The things that make life good. Pt.2

 
 
 
Unfortunately, Picasa will only upload four photos at a time, so I've had to split them up.

The things that make life good. Pt. 1

 
 
 
I've taken some picures of the things I find joy in on a daily basis.

Postcards

 
When I heard that my friend Garrett was joining the AirForce, I made him promise me to send postcards from every country he manages to see. This, by far, is the best one so far. It came with an actual DVD encased as part of the postcard! How sweet is this?! This, right here, is why I'm friends with Garrett.

The Squeaquel

 
In 4th grade, Michelle, Laura, and I participated in our school's talent show, performing a medley of songs as the chipmunks. Consequently, as the movies came out, we had to see them. Together. Nothin' like re-living the glory days...

Back on Track

 

 

 

 

Whew! Sorry about that! I am now (FINALLY) fully recovered from a weekend in Portland. Here were the highlights. I loved this city, and the company was spectacular! I love having friends who are more interesting than me!

Leavin' on a jet plane...

 
This is Micaela.
In less than 24 hours I will be hugging her.
Life is good.

Mommy, wow! I'm a big kid now.

 
I recently bought a Play Station 2. It's the first game system I've ever owned. I felt a small sense of accomplishment upong bringing it home and setting it up all by myself. The sole puropse for this purchase? DDR. Dance Dance Revolution. My life will never be the same again.
*Note that the score is "B" on EXPERT. That's right. Expert.

 

 

 

These are the last of the winter walk pictures, I promise. As of tonight, I'm forcing myself to exercise what's left of my knowledge of photoshop, so perhaps in a week or so you'll have some more interesting pictures to look at. :)
As for a reflection of the day... well... there are still about 8 hours left before it's no longer today. Maybe in that time I'll realize how much of today I've wasted and will think about something a little less self-centered and a little more productive.

Dormant Beauty

 
I went for another wintry walk today and was struck, once again, by the beauty of the "dead of winter." It is encouraging to me to see that God has a purpose for all of his creation- even if it is simply to be beautiful- even when it's not producing fruit. If a tree and vine can still be beautiful while patiently waiting out the cold of winter, it gives me hope that, even while waiting for whatever God calls me to next, I can still somehow be used to bring Him glory.

Perspective

 
"I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way."
-Dead Poets Scociety

Pressing On

It started out as a feeling
Which then grew into a hope
Which then turned into a quiet thought
Which then turned into a quiet word

And then that word grew louder and louder
'Til it was a battle cry

I'll come back
When you call me
No need to say goodbye

Just because everything's changing
Doesn't mean it's never
Been this way before

All you can do is try to know
Who your friends are
As you head off to the war

Pick a star on the dark horizon
And follow the light

You'll come back
When it's over
No need to say good bye

You'll come back
When it's over
No need to say good bye

Now we're back to the beginning
It's just a feeling and no one knows yet
But just because they can't feel it too
Doesn't mean that you have to forget

Let your memories grow stronger and stronger
'Til they're before your eyes

You'll come back
When they call you
No need to say good bye

____________________________________________

 

For those of you who don't know, I've spent the last two years working as part of a full time music mission team, playing concerts in schools, churches, prisons, homeless shelters, shopping malls, and anywhere else they would let us in, both domestically and overseas. It was a phenomenal experience- one that I am privileged to have had- but even now, I struggle with referring to it in the past tense. The lessons learned from living as part of such a tight community are unfathomable. The benefit of having six other people committed to keeping you accountable and encouraging you to maintain your focus is an extraordinary blessing. The years flew by. And yet, here I am, back at home, struggling to put my life back together again. Not that it ever really fell apart. But it changed. And then changed again. Abruptly. Both times. So now I'm left with growing pains and scars.

 

Like scars, the experiences that created the emotional and physical changes are still part of me. They didn't go away when my years on the road ended. They have stayed with me as a reminder of the lessons that were (or should have been) learned.

I am beginning to realize more and more that I, myself, am mostly to blame for my misapprehension of the situation. I thought, when I left Minnesota and the ministry I love so much to come back home for a time, that I had to be DONE. I had to have finished my business there, neatly found closure for all of my two years of experiences, said goodbye to my new family, and be ready to move on to where God had me going next. It never really occurred to me that I didn't have to be saying goodbye at all. I understood and even expected the pain of change. I knew I wasn't the first person to have experienced it. But I didn't understand that putting the experience behind me didn't mean closing it up, framing it to look at when I was feeling reminiscent. I was putting it behind me so that I could pull from it. I was putting it behind me support. A place to fall back on. 

