Living the Questions

I have been a Gilmore fan since it first aired; much to the dismay of my parents I loved it from the first moment. I went through high school and college with Rory (we were the same age, after all). I own the DVD sets and have played them on repeat so many times I can't even count anymore. Most conversations prompt at least one Gilmore reference, thought, memory, etc. -- because there's always one for every moment, even if I do generally keep them to myself unless I know the other person is a Gilmore fan too.  I've loved Stars Hollow, its citizens, and the Gilmores for years. So when they announced the revival was coming, I was super excited. Could. not. wait. Scheduled it on my calendar as soon as the release date was announced. Read & watched all the interviews leading up to the day. I was so curious to see where Amy Sherman-Palladino & Co. would take these people I loved....and of course, what the conclusion was meant to be.  So not that anyone ac...

Last night I went to bed early.  I ate some Ben & Jerry's "Empowermint" Democracy Ice Cream, watched part of a movie, and was asleep by 9. I've never stayed awake late very well.  I also don't enjoy watching election results come rolling in. I vote. But watching maps and percentages is both boring and anxiety-inducing to me. Plus I have 18 energetic kids with whom I spend my days and I need all the sleep I can get. I went to bed fairly sure of one outcome.  And woke up to find that all predictions had been wrong.  Donald Trump was the President-Elect.  I was shocked.  My heart has been hurting the whole election cycle.  Hate, division, oppression, and fear have driven so many interactions -- on both sides. Hate has been encouraged in some ways, and fear capitalized on. We've seen exactly how divided we are as a nation. My shock early this morning came with a fair dose of fear and grief. Fear for how free hate may be allow...

Before you begin, know that the ending of this writing surprised me. I wasn't initially planning on writing about social issues or society's lost things -- just my own. And even in writing this, I feel the need to preface it with a disclaimer: I'm still figuring out what this means, and how this is reflected in my own life. Still figuring out how God can -- and will -- use me to help recover these lost things. Thanks for reading. With love, Brooke Last week, I texted my sister: "I'm bored with my clothes. I need a new style."  She enthusiastically agreed to help me discover a new style, but she helped me realize that "a new style" is not actually what I wanted -- I just needed new clothes. She pointed out to me that all the clothes I was showing her I liked were pretty much the same as they have been for awhile, but that what she thought I was really after was getting back to dressing up again. You used to wear dresses all the time, she sa...

This post is out of order. I have been planning a post in my head about where I am now living, and why I've moved into this neighborhood. But end-of-the-year teaching is no joke, and when combined with moving and getting to know our neighbors....well, that's where my time and energy has been focused. So, here's the short version (long version coming soon, hopefully): In March, I moved into a neighborhood in Marietta, GA with a friend from NOBTS. She and I felt like God was leading us to live here to continue building relationships with the kids and families we met last summer. We are the decided minority in our apartment complex, which is full of Hispanic and African-American families. I absolutely love being surrounded by these people and cultures so different from my own, even though I sometimes have no idea what my neighbors are saying. We've met several kids and are getting to know their mothers and families slowly but surely. This summer, we're planning...

Y'all. We've had some heartbreaking conversations in my class over the last few days. (For context, I teach 3rd grade in a semi-urban school outside Atlanta, and the kids in my class are mostly Hispanic. They try to teach me Spanish on a daily basis, and I love being in a multicultural, multi-lingual place on a daily basis. It's absolutely fantastic.) We're not having school on Tuesday because it's election day here in Georgia, so we've talked about the election. Just the basics, really -- what the election is for, how it works, who are the candidates, who is allowed to vote, why voting is important. Of course my kids have been asking who I'm going to vote for. I told them that generally we don't talk about who we're voting for, and that I didn't want to tell them who I was voting for because as their teacher, it's my job to teach them to think and make smart decisions on their own -- not copy my decisions and answers, which they underst...

Do you ever look around and think to yourself that life looks nothing like you thought it would? In the last few months, I've done this over and over again.  I never thought that at 30 I would be basically unemployed, living in my parents' house, single, and without much of a clue as to what my life was going to look like in the near (and far) future. I never considered that I would be so tenuously supported, without a way to securely provide for myself in so many ways.  My life feels so temporary right now -- temporarily living back at home, temporarily borrowing their spare car (because mine decided its life was over when I made it leave New Orleans), temporarily substitute teaching (which is, in and of itself, a very insecure and temporary job). I am waiting on so many things, but mostly, I'm waiting on a more permanent place in life. And a huge part of that is a job that provides the means to support myself, live on my own, buy a car (among other things, like a c...

Story. It's a word with a lot of meanings and uses.  We tell stories. We read stories. People referred to their soap operas as "afternoon stories" (anyone else??). We ask children not to tell stories when we mean we don't want them to lie. For centuries, entire histories of civilizations were passed down through story. Our favorite shows and movies envelop us in stories. Much of what we learn in school and church is told through story. Stories are extremely important to us as a society, as people. They are inescapable. And we love them. We love stories that draw us in, that transport us to another time or life, that inspire us to live better lives and be better people, where the hero (or heroine) wins and the day is saved, where lives and entire worlds are changed. Stories connect us to one another in a way nothing else does. In an ancient and foundational way, we come together as one through stories. They unite us in a mysterious way. This is so evident at ...