Angela At-Large

Tag: thinking

  • in its own time

    It would seem I’m overdue for my “monthly” blog post. Like anyone else, I have grand intentions of Doing Things, but then get sidetracked or something else needs to take priority or my emotional bank account is overdrawn and I have nothing left to put into words. As such, I haven’t written as much as I would like to; as much as social media marketers and “hustle culture” tell me I’m supposed to in order to “build an audience” and “attract a following” so I can “sell to more people.”

    See the problem is, I don’t care. At least, not about the whole being-competitive-in-the-marketplace and getting-my-name-out-there stuff. I’m a writer, not a salesman. A storyteller, not a gimmick-hawker. An artist, not a capitalist. I don’t care about your wallet…I mean, of course I need to eat, and I would love for my words to be the means of supporting myself. But what matters more to me is that whoever does happen to read the things I write comes away with some sense of, “Oh, I never thought about it like that,” or “I needed to hear that today.”

    As a result, I end up writing for quality, not quantity. One of the main reasons I collected my old blog posts into a book is because I wanted to gather the best of my last 20 years into a small volume to be read away from ads and SEO and algorithms that require you to churn out content just to be seen. Social media is how our modern world works, but it is antithetical to how the artist, the wordsmith, the craftsman wants to be in the world. Scroll through any artisan’s Instagram and I would put money on there being a post somewhere lamenting about wanting to do what they love but feeling torn about having to sell themselves in order to do it.

    So whether you’ve found me as a stranger through Instagram or YouTube or Facebook or you’re an old friend whose hand I’ve pressed a QR coded-business card into, welcome. If you’re looking for someone who posts a lot, you’ll be disappointed and it’s probably best to move on to the next content creator. But if you want something a little deeper; if you don’t mind waiting for the tastier morsels, I invite you to stay. Bookmark this page, because I don’t even have a newsletter yet (another thing that makes me a “bad writer,” I guess). Make some tea or brew some coffee, ’cause it might be awhile. But I’d like to think it will be worth it. ❤

  • making hay while the sun shines

    Around this time last year, I was leaving behind notes for the next program director at the college I worked at. No one had been hired yet by the time I left — a symptom of a larger issue I was relieved to step away from. Regardless, I had been itching to move on from the higher ed world for a while; longer than I had even realized myself at the time. I loved my students, even loved much of the work I did. But when my position changed during COVID, it was no longer a good fit for me. So, I gave my notice and set my sights on other pastures.

    The plan was to strike out on my own. To freelance as a database designer (something I was skilled at and enjoyed as one piece of my multi-faceted job), travel around in my newly-purchased camper van, and live the digital nomad life. I would relocate to Indiana as a “home base” so I could help my parents out as needed, but be able to visit friends and see parts of my own country I hadn’t yet seen. Oh, and between all those things, I would also begin building something off the thesis I had written as the culmination of my master’s degree–ministry, resources, workshops. I was set to get started on all kinds of Very Important Things.

    Reader, only one of those things has happened.
    I’m here. In Indiana.
    Home base.
    Learning to shift my perspectives, plans, and ambitions.

    Plans always change, especially when we make a big move. We find that the needs and responsibilities in our new location are different than we envisioned. We find out certain skills don’t translate as well as we hoped. We lose momentum on things we were passionate about, because there are other needs to be met right in front of us.

    A year later now, and part of me (well, much of me, to be honest) feels like I’ve lost the plot. Snide, inaudible comments hiss their way through my brain and if I am not careful, into my heart. Things like You have to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. God helps those who help themselves — you’ll never prosper or get God’s favor and blessing if you just wait for things to be handed to you. He’ll only bless you if you’re doing His will, so you must be doing something wrong, or not doing enough. If you don’t have enough faith, God can’t work in your life. No one says these things directly (although they might repost a low-quality jpeg of it on facebook), and they are a poor and disappointing interpretation of Scripture. But it feels like this “must” be what people secretly think when they look at me. Like I’m supposed to be making something of myself, doing all those Very Important Things, and having some kind of outsized impact for the kingdom.

    But good grief. What a lot of pressure, and from no one in particular; it’s just a nagging sense of dread, a fear of being exposed as some kind of fraud. Like a spiritual impostor syndrome.

    I mean, maybe someone will “find me out” someday. They’ll find that instead of building databases, I’m building compost bins and plowing dirt so we can grow our own food. They’ll find my parents are grateful for me to be back. They’ll discover that instead of making money for someone else, I’m stumbling my way through writing books and crafting things to sell on Etsy so I can support myself by doing things I love. They’ll find that yeah, maybe I’ve lost momentum on the #MeToo project for now, but they’ll also find that I refuse to let it fizzle out because I believe it’s too important for the Church to ignore.

