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faith. hope. LOVE. people. words. java. ADVENTURING. creativity. POETRY. music. art. cold STARRY NIGHTS. water.

CANADA. culture. media. POLITICS. fashion. organic food. matcha. middle names. rowing. New York City. Iceland. books.

I need to take moments. In the middle of my day. Right in the middle of proposals, copy, websites and deadlines I need to STOP. And read something that restores my soul.

Today it was this:

The Cure of Nowhere by Amanda Jones

“When I was twelve years old, the father of a girl in my class committed suicide in deplorably bad taste. One fine Sunday afternoon he suggested the family go to the movies. Excited, all four children and their mother drove downtown with him. There, outside the parking building, the father told the family to get out of the car, leaning over and kissing each of them as they did so. Not being a demonstrative man by nature, the family thought this act mildly unusual, but no one commented. They stood on the sidewalk and waited for him to park and join then on the street...” continued

By George Barron, University of the Arts, Camberwell

I ran across a great old Joseph Cambell quote yesterday:

“We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

We must trust the changes that happen in our lives.
We must let go.

There is something marvelous waiting for us.

Teaching has never been an aspiration of mine. Maybe it’s because I’ve never really been too fond of (kicking, screaming) kids. Maybe because I don’t like the idea of doing hours and hours of work with no pay (unless it is a volunteer gig and makes me feel good inside.) At any rate, I have never had the hankering to teach.

In December I applied to a self-employment program at Langara College. During my interview with the program’s director he asked me if I had any teaching experience. I said no. He asked me if I was interested in teaching public relations. I told him I was listening. A short curriculum proposal, a few hoops and a chat later, and I am Langara’s newest lecturer. Who would have thought?

Just call me Mrs. Crook.

papertiger

sabrina ward harrison

burnkit

cbcradio3

“…at the moment that i feel the inner readiness to live my life only for the glory God, i am ready to live creatively in the world and be open to my neighbours, since then i no longer depend on their affection.”

- henri nouwen, the genesee diary

We are all moved in. Boxes are unpacked. Now we’re busy categorizing the books.

On Saturday afternoon this was the view from our window. Glory!

By Sabrina Ward Harrison

This is a re-post from February 2006. It’s how I’m feeling…

This morning I started to read J.B. Phillips’ translation of The Book of Revelation. In the preface he describes his approach to translating this apocalyptic book. He writes: “To be literal-minded and studiously analytical in such a work is to kill its poetic truth…

“Dissection is not infrequently the death of beauty.

How true is this statement? How often do I dissect the beauty out of things I was never meant to understand?

I have been meditating on Psalm 139:6 a lot lately: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”

It is so easy to dissect. It’s easy to dissect our relationships, our looks, our accomplishments or lack thereof. It is so easy to dissect our blog recounts of the previous day’s ‘real’ events (as Amanda so often, and so refreshingly, reflects). It is easy to dissect away the beauty of a man/woman instead of taking him/her in with a breath of wonder.

I am asking my Lord to continue to give me eyes of wonder. Eyes that see the world with the joy and beauty He intended. I desire for the utterance of my lips to be: “I do not consider things too wonderful for me.” I am giving up dissecting,

I want to see the beauty.

buttons by lisa kokin

“civilization is a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessaries.”

- mark twain, mark twain: collected tales, sketches, speeches and essays

moving tells you it’s true.

there has been a lot of talk about needs (aka wants) as of late, with the boxes of clothing, books and aux de toilette being hauled from one floor to the next.

“do you really need that?” i purr as my husband opens his 14th box of hardcovers.

“do you really need that?” he jabs back, eyeing my third box of ‘necessities.’ you know: scarves, belts, tank tops, skirts, in orange, blue and aubergine.

we’re both guilty. hoarding our favourite things, quickly climbing in our minds from the place of ‘i want’ to the abyss of ‘i need’. sure we purge our things but i think it’s deeper than that: stuff makes us feel safe. the ‘unnecessary necessaries,’ as twain calls them, are a staple of modern-day life. we like to nest, settle, call it whatever you like. we like staying put and our necessaries help us do that. they help us feel comfortable and safe, but that comfort isn’t real.

christians believe we are called to go into all the world: we are to follow christ when he leads us outside of our comfortable surroundings (ie. dvds, couches, book collection, vast closet selections) that are so hard to leave. we believe the father is our comforter and our security comes from him. but instead we find it in stuff, or at least in part. i have been wondering about this a lot lately: about how hard i would find it to get up and leave if he called. not because i wouldn’t want to follow, because i have too much stuff.

what would i do with all these unnecessary necessaries were he to call?

Moving, schooling and working don’t leave a lot of time for play. But play is important. All kinds of smart people even say so.

So while Mike was out sipping steamed milk with a friend this evening I decided to play photoshop with a few of our wedding shots. I can’t wait to take some design courses later this year. Lucky for me my self-employment program (more on that later) let’s me take four Langara College courses for free!

I had fun with one picture in particular: