Comically Sweet

“I'll Be There For You” by Louise Cuddon:

I'll be there, my darling, through thick and through thin
When your mind's in a mess and your head's in a spin
When your plane's been delayed, and you've missed the last train.
When life is just threatening to drive you insane
When your thrilling whodunit has lost its last page
When somebody tells you, you're looking your age
When your coffee's too cool, and your wine is too warm
When the forecast said, “Fine,” but you're out in a storm
When your quick break hotel, turns into a slum
And your holiday photos show only your thumb
When you park for five minutes in a resident's bay

And return to discover you've been towed away
When the jeans that you bought in hope or in haste
Just stick on your hips and don't reach round your waist
When the food you most like brings you out in red rashes
When as soon as you boot up the bloody thing crashes
So my darling, my sweetheart, my dear...
When you break a rule, when you act the fool
When you've got the flu, when you're in a stew
When you're last in the queue, don't feel blue
'cause I'm telling you, I'll be there.

Still

I know, I’ve been absent for a while. Something about summer makes my creative writing abilities just go caput. I’ve been on a blogging break, but I’m hoping to ease myself back into this hobby that I love.
I’ll start by linking up with Lisa-Jo at The Gypsy Mama and the (in)courage community for a five minute post.

The rules: write without worrying about anything. period.
The prompt: Still

ANDDDD begin:

I am a blessed one. I grew up in church. I have a loving and rather functional family. I went to church camp. And some of my family’s closest friends were met through church. My high school youth group was thriving and active during the years I was involved. I've had excellent spriritual guidance through college. In all, I’ve had an excellent spiritual foundation.

But I am still a sinner.
I still make bad choices.
I still have incorrect attitudes.
I’m still selfish.
And, I still mutter curses under my breath when someone makes me really mad on the freeway. *gasp*

Basically, I am still not perfect. And to be honest, I’m ashamed to admit that at one point in my life, I thought I would be able to attain perfection.

However, I know that despite my many failings, I still have value.
God can still use my measly little abilities to further His Kingdom.

END

Thoughts

Perhaps the reason human life is so constantly in flux is to exemplify the only true constant: God's unchanging love for us and the relationship he makes possible through his son, Christ.

Thank you Lord, for all the changes in my life.

Home

“Home is where the heart is,” they say. To which I reply:
“What if my heart is made up of thousands of pieces scattered all over the world? And what if I find that all the pieces of my heart aren’t in existence in this world at all?”

I find the term “home” a difficult one to make my own.

Odd

The maturation process is a strange one. I can long for future stages in life and be reduced to tears over a fond childhood memory in the course of one short conversation. Though I’ve never been prone to violent or prolonged mood-swings, I do find myself with growth-induced emotional whiplash fairly often these days.

Words of Wisdom

It's funny how difficult it is to find the time to blog when I'm on vacation. Yes, it's actually much easier to blog when I'm in school full time. Why? I suppose it is because I am already in the swing of writing constantly.  This doesn't mean that my mind isn't engaged while I'm on vacation. Quite the contrary, actually.

Anyway, here is a link to a 5-minute video with some great advice about marriage. Even though I have not entered this state yet, I still find this message valuable in shaping my understanding of the marriage covenant.

Piper, Carson, and Keller on Sustaining the Covenant of Marital Love

When the Jasmine Blooms

. . . and you can't take your nose out of it long enough to get anything productive done. . .

my solution is to make a "jasmine" chain. And wear it on your head. All day long.

It's Summer.

Five Minute Friday: Deep Breath

Linking Up with Lisa-Jo for a five-minute post. No edits, no revisions, no worries. Love this!
Inspiration: "Deep Breath"

Flurries of papers: a student’s output. Question of how to be creative, original, unique, and correct – to give them what they want. In order to get what I want: the ‘A.’
I grow weary of the input and output of education. Of learning the ways of the world, and analyzing.

Always analyzing.

Seventeen weeks of tunnel vision: focus, focus, focus on the light at the end. The little glimmer of hope that whispers “well done, relax, it’s summer.”
I am almost there. I can make it. Through all the coffee, all the late nights with my nose in a book, all the underlining, highlighting, ‘copying’ and ‘pasting,’ quoting, and citing. Through all the tears, and bleary-eyed interactions, impromptu speeches, and late-night library visitations. I am almost there.


Deep Breath. . .

Motherhood should come with. . .

A post in five minuts. {Okay, it actually took me about 15.} A post that is free of edits/revisions/and too much analysis. A post that reflects my "gut reaction" to the writing prompt:
"Motherhood should come with. . ."

Motherhood should come with an award showcase. To enclose and display the honors bestowed on her by the three children she has raised/is raising well.
Awards that commend her patience with children who have minds of their own. Her patience with the whiplash of their ever-changing dreams and expectations for their futures. Patience with dishes and laundry and all the other tasks which motherhood imposes upon her in large proportions. Patience with the late-night phone calls: the tears and ramblings on the other end.

Awards that commend her presence. For working all throughout my life, yet never being an absent parent. For choosing to attend all the dance rehearsals, and soccer games, and baseball games, and parent teacher meetings, and award ceremonies instead of catching a much-needed nap or accomplishing another task that was waiting for her.

Awards that commend her example to her children and to the scores of students who she’s influenced throughout the years. Her example of faith in the Lord, her example of what it means to be a wife, her example of how to pull harmless pranks (:-)), her example of how to give of oneself.

(Yes, I know it's Saturday. Better late than never!)

Slow Me Down

Grafted

A rosebush has been dormant along the front walkway all winter. Sure, I’ve trimmed it back a time or two when it began to hang over the footpath with its daunting thorns, but overall it has gotten very little care. I have spent practically no contemplative power on this plant in the course of my residence here {It’s just a plant after all, and as I’ve been a desert dweller nearly all my life, plants don’t really hold importance in my day-to-day thinking - unless of course they’re gargantuan tumble weeds that happen to be rolling across the dusty two lane highway in front of my small commuter car – but I digress.}  Now, the roses are in bloom and to my astonishment it is a rosebush with two distinct varieties of roses growing from the same series of roots.  Upon making this discovery I began to think of the passage in Romans 11, in which Paul speaks of gentiles as having been grafted into the “olive tree” of faith in the Lord -- A faith which is now available to anyone who will make it their own by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  

 I am thankful for this beautiful metaphor of God’s love and Christ’s sacrifice which stands to greet me every time I pass through my front door.

Worry {Be Gone}

"Fretting springs from a determination to get our own way!" {Oswald Chambers}

"The strong hands of God twisted the crown of thorns into a crown of glory; and in such hands we are safe." {Charles Williams}

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength."{Corrie Ten Boom}

"The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety."{George Muller}