Thursday, September 27, 2007

Who knew recycling could be so fun? I really enjoy dropping off our plastics and newspapers and aluminum cans at the recycling center. Seriously.

Today, I still want to move. I just want to be out of Mississippi today. Problem is, I love Court Street UMC. I want to pick them up and move them with me wherever I go.

Kevin Trudeau is not your doctor. Remember that.

That is all. :) Peace.

Monday, September 24, 2007

rain and boredom

My job is wonderful, for so many reasons (that I won't go into) but sometimes... many times... it just makes you feel useless to sit and stare out the window in an empty retail store. Sometimes I just want to move. Sometimes I just want to change. Sometimes might be soon.

Can anyone give me feedback on Durham, NC? Visiting there in a little over a week, and oh, how I want to fall in love with a new horizon!



And then I am reminded....
bloom where you are planted.
yes, thank you.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Patty Griffin, Kimmie-Kim, and the city of Memphis

Every time I hear Patty sing, "Sweet Lorraine, a fiery-haired, brown-eyed schemer, who came from a long line of drinkers and dreamers..." I think of Kim. Not because of her reddish-brown hair, and brown eyes.... and I'm not so sure about the drinkers and dreamers... but just because the summer of 2005 was one of the hardest and best and most memorable summers ever. I never dreamed I'd end up in the ghetto of Memphis instead of the beautiful mountains of Lake Junaluska, NC. But I could and I did. Kim and I were bestest of friends that summer, and I even have to admit I probably broke a few staff rules to go and do fun things with Kim and sleep over at her house a few times, instead of noisy staff bunks.

But the best part was falling asleep to Patty Griffin's voice during our summer afternoon naps-- I, on a mattress on Kim's floor, and her snuggled up with her overpriced comforter that was, to her, what a blankie is to a 5-year old. I miss Kim so much. I know you miss friends; it happens. Such is life, loving and leaving friends. But none do I miss in the same way I miss Kim. We don't talk much anymore, and not suprisingly so, since we are now both married, both doing our own thing. But sometimes there are friends that you wish, really, really deep down in your belly, that you didn't have to leave, that you didn't have to accept as, "only for a season." Sometimes you just want them there all the time.


So forget wishing on the same shooting star... I just hope we're both still listening to Patty sing, and thinking of each other.
"Darling I wish you well,
on your way to the wishing well...
I still have this secret hope
sometimes all we do is cope
somewhere on the steepest slope
there's an endless rope
where nobody's crying."
[patty griffin]


sappy post, I know. get over it.

Monday, September 10, 2007

fully alive

The glory of God is man fully alive. -St. Iraneaus

so it is true. life is fleeting. you never really get this until someone else goes, someone else leaves this blip in time, as Henri Nouwen calls it, to go on and spend eternity doing whatever we will do in eternity. This is even more difficult than before, now that I have a husband. Not that is is much easier with your parents and friends, but I have become one with my husband, and unless you, too, are married, I cannot describe the complexity and mystery to this. If he were gone, however, I feel the a big piece of me would be gone, too.

And when another someone leaves this earth of trees and politics, I always start feeling these feelings again, and then come back around to this: Jesus is my portion. What does that even mean, exactly? Oh, he is my sustainer, my comforter.. our "oneness" with Christ is also something complex and indescribable. I don't fear loss of Him, I don't fear losing his love. It is wonderful to know that "neither death, nor life, nor present, nor future,..." can keep us from the love of Christ, that he isn't going anywhere. And that is all you must have to cling to when your flesh and blood oneness leaves [spouse], is your holy of holies oneness, the one who made you in His image.

Does anyone else find this all extremely difficult to wrap your mind around?


Monday, September 3, 2007

boredom and the National Park Service

I've had entirely too much time on my hands this weekend. On one hand, it's been really nice, not having much to do, spending time with Jeff's family. On the other hand, it has made me feel lazy and gluttonous, since the only memorable things that take place during a boring weekend are meals and movies and conversation (or silence, depending on the mood and choice of company you keep.)

Bill Bryson's, "A Walk in the Woods," has kept my entertained at times, however, and I am now enlightened and slightly enraged (overstatement, really) about many people's lack of care for nature and animals and the pure, didn't-need-man's-help-in-the-first-place beauty of the woods and the water and the mountains (and all other forms of nature which some of us find beautiful.) Being a geography minor was one of the best things about college. Global warming and glaciers and pictures of mountains and valleys were shown to me, before the aforementioned became political issues. Ah, I am a treehugger at heart, I suppose. I care passionately about the earth and its beauty. Yet, don't I lend to its demise? Don't I drive a car and use products that aren't earth-friendly? Idealistic to say I would give up all of these things, but I do try to be earth-conscious, touting use of such product names such as BioKleen, Method, and Dr. Bronner's (not to mention the natural supplements I began putting into my body about a year ago.)

It's useless for me to sit around and feel guilt-ridden about some of the nitpicky ways I give a helping hand to hurting the ozone layer, but in my eyes, it is most certainly NOT a waste of time to be more conscious of my actions and product choices.

Interesting that Bryson talks much about the National Park Service in the book and their lack of help for the parks they supposedly service. Why, it is no stretch to even say they have contributed to the neglect of much about nature. Bryson even suggests that their lack of funding compared to a decade ago could be the best thing for the woods, since they didn't need the Park Service to make it in the first place, and may not need them to make it now (unless hikers increasingly become careless and don't heed the use of trash cans and the 'if you find it there, leave it there' rule.

but now I am ranting


Saturday, September 1, 2007

Heather is in Brazil. Josh is India. I am in Hattiesburg. We are one.

This body of Christ thing is amazing, absolutely... amazing.