I want to wish you the happiest of birthdays. You have been SUCH a blessing to me all of these years. From that first dance class together, it was fate that we were kindred spirits.
Every one of the dozens of letters you have written me mean SO much. I run to my mailbox every day to look for your letters (even if I still haven’t responded to your latest one…) and now I get to read your blog, tumblr, emails, and texts… MAKES my day.
That first time I got to see you again after so many years of just letters and photos sent in the mail was so beautiful. And each year I’ve got to chill with you since then has been just as awesome. :)
You are such a gorgeous dancer and I am WAY excited to see you again soon!
Love you, dear!!
***
for more dance pictures from her most recent recital, go here. :)
(I got this story from church several Sunday nights ago. It’s long, but definitely worth the read.)
There once was a woman who was always running into things. Low-hanging tree branches, big rocks, not so big rocks, furniture, walls.
And she wasn’t alone. She lived in a town filled with people who, every day, would walk around stubbing their toes, hitting their heads, and getting poked in the eye.
The problem, you see, was that in this particular town there was no light. Not a flame, not a bulb, not a moon, not a sun—no light anywhere. Darkness everywhere.
The perpetual darkness caused many problems:
For one, it was nearly impossible to see obstacles in the road and so everybody was constantly tripping and colliding and bumping. People bandaged wounds daily—either their own or those of people they loved.
They frowned, even cried, as they wrapped the bleeding toes and arms and knees, knowing it would likely be just a matter of hours before they suffered yet another injury.
The only consolation was in knowing the accident hadn’t been deadly. Better to live to bandage another wound than to die, as so many had and would.
In addition to all the cuts and bruises, there was also the problem of the shakes.
In a town with no light there’s no heat. Every spot—inside or outside, all day, every day—was a chilly 41 degrees.
No glowing embers to warm one’s hands beside, no open flame to gather round, no spark of electricity to produce warmed air. Just a constant chill resulting in stubborn shivers plaguing every man and woman in town.
And all of this added to the unfortunate reality that without light, there is no color. No purple sky at sunrise, no brilliant orange on translucent butterfly wings, no mossy green patches clinging to the trunks of elm trees or rich crimson smeared across a cardinal’s
breast.
No paints, no rainbows, no color at all.
Every day the woman, the protagonist of our story, found herself meandering through a collage of blacks and grays—her world a vague muddle of ashy shadows and silhouettes. Bleak, but made bleaker by the sad truth that she had no idea how bad things were—
because she had never experienced anything different.
Until one day, when she met a curious man while walking in the dark.
She was on her way to shop the shadowy aisles of the local market, minding her own business, when she stopped suddenly. There, right in the middle of the path, was a bonfire—she, of course, didn’t know that’s what it was, because she had never seen
one. But she was seeing it now, seeing—truly seeing—for the first time—light. More accurately, she was seeing because of light.
The flames cast flickering rays that revealed a man standing beside them.
At first she stood before him open-jawed, unable to look anywhere else, as if he were the only person in the world. He was, to be sure, the only person she had ever truly seen.
The light from the fire brought his face into full view, pushing the darkness away from his cheekbones, eyebrows, temples, and lips, making every nuanced expression visible. Un-ignorable.
As she surveyed his face and clothing, she found herself mesmerized by…color. She certainly didn’t know what to call it or how to describe it, she just knew that it seemed as if her eyes had awakened from sleep—as if she was experiencing a 3rd dimension for
the first time—yellows and blues and oranges and reds and greens—each color different, some lighter, some darker, some warmer, some cooler. Those terms were the best her brain could do—outside of these words, she had no words—no way to articulate what she
was seeing. Only absolute confidence that it delighted her.
The fire’s warmth, too, was brand new and delighted her even further.
The man greeted her.
“I have something I want to give you,” he said. With that, he pulled out a small velvet bag and emptied its contents into the woman’s no-longer-shivering hand. Out tumbled 3 matches. The woman glanced up at the man’s face. “These,” he told her, “are mine. But I want you to use them.”
Having, of course, never seen a match before, she asked, “What are they?”
The man pointed to the fire beside them. “These give birth to that,” he said, smiling. He then explained how that heat and light and color flowed from this one precious resource, and said she was to use these matches to build fires for her friends and neighbors and for all the townspeople. He told her to keep the fires with care and assured her that the fires could birth as many more as they needed—so that the entire town could soon be bathed in light and warmth and color.
With that, the man and his fire were gone and the woman was left clutching his matches.
She began walking home, and as she approached her house, a neighbor called to her from his porch, asking to borrow an extra blanket. When she got closer, she could see that he was holding his newborn son. The child was healthy, but even in the darkness, she saw his tiny lips quivering, bundled though he was, from the cold.
Immediately, the woman’s thoughts darted to the matches she held. One stroke of one of these small wooden sticks and this young family’s life would be altogether different. But just as she took the breath to speak, she stopped short.
