Things to Think

Think in ways you've never thought before.
If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message
Larger than anything you've ever heard,
Vaster than a hundred lines of Yeats.

Think that someone may bring a bear to your door,
Maybe wounded and deranged; or think that a moose
Has risen out of the lake, and he's carrying on his antlers
A child of your own whom you've never seen.

When someone knocks on the door, think that he's about
To give you something large: tell you you're forgiven,
Or that it'snot necessary to work all the time, or that it's
Been decided that if you lie down no one will die.

-Robert Bly

it's been too long...

...and all I want to do right now is a list of things that make me happy. Someday (I promise) I will actually create something to post.



Alyssa Rose, my newest niece, born May 27. This girl is such a good baby, she lets her mommy get lots of sleep and when she's awake she is super active and happy!




Morning runs in the dewy coolness with sisters

Moscow trips and all the delightful people who get married there, and people who worship and eat and visit with, and rescue and laugh with us when we are there. :)



Theresa Ann, my brother's fiancee. Looking so forward to October 7th, but looking forward just as much to all the good Mondays and other days discussing and planning and shopping together!



Ingrid Michaelson

The Psalms. I've been reading through Joshua at night, but I always end up getting a quick Psalm when I am done before going to bed.

Looking up and discussing the attractiveness of various movie stars with the girls. Yes, we do that sometimes...

People who hold you accountable when you aren't doing a good job of holding yourself accountable. People who encourage you to grow when you're stuck at status quo and too lazy to motivate yourself. People who love you.

God's strength + my weakness

It has happened. I done graduated. I have more to say - much more - later: it's been a whirlwind week, full of finals and family, sickness, sunshine and volleyball, and lots of grace.
Now I'm trying to pack and clean and move - in the next 4 hours.

First week of May

- The sun shone unhindered several days in a row. The temperature was above 60. I love the slightly-swelling feeling of your skin warming, when you can almost feel the melanocytes working away and sending their little umbrellas up to the surface of your epidermis to protect you.

- That was the best reading exam I've ever had with Mr. Grieser's. And thanks to the extra credit portion, I have refreshed poetry clambering around in my head - seven poems in all that I could recite right now.

- Julie. One of the sweetest, most unpretentious, considerate friends I have. Why do people have to go SO far away?

- Lindsey's wedding invitation. Now there are 7 on my windowsill. :)

- My new green purse that I got for <3 bucks. Ain't it nice how one accessory can totally make an outfit work?

Best thing by Camus in 79 pages

Albert Camus wrote a book called The Stranger. I looked him up online and the fellow has a definite Humphrey Bogart thing going on, which is of course spiffy. But I'm not sure about him otherwise. I do not understand him. I don't understand the style, the short sentences, the spare words, the character who does everything without life, without hope, without reason, without belief. How sad and meaningless is this nihilistic jerk and his pitiful life!

I await Mr. Grieser's thoughts on the novel and, in the meantime, relish this, the best quote in the whole book so far:

"I realized then that a man who had lived only one day could easily live for a hundred years in prison. He would have enough memories to keep him from being bored."

muddy and tattered

This picture made me think of this nugget from C. S. Lewis:

“I know all about the despair of overcoming chronic temptations. It is not serious provided self-offended petulance, annoyance at breaking records, impatience et cetera doesn’t get the upper hand. No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep on picking ourselves up each time.
We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes are in the airing cupboard. The only fatal thing is to lose one’s temper and give it up. It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present to us: it is the very sign of his presence.”