I saw a snake and wasn't terrified - and wow, is that a great economics class!

Snakes on a creek

I recently took a class in presentation skills, aka public speaking. Did you know that public speaking is the second greatest fear that people have? It turns out that people are pretty much terrified of the idea of getting up in front of other people and talking.

Do you know what the number one fear is? I thought it might be spiders. I was close. It's snakes. This week in Round Rock three people drove up to the Taco Bell and threw a Python through the drive-up window. It turns out that this guy behind the window expressed what is perhaps a larger than ordinary fear of snakes. Fortunately, just across the way was a Thundercloud Subs where a woman who was working there is a snake handler, so she came - sometime before or after the Round Rock police arrived, and adopted the Python. This episode has led to some pretty interesting newspaper columns in the Austin American-Statesman and the Round Rock Leader this week. One guy suggested that you could probably rob a bank using a rattlesnake. The three suspects are still on the loose.

The creek we live on has snakes, or so I'm told - water moccasins. Our neighbor Tim, who has lived in his house on the creek for over 20 years, said that in those early days when the subdivision was new and they had children at home, it was common to hear gunshots in this quiet neighborhood - people out in their back yards on the creek shooting at water moccasins in the trees. I guess they thinned out the population pretty well, because until today I had never seen a snake on our creek. And this little guy that I saw was not like any water moccasin I've ever seen. (Oh - wait, I'm not sure I've ever seen a water moccasin, but I do have a pretty good idea of what they look like.) No gunshots are heard in Round Rock West anymore, either. Fireworks (still illegal since we're in the city limits) on all the major holidays, but no gunshots.

Lauren and I did go see Snakes on a Plane when it came out. My initial reaction to the idea of going to that movie was that I had no desire to put that many images of aggressive snakes in my memory bank. After reading a few reviews, however, I decided that this would be great comic relief because clearly the movie was designed to entertain not to really frighten. So I prepared myself to laugh, and we went.

We went to Round Rock 8 which is now the cheap theater in town since we have megaplexes just a few exits away on I35 in either direction. Small, kind of dumpy little theater, but it served our purposes that day. The theater was practically empty. We laughed from almost the beginning of the movie as we could see the really cheesy plot developing. We laughed hilariously through most of it, and I closed my eyes when the gore was getting to be too much for me. It was riotously fun! As we were leaving the theater, one of the other families we had shared the theater with told us how much more they had enjoyed the movie because we were there laughing so much. Gratifying.

It takes a village

And speaking of gratifying . . . . Monday night Phillip and I attended Open House at Round Rock High School. This is a two hour affair during which parents visit all of their student's classes in order and sit for seven minutes with other parents whose students are in that particular class at that particular time. There is then a bell and a passing period during which you go to your student's next class, and so on through eight periods. It is a chance to meet the teacher, shake their hand, let them know you're invested in your child's education - simply the act of showing up let's them know this - and listen to them talk about the class, what they expect, how to contact them, etc.

When we got to AP Economics, Lauren's 6th period class, I was looking forward to meeting Mrs. Wetzig because she is a very popular teacher at RRHS. I was not, however, prepared for what she said about 6th period economics. She said that when she got her roll at the beginning of the year, she was horrified to have 37 students listed. Her room, which is in a portable classroom (picture a mobile home classroom - yeah kind of ugly), has 32 desks - and barely enough room for those. After a week she still had 36 students, and her department head asked her if Mrs. Wetzig wanted her to do something about this too-full classroom.

Mrs. Wetzig said that she didn't want her to change a thing. She said that she has had good classes before, but not ever one like this. She said the energy is great, the kids talk when they're supposed to talk and listen when they're supposed to listen. She said it is the best class she has ever had. The four "extra" students sit in random chairs around the room, pulled up to some nearby table.

I looked around at the parents sitting in that room, all of us hearing this wonderful praise of our kids; I knew most of them and thought, "You know, this is a pretty great class." Those kids are smart and talented and creative, and they like being smart. Clearly, they also have some manners. I was proud! This is public education we're talking about, doing its job well. This is a classroom full of students who are loving learning. It's a testimony to Mrs. Wetzig, of course, because if I were in that room with those students, it would not be the same story!

I realized once again that it does take a village to raise a child. Parents cannot control many things about our kid's world. The dynamics of a whole class of seniors for one thing. In a portable classroom on a lawn that doesn't look like a lawn under some live oak trees during 6th period on B-days at Round Rock High School, the village is at work, and it is just a bit magical.