What if she lit the match and wasn’t able to make a fire? What if a gust of wind blew just as the match ignited and promptly snuffed it out? What then? Her supply would be diminished by a full third. Fear gripped her heart like a vise. “No,” she thought. “Better to wait. Better not to risk losing a precious match just yet.”
She went to bed that night with the matches under her pillow, feeling a peace that she’d not felt before, secure in the potential of her new-found resource. She pulled her many blankets up to her chin, shivered, and closed her eyes.
The next morning, she woke to a knock at the door. Throwing on a robe, she made her way carefully through the dark house to find her mother standing outside on one leg, clutching her other foot and crying out in pain. She had stepped on a large piece of glass
and was bleeding profusely. “Mother!” the woman said. “I didn’t see it,” was all her mother could manage before breaking into tears.
The woman brought her mother inside and the two huddled together on the couch, trying to stop the bleeding and find any glass left inside the wound. This, of course, was hard to do in the dark—but wait! She had almost forgotten about the matches! She ran back to her bedroom, pulled the velvet purse from beneath her pillow, and stopped.
This wound was serious, yes, …but was this really the time to take measures as drastic as using one of the matches? And she was inexperienced at making fires—who was to say she’d even be successful. Much better to have the matches than to lose them. Sure—
the man had assured her that the warm, bright, colorful fires they produced could produce more fires….but what if he was wrong? Who was to say that’s how it worked?
She carefully placed them back on her bed.
Satisfied with her cautious prudence, she went back to help her mother, doing the best she could, both women shaking from the cold.
A week later, the woman had begun to feel a certain kinship with the matches. She’d taken to carrying the velvet bag in her pocket with her at all times, touching it every so often to ensure it was still there, both reassured and nervous every time she felt it.
This continued for an entire month, when finally the woman decided it was dangerous for her to be carrying around such a valuable resource.
Determined to protect what was hers, the woman made her way to the woods at the edge of the town. And there, at noon, in the thick darkness, her fingers trembling from the chilly air, next to a black tree in the black ground, she dug a deep hole, and buried the matches.
“Now,” she thought to herself, “they will be safe.”
***
(how often do we bury our “matches” only to find that they have been ruined due to lack of use? I challenge you this week to share your “matches” and light with the world around you. We all could use some warmth from Christ.)
As I tweeted earlier, sometimes I wish I was a bunny. (mind you, I’m allergic to them, but hear me out. ;))
When they get scared, they can just freeze and not move, and nobody thinks any differently… but when I don’t know how to fill out a college application, nope! I can’t just not do anything. (double negatives there… oooooooh, naughty girl!)
And when bunnies get REALLY scared, they can just run away and people don’t go looking for them to finish their job of eating lettuce and grass. Unfortunately, this also doesn’t work out for humans. oh well. ;)
I guess I really am glad I’m not a bunny… I don’t have to eat lettuce and grass all the time. But, alas, I do get a bunny-sort-of-feeling every time I eat a salad… ;)
***
No, I really don’t wish I was a bunny, but college applications and classes are rather scary and confusing sometimes… haha, maybe I’ll figure it all out soon. ;)
(oh, and be not worried if this post makes no sense to your poor brain. I keep rereading it and it is making less and less sense to me. but I love these bunny pictures too much not to post them on here. ;))
Galatians 1:3
”Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
***
Yesterday during yet another sermon on the book of John (three years in… only on chapter 17. haha, crazy, I know) I read Galatians. Yes, the whole book, and it was amazing.
There’s just something about concentrating so hard to focus on reading the Bible and blocking out absolutely everything else. It was very encouraging.
But just as I was starting, a couple words popped out at me.
Grace.
and Peace.
And being the geek that I am, I looked up the definitions of these words in the back of my Bible.
GRACE: an undeserved gift…
PEACE: freedom… from disturbance. from worry. from stress. from the world.
Grace, I’m thankful for. Peace, I yearn for…
What about you?
I decided to be creative today.
It’s a rare feeling that I get on those days where I am not bored, but running out of things to do to procrastinate doing the important things.
ANYWAYS. I got the inspiration for today’s project here. It looked simple enough so I tried it.
It didn’t turn out as cute as Cakies necklace did, but I think it’s still cute.
Plus, it fit the theme of my cow/necklace shelf. Which is definitely an added bonus. ;)
As to if I’m going to wear it much, who knows. but hey, it was fun and easy. :)
(oh, and to explain the title, i did make bracelets from this idea. they were cute until my wrists started breaking out. which was sad.)
