On Faith

As many of you know, I lead a group that focuses on offering faith-life opportunities here at the Law School. Part of that ministry is a blog (full blog available here:http://ustlawfaith.blogspot.com/) , that various members of different faith-focused student groups contribute to. I thought you might find my recent post of interest:

May I have your attention?
St. Thomas has been a truly wonderful environment for me to grow and deepen my faith, while enduring the most difficult study and stressful times. I can't imagine going through the challenges of law school in any other way. I lead a weekly worship, attend Weekly Manna, and attend a weekly Bible study, all here at the law school. In addition to being involved in several communal faith practices, I am engaged in dialogue with God on a daily basis, most often tucked in the middle of a busy day at school. I pray every day for peace of mind with the stresses de jour, and for my fellow members of the law school community to find the same. For that reason, one might think I have a great sense of peace about exams, papers, and finding a job after law school. Alas, like nearly everyone else, I struggle to place my trust in God that all these things will transpire according to God's will. It seems like no sooner do I turn a care over to God than another pops up; another paper, another prayer request from a friend, another unforeseen obstacle in my path.Nonetheless, this is the first time in my life I've been so engaged in both a communal faith life and a regular prayer life. Have you ever wondered if the reason we have a lot to pray about, a lot of concerns to give over to God, is so that God has our attention to tell us something?I'll share an example that has grabbed my attention lately. I attended Susan Stabile's Mid-Day Reflection on the meaning of the saints to our lives last week, here at the law school. (for more on that, see this). When I was thinking about people who've been saints to my life, the life of Dorothy Day came to mind (a short bio can be found here.) I shared with the group that I have been often inspired by her fearless devotion to her faith and her work in God's name. She founded the Catholic Worker, the visible face of which is a regular social justice publication and houses of hospitality throughout the U.S. and Canada, and the world. The houses of hospitality are communal homes for people devoted to work in social justice, often working for little or nothing. Still, Day never worried about how a rent bill would be paid, even though most of the household members of the Catholic Worker houses of hospitality are what we would call indigent. Her faith in God was so strong that she was able to place her trust in God that food would be on the table, lights would be on and rent would be paid because the workers in the house were answering God's call. That trust and faith is an inspiration to me, and my reflection on this lingered long after the lunch gathering.Just a few days later, I was researching something really quite unrelated when I came across an article that by no means should have been turned up in my search. The article was about the message Dorothy Day's work and words have for the way we think about Work in the modern day. I made a note of the strange coincidence, printed the article, and went on about my work.Then, a few days later, a guest speaker at Weekly Manna read from a book by Jim Wallis, a social justice activist, writer and theologian. (his bio can be found here). Jim Wallis is another person, though living, who I consider a saint in my life. At least as far as I can tell, every aspect of his life is devoted to living out the social Gospel in real, tangible ways.You might be wondering how I went from Dorothy Day to Jim Wallis. In 2004, I received a scholarship to attend a two-week pilgrimage to learn about work and social justice. It was then that I learned about Dorothy Day, visited the very first Catholic Worker house in New York City, and saw how the Catholic Worker Newspaper is produced. Two days later, when my clan of pilgrims ventured to Washington, D.C., we stayed in a Catholic Worker house in Georgetown, and visited the Sojourner office, where Jim Wallis, CEO of Sojourner Magazine, presided over a weekly worship that is attended by members of the publication staff, their families, friends and neighbors. The worship was followed by a community meal.I met Jim Wallis and learned about Dorothy Day in the same week. Those moments were part of a pilgrimage that changed my life. I came to law school, motivated in large part by my desire to provide justice for workers.I haven't figured out exactly what I'm supposed to get from this, but I certainly no longer believe that these moments are coincidences. I will continue to pray about it, and return to the memories and musings from that pilgrimage, to look for the answer. The bottom line is: God has my attention, and I'm listening now.So we come full circle. I am in constant dialogue with God because I have so many cares on my heart, so many concerns for my life, friends, family, community and world. If I hadn't been so engaged, if I didn't have so many worries, would I have been listening for what God was trying to tell me?

How many posts will I have to entitle "I'm still alive"?

But, alas, I am. Most of you knew this, since you are friends with me on facebook, or call or write or see me in person periodically. That said, I'm a terrible blogger lately, and for that, I'm deeply sorry.
Here's what's new:
I'm interning with a judge at the Unites States Federal Courthouse (with my own office!) The judge hears all bankruptcy cases, so I'm getting even more experience in that area. Hooray! This information is often followed by the question "Do you want to practice in bankruptcy after law school?" To which I reply "Not really. It just sort of fell in my lap, and I don't dislike it as much as most people seem to." To expound on that, bankruptcy is like Tax law: it's weird, and most people gag just thinking about it. I find it tolerable, if not a little enjoyable, so that probably makes me weird, too. I would like to practice in bankruptcy if I could only help low-income clients for the rest of my life, which really means I can't make a living working in bankruptcy. Who knows, I could change my mind.

I would like to practice in Employment litigation (handling disputes between employers and workers), ideally representing workers (aka, the little guy.) If you know someone who wants to hire an attorney to do this in the next year in the Denver area, let me know! I'm pretty optimistic about finding a job after law school, but if all else fails, I'll follow the advice of my dear friend Ryan, which starts "Well you can wish in one hand..." :)

Hmmm, what else? I've been making some really, really good food. I whipped up pasta with roasted carrots, red onion, kale and turkey sausage the other day. I'm fanatical about kale right now, for absolutely no apparent reason. It just makes me happy. I also made orange ginger coffee cake on a test run before I bake for our church on Saturday. Recipe forthcoming. So far, results seem to be a winner. Last nite, I made us individual sweet potato casseroles with toasted marshmallows on top. It was a-mazing. Why do we only eat this stuff once a year? The take-away from this is that I might eat less of the stuff we load up on at the holidays if I made it more often. I'm going to follow up on that hypothesis and get back to you.

Also, I just registered for my LAST SEMESTER OF LAW SCHOOL! It is crazy how fast it's gone. I truly cannot believe I'll be done in six months. Whew! Although, for some reason, people always respond to that by saying "Time flies when you're having fun!" Really? Have you ever been to law school? I love law school, like way more than normal people, but I wouldn't call it "fun." That's just a lie.
One thing that I'm looking forward to is December. Normally, I dread the majority of the month because that means exams. This year, though, I have only one, lonesome exam on Dec. 20. I have over 2 weeks to study for ONE exam. To avoid insanity brought on by overexposure to "Sale of Goods" laws, I've started planning all the fun stuff I'll be doing for study breaks! Cookies, crafts, shopping, and of course, blogging about it! The holiday delights will abound. More on that soon.

And the announcement most of you really want to hear: I'll be home for Christmas! I booked my flight last week, and I'll be in C-O-L-O-R-A-D-O from Dec. 23-Jan. 12. I'll be "networking" some to get some feelers out for finding jobs, but I'll definitely have time to see some of you, and give you big hugs!


All my love,
Kelli