    Ultimately though, as hard as it is for me to believe sometimes, those poisonous lies of God must be so disappointed in you are arrows from behind enemy lines. And what anyone glimpses on the outside is not the full picture of what God sees. People are only casual observers–He does the work in me, far beyond what even I’m aware of. It’s not their opinion that matters–it’s His. There’s only one throne before which I will stand on the Last Day, and it doesn’t belong to anyone who is in just as much need of grace as I am. Nor does it belong to that devil who was crushed forever beneath the heel of King Jesus.

    So, I do the best I can with what I have. For now, I’ll lead a quiet life, mind my own business, and work with my hands. Just make hay while the sun shines.

  • “Where are you?”

    It is the very first question God posed to Adam in the Garden as he walked there in the cool of the day. The question is explored in the second chapter of A Curious Faith by Lore Ferguson Wilbert, which was recommended to me several months ago by a dear friend. In the opening pages, Wilbert highlights how we are all born into a place, a culture, a time in history. We are born into a family, we live and work, we form and are being formed by the places in which we find ourselves. She poses the idea that before we can really know who we are, we first need to know where we are.

    So…where am I? Logistically, it’s quite simple: I’m in Indiana, house sitting for some friends. But like many things in life, the real answer, the deeper answer, is far more nuanced than what’s on the surface.

    Flip back through the calendar, and two months ago I was still living in upstate New York, transitioning out of an unfulfilling, unsuitable-for-me job and letting myself dream about who I might like to be in the world now. Flip forward in the planner, and in a few weeks my friends will return and I will shift into the next phase of the reasons I moved back to Indiana.

    Widen the scope even more, and the place and age I occupy on this planet becomes more complex. Complex, like flavor notes in a good coffee or wine – – not complicated like the knots of Christmas tree lights that must be untangled no matter how nicely you put them away the year before.

    I was born into two cultures, not one. And although the American part of me is the more dominant of the two, I cannot separate from or be who I am without the Filipino part of me. My last name only goes back one generation due to my dad being adopted; the bloodline may stretch back into parts of western Europe, but I belong to the family who gave us this new name. I also carry my mother’s maiden name, the sound of which echoes the era of Spanish colonialism in the Philippines–yet the DNA ancestry kit unveils the “99% Southeast Asian, Malay, Filipino” lineage that also courses through my veins.

    My childhood was tied to this Midwestern plain, but my entire adult life has been spent on planes, trains, and automobiles: Going to college in New York, moving overseas to teach English, traveling wherever my savings and time off would let me, returning to New York, hiking and cycling all over the Northeast…it is admittedly quite an adjustment to be back in the land that raised me. Even so, it is only a home base; a jumping off point for the places my van will take me as I develop the dreams I have had on my heart for so long.

    So where am I? I guess it comes back to being ever “at-large.” But for now, this is my where. This is me.

  • stroll

    the night is still on this midwestern road,
    heavy fog following the sun’s evening departure,
    obscuring the stars, but
    wrapping me in its stillness
    cool and quiet

    my footsteps are muffled by the weight
    of the night air
    I have no place to get to, only strolling until
    I feel like returning indoors.

    the road is straight, but my mind wanders
    and my heart runs circles around it
    as though walking two inquisitive dogs,
    sniffing this way and that.
    first one thought, then another
    a memory, an observation–
    all prayers up to the God Who Sees

    so I stroll awhile in the darkness,
    letting tomorrow be tomorrow
    and tonight, just letting myself be me.

  • this pilgrim’s progress

    this pilgrim’s progress

    It’s nearly midnight on a Sunday night. I’m surrounded by cardboard boxes and crumpled newspapers and packing tape, once again putting my life into temporary containers in preparation for another move. (Indeed, this will be my seventh official change-of-address within the past 10 years.)

    As I’ve been saying to friends lately, this move doesn’t feel real–yet it doesn’t feel surreal, if that makes any sense. I’ve moved plenty, both within my own country and outside of it; I am no stranger to the barrage of feelings that can come with uprooting yourself and settling into a new place. But this move just feels different. I suspect it’s because I’m not moving to somewhere new, but rather somewhere old. Back to the place where I began. Back to the place where “home” means the town grew up in, rather than the place I currently abide.

    But although I’m going back to a familiar land, I know there will also be new things to experience. New people to meet. New opportunities to explore. New journeys to take with God. Hence, the new blog.

    If you’ve known me long, you might know I’m a writer–although it’s also likely you might not know, because truth be told, I haven’t written much the last several years. At least, not in this format. I took the plunge into seminary, so four years of my free time was spent writing academic papers and a Master’s thesis. I’ve filled personal prayer journals, scribbled a rogue poem or two, and even had a blog with like, six posts on it. This style of wordsmithing has either lay dormant by necessity or fallow by choice all this time.

    However, much like going back to old places for new reasons, I’m entering a season of life that leaves me space to write in a way my heart loves again. This coming week will be filled with more packing, errands, and shoving boxes into my van. But 450 miles from now, there’s new ground to rediscover. You’re welcome to come along for the journey.