Wild Fires

All over the news today is the wildfires around Southern California. They're in and around Los Angeles and for what I hear, that's usually where they stay. Right now there are some in Yorba Linda, which is 20 minutes north of here and in Corona which is in the mountains that I see out my bedroom window. I was at the foot of those mountains when I went to see my brother a few weeks ago. The Santa Ana winds that we've had for 2 days is feeding the fires to the point that fire has consumed 2000 acres in those areas.
This is the view from our window at the end of the hall

Taken 45 minutes later

Out the back of the motherhouse... these pictures were taken on the balcony:


Please pray for all the people in these areas, and pray that it doesn't come closer!
LA Fires
Yorba Linda Fires

Happy World Record Week!!

So I found on Yahoo that this week is World Record week and to celebrate, some world record holders went to New York for a ceremony. This ceremony included a woman who's legs alone are 4 1/2 feet long! You can search yahoo's news if you're curious.

Since my finding out about this, there's been two experiences here that I would put on that World Record list myself. First, Southern Californian (including the Orange CSJs and us) participated in the largest US earthquake drill this morning. It was supposed to happen around the area at 10am but instead happened at 9:30 to the surprise of many... including me! There were faked injuries, triage area, and a makeshift command post. I think it was a good thing to get the snags out before a real one could happen. In fact, many sister before my coming out to California said, "Hey Jenn, I hope that California doesn't fall into the ocean while you're there." Thanks to all who offer those well wishes but so far, so good. One day at a time and today was NOT the day that we fell into the ocean! HOORAY!

Second on the list of our own personal world records this week was our class yesterday which was turned into our monthly house meeting time. Oh no, but this wasn't just ANY house meeting. When all was said and done, we recorded a time of 6 HOURS!!! Who ever heard of a 6 hour house meeting? We all survived that as well and everything that needed talking about was acheived. Hopefully there's no reason to break the record next month!

For anyone else who experienced a World Record Event this week, I'm sorry you weren't invited to the ceremony in New York but feel free to share with me!

In other news...
I realized that I haven't updated since Halloween. It was a festive and fun evening. Ann and Bernie provided a black and orange themed dinner. Ann's friend Mary, from Wichita, joined us for the party. We shared a Halloween prayer which members of my congregation sent our way. Then those who had costumes dressed up. You can see the pictures below. We played Halloween pictionary and jeopardy which was provided by Melissa and ended the evening watching scary movies together. It was a great community night together.


We celebrated Ann's Birthday a few days later:


We spent Sunday (11/2) in LA before our ICN class at Carondelet on Monday. We visited the Getty Museum which is just a gorgeous place! It's located on a hill just west of the hill that Carondelet is on. The buildings are all separate at the Getty and each has different artwork in it but you walk outside to get from building to building. They're also known for their sculpture and landscape but in my heart, it's known for it's view!


Lynn Levo (CSJ Carondelet-Albany) was with us last week for that ICN class in LA and our own classes Tuesday and Wednesday. I had heard her speak before in Villa Maria, PA but this time I heard her talk on "Intimacy and Sexuality" completely different. I'm sure many of you have heard Lynn speak before and maybe on this topic. Usually when folks outside religious life hear about this topic their one eyebrow goes sky-high. When we talk about the vow of chastity, non-religious always think of the can'ts and don'ts of this vow. Really this vow is one about relationship. Lynn helped us to realize that all the energy inside of us, all the trials of life and our prayer life... each of these should be sending us out into relationship with one another. Our vow in religious life allows us to have deep relationships with everyone without distinction, but they aren't meant to be exclusive in nature. It struck me while she was presenting how much our media has changed the definition of the word "intimacy". Intimacy really means being vulnerable with another person and allowing a deep sharing between each other. So I can be in a relationship with many people: friends, co-workers, family, community members but there's going to be different levels of conversation with each person, different levels of intimacy. Lynn's classes are always helpful no matter how many times they're heard because she always comes with the encouragement to be a healthier person who has healthy relationships.

At our house meeting we discussed a bit about the mid-year assessment that we have to (get to) complete. It will end up being a paper that needs to cover topics such as: Self, Prayer, Community, Ministry, Classes, etc. and about how we've seen growth or movement in these categories. Also we talked a bit about Thanksgiving. We won't be going home for Thanksgiving, instead we'll spend Wednesday night or Sunday afternoon of that week at Seal Beach where the Orange sisters have a beach house. It's the next best setting to being with family. My mom and dad can expect a phone call that day as my toes will be in the ocean! (Don't know that I'm going to get much further than that!) We'll all be heading home on December 10 for a Christmas break. Our home directors will be here for 3 days for meetings with us, Bernie, and Ann then we'll head to our respective homes. I'll be in Chicago the majority of the time between Dec. 10 and January 3 when we come back but will be able to go to the Detroit area for a few days to hang out with my family and friends! In some ways it seems like it's been like yesterday and in some ways it seems like it's been too long since I've been home! This weekend we're supposed to get to 90 degrees again, not what I'm used to for Christmas shopping!