hannahquense

Hannah the Moonlighter

Hello dearest of dear readers!

I apologize for not posting in a while. Life here in the Twin Cities has been hectic to say the least, and alas I’ve fallen victim to the amateur blogger’s curse of not posting regularly.

True confessions time though: I have in fact been writing blog posts these last two months…they just weren’t for this blog…

*cue climatic plot twist music*

I, Hannah Quense, have been moonlighting for the SPO National Blog.

So in case you’ve missed what I’ve written, here they are!

Four Ways I’m Planning on Acting Like a Child

“One of my inner child dreams in life is for someone to tell me that I’m acting like a child. Now before you go jumping to conclusions and thinking to yourself, “This girl is crazy! It’s not a good thing to be told you’re acting like a child!” let me explain myself…

…Jesus said in Matthew 18:3, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

So here are four ways I’m planning on acting like a child…”

DID I LEAVE JESUS BACK IN JERSEY?

“…Moving cross country from the promised land means I have limited contact with my friends. Despite our best efforts, my relationships back home have resorted to sending text messages every so often, keeping in touch through daily snapchats, and every once in a long while having a video chat date. Leaving my friends back in Jersey has caused our communication to lessen, as is normal when you’re states away from someone.

And to make matters worse, I think I left Jesus in Jersey…”

November 7, 2015 by hannahquense Categories: Uncategorized Leave a comment

First stop on my journey, O’Bagel, for a farewell tribute to my favorite Jersey treat.

Leg 1 of my journey: Accompanied by my mom

Goodbye until December New Jersey! Hello Pennsylvania.

Annoying as it is to spend 6 hours driving through Pennsylvania, at least it’s beautiful.

Final stop for the next two days, Michigan!

Packed our road trip full of random tourist destinations along the way.

Indiana didn’t have a welcome sign…so we made our own :)

Our GPS took us through the back roads of Indiana…needless to say we welcomed the adventure.

Met Maggie’s favorite President in his youth #landoflincoln

We thought we’d visit two Presidents in one day, and said hello to Reagan at his childhood home.

“Contemplating Soybeans” a photo by Hannah Quense

We were driving on Illinois back roads through miles and miles of these fields. After a while our curiosity about what this vegetation was got the better of us and we took a look. Answer: they are soybeans.

Parked on the state line between Illinois and Wisconsin. There was no welcome sign, because we took the scenic route through the back road farmland instead of the main highway.

Straddling the State Line Road between Illinois and Wisconsin. It was a real “A Walk to Remember” moment :)

Stopped in Wisconsin to visit our friend Sissie the giant cow

Although we were nervous to put something called a “curd” in our mouths, we figured we should adhere to the “While in Wisconsin” school of thought and gave them a try. There were surprisingly tasty.

We went out of the way for a spell to visit this famous bakery…

…and we procured the most delicious donuts!

Driving along the Mississippi was a good alternative to the main highway :)

At some point in our trip we drove back into Wisconsin from Minnesota and then back to Minnesota again. I will admit I was happy for the opportunity to take a picture with our second Minnesota welcome sign :)

With two free days to explore Minnesota before Maggie flew home, we had to see the Mall of America

When at the Mall of America it is only appropriate to act like a child and meet the Avatar, master of all four elements.

Then we decided to visit a classier tourist sight, the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

The St. Paul Cathedral in all it’s beauty! It really took our breaths away.

Arriving…

I HAVE ARRIVED!!!

It’s official, I am finally in Minnesota and settled into my new job serving with SPO!

Now since I’m a firm believer in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, that “Life is a journey, not a destination”, I figured I would share with you part of my figurative journey by showing you my physical journey. So here is a picture diary of my four day trip out to the Land of 10,000 lakes, through the State of Independence, the Birthplace of Aviation, the land of Great Lakes and Great Times, the Hoosier State, the Land of Lincoln, and finally through America’s Dairyland.

August 25, 2015August 25, 2015 by hannahquense Categories: The JourneyTags: cheese curds, illinois, indianna, Jeep Renegade, michigan, minnesota, ohio, pennsylvania, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Road Trip, Road Trip America, Soybeans, wisconsin Leave a comment

Beyond the Walls

Dearest Reader,

I am pleased to inform you that I will be welcoming you into my confidence by sharing with you a part of my life that not many people know about. In fact, it is relatively rare that I share this particular passion of mine with other people, but, as it is one of the things I love to do most of all and one of the biggest forms of expression in my life, I have decided to swallow my fear of vulnerability and rejection in this area and share it with you.

