Holiday Reading

Who knew that reading for school could be good for the soul!

Is there such a thing...

...as too many books?

Boxing Day?!?

How
are
you
going
to
celebrate???

Love in Techni-color

Lately the Lord has been teaching me
-
People bring color to my life.

Each person has their own shade to add to the spectrum of colors on the palette of my life.

Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Gentleness
Faithfulness
Self-control

What color am I giving to you today?

Friday After Finals Blog

Now that Finals are over and I've finally caught up on my sleep all I want to do is run off to Sainsbury's to get some coffee (because naturally I would be out) and chocolate digestives.

I would walk right by here...


and I would stop and ponder life.



Coffee and life pondering will still happen... and I will dream of Oxford for another day.

Finals Blog #3

How else would I have survived finals!!!

After 3 & 1/5 hrs of sleep last night, I can't wait for my date with my bed.

Finals Weekend #2

Pre-Finals Weekend feels
kind of like
being a cardboard robot in the rain...

But "the sun'll come out... to-morrow"

Yes, I just quoted my namesake.

You're jealous.

Finals Weekend #1

All I want to do is...



But first I have to overcome
5 days - 3 Tests - 1 paper - 1 set of papers to grade - 2 study groups to attend -
3 Movies to watch...
2 Christmas Parties to go to...
12 Pots of tea to drink and 3x as many cups of coffee...

Then I get to Sleep :)

Do you know Charlie?

Charlie Harper's art is BrilliantThis is one of my favorites.

Puddle Jumping

My brain is full.
My heart is full.
Life is full.

I'm hungry.

I second the motion...

Puzzling over Life... Part II

To go back to my puzzle analogy for a moment...

It's those pieces

that don't seem to fit

that turn out to be

my favorite.

Life is...

un·ex·pect·ed (nk-spktd)

adj. Coming without warning; unforeseen.

---

unex·pected·ly adv.

unex·pected·ness n.

Love... even more so.

Puzzling Over Life

Have you ever dumped an entire 1000+ piece puzzle out in a pile - initially you think you'll never find any matches. Life is like this.
Life is unexpected.
Things don't go together the way you think they should - even when they look like they do...

But as you s.l..o...w....l.....y go through the days and events,
full of people and places of all shapes, colors, and sizes - pictures start to emerge....

You look back and can see what was going on, how that situation taught you this, and even how those times made you laugh and cry...

Then there is that one piece that seems like it must've gotten mixed in from a different puzzle, because it just doesn't match up...

And you worry because you are afraid you will miss pieces or lose them...

There is no way that I can imagine how all of the edges amazingly fit together...

The reason - because I am not the Map Maker, but I know Who is.
He is the only one who can see the picture that is my life.

My paraphrase of Psalm 32:8,
"Watch, learn, I'm strategically piecing your life together the way I see it. Trust me."

Deferred Hope = God at work

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
But desire fulfilled is a tree of life." ~ Proverbs 13:12Hope... seeing change in my life
- in, around, through -
knowing God is at work.

Monday Fog...

Monday morning often comes in like watching the sunrise through the fog
Light...
Unknown...
Possibilities...

Uncertainty and mystery combined with HOPE for the coming day can be a beautiful thing.
Shadows of the unknown can definitely cause worries and fears.

The only way I can move forward is because I know the Keeper of the Light

and He is greater than any shadow.

"I am at Work"

I love getting paid to blog - Check out what I've been working on.

> etc Blog

Stumbled Upon a Curse

Its a good thing our Libraries don't take such a serious stance about thievery... or maybe they should???

For Him That Stealeth A Book from this Library, let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with Palsy, and all his members blasted. Let him languish in Pain crying aloud for Mercy and let there be no surcease to his Agony

till he sink in Dissolution.

Let Bookworms gnaw his Entrails in token of the Worm that dieth not,

and when at last he goeth to his final Punishment,

let the flames of Hell consume him forever and aye.

16th Century Spanish Curse

Summer Studies...

Just of the few of the terms that have emerged over the past three days...


Intelligent Design, Neo-Darwinism, Science Day (said with surprising delight, from someone else), Irreducible Complexity, Old & Young Earth, Creationism, Micro & Macro, Common Descent, Natural Selection, Fundamentalist, The Cambrian Explosion, From Genes to Proteins is their Dogmatic, Centrasome's & 2 headed Tadpoles, Jurassic Park Model, and the Borg...

The Real People with Power

Secretaries - they Actually know whats going on!

3 years ago...

...Today, I left my sweet Oxford.




Amazing the adventures a day can bring. I never could've imagined all the Lord would have me do or where I would go. Now to continue to seek His adventures for today... wherever they may lead.

"And this is how I feel..."

:)

Young & Old

Reflection on the young and old...

Yesterday...

I dressed a 2 year old and an 82 year old.
I helped a 2 year old find her chair.
I helped an 82 year old find her chair.
I made a 2 year old lunch.
I made an 82 year old dinner.

Objectively speaking there is little difference in the externalities of what I was doing.

The two year old is taking hold of independence and self sufficiency while the 82 year old is slowly relinquishing hers out of necessity.

For the 2 year old, this is all she knows, all she needs to know, for now.
For my Grandmother, she need to know someone else is handling her needs.

The 2 things I need - love and patience.

Whale Mail

Interpret however you like.
It makes me smile.

Favorite Film Blog

---> Check it <---

Good writing,
interesting opinions,
and
thought provoking humor with a dash of bias.

Love it!

Contrast the Sky

Outside my window at work
is a big beautiful
pink dogwood tree
Today the sun is streaming on it
While behind it the menacing sky is gray
and tumultuous.

This is how I feel today.

Finding Inspiration

Need to be Inspired???

Insatiably Curious

Three people I am curious about
Alexander Hamilton,
T.S. Eliot,
and
The First Emperor of China.

Would you go to such extremes??

I have 6 Bibles of various sizes, colors, and versions sitting in my room... not to mention the immediate availability at my finger tips through my itouch and my mac.

I wonder if the ease with which we have access to God's Word is the excuse we use to treat our Bibles with less care and attention than we often give our shoes?!?

Fayad's lives in a country where Christianity is punishable by death. He said he had little privacy and there was no way for him to read God’s Word. Some Christian friends decided to purchase small memory cards for Fayad’s cell phone and fill them with Christian music and the Bible. Fayad proclaimed, “I can use the memory card and headphones, and if ever I get in a dangerous situation I can just swallow the memory card.”

This puts my 5 minutes before work or before bed to shame.

Would I risk death to read my Bible? Would you? How far are you willing to go to read God's Word?

I face no risks, today, to read God's Word. So, encouraged by the people like Fayad, I will joyfully adore the Word God has given to me, TODAY!

Paper Romance

This

is what my

Happy

is

made of.

What's your's?

Seek Truth

Do we really?

So often in out post-modern relativistic thinking we throw the word truth around like potato chips - everyone can choose their own flavor. That isn't Truth - Webster agrees with me.

Just the other day,

a little old lady told me how we should

take a little bit of what eveyone believes

and then we'll be in the best state of mind and heart.

Honestly that sounds lazy and confusing.

What do you think a judge and jury would have to say to that???

"Well, your Honor, I'm just telling you a little bit of everyone's story,

and that will be my truth."

Don't settle for uncertainty and unfounded assumptions.
Today... seek Truth!

Rain

This is how I feel today...

...it needs no further explanation.

Simple Pontification

Sometimes... infact, I think most of the time... too many words are used to say too litte, and the most encouraging and thought provoking things are said in too few.

Interesting
how
those
are
the
ones
we
wish
would
last
longer.