Life-Changing Experiences

I'm in Israel participating in an archaeological excavation and cultural immersion. We spend the weekdays doing archaeological workand attending lectures and the weekends traveling (see akkoarchaeology.blogspot.com for more details). I signed on to this adventure knowing that it would be life-changing experience, but I could not have imagined how life-changing it would be. I am standing at one of those forks in the path, wondering which way to go. I realize now that recent life-changing decisions were absolutely, positively, the most positive decisions I could make. Now I have confidence to make the next set of life-changing decisions. The conditions in which I am living, hard labor, dirt, spare (but comfortable) accommodations, are causing me to change my expectations of myself, others and my environment. Big changes are happening, and all I can do is play along and be joyful.

The right path

Do you ever wonder if you are on the "right" path? This is where I seem to spend a lot of my life. Wondering. Am I on the right path? Am I doing the right thing? Am I making the right decision? Am I buying the right car/washing machine/dining room table/brand of pasta? I wonder, is this a good use of my time? Am I even asking the right questions? Perhaps new questions are in order. Questions that have answers... Am I acting with integrity? Am I having a positive impact on the world around me? What is my constant doubt-filled questioning keeping me from doing?

There is a place in life for wondering and doubting, but raising it to an art form fuels my other worst habit (or at least the other worst habit I'm going to share with the world wide web), procrastination.

One week from tomorrow, just eight days from now, I am heading for Israel for a cultural immersion course. I will be participating in an archaeological dig at Tel Akko on the northern coast and attending lectures and sightseeing. In order to perfect my procrastination techniques, I am spending my time writing about going instead of preparing to go.

The Twisting Path

Let's go back a year. No, two years is better. Two years ago I was in the midst of figuring out what to do with my time as my children begin to leave the nest. I was thinking a little ahead, but after not working outside the home for 15 years, I knew I would need some education before I could reenter my former career or begin a new vocation. This little voice, still and small, kept invading my thoughts. "Go into ministry," it said. "Go to seminary." My inner engineer (my BC career) had a good laugh. The logical reasons for going to seminary were lacking. The reasoning part of my brain could not wrap herself around going to an expensive private school fairly far from home to study material far outside her education. The still, small voice and the reasoning voice debated for a long time. Last September I began my seminary education.

My life's path has been characterized by twists and turns, switchbacks and dead ends, obstacles and forks in the road.

This blog is about my experience on the twisting path.