Day 300

I debated bringing my blog back for the new school year, and today--the fourth day of the new semester--I decided to actually go through with it. As a refresher, here are the rules I set for myself a little over a year ago:

1. I will post every day for 100 days, counting down from 100.
2. I will write a minimum of two sentences each day.
3. Even if the day was rough, I will include something that made the day great.

Last fall, I started adding the time I woke up each day. In the spring, I relaxed my "I'll write every day for 100 days" to "I'll write 100 days this semester." I left off on day 106, so days 101-105 are still pending. Perhaps I'll go back and throw in some stories from my summer to fill those voids. This semester, I'll count down from 300 to 201.

Year 2 of Ph. D. life is off to a good start. I'm excited about all of my classes, though I'm still adjusting to the reading again. Hopefully, I'll be back in a routine soon. 

Over the summer, I continued listening to several of my favorite podcasts, including Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, and I recently started listening to Hot and Bothered, which is a different podcast by HPST's Vanessa Zoltan. One of the guests on an episode called "The Conundrum" shared what her priest said during a time of grief:

"She said something to the extent that the grief that we were feeling is compost for love and that God wastes nothing, and that more than anything else is my theology. Everything can be compost for love, and that God wastes nothing, and we can live by that tenet too. We can also waste nothing."

I spent some time today reflecting on that, as today is the anniversary of Kathy's passing. It was a bittersweet day, but it had a happy ending because I stopped by Mike the Tiger's habitat and was able to see the new brick we ordered back in May. It looks great!

I can tell I have been out of the blogging routine but look forward to getting back into it.

Something that made today great: Even after a busy day, I had a fabulous run tonight! 

Time I woke up: 8:20 am