 

So, why am I sharing this with you? So that you don't do what I did. Don't compartmentalize your life- bottling up each experience and putting them on a shelf for memories. If those experiences were powerful enough to change your life, use them to change someone else's.   

 

The song above is actually featured in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and it nicely sums up what I've been thinking. This is, by no means, a conclusive opinion on the subject. It's something that I'm sure I'll be trying to understand ten years from now. I just thought I'd share what I have so far.

 

 

 

 

 
While we're waiting to see if I lost all my pictures, here's a picture from my excursion out in the snow today. I went out to a favourite forest preserve to catch some of the dormant flora and fauna in the area. It was a great day to be out. It was about 15 degrees, no wind, and a little bit of sun. I hardly noticed my legs going numb!

>:( <---That's the angry face.

Well folks, in an effort to organize my photos, I think I may have just deleted all the photos off of this blog. Sorry. Hopefully I'll get it sorted out and I'll re-post the pictures soon. Grrrr. It bothers me that Picasa saves pictures in 3 different locations and then deletes ALL of them if you want to clean out some folders. Oh well. Now I know.

Good question.

Every year my grandparents gets our family a subscription National Geographic, so I have them to thank for my fascination with other cultures. It was because of National Geographic that I seriously considered attending Western Illinois Universtiy to study anthropology for a while, rather than taking the sign language route.
 

Oh for fun!

 

 

Have you ever played Bananagrams (O.K.A. [the "O" stands for "occasionally"] "speed Scrabble")? If you haven't, you should. It's a whole lot of fun. We played a rousing game of it with a friend who had driven in from CA. There was lots of laughing involved.

Why can't I think of things like this?

 
I like squares.
I like textures.
I like repetition.
I like this wall hanging.

Who's got fungus?

I find myself flabbergasted at the realization that God created even the fungus growing on trees to be beautiful. How much beauty do I fail to recognize on a daily basis?

 
 

Ruby Falls.

 

 

 

The falls were named for the discoverer's wife. Not for the color.
Also, I didn't notice it when I shot the photo, but all I can see in the rock formation there is the profile of an old man's face. Do you see it too? Tell me I'm not crazy.

I tried to post an earlier version of this today, but it didn't go through. In that I voiced all the questions that our visit to the caves spurred in my head. I don't think I have the engergy to write it all out again, but I'm sure I'll touch on this subject again. :)

In the Flesh... sort of...

&nbs
Jack Daniel: The man who made whiskey popular. Taken at the Jack Daniel's Distillery in Lynchburg, TN. You can buy the whiskey here, but you can't drink it. The distillery is located in dry county. :)

Cue the Music

 
 
 


Well folks, I know I'm off to a bit of a late start here on the Picture A Day project, but I didn't happen to have computer access yesterday, so I'm making up for it by posting more than one picture. :)

About an hour ago, I returned home from what turned out to be a whirlwind trip to visit my grandparents out in South Carolina. My brother, sister-in-law and 9 month old nephew all squeezed into my car and we drove until we could stand the car no longer. With a 9 month old baby, the breaking point came a bit sooner than expected. Stopping in KY, we managed to split the trip into tolerable spurts, stopping at "brown signs" along the way. (Brown signs, by the way, signify a recreational, historic or scenic sight.) The waterfall in the pictures is called Toccoa Falls (Toccoa, GA), and it carries with it a tragic history. In 1977 the dam above the falls broke, unleashing 176 million gallons of water that crashed its way through the the Toccoa Falls College campus, killing 39 people on the campus alone, and many more in the surrounding areas. That's not to mention the damage it did on the college's buildings and the trailer homes in a close by valley. Now there is a memorial at the sight, and visitors can see the falls year round, enjoying the foliage and wild life as well.

So, that's what I've got so far. Hopefully I'll have something a little less brochure'ish to share with you next time. For now, though, I will say good night. My brain is fried from driving, and if I continue trying to exist vertically, I think my body may mutiny.

Toodles.