God is not color-blind

“Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. 

Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. 

Jesus loves the little children of the world”

Tonight my family watched the movie “Crash”. This film follows the lives of several individuals in LA and shows how they interconnect. It highlights the prejudice, stereotyping and racism that are prevalent in today’s culture. (If you have not seen it I really suggest you check it out!)

Many of you may feel that racism and stereotyping are largely things of the past and that our society has passed that. The media is continually boasting about how we are multi-cultural and a mosaic of cultures, but over the past few years I have taken several sociology courses that highlight just how real these issues of racism still are today.

One of the ways in which society has tried to stop racism is by creating a so-called “color-blind society”. A society in which we do not see an individuals color but we see them simply as people and ignore their ethnicity entirely. In many Christian circles I’ve even heard it said that God is color-blind, and I’m not sure that I agree with that.

This past semester I wrote a paper on racism in sport and in my research I found an article, which pointed out a flaw in the idea of a “color-blind society”. It basically said that as race evaporates from the socio-conceptual landscape, racism is pushed further and further out of sight, unmentionable because the terms by which we recognize and reference it fade from view. This actually allows racism to flourish, because it is harder to detect and recognize when racism is occurring.

Not only that, but regardless of how hard you try not to, you will always see someone’s color. And that’s not a bad thing. In my first sociology class the professor asked us a question: what are some things you notice about me? The class responded with all the politically corrects answers: you’re a professor; you’re a woman, etc. etc. Eventually the teacher stopped us and said “I’m BLACK! You can say it.”

By ignoring someone’s race you strip them of part of who they are. I believe that one’s color and race is something to be celebrated. We can learn to appreciate the differences because, let’s face it; it would be terrible if we were all the same boring shade of beige. And if God really was color-blind He could have created us all the same color if He wanted to. But He chose to create people of many different tribes and nations, of different colors, ethnicities, and races, because each is special and unique in its own way.

So although race should not define how you view someone or how you treat them, it should still be something that you recognize, respect, and appreciate. 

Sleep

She let out a gentle sigh as she repositioned herself against his body, clutching part of his pajama shirt in her hand: a habit leftover from the days when she had slept with a security blanket as a child. He took comfort in this gesture; he took it to mean that he was her security now. Her lying there, holding that fist full of fabric made him feel like more of a man than anything had ever done before.

Make me up, before you go-go!

“I wake up in the morning

Put on my face

The one that's gonna get me

Through another day”

--Avril Lavigne, Naked

This semester I am doing a practicum in a grade 1 class. The other day I was handing students their school pictures, upon receiving her picture a little 6 year old girl said “Oh no, I look terrible!” This shocked me because quite frankly she is a very cute little girl and she looked lovely in her picture. I couldn’t help but wonder where she had picked up the idea of how she ought to look in a picture...

Society has always constructed ideas of beauty, particularly with regards to how women should look. Through the decades women, luckily, have had something to help them adhere to these ideas and fit the mold that was set for them: Makeup.

Makeup was there when your face was expected to be all the colors of the rainbow in the 80s and make up was there when you wanted a natural look in the 1940s. And I personally have nothing against makeup when used properly to accentuate your natural beauty. However, I do think there is something wrong when girls feel they have to wear makeup to be beautiful. I think you should be able to walk confidently regardless of whether you have makeup on or not.

I grew up in a family with 5 girls in it; my mother, my 3 sisters, and myself and none of us were particularly uptight about makeup. Yes, my older sisters went through the “raccoon phase” when Avril Lavigne first appeared on the scene, but other than that none of us were really all that concerned about it. I don’t think any of us ever spent more than 10 minutes on our face in a day...

My Makeup-less face..

My mom always referred to it as “putting her face on” and this is a habit I picked up on, although I really only started wearing makeup on a daily basis late in my teenage years. But I’m pleased to say that there are plenty of days where I don’t want to put my face on and can quite comfortable walk around outside without one. And honestly, who wants to get up 30 minutes earlier just to put makeup on their face so they can look well-rested? I'd much rather sleep for the extra half hour!

