It's Wednesday night chill time in Renee's room drinking down my week's worries with some mate. Righteous!
Ahhh! My life is so...many different things. Refreshing. Blessed. Random. Character-building (one of Renee's favorite adjectives used when most people would say "excessively uncomfortable", painful, or downright humiliating). Then there are the tests that come after every round (sometimes it feels like artillery) of character-building exercises. Maybe you know what I mean.
We'll just say it's been midterm week in more ways than one. I've discovered that there comes a time when little things like getting smacked in the chin with a hockey stick, having my thumb nail bent back on itself by a soccer ball, and having a cheeky classmate ask if my airbag abrasion (from the weekend's car accident)is a hicky eventually begin to phase me. In the mean time I'm trying to remember if I've recently asked God for more humility. Oh, the irony!
The great thing is I don't have to look very far to find blessings worthy of thanksgiving. There's nothing ironic about that.
Yesterday, Amanda asked me to help out with joint worship. The theme was HEAVEN. And it was a blessing to me to share in the program. The message of one song especially moved me.
When you see the LORD a-coming
When you see the LORD a-coming
When you see the LORD a-coming
In a few more days
Hear the band of heavenly music
In a few more days...I love that. Between genocide in Sudan and profesors and friends battling cancer, I can't wait for the end of this world and the rest of eternity with the Lord that gives me purpose and makes all things new. I only wish I didn't so often forget that eternal life begins here in this place. "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:3) I sense more character-building coming on in the near future. Heat melts butter, but it tempers steel. It's a great thing that God can make butter and steel from scratch.
Supposedly mate is heavily caffeinated - yet I fade as Renee estudia por su examen de literatura. Buenas Noches!
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Marble halls vast and gray
Marble halls vast and gray
In the caverns of my mind display,
The passing thoughts and lasting
Moments unforgot by memory’s casting
Die and willow branches,
Brushing past unnoticed chances
For faith, hope, and love.
The maze stretches clear and deep,
For beyond the keep of memory speaks
The whisper softly fading
Calling calmly, then abating;
Begins anew for want of answer.
The sound grows grim like a cancer,
One that would devour me.
“Know thyself,” I hear it say,
And I cannot help obey
To wander after
The chanting, silence, and the laughter
Through the labyrinth within
Hung with living tapestries of sins
I celebrate and cannot bear to remember.
Those cherished threads from the loom
Where once I wove the fabric of my doom
Reach for me with scarlet fingers
Though the whisper calls I dare not linger
To rediscover those carmine crimes
I flee the hall in space and time
From before the now and after of myself.
Here I hide among the willow-wands
Beneath the canopy of silver fronds
Ringing gently with a voice of their own
They drown the echo from the halls of stone
And comfort me with slender arms
So almost I forget vermilion charms
And wonder why the willow thrives.
In my childhood its seed was planted
Watered by the rainfall slanted
To quench the spring’s green thirst
Of the Garden from before the chosen curse
Of knowledge came to pass
When mankind began to pace and grasp
Despite the living fruit of paradise.
The Sower’s seed, the apple’s core
The roots of each beneath the floor
Dig deep to stretch above the blocks
Of marble columns, doors and locks
To catch the ear, the eye, the sleeve.
One seeks to give, the other deceive;
A chorus of love, another of leaves within my ruined fortress.
Again the chanting whisper rises, reaching
through the willow-curtain, teaching
me to forget the shelter of the tree
whose sloping trunk embraces me.
“Know thyself,” I hear it say,
Yet I cannot help but stay
And sing together with the willow.
A song of many and of One
A song of Father, child, and Son
Branches quiver, pitch, and sway
Like harp strings shiver as they play;
The chords progress, the images change
The notes explore a whole new range
And down the hall my tapestries
crash to the ground in perfect rhythm.
In the caverns of my mind display,
The passing thoughts and lasting
Moments unforgot by memory’s casting
Die and willow branches,
Brushing past unnoticed chances
For faith, hope, and love.
