Day 119 - Pokémon FireRed Begin

James's mother had had enough of her son. Quite frankly she was fed up with him. He was very lazy and spent every day cooped up in his room playing games on his NES and his computer. His neighbor Blue used to invite him to do things, but the constant rejection had caused a rift between the two children and the invites had stopped... James had no motivation to do anything and his mother wanted to change that. She had heard that the local Professor Oak was employing his grandson to help create a Pokémon encyclopedia. She begged the spry old man to put her son to work as well. He had begrudgingly accepted the proposition, thinking he could use this as an opportunity to study the impact of spending time with Pokémon on an individual's personality and temperament.

With a plan in mind now they just needed to push James out of the nest. And push they did. Without telling him why his mother had sent him over to talk with the professor. By the time he was back home with a Bulbasaur in tow his mother had locked him out of the house. She left him a note on the door saying he could come back after filling 25 pages in his new Pokédex or obtaining at least 2 gym badges. James was not happy about it, but what could he do. He agreed to help the Professor, but he refused to be diligent or efficient about it.

Day one of my new schedule. Unlike James I am very excited about this new adjusted approach. My challenges right now are quite different from his. I am struggling to make the decisions I need to make about how I will continue to participate with my current church congregation. It is a stressful thing for me to think about, but my current participation is not working for me. My family has been told and shown that we are not fully welcome at church and that has been a quite painful thing for me to accept and adjust to. I am sitting here in my favorite church meeting writing this as I wrestle with the dissonance of the things I want and what is realistically available. I'm open to suggestions so long as you are willing to take the time to talk with me long enough to understand my current situation.