Life by Betsy

 So I wanna know what the seasons know There’s a time to reap, and a time to sow A time to hold on, and a time to let go  Teach me to trust when I don’t see.|| Holly Arrowsmith  I love August. I love the months between seasons. They remind me that change is inevitable, purposeful, beautiful, necessary, and consistent. Everyday is new. Even between seasons, there is beauty. We all live in “the tension of the in-between” - between who we are and who we will be, between creation and the new earth, between the first coming of Christ and the second, between birth and death, between home and sugarloaf mountain, between sunset and sunrise, between summer and fall. We can still find rest in the tension, like a hammock swaying from two tight lines between the trees.  There is beauty here, on the road between today and eternity. There is grace here, in the fear yet thrill of the unknown. There is so much joy here, in the pursuit of God in the details. So, linger a little while in the tension. As

In this quarantine season, God has been so kind to give me moments of pause. I used to love letting my mind wander, but it seems the ability to philosophize is the luxury of the untraumatized. With the combination of time, rest, prayer, and therapy, my mind is beginning to wander to wonderful places again. I also am able to be more passively self-reflective into the way that I interact with the world and it interacts with me. A key step in this reflective journey has been the enneagram. I have tested as a two in the past (the "helper" personality), but this spring on the official test I was labeled a seven (the "enthusiast") with a wing, or sub personality, of an eight (the "challenger"). If somehow you have managed to avoid the enneagram in your social medial scrolling, I encourage you to do some research into the process and product. I am loving learning my natural strength and weaknesses. Self-awareness is the first step in growth.  One of the things I

On February 14, 2018, a student opened fire in the hallways of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida killing 14 students and 3 faculty. As a student teacher at the time, I was very aware that this school shooting was one in a line of others that seemed to be happening daily in that season across our country. I took some time to reflect on my role in that kind of scenario- not fully student, not fully teacher, yet fully adult. I started reflecting, not knowing a month and six days following Parkland what would come. That post was written and published on March 19,2018, the day before I lived through a school shooting.  On March 20, 2018, a student killed his ex girlfriend with a handgun in the halls of Great Mills High School early in the morning before the bell had rung, the bullet passed through her brain and into the leg of another student (who recovered), the shooter walked down the hall, and then took his own life as a resource officer fired simultaneously, d