welcome back!

I'm going to continue this blog again! hooray!

Since my last post, I returned from New Zealand to my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. There I worked at a great buy-sell-trade store called Avalon Exchange. It was an invigorating environment full of creative opportunities: visual merchandising, management, fashion research and buying vintage/trendy/one-of-a-kind clothes for our store! I learned how much I thrive on working creatively: in the windows-making displays, creating new training materials, and in assessing thousands of garments a day! I also discovered that training and teaching give me a rush of feel-good-- I love it! From sharing technical information with a new employee on how to tag a shoe to writing about an author's account of the historicity of Christianity on this blog, I love conveying information and ideas. At times, the fast pace of informal conversation can overwhelm me-- I often prefer to listen. Having a more methodical format to discuss issues at a slower pace allows me to think through my ideas and references more carefully.

So after St. Louis came Lincoln, Nebraska. My husband got a promotion that took us here. I'm fresh on the job market and interview circut, which means more time for "me". I think this blog will make a positive, productive use of that time. It has also been great to focus on the activities of a traditional "housewife". I'm not darning socks or churning butter yet, but I've cooked some and cleaned more... it's seriously satisfying to actually dedicate oneself to running a household. These are new skills I am developing. But you know what they say... you can put an apron on Ashley, but it's still Ashley... just with an apron on... (?)

When it comes to religion(s), I'm curiously obsessed. The "meaning of life" simultaneously fascinates and frightens me. Perhaps this is why I love studying how various individuals and cultures throughout time have explored these deep, elusive, metaphysical issues, and what conclusions they've come to. Through this study I learn more about my personal convictions with every visceral reaction I have to historical and current accounts of religiosity, spirituality, philosophy, ethics, art, literature, ritual, ect. Though it is in the fabric of my being to explore my personal convictions, I do not limit my study and exposure to these. I highly value tolerance, celebrate diversity, and "interfaith" pursuits. For me, learning about different worldviews feels more important than trapping down my own. I am often reticent to share my own opinion in an effort to not isolate others and learn more. On the other hand, it is all one can do to compare personal experience and perspective with all those that surround it. I tend to remain neutral and academic, but not without passions, opinions, and convictions.

Being a human is weird. But also the only "normal" thing, as it is the only thing I've been. Perhaps "being" itself is the strange thing, yet, without being, there would be no strange?