The other day on Facebook a friend of mine posted a picture of herself without makeup on and she looked stunning. There is something beautiful about a girl who is confident enough to not have to wear makeup to know she’s gorgeous. So I would like to put forth a challenge to you girls out there. Pick a day this week and don’t wear makeup. Just be confident in who God made you! You are beautiful regardless of how even your skintone is or how long your lashes are.

“Staring at you taking off your makeup

Wondering why you even put it on

I know you think you do, but baby you don't need it”

--Rascal Flatts, Fast Cars & Freedom

(I hope this didn't offend or upset any girls out there who do spend a lot of time on makeup and wear it everyday, there is nothing wrong with that! I just hope you know you're pretty without makeup, too!)

C.S. Lewis//In Love

Creator > created

It is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. This past week has been building up to coming home and just taking some time to be thankful. Yet, this past week a theme that seemed to keep popping up in my life was the wickedness of human kind. Not a very fitting topic for the season.

This year at school I am leading a Discipleship Group and we are making our way through the book of Romans. For those of you who don’t know the book of Romans very well, it is a very “meaty” book of the Bible and it touches on a lot, and I mean A LOT, of topics that make you feel a little uncomfortable. So this week the passage we were looking at was Romans 1:18-32 God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity. As the title of the chapter suggests it’s a pretty harsh bit of scripture, but the verse that stood out to me most in this chapter was verse 21: “ For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened”.

This verse points out that our wickedness and sinfulness is rooted in one key mistake we make. We ignore God. We turn our eyes to other things. Verse 23 of the same chapter says that we have traded in the glory of the immortal God for images. We have stopped worshipping the Creator and started worshiping the created.

My roommate and I watched the movie Blood Diamond this week and it showed what the effects of this verse are in real life. The people in that film were so obsessed with diamonds that they were willing to steal, cheat, lie, oppress, and even kill to get this diamond. All that for what is essentially a rock. Unfortunately this film was based on true events that happen frequently in Africa and other places around the globe. And when we look at the wars in the world, most, if not all, are caused by us wanting something: gold, oil, precious stones, power. All these things are rooted in us worshipping the created rather than the Creator.

“…although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him…” This weekend I want to take time to give thanks to God. Not only for the things He has blessed me with in my life, but for who He is. I want to thank God for no other reason than for being God. Because that in and of itself is something that I am thankful for with my whole heart. 

October*

The mornings are crisp and cool. The leaves ignite into bright shades of red and orange before falling gently to the ground. Students find their fall sweaters and scarves. The shops are once again home to a million different pumpkin flavoured treats. And as the papers and assignments start to pile up, I cannot help but put on some James Taylor, snuggle up with a good book, and sip my chai latte. Welcome October; I have missed you, my friend. 

My God

O God, You are my God,
earnestly I seek You;
my soul thirsts for You,
my body longs for You,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.

I have seen You in the sanctuary
and beheld Your power and your glory.
Because Your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify You.
I will praise You as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise You.

On my bed I remember You;
I think of You through the watches of the night.
Because You are my help,
I sing in the shadow of Your wings.
My soul clings to You;
Your right hand upholds me.

Psalm 63:1-8

the Real World

“What is more real; picking a rose or falling in love?”

Being worldly is often considered a good thing, it means that you presumably have traveled a lot, know about various cultures and are overall quite wise. Yet the Bible warns us against becoming too worldly, about becoming too concerned with earthly things.  Yet it is easy to see why we often do become so concerned with things of this world, it’s because we can see them, touch them, they seem more real to us.

