An appropriate reflection on 2013 written on December 2, 2013: In the last year, I have learned a lot about making difficult but ethical, professional, and necessary decisions. I have been challenged to find a place for the pockets of compassion, empathy, and love in my heart amidst the "business" of ministry at the administrative level. I have been concerned that I would "lose" a part of who I was amidst the "growth" into someone equipped to handle even more complex and complicated matters and make the hard calls that are not comfortable for anyone. I guess you could say a year of lessons in leadership in a whole new way for me as I stepped into the leadership team at the children's home I work for where I now both supervise employees and manage youth's cases. And as I've worried about losing my heart while growing in functionality, I was refreshed today in the saddest of ways to find that my heart was still capable of breaking. In half. And s