Listening for a splash.

Well Of Faith

Kelly Scollin

I’m learning to see this world with wide open eyes,

trees of truth they rarely grow in forests full of lies.

In the words of my dad, that’s life,

sometimes you’ve got to take, the good with the bad.

So I guess I’ll throw a few more pennies and a pocket full of dreams,

in the well of faith,

and I’ll listen for a splash.

There’s a fluid mirror for all of us suspended in the air.

A glance can bring us happiness or plummeting despair.

The things I’ve done can’t be undone, apologies, they’re all the same,

but I guess they’ll soon pass, like a softly fallin’ rain.

So I guess I’ll throw a few more pennies and a pocket full of dreams,

in the well of faith, and I’ll listen for a splash.

Someday hope to find a place, that I’ll call my own,

at times I feel just like a leaf, by the wind I am blown.

But I guess I’ll keep on trying to seek the truth in all things,

and I’ll listen to hear a penny ring.

So lets all throw a few more pennies and a pocket full of dreams, in the well of faith,

and we’ll listen for a splash.

"White Christmas" is an understatement.

I spent Christmas Eve and morning in Marshall, N.C. this year. Nope, it wasn't at all my plan. I had a flight scheduled to return me to Denver on December 19th, but thanks to a blizzard hitting a town that doesn't handle snow well, I was not going anywhere quickly. I couldn't have been stuck with better people, that's for sure, and I learned a thing or two about wood stoves, propane, and kerosene lanterns.

Three and a half days with no power meant there was plenty of time to play rummy, sing and play guitar, read stories, and enjoy eggnog chilled in the snow off the back porch. It also meant that we would go days without showers or heat in the bedrooms. Good times!

Christmas eve was spent with a cabin filled with warm, but unfamiliar faces, and Christmas morning was slept straight through. Fortunately, my family was gracious and understanding, and celebrated after I was finally able to make it home. We had a beautiful celebration filled with laughter. (Baba even bought and wrapped gifts for himself that he labeled as being from us kids. Classic!)

Thank you to Cindy and Kelly for housing me three times longer than they expected to, and for such an adventure! I wanted an escape, and that's exactly what I got :). I would do it again in a heartbeat.

(The town before the snow.)

Oh no you didn't!

After a rehearsal and meeting at church this evening, Mariah (the mother of one of my piano students who is part of the church plant) took me out to her car because she had my Christmas card. So...she opened the trunk, and this was laying there:

ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW?? Their family had it on their hearts to buy me a bike to ride to Cory where I will be student teaching in their daughter's class. So, incredibly thoughtful and uncalled for. I am so blessed.

Miyata

This is Mia. She is my new bike. She will get me to and from both of my schools--isn't that kind of her? :).

(She has the Steph Van Wirt stamp of approval.)

Dear Colorado Springs,

I try really, really hard to enjoy visiting you, but sometimes you just make it too hard.

Schools

I received a last minute phone call to fill in for "White Christmas" at my high school because the bass player was suspended. It's nice to be paid for what I love doing--even if it is the easiest part I've ever played :).

This afternoon I have an interview at Cory Elementary for my student teaching placement, and I'm stoked! The teacher is fantastic, and three of my piano students attend the school.

I am really starting to realize how fortunate it is that I will be making an income doing what I am aboslutely passionate about. Good deal!

Yes, it was an amazing trip.

Thanksgiving week was spent with family in Denmark, and it was nothing short of incredible. We explored castles, roamed the city streets, and kept warm with Tuborg Christmas beers. The city was lit and decorated for Christmas, and the beautiful people were bundled from head to toe.

Grandma Clair came along giving an added element of entertainment, and I always had one of the girls on my arm. Peter kept us oriented, and he and Debbie spoiled us all to pieces.

Copenhagen is a remarkable city, but I'm pretty certain Michael will be more than glad to be home :).

I am thankful for the family that I have in the Van Wirts, and for their overwhelming love and generosity. Gobble gobble!

Culture shock.

Last night, I went to the cleanest house party of my collegiate career. It was the ladies' farewell party as they are moving for their student teaching before graduating in May.

"Shut-up" was the closest thing to fowl language that I heard uttered, and the snack/drink table held a gallon of milk, a gallon of chocolate milk, and a couple two liters of 7-up.

The majority of the party was spent dancing ridiculously to songs by our oh-so-beloved boy bands, mainly the Backstreet boys, and those Spice Girls. We danced to the point of making the floor bow beneath us.

Not quite what parties at DU look like. Leave it up to Jess and Stacy Mac to have a wholesome throw-down. Love you girlies!

18 pages later..

I am reminded of what a great listener my journal is.

My new year's resolution

To use all the ink in a pen before losing the darn thing.

The hap-happiest season of all.

December comes, and the sounds begin: clanking in the kitchen, Christmas songs on the piano, loud crackling fires, the bussel of feet, and voices bouncing off the hard wood floors.

What a year this has been...

"I've come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my personal approach that creates the climate. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I posses a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, a child humanized or de-humanized."

~Hiam Ginott