**insert good attitude**
God has a plan. God has a plan. I keep repeating this to myself. We still have plenty of water. We still have our house. And we still have our family. Sure, we lost several trees
Our hearts and prayers go out to those who were affected by these storms. <3
**********
B. bad weather…bread…baths…bananas…Burgess families…boxes…braids…banana bread…blessings…bugs…blue…butterflies…ballet…bicycles…bottles of water…beliefs…bags…batteries…beds…”breakfast bars”…beauty…blossoms…basements…babies…breath (thanks, Mom)…back-up discs…balloons…books…bubbles…bunnies…bbq…bangs…boats…barns…balls…and Bibles.
(blessings 1036 through 1071)
I don’t know about you guys, but I love mail. I love opening up the mailbox and finding a letter waiting just for me. But what’s even better is finding a package.
And that’s what happened to me this morning.
For some random reason I went out to the mailbox this morning (oh yes. I was mailing smelly stickers to one of my friends. be jealous.) and found mail in our mailbox. I was like “OH! mail.” Then I noticed that both of the packages in the mailbox were addressed to me. and it became more of an “MAAAAILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Needless to say, I was pretty excited.
I’m sitting here reading a book (that I’ve been wanting to read for the longest time but had not gotten it yet)from my best friend (shout out to Little Fairy!!), wearing adorable button earrings (from her sister, I’m assuming), and smiling and crying over everything else I got.
Oh man, I’m blessed. God certainly knows how to turn a drab week around.
Love you, girls!!!!! <3 <3 <3
ETAFAJBAGTTBAF stands for Everybody-Tell-A-Friend-About-James'-Blog-And-Get-Them-To-Be-A-Follower. (hee hee)
So here I am advertising my friend’s blog.
It’s called Darkshadow Inc. And James (the author-person) is absolutely amazing. I’ve yet to read any of his posts without dying of laughter. It’s hilarious.
Go check it out and follow him.. cause he wants followers. haha :)
p.s. this dude has a real God-given talent of writing.. his stories really are quite fantabulous.. especially Samuel Faar. :)
****
…that make my day.
%5B2%5D.jpg "Sunflowers 2010 (17)")
****
What photos make you excited? :)
I used to write down EVERYONE’s addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, etc, etc, in this beautiful address book. But recently, I’ve realized that my book was getting sorely out-of-date. So this cute little address book that I’ve had for five years is now resting in some dump near my house.
Although I now have an address book on my computer, it’s still sad to retire this old one… 
****
do you have any old things that you have recently converted to newer technology?
I redid my blog background and header. Thecutestblogontheblock erased my background image for some strange reason.. SO shabby blogs now decorates my blog. yay! :)
Here’s another sneak peak of the sparkler pictures. unedited.:
I will still post on our “Wild Wild West” trip. I imagine I’ll have a bajillion pictures. :) Which reminds me, I probably should go clean off my memory card…
***
do you ever have days where it seems that your brain isn’t working as good as it should?
We, as Americans, are blessed beyond our wildest dreams. And what do we do with the *stuff* we’re blessed with? I know what I do with it…
It winds up in closets…
Under shelves…
In baskets..
What’s the point of keeping all this pointless stuff? Can’t it be put to a better use?
***
This always makes me think about the parable of the man with the two barns..
(Found in Luke 12:13-21)
Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." But He said to him, "Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?" And He said to them, "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
And He told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."
I’m planning a 8th-12th grade girls retreat at my house this coming week. We had trouble getting a date, getting people to help with the lessons, and just problems along the way.. but strangely enough, I’ve had this awesome mindset the whole time – it hasn’t phased me.
God knows what He’s doing. If this retreat is His will, He’ll make it all fall into place. Even if only three people come, those three people are here because God knew they needed to hear whatever He tells the teachers to say!
I wish I had this mindset all the time. It’s nice to think about how we really don’t have to worry about anything. If God wants something to happen, he’ll make it happen. He’ll let us know.
What has God shown you this past week?
BUT
I have realized that it’s probably a good thing that I moved it. It means I spend less time in front of the mirror picking out my flaws or admiring my features.
Have you ever done something rash, regretted it, and then realized later that it was actually a smart move?
*sigh*
Today is like that. So much to do.. so little time… too many distracting things…
How do you cure this problem?
So this is the promised post. Yes. This die-hard Auburn fan went to Tuscaloosa. Crazy, huh. But no worries. I was not swayed. :)
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of the Capstone Leadership Academy, but it was pretty neat.
We listened to several speakers…
%5B5%5D.jpg "Greg McElroy")
did several activities…
explored a bit of the campus…
and had a wonderful time. :)
%5B2%5D.jpg "CLA (49)")
Less than an hour after the 2-day camp was over, my family headed over to Auburn… as my dad said “to get the Tuscaloosa out of her.”
%5B2%5D.jpg "A-Day '10 (8)")
WAR EAGLE!
*****
So do you root for Auburn or Alabama?
%5B4%5D.jpg "CLA (4)")
%5B2%5D.jpg "CLA (47)")