extravagance

Sometimes it's tough being a poor grad student. Today I heard about Canucks tickets being scalped for less than a thousand dollars as a *decrease* and I sighed...that's two months of rent. Or several months of groceries. How on earth can someone justify such extravagance?

Then I place my own life up for sale.

My life includes a a roof over my head--a roof that shelters me and many others in an expensive Vancouver neighborhood. It's my own room with a warm bed, donated flowering plant and stupendous view of North Van across the water. It's a shared kitchen where we talk about the day, envy other people's good cooking, and sometimes people leave out cookies on the free board.
My life includes food to eat; professional medical care (physical and psychological); a cheap bus pass and reliable public transportation system; a bike to ride; the advent of summer after an endless rainy spring.
My life includes learning ideas that are not mere abstract concepts, but breathing wisdoms to be inhabited and worn to change the world. It's the classes at Regent, the public lectures, the movies shown, the prayer retreats, the conversations in the atrium. It's chapel and singing songs and taking communion together.
And my life includes people. It's the crowd that assembles for community meals on Wednesday nights and it's Davi serenading the house with hymns and praise songs. It's the folks I'm planning to live with next fall. It's the kindly couple who sit in front of me at church. It's spot prawn dinners and hockey-watching with friends. It's the brilliance and kindness of my peers in class. It's the pastoral care, advice, teaching and lived life of Regent faculty and staff. It's exchanging letters and emails with dear friends from far away; it's being able to go home and spend time with my family. It's the gift of a new but beloved relationship.

How on earth can someone justify such extravagance, indeed.

a momentous occasion

It has been a long time. But an amazing thing has returned to Vancouver that is worthy of a post, after many weeks of silence.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present...Vancouver sunshine.

A thanksgiving top ten

1. My health. I have not needed to go to a doctor in...ages and Rita my dental hygenist tells me I have perfect teeth. :D
   


2. Provision of all I need--a warm, safe, and comfortable place to live; clothes to wear; access to good grocery stores; the time to prepare food. My jobs and how they have been enjoyable and managed to provide exactly what I need.
   


3. Being at Regent. Classes, lectures, chapel, community group, lunch in the atrium, working in the library, retreat, conversations, profs, peers, everything.
   


4. The chance to explore a different dimension of my gifts as a student by coming to Regent, with its goals and mission, as a unique person with a certain background and experiences.
   


5. Vancouver and its fantastic public transportation system. Also, currently, its snow.
   


6. So many opportunities--to make and hear music, to dance, to play soccer, to run, to be with people, to enjoy good food, to write and express myself.
   


7. Stealing one of Morgan's "thanks," books and the gift of literacy. There are so many great books out there with good words and beautiful stories and ideas. While my reading load at Regent is sometimes overwhelming, if anything, I feel like it's just whetted my appetite for good reading that edifies.
   


8. Putting down yet another set of roots--especially a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner tonight.
   


9. All my many many loved ones--family, old friends, new friends. My life has been and is now full of wonderful people who not only love me, but support me and push me and are half the reason I can stand wherever I am and be home.
   


10. And finally, a life in which blessings are abundant and obvious, where I don't have to work very hard to come up with a list of things to be thankful for.

to the single ladies!

Dear Bon House girls,
We've all talked about this before, but I love and cherish you all. I'm going to miss you, as individuals and as a collective.
Thanks for the year.
Love,
Christina

an embarrassment of riches

Blessings of the weekend: having Friday off, having a van, having a van with 7 seats/seatbelts, having a van with tons of storage space (even enough for Alli's bike), having a van with a not-crappy engine, having a van with a/c, stopping at McDonald's on the way out of the city, listening to 94.7 Fresh FM, getting to Callie's family's farm in Palmyra (our destination), lounging in the house a/c, petting the house cat, swimming in the pool, making Emily swim, making gaga faces at Callie's niece Lucy, hot-tubbing, watching a lot of disney movies and then doing feminist critiques of the heroines, playing Beatles rock band, reading books, running around on the ATV, hiking, writing, eating ice cream, listening to our "bon house music mix" on grooveshark, drinking wine and cocktails, having dinner together, having "intimate" conversations, complimenting each other, sleeping, doing Buddhist chant, giving/receiving massages...coming back to a city where we have jobs (at least for another week and a half), a house and hopes/dreams for the future.
For people who only make the equivalent of 4.86/hour, I'd say our lives are pretty good