these days, med skoo can be literally a day at the park.  we're in 'neuro-block' (we're learning neuroscience that is), and this last two months of 1st year at WashU med is notoriously known for its conducivity to slacking, enjoying the spring weather, doing 'no work,' savoring the last bit of pass/fail grading before second year unloads on us.  i've had my share of good days so far:  one day i skipped class (would have ended by noon anyway) and hung out at the park.  i smiled, sitting on a bench at the grand basin under clear skies, eating strawberries and sandwiches while reading.  i even got a little tan.  then, after a brief doctor's appointment, i read through the day's material in about an hour and went to the coffee shop and observed the hippies of webster university socialize and play guitar.  a middled-aged man polished pennies with a ragged piece of towel and muttered to himself across the room while i read about Jesus and was intrigued by how He healed people in all their aspects of being:  the spiritual, the psychological, the physical.  i am becoming more aware of life and how i may minister in restoring life--zoe, psuche, bios.  with all this learning about 'doctoring,' the real deal is following Jesus' footsteps, in word, in deed, in the flesh . . .

i took my neuroscience midterm this morning.  i have one more exam left at the end of may.  despite the opportunity for slackery, i am delighted to learn about the nervous system.  after all, the reason i looked forward to this block all year was not only because of the easy-going schedule but also because i want to specialize in some sort of neuro- field--neurosurgery, neurology, etc.  the brain is less of a black box to me now, although it is nonetheless mysterious.  what delights me is that i can recognize Christ's likeness throughout it all--the flesh, the object, cell death and genesis, plasticity, the light, the eyes, the chiasm, the decussations, the processing of speech, faces, words, images, the production of speech, the filling in of gaps in vision, parallax, detection of the derivative of velocity with respect to time, one frame to another, one spatial locus and another, contours of light and dark, synapse, and the interplay of flesh and perception, conception, volition--the Amen, like unveiled faces reflecting the glory of God . . .

and there is more still.  though remembering eternity in the midst of a busy life is difficult, much more the acceptance and discovery of rapture in the midst of banal existence.  --but what does it say?  the word is near you, on your lips and in your heart . . . the Word was made flesh . . .  rejoice always . . .  everything is beautiful in its time. 

jenn is always with me, everyday.  she tells me that she wants to give me the best of her in the course of her day, despite those exasperating teenagers.  she coaches me to take my time when i catch and throw and to step into my swing when we play softball.  and i feel my heart growing everynight when i surrender to falling asleep, blessed to mourn the passing of another day with her, comforted.

subway is good.  i don't need to get all the vegetables on there to get my money's worth.  mm.  so good. 

nowadays, jenn and ymk have been staying home and watching 'planet earth' on dvd--thanks to jaime chu who let us borrow his dvds.  jenn doesn't like the parts when the animals eat each other; she gets sad.  i, on the other hand, got sad only when the polar bear was too tired to eat the sea lions--or were they seals?  i don't remember. 

nevertheless, the connection is that on the program they have snow leopards and today, jenn had a snow day.  since i don't go to class anyway, i stayed home too--i'm glad i did; the roads were awful (we had to help a teenage boy and his gf out of the snow--he had a fancy sports car w/ 'racing tires' that had no traction and spoilers that completely obstructed his rear view--which meant that his gf had to keep opening her door to look behind them). 

and . . . we made the greatest snowman ever!!!

notice the smile on his/her face when jenn is near:

the snow was amazing--packed real well.  jenn thinks the man looks like a war-veteran w/ that hat on his head.

good times . . . such happy times . . .

turns out that STL isn't much different from cbus in terms of drastic weather changes--two days ago, we were at out and about at the zoo, forrest park, having a picnic, barefoot and napping under the sun in 75 degree weather . .  today, as you can see, we had much snow.  but it snowed enough for jenn's 3-day weekend (due to cashmere pulaski day in illinois on monday) to be extended to a 4-day weekend.

life in stl continues:  another significant landmark is that ymk and jenn discovered 'happy china,' a worthy replacement for the long-beloved 'asian star chinese buffet' in cbus.  mmm.  yum . . .  yes!

coming next/soon:  a resolution to ymk's hives-saga (now at 20 months) . . . ?  perhaps not . . .  but hopefully it will happen.

last christmas i gave you my heart~ the very next day, you kissed my lemur-face~

this year, you gave me so many presents!  --yes, jenn gave ym the most presents he ever received in his life this christmas.  ym's favorite:  jenn.

cbus was good.  unfortunately my lemur-head wife was sick all week.  i loved on her a lot.  poor baby-head . . .

jenn had to work the 2nd, so we came home on the 30th.  we spent new years eve the same way we did last year (we were in st. louis on our way back home from boulder, colorado from a wedding).  we went to caleco's, the one restaurant we found then that was open on new years eve in downtown stl.  it's yummy food, but sat heavy in our bellies . . . much has happened in a year.  we are settled here, with a sense of normalcy--the bills, the work, the weekends, the daily dinners together, tv, etc.  when you move away from your parents and become totally independent, you realize how fragile life is.  it's important to be not scared or downcast--think of God's grace, how He sustains us, and the love that we have through His Son.  i am glad--so happy--to have a home on this earth where there is love.  praise God.

so while jenn was at work yesterday and today, i shadowed some neurosurgeons.  it was pretty cool; i can definitely see myself doing what they do.  surgery sounds much more exciting than it is in person (as long as you get over the 'whoa, that's a live person!' thing).  it's all just a day's work--i would love my work to be something so engaging.  yesterday i watched a lady get a chunk of her brain removed, and today we cut some nerves from a little girl's spinal cord (dorsal root rhizotomy)--which, by the way, was performed by this korean man who is apparently the world's leader in dorsal root rhizotomy by far (he wrote the book).  i tremble in knowing the privileges God granted me in my education/career.  it was refreshing to see these things in person away from books.  i am trying to figure out what to do this summer--it pertains much to my career/residency stuff.  i get caught up in it quite a bit.  but then i had the perspective to ask myself, 'but what does it all matter?'  i am thankful to have remembered that 'everything is meaningless' and that i live to glorify God.  and then i hear these lyrics on the radio:

'my greatest contribution will be the ones i leave behind . . . raised with the gentle kindness of a southern man.'

now, i am not a southern man, but i was moved and agreed w/ the above statement.  God is love.  i can 'save lives' by performing some surgery, but they'll die eventually, and my power is a joke relative to all the time and space and matter of the universe.  i will live to do God's will for me in my generation and die.  but then there is something awesome, something remarkably prolific about living for God.  by love, spiritually, mentally, physically, there is procreation.  God is love--He is our Father; we are His children.  w/ jenn, i have this love, and to share this love with her--that is what will really be productive/powerful.  and the children we will love and raise--they will be much more than precious.  and to teach them everything i know, with patience, kindness, joy, and all that streams from love--that is my greatest work, just as God loved us through His Son.  i hope that i can live this out, that it won't be 'work' or anything burdensome that is againt my nature--but that He will have His way in me, w/ complete cooperation/obedience.

does this mean . . .  lemur babies?

stay tuned . . .