The maze stretches clear and deep,
For beyond the keep of memory speaks
The whisper softly fading
Calling calmly, then abating;
Begins anew for want of answer.
The sound grows grim like a cancer,
One that would devour me.
“Know thyself,” I hear it say,
And I cannot help obey
To wander after
The chanting, silence, and the laughter
Through the labyrinth within
Hung with living tapestries of sins
I celebrate and cannot bear to remember.
Those cherished threads from the loom
Where once I wove the fabric of my doom
Reach for me with scarlet fingers
Though the whisper calls I dare not linger
To rediscover those carmine crimes
I flee the hall in space and time
From before the now and after of myself.
Here I hide among the willow-wands
Beneath the canopy of silver fronds
Ringing gently with a voice of their own
They drown the echo from the halls of stone
And comfort me with slender arms
So almost I forget vermilion charms
And wonder why the willow thrives.
In my childhood its seed was planted
Watered by the rainfall slanted
To quench the spring’s green thirst
Of the Garden from before the chosen curse
Of knowledge came to pass
When mankind began to pace and grasp
Despite the living fruit of paradise.
The Sower’s seed, the apple’s core
The roots of each beneath the floor
Dig deep to stretch above the blocks
Of marble columns, doors and locks
To catch the ear, the eye, the sleeve.
One seeks to give, the other deceive;
A chorus of love, another of leaves within my ruined fortress.
Again the chanting whisper rises, reaching
through the willow-curtain, teaching
me to forget the shelter of the tree
whose sloping trunk embraces me.
“Know thyself,” I hear it say,
Yet I cannot help but stay
And sing together with the willow.
A song of many and of One
A song of Father, child, and Son
Branches quiver, pitch, and sway
Like harp strings shiver as they play;
The chords progress, the images change
The notes explore a whole new range
And down the hall my tapestries
crash to the ground in perfect rhythm.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Let it snow (Round 2)
Well, here it is. If you are somehow still unaware...I did make it home for the holidays despite the epic blizzard in the Greater Denver Area. Sorry to leave you hanging for a whole month, but thanks for caring.
NEWSFLASH: Certain parts of Tennessee (guess which ones) have been hit with an accumulated 2-3 inches of snow. SNOW!
And I quote lfutcher:
Due to the inclement weather, morning classes will be cancelled. The regular schedule will resume at noon. Thank you.
It's like a kiss from heaven.
I may not be basking in the Hawaian sun. You know who you are.
But all things considered, here is a happy place to be.
But then there's my confession: I've spent most of the snow day in my room finishing my book for Contemporary Europe. I'm amazed how they take 170 pages of critical political science and call it A Very Short Introduction on the European Union. It's not just short, it's VERY short.
So now that we've established that I'm a happy nerd in a snowy Tennessee, I'll close while you're hooked by the astonishing occurrences of my ordinary life. Commonplace does not exist. That's why I only blog once a month. Too much living (cough), studying. Aloha! And sayonara!
NEWSFLASH: Certain parts of Tennessee (guess which ones) have been hit with an accumulated 2-3 inches of snow. SNOW!
And I quote lfutcher:
Due to the inclement weather, morning classes will be cancelled. The regular schedule will resume at noon. Thank you.
It's like a kiss from heaven.
I may not be basking in the Hawaian sun. You know who you are.
But all things considered, here is a happy place to be.
But then there's my confession: I've spent most of the snow day in my room finishing my book for Contemporary Europe. I'm amazed how they take 170 pages of critical political science and call it A Very Short Introduction on the European Union. It's not just short, it's VERY short.
So now that we've established that I'm a happy nerd in a snowy Tennessee, I'll close while you're hooked by the astonishing occurrences of my ordinary life. Commonplace does not exist. That's why I only blog once a month. Too much living (cough), studying. Aloha! And sayonara!
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