I, Hannah Quense, love to write poetry.

More often than not my poems are an expression of my thoughts and feelings about any and everything that is happening in my life. I use poetry as a way to bring clarity to my thoughts, to reflect upon my life experiences, and most of all to pray.

When I come before the Lord in silence during my prayer I’ve found over the years that the language He most often chooses to use to communicate with me is that of poetry. Whether it’s by inspiring me in prayer with a new poem, or relaying His wisdom to me in a given situation through a poetic idea or theme, I’ve always found my reflections in my prayer journal to naturally manifest themselves in stanzas and not paragraphs. But most of all, I’ve found that it is in poetry I can see clearly the beauty of God. Just as others may recognize the beauty of God through the sun rising or birds chirping, I see Him in the rhythm of a line, in the depiction of an idea in perfect imagery, and in the clarity of words that are seemingly unclear.

Now although some of my poems, how should I put this delicately, stink like the week old milk I found in our fridge yesterday, I do believe that there are some that smell just as sweet as the bad ones do foul. In fact, I think part of why I find such joy in writing and see such beauty in it, is similar to my experience with math. Just as I can see God’s beauty through the simple complexity of math and numbers (yes, I think math is beautiful, and yes, I know my nerd is showing), in an area of study that I’m gifted in (hopefully my degree in Mathematics can attest to that), so too do I believe that the Lord has given me a gift for poetry.

So dearest readers, as you’ve loyally stuck with me this far, I’d like to share with you one of my poems, entitled Beyond the Walls. This poem is a little more unique than my others, because I have taken it and made it into a short video. True confessions time: the program I used was only a demo (which I didn’t realize until after I finished making the video), so I was unable to export the video apart from a very shoddy version that skipped and stopped every few seconds. As a result, I had to play the unexported version on my computer and record that on my camera, in order to get a better quality (but still not perfect) final video.

I hope you enjoy it 🙂

With Love From Your Highly Exalted Blogger,

Hannah

July 15, 2015July 15, 2015 by hannahquense Categories: PoetryTags: beauty, beyond the walls, God's gifts, poem, poetry, spoken word, video project Leave a comment

I’m Uncomfortable with Comfort

To quote the great poet Robert Frost in his poem “The Road Not Taken”,

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one most comfortable.

Wait…what?…What do you mean Robert Frost never actually said that?! I’ve been living a lie my whole life!

So let’s see, it says here that Robert Frost actually said,

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Hmmm, interesting idea there Bob. So you’re telling me that instead of taking that nicely paved, well light, even terrain road, I should take the unpaved, unmarked, rough terrain one? That makes perfect sense (she said in her native language of Jersey sarcasm), I’m gonna go ahead and do that this very second!

But like most sarcastic statements, there’s truth hidden in what I just said.
Continue reading →

June 30, 2015July 1, 2015 by hannahquense Categories: Being on MissionTags: comfort, proverbs16:9, robert-frost, spo, the-road-less-traveled, uncomfortable Leave a comment

Story of My Life

Although many people believe me to be the sole inspiration for the boy band One Direction’s hit song “Story of My Life“, I would just like to take the time here and now to clear the air and say that this is in fact not true. Do not be deceived by this post’s title, the story of my life and the story of One Direction’s life are quite different indeed. However, I do believe that both stories need to be told, and seeing as the British boy band has already told their’s in song, I thought that it was about time I told my story as well.

I grew up as the second youngest of six kids in a very strong and devout Catholic family. My parents always taught me from a young age to go to Mass on Sundays, say my prayers before meals and bed, and to follow the commandments. Going to Catholic school my whole life these beliefs were only further integrated into my life. catholic meme

Growing up surrounded by all of these traditions, rules, and rituals, I can see how easy it is for some people to believe that the Catholic Church teaches just what the meme on the right displays; that life is made of rules that prevent us from doing what will bring us pleasure and happiness.

Words cannot even describe how blessed I am to have grown up in the family that I have with the parents that I have, because the most important thing that my parents taught me is not how to follow the traditions and teachings of the Church, but the truth that surrounds them. My parents taught me that God is love, that He loves me and died to prove it, and that the only joy in life comes from being in a relationship with Him. Continue reading →

June 23, 2015June 30, 2015 by hannahquense Categories: AboutTags: about-the-author, conversion, mission, my-story, saint-paul's-outreach, seton-hall-university, shu, spo Leave a comment