In C.S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters there is a passage about how humans become more attached to the world the longer we are here: 

            “The truth is that the Enemy [God], having oddly destined these mere animals [humans] to life in His own eternal world, has guarded them pretty effectively from the danger of feeling at home anywhere else. That is why we [demons] must often wish long life to our patients; seventy years is not a day too much for the difficult task of unravelling their souls from Heaven and building up a firm attachment to the earth. While they are young we find them always shooting off at a tangent. Even if we contrive to keep them ignorant of explicit religion, the incalculable winds of fantasy and music and poetry - the mere face of a girl, the song of a bird, or the sight of a horizon - are always blowing our whole structure away. They will not apply themselves steadily to worldly advancement, prudent connections, and the policy of safety first. So inveterate is their appetite for Heaven that our best method, at this stage, of attaching them to earth is to make them believe that earth can be turned into Heaven at some future date by politics or eugenics or "science" or psychology, or what not. Real worldliness is a work of time - assisted, of course, by pride, for we teach them to describe the creeping death as good sense or Maturity or Experience."

What we must remember is that even though we can see and touch the things on earth, they are not the most important things. The realm of things we cannot see but can only feel or experience with our Spirits are equally, if not more, real and certainly more important.

The question at the start of this post was asked in my English class my first year at University and it really made me think. Even though picking a rose is certainly a real thing, falling in love is as well. And falling in love can change your whole outlook on the world in ways that picking a rose couldn’t.

Now I know that it can be hard to make time for God when your day is full of papers, work, laundry, grocery shopping and whatever else it is that keeps you busy, but we have to remember that those are not the really important things in life. The thing of utmost importance is our relationship with God and the time we spend with Him. There is nothing more real than that.  

Glimpses

Sometimes you catch them,

A child discovering something new as pure joy overcomes him,

Love shared between an elderly couple as they still hold hands whilst walking down the street,

The way the light of the sunset catches on the waves,

Smiles and laughter shared between good friends,

A family sitting down together to share a well-earned meal at the end of a long day,

The smell of rain falling on the freshly cut grass in the summer time,

A new husband making breakfast for his wife,

The touch of baby wrapping her first around your finger for the first time,

A passerby stopping and sharing lunch with a homeless man.

All these and many more are the tiny glimpses of heaven that surround us. Glimpses of sheer joy, love, servanthood, community, peace, beauty, the list goes on and on.

Glimpses of our Heavenly Father Himself.

Exercise

It’s amazing how you can forget about something until you start working at it. About a week ago I started to exercising a bit more, which really doesn’t say much. Thanks to my mother’s genes I was blessed with a naturally slender figure and so I rarely felt the need to exercise. Nonetheless I’ve decided to start working out more and boy oh boy, do I have a lot of muscles I had forgotten about. After that first day, every move makes you aware of what each muscle does as you go about your daily routine.

For a while now I’ve been feeling as though God has drifted away somehow, or maybe it’s me who’s slipped away. It seems as if I know what I believe factually, but the emotion behind it is gone. I’ve been trying so hard to regain that relationship and once again feel as though the Holy Spirit is with me. But the challenging thing is, how do you make yourself feel something again? How do you make your soul feel the presence of the Almighty again?

I’d been struggling through this for quite a while when A.W. Tozer came to my rescue once again. His book, The Pursuit of God, (which I recommend to all of you), is an excellent guide for those who long to be closer to God but cannot seem to find their way (back) to God. The fourth chapter spoke the exact words that I needed to hear.

“As we begin to focus upon God the things of the spirit will take shape before our inner eyes. Obedience to the word of Christ will bring an inward revelation of the Godhead. It will give acute perception enabling us to see God even as is promised to the pure in heart. A new God-consciousness will seize upon us and we shall begin to taste and hear and inwardly feel the God who is our life and our all. There will be seen the constant shining of the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. More and more, as our faculties grow sharper and more sure, God will become to us the great All, and His Presence the glory and wonder of our lives,”

Different people may take Tozer’s words differently, but to me it was an encouragement to seek God’s hand in my daily life. Even though it feels as if God is far off, when I take the time to look at the things that happen day by day, I can see His hand working, even in small things. Just like with my exercising: by focusing on my muscles I’m more aware of them in my daily routine. By focusing on God in my daily life I see His work more clearly too.

