Leaving

I can't wait to be here:

But...I will dearly miss this city and my beloved sisters. Forget me not, Louisville, KY. :)

"Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head running down the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore." --Psalm 133

The Land of Waiting

"April is the cruellest month, breeding

lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

memory and desire, stirring

dull roots with spring rain."

--T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land: "The Burial of the Dead"

As I wait, anxiously, to plant my feet on the soil of a new home, I feel the cruellest weight of things known and unknown. Africa, a seed, has been planted and watered, and I'm ready for the ground to break-- for the roots to make themselves at home in my heart. But, with this new beginning, also comes the shedding of most things familiar and comfortable. I feel exhausted with the approaching reality of separation and the near fulfillment of a much-anticipated desire.

Found This Today...

As most of you know, volcanic ash delayed my traveling plans, thus I have a butt load of free time on my hands. Several months ago, this random guy took some pictures at a local coffee shop and posted them on a blog that details some pretty incredible smiles. I finally found it!

In our defense, we were purposely trying to cringe:

Smile Like You're Dead Inside

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Brevity

I'm reading Strunk and White's The Elements of Style to freshen up on my writing/usage rules and skills. This passage was nice:

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer makes all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

Easier said than done, Strunk and White.

Not Just Another Tuesday

1.Morning Prayer
2.Breakfast with Sojourn comrades complete with Pancake Puppies and theology
3.Shots
4.Trip to North Vernon with B.
5.Late lunch with B.'s mom
6.Drive back to L-ville
7.Lots of Gillian Welch
8.Traffic
9.Nap
10.Community Group
11.Beauty and The Beast with Patty

This is pretty...

Spaces

One month to go...
I'm a small glass, and water is spilling over the rim.
So much left to do.
Oh God, help me.

A Few Things

1. I'm moving to Africa.
2. Sometimes I'm numb to that fact.
3. I am overwhelmed all the time.
4. The Lord is faithful whether I believe it or not.

Revamp!

Academic Epidemic

From an article titled, "The Shaming of Religion" in Liberty magazine:


"In an attempt to avoid offending anyone, America's public schools have incresingly adopted a zero-tolerance attitude toward religious expression. The courts have not helped, allowing schools the discretion to let an offended minority control a cowed majority. Such politically correct thinking has resulted in a host of inane actions, from the Easter Bunny being named 'Peter Rabbit' to the Christmas concerts being dubbed 'Winter' concerts...What school officials and the courts fail to understand is that by agreeing to sanitize the schools of anything remotely related to religion, they will not only be silencing an entire segment of the population, but will also be contributing to a cultural bereft of a rich heritage of Western art, music and literature--all of which, at one time or another, has been greatly influenced by religion" (Whitehead, John W.)

Whether or not true Christianity is a minority of majority may be up for debate, but as a recent college grad I can personally vouch for this unfortunate phenomenon in some of my classes. More often than not, my teachers would briefly mention religious influences in an author's work or merely treat treat the subject matter as archaic.

Valentine Daze

I boarded a plane for the first time on Valentine's Day six years ago with my high-school AP Biology class. Two hours later we were eating Itailian food in New York City. I couldn't shake the small voice of Kevin McCallister from my head: "My family's in Florida...I'm in New York."

To celebrate Valentine's Day 2010, Patty and I attended the special midnight viewing of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It was such a pleasure to view a movie I've loved for a long time on the big screen. Not to mention I got to spend the early hours of V-Day with someone I love very much. :)


I think I'm forgetting how to write. That's why I haven't blogged in awhile. It feels so foreign to form words into coherent sentences. I read an incredibly well-structured sentence in a cooking magazine the other day and almost cried. I'm craving good writing.

Tsk, Tsk.

Blog, I've been so neglectful.

I'll return soon and tell you of all the marvelous happenings.

Lofty Mysteries and Skyfelt Stories

The tops of buildings downtown disappeared into the hovering fog. I was mesmerized.

It Came to Me...

in the car.

The last word should be "significant." I think it works.

Thoughts on Wintery Afternoon

Sometimes I try my hand at at bit of poetry...


Like the settling of dust
I loved you slowly.
A silent affair,
you grew quietly, delicately--
Almost, unnoticed
until you were gone.
And the bare, gleaming surface of my affection
stood naked and robbed of something…
…

I can’t decide what the last word should be:


It has to be something that contrasts with the feathery and light quality of dust. Time will tell. Maybe it will come to me on a late night trip to the grocery store, or in the middle of an important phone call.

These music box conversations
leave me spinning.

The burying of you will not be quiet or easy.

I like Annie Dillard. She writes so eloquently:

"These are morning matters, pictures you dream as the final wave heaves you up on the sand to the bright light and drying air. You remember pressure, and a curved sleep you rested against, soft, like a scallop in its shell. But the air hardens your skin; you stand; you leave the lighted shore to explore some dim headland, and soon you're lost in the leafy interior, intent, remembering nothing."

Waking up--such an ambiguous moment between sleeping and that first step.

A Plea

Less of me and more of you Father. All year long. That will be success.

Time overwhelms me. I pray for peace admist the never-ceasing motion of all things alive.