Snow Days and Movement of the Heart

Took PDAS Ice Skating over Christmas

We made a practice of canceling PDAS every time Boston Public Schools flinches. It makes sense, since families can avoid the guesswork of trying to figure out when we open or close due to snow. But in the past two weeks, we've been closed for 4 days! That's a lot of days lost when you consider that a month only has about 20 days of service.

What do I do on those days off? I still put in "office time." I'm working on federal funding for our after-school snacks and coming up with a tutoring model to use in training counselors. I don't personally track attendance anymore since Kirk has taken over those responsibilities (hurrah for sharing administrative work!); but there are still plenty of loose ends to slowly tighten. Aside from administrative work, I try to use some of that time to study. Systematic Theology II is my online class and I'm trying to move forward in it so that I can keep up my status as a full time student. There's also wedding planning, which is starting to feel very imminent. I can't wait; and I'm so glad we're not doing that alone (thanks wedding planning team)!

Tonight, with the snow on the way, I spent some more time driving and chatting with K., a PDAS student. Good conversations about whether marriage is worth it and what the point of PDAS is. Sometimes I forget I'm chatting with a 6th grader who avoids homework.

There are so many little surprising things that have happened this year. Doing PDAS sometimes feels like my raw wide-eyed experience of serving in the Dorchester youth group several years ago. I don't really know how to explain the emotion except that a lot of tenderness of heart that has been absent for a few years in my ministry work is back again-- just when I thought those feelings were symptoms of youth and inexperience which I would never have again. I know better than to base my confidence in feelings; nor can I explain why sometimes they are strong while at other times they're not; but it's nice to have them.