On creeks and clutter; and oh my goodness, I've started a blog!

Wisdom from someone whose name you'd think is harder to spell than mine

My maiden name is Walker, and this is a name people can spell. You would think that people could also spell the name Gunter, but this is not the case. In the last 26 years since I married Phillip Gunter and took this name, I have been irritated with people trying to spell it "Gunther" or "Guenther". "Gun - ter." How hard is that?

I've never actually known anyone with either of those more classic German spellings of the name. But now I do, and I'm pretty sure I like her. I "met" Margaret Guenther this morning as I began reading her book, Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction. She has given me the inspiration for the title of my blog, "Clearing the Clutter". Margaret Guenther is a spiritual director, and she speaks wisely of those who come to her:

"Sometimes I wonder if the care of souls was easier in simpler times, for people sometimes come looking for a spiritual director because they are overwhelmed with good things: challenging work, useful charitable activities, more books than they can read and cultural events than they can ever absorb, more information than they can process, more paths of self-improvement than they can follow. Like overindulged children, they are inundated by good things; and they simultaneously yearn and fear to hear: 'One thing is needful.' They come because they want that one thing, even when they cannot articulate their need. They want help in clearing away the clutter, or at least in arranging it so that it becomes useful spiritual furniture rather than an impediment to wholeness."

-From Holy Listening by Margaret Guenther

As a fellow traveler on the Christian spiritual journey, I understand those words. I have been that person seeking to clear the clutter in my life. I've had some beginning successes in the clearing of the clutter, and it seems to me a wonderful analogy of the spiritual process.

Of suburbia and ownership

I go to my creek to clear away the clutter. I call it my creek not because I have ownership of it (although actually, Phillip and I do own a little piece of it - a strip of about 150 feet across the back of our property), but I call it my creek because I have claimed it. I am not the only one to lay claim to this little creek, Lake Creek, that snakes its way through suburban neighborhoods like Forest North and Anderson Mill and Round Rock West. Most of our immediate neighbors live on the creek; Barbara and Tim, who host our cell group live on the creek, as do our friends, Jerri and Lisa and my new hairdresser, Teresa. They all love the creek as well. There are at least two streets named Lake Creek, one in North Austin and one in Round Rock. Since two of them are directly off RM 620 and are less than 8 miles apart, it can be a bit confusing for the uninitiated driver. In Round Rock we even have Lake Creek Pool. For those of us whose homes are on lots on the creek, we own the land all the way to the middle of the creek.

But none of that is the reason I love my creek. I love my creek because I can walk out of my house (which has been known to be cluttered) and walk 61 steps north, and I am transported to another world, another ecosystem, a place where there are rocks and trees and poison oak (not on our side of the creek, thanks to Phillip!) and frogs and tiny fish and little green heron and great blue heron and cardinals (who often grace us with their presence at the bird feeder on our back porch) and tiny little shells deposited on the banks after the last "flood". And there is water. Water flowing over rocks, making that wonderful water-flowing-over-rocks sound that reminds me of the Colorado Rockies.

I love my creek because when I remember to take the time, I can walk those 61 steps back to where the water flows. I can take a deep breath, listen to the water and just hang out for 10 minutes - or an hour - while my heart rate and blood pressure go down, and I am reminded that whatever I've got going on in my mind or my heart or my life or my house, here there is space for God. Here at the creek there is time and space and color and light and life and endless creation. Here at the creek it is a different world, but one which God invites me to enter. Here there are many things, but no clutter. I walk those 61 steps back to my house less cluttered and more clear than I was when I walked down there.

Periodic musings

I've often thought of doing some kind of e-newsletter of my thoughts or musings, and when blogs became popular I began to think of writing one. I've taken inspiration from my son, Austin, who has written entertaining travel blogs changeforaustin.blogspot.com) and my friend, John Hay who was doing it before everyone else was and does it better than most (bikehiker.blogspot.com).

So here I go! I will call it periodic because while I might have high hopes of writing every day or once a week or twice a month, the reality is I'm not quite that organized yet. So I will write when I can, and I invite you to let me know what you think. I'd love to hear from you!

Blessings and peace,
Jan Gunter
Writing from Round Rock, Texas, where the sun is shining and the birds are singing.