You may be perfectly fine with your relationship with God, not feeling the need to seek His hand throughout your day. But that’s just like not working out because your body looks like it’s fine. Truth is, there is always room for improvement. And by exercising your “inner eyes” and looking for God you can grow stronger in body and spirit.

Words.

One Year.

It can seem like a huge amount of time. Or it can seem as though it lasted no more than a blink of an eye.

Years are celebrated. Personal years: anniversaries, birthdays, etc. And public years: the New Year, the end of a school year.

It has been one year since I started this blog. I'm still not entirely sure what I'm doing with it, but I hope that you are enjoying it. In any case, I've had a fun time keeping it up and sharing things with you.

Let me take a moment to apologize that my writing has not always been very frequent, or very good for that matter. But I'm sure things will continue to improve as I go along.

Anywho, I don't have much else to say, I've been lacking inspiration lately.

Thanks for sticking it out with me though. I really appreciate it. :)

Grammar//Life

I try pretty hard to have good grammar in my blog, but you may have noticed a few slip-ups here and there. Needless to say grammar is not my strong suit. One of my biggest issues is that I overuse commas. I can’t help it; I just don’t want to end my sentences. When I feel like something is still part of the same thought I figure it might as well be in the same sentence.

The song Every Teardrop is a Waterfall by Coldplay has a lyric in it that reads:

“I'd rather be a comma than a full stop”

Now aside from the fact that I use commas a lot, I feel this lyric applies to me. I’d much rather continue to grow and change and develop. A comma gives a sense of more to come, that this is not the be all and end all.

A full stop means it is what it is. That it’s the end and it’s not going to change. No more surprises, no more chances to see what might come. Period.

I guess, like most things in life, it depends on the situation. Most of the time it’s great to be open-ended: to be up for more, to be willing to wait and see what happens. But there are times when there is no space for more. Things are what they are; you cannot add to or take away from them.

I am definitely an over-thinker in some situations and have a hard time letting go. But there comes a time to stop using commas, to stop hoping that the sentence will change direction or that this isn’t all there is. Sometimes that really is all she wrote. Sometimes it’s best to end your sentence. And when you do, you can start a brand new one. One that could take you to places you’d never imagined…

His Eye is on the Sparrow

I live on the top floor of my building, which is something I’ve always appreciated. I have a great view of the mountains when the weather is clear, and when the weather isn’t clear I have a front-row-seat to the spectacular clouds, lighting and rainbows that frequent our sky.

For the past few weeks I’ve had new neighbors. The sparrows have found the cracks, of which there are quite a number, in the building and have settled in. They make quite a lot of noise in the mornings, but I honestly don’t mind, who doesn’t love waking up to the sound of birds singing? (Although, it would be nice if they slept in past 5 AM from time to time.) Once I’m up I can’t help but stare at them out my window, watching them as they swoop up and down, almost colliding with one another but changing direction at the last second. They have found a small open pipe in the building across from mine and they fly in and out, going about their day with not a care in the world.

This morning I heard that the job I had planned on for this summer had fallen through. This happens with jobs sometimes, but it’s still a little upsetting when it does happen. But as I sit here watching the sparrows I’m reminded of the old hymn His Eye is on the Sparrow. The refrain of the song goes like this:

“I sing because I’m happy

 I sing because I’m free

For His eye is on the sparrow

and I know He watches me.”

Often we’re tempted to think that if something goes wrong we’re screwed, we immediately start worrying. But the Bible tells us that God takes care of the birds of the air (Matt 6:26) and the lilies of the field (Matt 6:28), how much more so will he take care of us? He’s provided everything I need for today, and all the days before this one. Shouldn’t I trust Him by now? So I’m going to let tomorrow worry about itself (Matt 6:34) and sit here with my eyes on the sparrows, just as God’s eye is on me. 

The Moment.

That was it.

Did you feel it?

The moment where everything shifted, time slowed down, and your world would never be the same.

