I was there (sometimes I have to set goals for my time...yes I'm weird and I own it.) Then it was time to go on a little journey.

The weather was a great winter day (now...I like most aspects of winter so this isn't a stretch for me); sun shining, brisk but comfortable temperatures in the upper 20's. I went for a LONG walk. I didn't even take my mp3 along...I couldn't my head was spinning as it was; sometimes I can't even do the music thing. So I walked and I walked and I walked like I was on some mission. I don't think I could even tell you what I was thinking about, but I was walking and thinking. I ate some lunch and grabbed a mocha at a coffee house and walked back to the studio.

I got into the studio and I grabbed a BIG, and I mean HUGE, piece of white paper and I started drawing in the center. At first I didn't know what to draw (and I'm not supposed to think about the outcome; so I had to remind myself of my little "Get out of your head" rules.) and then I started drawing my own face. Now...I'm an AWFUL artist so this was an interesting process; I figured if this thing had green eyes, red glasses, brown hair with some funky streaks, and freckles I could make the case that it was some abstract representation of me.

So I finished that and I looked at it and thought...now what? I have a terrible attempt at a self portrait starting at me. So I refreshed the music selection and saw my little release rock on the table and rolled my eyes and said, "FINE." And I started writing...and writing...and writing...I wrote about lots of different things. Literally if it popped in my head it went down on the paper; the first whole spiral was me writing about writing and not "editing" my thoughts. :)

I started at my little face drawing and wrote in a spiral around and around and around until I didn't have anything else to write. I told myself if it popped into my head, it was going on the paper, even if it didn't make sense or flow. I used purple which is always my color for God/Divine and red because that's my power and passion color. I filled up a good portion of this HUGE paper with these concentric spirals. When I was finished writing...I looked at it from a distance and all I could see was my silly face drawing and these red and purple circles swirling around. After that I was completely exhausted and I took a nap! Emptying everything you've carried around for the last few months (somethings I wrote down were things I hadn't thought about for a few years!) is exhausting.

I woke up from my nap and I still had about 30 minutes before Stella came for our meeting. I guess I was glad that I wrote all of what had been swirling around in my head, but it also was overwhelming. I am not sure where to go with this or what to do with it and that is always frustrating for me--I like to have all the answers and have them 15 steps ahead. I've been praying and working with this big huge piece of paper since my retreat day. I guess I would have to say it was a good thing to do; and good does not mean easy.

Sr. Mary Ann always uses the "spit in your soup" image (mmm yummy)--once you know someone has spit in your soup, it's not going to be the same. Even if you wish you didn't know in the first place! This is another one of those spit in my soup times (woo hoo..blech, ick ick) I guess. It's ALL there, at least what was swimming around in my cranial soup that day. Thanks Spirit...thanks for spitting...AGAIN.

So yes...my retreat day was wonderful; I guess. I received no clarity, worked out a plan of action for myself, figured out everything I need to do to move on...etc. I left with ONE GIANT word mandala and a lot to think about. Thank God for retreat days; I guess.

AND FINALLY...the end of my Christmas Vacation....NEW YEAR'S PARTY!

I had the wonderful pleasure of spending a few days with two of my favorite people: Srs. Mary Ann and Jeanne! It was a very lovely couple days...low key, relaxing, sleeping late, taking naps, played a little cards, chatted a bit, had delicious Chicago pizza--seriously it was delightful; exactly what my spirit needed for a couple days.

For New Year's Eve, we had a party! They invited Sr. Kathy over for snackies, prayer, chatting, and games. It was great! Sr. Kathy brought a lovely prayer service for us that was really moving. I have been using it since for my night time thinking time. Then we were telling stories and sharing memories until we realized that it was almost time for the New Year! Well...obviously this is the Adventures of One Fun Nun is it not? So what's a party without party favors? Aw...doesn't Sr. Kathy look great? Personally, I love the tiara.

Here are the three of us crazy ladies..and a lovely one of me and Sr. Jeanne! Fun, good cheer, nice sharing was had by all. Happy New Year!

It was great ringing in the New Year with Jeanne, Mary Ann and Kathy! Yeeehah...hello 2008!

Well folks...that catches you up for the year 2007. When I return from Florida at my Giving Voice conference, I'm sure I'll have much to report on. Peace out!