The great people of the earth today are the people who pray. I do not mean those who talk about prayer, nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who take time and pray. They have not time. It must be taken from something else. This something else is important. Very important, and pressing, but still less important and less pressing than prayer.
-S.D. Gordon
-June 24th is a big day.
-I’m all over the place these days, in more ways than one.
-I think quality food and quality film are good things to spend money on
-On the other hand, you can get some good music for free. then you can buy more film.
-Speaking of which, if you are what you eat, then I am (lately) made up of dates, peaches, lemon marmalade, greek yogurt (yoghurt?) with granola, various kinds of tea, yogurt/chocolate pretzels, homemade baguettes, dark chocolate, pesto, random cheeses I find at pcc, gnocchi, quinoa, zucchini, and half and half (+ espresso). Oh, and also, frickin’ cream-braised brussels sprouts, FOR SURE.
-I talk about myself too much. Even admitting that seems counterintuitive to making any progress in the matter.
Some other goodness:
“The one created thing which we cannot look at is the one thing in the light of which we look at everything… We are conscious of it as of a kind of splendid confusion; it is something both shining and shapeless, at once a blaze and a blur.”
-mr. chesterton
and that created thing is somewhat like its Creator in nature, no?
Also, I started a new journal recently. Thus, many blank pages. And THUS, along with the theme of mystery and splendid confusion:
“I want to be able to read the rest of this journal – and the rest of my life. To flip ahead and see what path will be mine, and how these questions and hopes and ideas and mysteries in my mind will resolve. But those pages are blank. They won’t be forever, but they are right now. Teach me to treasure that mystery while I still have it.“
Some link goodness:
-la blogotheque – especially “concerts a emporter”
-wolf wolf wolf – if i may deign to say this: more interesting than wikipedia
-best dictionary. ever.
other than that, this is what i have to share about live right now:
and, from one of those old sources:
Christ Himself is my righteousness. I look at Him as a gift to me, in Himself; so that in Him I have all things. He says, I am the way, etc.; not, I give thee the way, etc.; as if He were working on me from without. All these things He must be in me, abiding, living, speaking in me; that I may be the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. v. 21); not in love, nor in gifts and graces which follow; but in Him.
Martin Luther
More and more, words seem inadequate to communicate. Compacting the richness and depth of life into letters and punctuation marks is absurd. There are other methods of expression; art in other forms – music, photography, painting, etc. Yet these too, though perhaps one resonates more deeply than other, always fall short of conveying what existing is.
All forms may provide a glimpse, a little piece, a vague idea. But life is the intersection of all avenues of “experiencing” things – physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Not only is a photograph of a sunset lacking in many of the physical experiences of a sunset - the sound of nature, the feel of the air – even the visual is not the same – but it practically leaves aside all other avenues of experience. To share mundane or extraordinary adventures – the grogginess of being jarred awake by an alarm, a loving embrace, sending faxes, a painful remark, driving late at night with the windows open, eating the same breakfast for the gazillionth time, saying goodbye (or hello), getting caught in a thunderstorm, love, hate, joy, grief, life, death, energy, fatigue, peace, turmoil, and how they all jumble up into incomprehensible and paradoxical and ambivalent forms – nothing can be fully shared, but only experienced. And even then, probably not comprehended.
Even this isn’t saying what is intended. But, it is saying one thing, by the fact that it is an attempt – though it may never be possible to communicate comprehensively, there is still worth in trying, in sharing, in giving those glimpses. We know in part now, then we shall know as we are known. Not only know, but I hope we will also be able to share…
“But can words tell the joy buried deep within? Mine cannot. It laughs at words.” – Amy Carmichael
strange face, with your eyes
so pale and sincere
underneath, you know well
you have nothing to fear
for the dreams that came to you
when you were young
told of a life where spring has sprung
you would seem so frail
in the cold of the night
when the armies of emotion
go out to fight
but while the earth
sinks to its grave
you sail to the sky
on the crest of a wave
so forget this cruel world
where I belong
ill just sit and wait
and sing my song
and if one day
you should see me in the crowd
lend a hand and lift me
to your place in the cloud
i can write, just not easily about things i don’t understand.
and that’s most everything right now.
merry christmas
joyeux noël
feliz navidad
froehliche weihnachten
mele kalikimaka
hyvaa joulua
or whatever else you want to call it…
“For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
-Isaiah 9:6
You said that you would not love me last summer
And you said that you would not love me last spring
But I hoped that you would change your mind by autumn
Especially when I bought that diamond ring
But you still said no
You would not have me
You still said no, no, no
I heard that you’ve been sleeping with your old friends
And I heard when each one left, and broke your heart
I told you then that I would never leave you
I told you that I loved you from the start
You still said no
You wouldn’t have me
You still said no, no, no
Even though you haven’t any answers
You still think that you don’t need anyone
To save you from the mess that you’ve created
And even when I gave my only son
You still said no
You wouldn’t have me
You still said no, no, no
-pedro
It’s not like I have school right now. Or a weekday job. Or any of those “responsibilities” which make one crave a snow day.
But the advantage I currently have is that I can declare a snow day whenever. I. want.
And so, amidst all this snowy and icy goodness, I have been holed up in my cozy little yellow “cottage,” warm and toasty and quite content. I’ve been reading and baking and photographing and napping and writing and researching and cleaning and watching Joyeux Noël and listening to Sufjan’s Christmas albums and painting (?!) on boxes of imported Italian breadsticks – and just simply living.
I have enjoyed it all so much, I think I’ll schedule snow days year round.
|