It’s one of the strangest things you’ll ever experience. And you know you’ll experience it more than once. In one fell swoop the world and life you knew are gone.

You’ll have to adjust.

Change.

Because the person you were won’t be able to handle this new reality. Whether the change was for better or worse, it was a change and you can’t go back.

So what do you do? In that moment, what can you do?

As you fumble trying to find something that you know. Some semblance of what used to be. A constant to help you find your footing.

It may be hard at first, finding anything that still seems the same.

Breathing.

That’s something that hasn’t changed. You still have a grasp on that. In and out. In and out.

You can still hear, and see, and think.

You can laugh, and dance, and hope, and love.

And the more time passes, the easier it becomes to find things that still fit into this new and still strange reality that is now your world.

Soon you feel comfortable again and what was once a new world is now your day-to-day life.

You have found your way. You know what’s going on again and where to go from here.

But then…

What was that? Did you feel it?

The Good Ol' Days

“Can it be that it was all so simple then?” –Barbara Streisand

I like the olden days. Not like the olden days of my own lifetime, but the really olden days. I love the different eras. Lately I’ve been watching a lot of Mad Men, a tv-show that takes place in the early 60s, and I love it. I love the clothes, the cars, the music. The way thing seemed simpler, although if Mad Men is anything to go by it wasn’t simple. I like older music, must to the dismay of my father who can’t stand it, the classics like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby…  

It’s funny to think that someday these will be the good old days, that people will look back on with fondness thinking that it was all so simple. Heck, it’s crazy to think that the 20s was almost a hundred years ago already, soon it’ll be the 20s again. People tend to look back on the past with a fondness. I certainly do. Even things that I didn’t enjoy at the time always seem so much more pleasant when I think back. I suppose that’s the way it goes.

As much as I love watching movies from earlier times and listening to their music and dreaming of wearing their clothes, I am happy to live now.

A few days ago I went to a lecture about marriage and how much it has improved in past decades and how lucky we are to live now when we get to choose whom we want to marry and we don’t have to stick to the housewife role. And I’m certain marriage is not the only thing that has improved; we know so much more about health and medicine, about equality (though there is still more to be done), we have computers, and even though they can be a pain in the butt I’ve got to say they are pretty helpful.

Yes, I suppose I will lovingly look back on this time someday, but for now I’ll just enjoy each day as it comes.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time” -Ecclesiastes 3:11

Kony...

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple days you have probably heard at least something about KONY 2012. This is Invisible Children’s latest campaign against Joseph Kony who has been a warlord in Africa for quite some time now. Rather than telling you all about this campaign, I encourage you to go to their website (www.kony2012.com) and watch the video and read about what their plan of action is for yourself.

This video is very impactful and it’s easy to see why it has been spreading like wildfire over various social media outlets. I myself immediately jumped on the bandwagon (even ordered a t-shirt) following one of the campaigns slogans: “one thing we can all agree on”. But can we?

This morning I woke up and went online and found that already several articles and blogs have begun to surface encouraging people to further research what it is exactly that Invisible Children hopes to do to stop Kony, before blindly following the video that has been posted. There is no question that Kony is a bad man and needs to be stopped and that people, certainly children, deserve to live in freedom; the question is whether this is the way to achieve that.

Most of these articles highlight how Invisible Children uses their funds, the way in which they support a military that has done questionable things itself, the naivety of thinking that putting up posters will make a huge difference, and the idea of the black man needing to be saved by the white man that is being portrayed.  (I have posted links to a couple of these articles at the bottom)

Now, I am not saying that I fully agree with these articles, and I am certainly not opposed to the idea of KONY 2012, but I do think it is important for people to take into consideration what they are actually supporting.

Here is what I know: I know that Joseph Kony is without a doubt a bad man and that he should to be captured. I believe that it is important to raise awareness of this issue and that we should find a way to help. I also know that no organization is perfect and they all have their flaws, Invisible Children is not exempt from that. But I also know that getting the US military involved might not be the best option. What the best option is, I unfortunately don’t know.

