Update from the desert

Since it's now been a full month that I've been back in Kamloops, figures I should write about what's been happening lately. I'll try to refrain from my usual philosophizing on life events for this one, as not everything needs to have meaning beyond it's present state (in the words of Freud, "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"...)
So after I got here and settled in (translation: after I overcame the initial feeling of Kamloops craziness), the usual unpacking of about 55% of all my junk occurred. This included everything from clothes to tea supplies, only the essential stuff came out of the boxes to make re-packing smooth and efficient, perhaps for the hypothetical situation of moving back down to the Coast or something.
An immediately pressing matter was re-connecting with my Church here, Summit Drive Baptist. I got home on a Sunday, just in time to head off to a College and Career event where we sat around and talked for a few hours. Of course, being from out of town at that point, I had no idea when it was or where it was... hence me showing up at the door of the organizing couple about an hour before the event actually started. yay. This wasn't bad because they happen to be great people and proceeded to give me punch and show me pictures of a recent Thailand excursion. With the C&C group, I've unfortunately not been the greatest at consistently being there through missing two weeks of hanging out with them. We'll see how it goes as the summer progresses... they all just seem to have their own lives which makes it hard for someone to quickly assimilate into those grooves.
Anyways, other re-connections with the church occurred in my first week, including a visit with pastor Harry, who I would on any top 5 list of "most wonderful people" simply for his personality. Over the years, he's given me a few books to read here and there which have really helped me along... though I've never had a mentor of any kind, Harry's likely part of the amalgamation of persons who have guided my spiritual growth. When I met with him this time, he put me on to a video series called "Bold Love" by Dr. Dan Allender which I'm not in a Discipleship class about... I'm about 4 sessions in and it's pretty interesting, especially considering my style is typically quite confrontational when there's an issue to be handled and Dan's way of going about it is right up that alley. I even get to lead the discussion this Sunday! I'm sure you all can guess how I'm gonna handle that one.
Oh yeah, and I got to go skiing at Blackcomb for two days!! SOOO AWESOME, and I use that word only when I really mean it took my breath away by sheer awe at God's beauty (and, consequently, how man can put some metal up there and make a buck off of it).
Soon I was at an orientation for doing entry watch at the Domtar pulp mill in Kamloops, a position I had last year in which I got to watch individuals as they entered/exited confined spaces and then made sure everyone was out when the day was up (or when an alarm went off). This year was actually much more interesting, at least for the first 5 days. I was tasked to work with an intriguing fellow named Bobby "Z" (his last name seemed to have every letter of the alphabet in it, so the shortening was necessary, particularly for the needs of such literate fellows as he often works with). Though this seems less than exciting, it really was compared to the students who had to sit in front of one hole for 10 hours marking people in and out; I got to go to multiple holes, gas testing when it was needed and ensuring that this one person was alive when he came out.
This guy knews a lot about recovery boilers, large compartments within a pulp mill designed to help with certain chemical reactions occuring in the process of creating pulp. Not only was Bob knowledgeable, he was meticulous... which meant that for the person following him there were many moments of waiting, both when he was in and out of the vessel (he loved to write things down in what I came to call "the report", a 1.5-inch think binder full of his notes about nearly every centimeter of tubing, gears, and other assorted machinery he could find). After 5 days of following Bob around and seeing how much everyone admired his work, I was rather inspired by his example of being the best at what he does... till the 6th day, when I ended up sitting in a room with other students, waiting for some work to come down the line. Ended up cleaning windows with a clever fellow named Josh (no, I did not dissociate my personality from the boredom, there was actually another person there named Josh... at least I believe there was).
While it earned me a lot of money for 6 days of work, this was the only work I have had in my time here in Kamloops so far. I have been looking for more work, not just here but also down in the lower mainland (you never know... might find the ultimate job down there), particularly in the health/human service areas. The only downside to living there would be that saving money for grad school becomes a null concept, and staying here means I save everything I make since my current room+food+everything else I could hope to have=no expense (to me, except for what my father would call my "inheritance"). Until today, job prospects were looking dim, but I got a call tonight and accepted a position at the sawmill for the summer, doing clean-up. At least I'll be busy for the rest of the summer, and who knows, maybe I'll find a cool volunteer position at a drug rehab place or somewhere that deals with grief a lot.
Other than all that, can't say much has been happening in my life. I was incredibly sick after the pulp mill job and only now am regaining my energy (putting it to good use playing squash and biking plenty)... Taking the GRE soon, which is an exam needed for applying to certain grad schools, so really hoping I can focus on preparing for that during the next week and a half.
Oh yeah, and my convocation is on June 7th... 2:30pm-ish, so if you're around Burnaby Mountain in the afternoon on that day be sure to stop by.
There's my life at the moment... God's been good, and keeps surprising me with little moments and big jobs, so all I know is He'll keep me in line one way or another. I'm hoping for the kind and gentle way; we all know how responsive we tend to be for those ones, though...

Finding water

Today I got the opportunity to walk along a path beside one of the two rivers running through Kamloops, my present abode. It's quite interesting... A lot of the vegetation around here is either very dry or highly maintained by human intervention. Yet next to the river there are a variety of greens and wonderfully blossoming flowers, I dare to say even nicer than much of Vancouver (mostly because the sun shines here instead of peeking in and out). I had an interesting thought while walking here: in other areas of life, we have to make sure we're near the right amount of living water to sustain us and make us grow.
So ever since I travelled back to Kamloops, I guess I've been trying to find the right source of water, you might say. Not necessarily just financially (really, though it should be more of a concern for me I'm not worrying terribly about that right now), it's more spiritually and socially. Coming back into a situation where everything's turned around and you can't seem to find your place makes it hard to set roots again... even for a nomadic fellow such as myself.
Somewhat frustrating is that, over the last little while, I've made an effort to grow closer to people around me, and somehow it's worked rather well. Great, right? Well... Not exactly when you end up moving away from those people (getting "transplanted" into another garden, if you're following the horticulture analogy) and have for the last many years not been so connected with others. Fortunately, I'm adapting to it now (slowly), remembering back to the days when me and God would hang out... Great guy to spend time with. Of course, google talk and MSN have helped plenty as well, but being in a situation where you're not surrounded by so many awesome people (at least, as closely surrounded) makes it all the more important to take it upon yourself to communicate effectively and personally with God (perhaps that's why monks and other cloistered persons develop such strong faiths).
Overall, I really hope you find sources of water around you, particularly Jesus, who said "but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:14). If you don't have such sources in your life, I urge you to check out some churches... and if you're in the vicinity of Burnaby Mountain around 6pm on a Sunday, I am positive you'll find many sources of water at the Point church.

Oh yeah, and immense thanks to all of you who have been springs of water for me... It's so often kept me going, in fact it still does.