So for now I will spread awareness about Joseph Kony in the hopes that he is arrested for the terrible things he has done, and I will admire the world pulling together for a cause that we can all believe in. But I will also look into things myself and research the cause, rather than blindly following a 30-minute video without questioning it. I encourage you to do the same.

A couple articles opposed to KONY 2012:

-http://justiceinconflict.org/2012/03/07/taking-kony-2012-down-a-notch/

-http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/post/18890947431/we-got-trouble

Whistle Blower.

So that was a bit of an unexpected hiatus… sorry about that. I honestly did not mean to simply leave you hanging like that. Truth be told, I have been pretty busy with school work and what not, but the real reason I haven’t written in a while is that I haven’t really thought of much that I felt was worth your time. But after it was brought to my attention by an avid reader (my mom) that I hadn’t written in a while I figured I might as well find something to tide you over for a bit longer.

Falling Whistles.

You may have seen my facebook status about them a while ago, but I figure this is worthy of more than just a status. Falling Whistles is a small non-profit movement that partners with local leaders in the Congo to advocate and rehabilitate for those affected by war. Many people are unaware that Congo has been at war for many many years, and that to this day nearly 1500 people lose their lives daily. Falling Whistles began as a blog that told the story of the young boy soldiers who are sent out to take part in this war armed with no more than a whistle. The readers of this blog began to wonder what they could do to help and the answer was simple: speak out, be a whistle blower for peace.

Falling Whistles now sells a selection of whistles, posters, and (soon) t-shirts. All the profit from these sales goes directly to the women and children affected by this war, and not only that but these whistles are a great way to spread awareness.

I purchased my falling whistle (Hamptons Brass) a couple weeks ago, and as soon as I came back to my dorm with my package the girls were asking about it and one of them even said she wanted to buy one as well. Now, I realize that these whistles are not particularly cheap, the prices range from $34 - $104 for the basic whistles, and some celebrities have even been spotted dawning the whistles in the $148 - $498 range, but I encourage those of you who want to take part in this movement to at least check them out. Even if you don’t buy a whistle, the posters are only $15 and really cool.

Now I hope this isn’t coming across as a sales pitch, I’m not trying to pressure you into this at all. But I just want to encourage you that this is a simple and fun way to give to a charity. And if the war in the Congo isn’t your thing, that’s fine, there are lots of different organizations that are supporting a good cause and need financial help. I’m not totally delusional and I realize that the economy is not so hot right now, I’m a student, trust me, I know. But the Bible does call us to give, so I encourage you to do so in whatever way you can.

That’s it from me, and I promise I’ll update again soon!

(http://www.fallingwhistles.com/) 

Holy Island

“There are places I remember

All my life though some have changed”

-the Beatles, there are places I remember

In my life I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel many places. And I have been further blessed to see these places with people that I enjoy being with. Some of these places stand out more in my memory than others, some I hope to return to someday, others I don’t. One place that often comes to mind when I think of traveling or revisiting a place is Lindisfarne.

My Family on Lindisfarne some years ago.

 Lindisfarne is a small tidal island in Northumberland, England. It’s a beautiful place, and if I could encourage you to visit one place on this earth it would be there. I’ve been there only twice (I think) and both times I was quite young, but I can very clearly remember how much I enjoyed being there. Not only is it surrounded by beautiful landscapes, and home to the ruins of Lindisfarne Priory, which are stunning, but there is also a certain sense of calm and serenity there.

Now my parents may very well be laughing at that last statement about serenity, because once when we were there a wedding was being held at the Church and they played “You sexy thing” by Hot Chocolate on repeat for pretty much the entire night, so in that sense if might not have seemed serene in that instance. But there is still a peacefulness there, a sense of God’s presence. Perhaps that is why it is often referred to as Holy Island.

My sisters and I with a statue of St. Aidan.
Yet another reason I like Lindisfarne.

It’s hard for me to put into words why Lindisfarne is so special; I think it’s something you just have to experience. To stand in the ruins and be in awe of how stunning they are. Or to walk on the beach finding pieces of glass made smooth by the current of the ocean. To just look at the beauty that surrounds you and breathe in the fresh air.

God is everywhere and I know that if we try hard enough we can discern His voice no matter where we are. But in some places it is just easier to drown out the rest of the world and focus on Him. Lindisfarne is like that. To me, it truly is a Holy Island.

“And here we are

We have come this far

To say a prayer

On Lindisfarne”

- Iona, Lindisfarne

~*Magical*~

Snow is pretty magical, isn’t it? When I was little and it snowed I can still remember that my dad would stand in front of the window for so long just watching it come down. My mom said it was because he grew up in Brazil and snow was just such a strange thing to him. Yet, despite having grown up seeing at least some snow, I find myself situated right next to the window so as not to miss any of the delicate snowflakes falling down. It has the same effect on me as an open flame or the waves of the ocean, hypnotic almost, I can’t quite bring myself to look away. But that’s not the only reason I think snow is magical.

Snow brings people together. No joke. A couple days ago it started snowing here in Langley and my roommate and I ended up just sitting in front of the window for hours watching it come down. And as the layer of snow grew more and more people started to come outside and jump around, make snow angels, have snowball fights, make snowmen and go for romantic walks together. On what otherwise would have been an average evening with everyone doing their own things inside the dorms, people went outside and came together.

Something about snow takes you back to a childlike state I think; the sounds of sheer joy coming from the people outside, the sense of adventure or that everything is new. Because nothing looks quite the same when it snows. I’m not surprised that only the season of winter has ever merited the term “wonderland”, because there is nothing that really compares to when the world is covered in the soft white blanket.

Now, I realize that for a lot of people snow is nothing more than a pain in the butt. It makes it hard to drive, it’s tough to walk in and it is pretty chilly. But for me; someone who doesn’t drive, who doesn’t mind a challenge whilst walking and enjoys bundling up for the cold, snow is great. It makes the world quiet and perfect. And the beauty of how pure it is reminds me that God can make us whiter than the snow (Psalm 51:7, Isaiah 1:18). That I, too, can be that pure.

So think what you will about snow, but I love it. And so I will sit here by my window, with my cup of hot chocolate and try to get some of my homework reading done… if I can keep my eyes from gazing out at the snow, that is. 

Auld Lang Syne

New Year’s Eve in my family has always been pretty much the same for as long as I can remember; the family would sit around watching silly shows on tv, eating olliebollen, waiting for the countdown and then watching the fireworks in the street, drinking champagne (when we were old enough) and ABBA’s Happy New Year blasting from the stereo. It’s a tradition I really enjoy, and even when our whole family isn’t together it’s nice to know that most of us are probably listening to ABBA either way. But there is another song that I love and as cheesy as it sounds always makes me tear up a little: Auld Lang Syne.

I’m not sure why I love this song so much, because it’s never been part of our family tradition, but there must be a part of me that just connects with it. It was written by Robert Burns in 1788, he was a Scott (perhaps my Scottish roots are the reason I love the song?) and the words of the song literally translated call for us to think of the days gone by. To think of the friends we have had, and possibly lost along the way. It talks about the trials that we have overcome in times past and that we ought not forget them, and that despite these trials we can share in kindness with one another. I don’t know but something about it seem to match perfectly what I feel on New Years. The sense that I’m not the person I was a year ago because I’ve grown and that with the knowledge of what has passed I can move forward into the adventures of the New Year. That there are always those who stand by you through the tough times and those who have helped you along the way. A sense of perseverance, camaraderie, and hope. I like that.

Here are the full English lyrics of the song and you can find the original Scottish version online. I wish you all the best as you start this new year of 2012, that you continue to grow into the person you want to be and that you remember the days that have past and have brought you to where you are now.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,


and never brought to mind ?


Should old acquaintance be forgot,


and old lang syne ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we'll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !

and surely I’ll buy mine !


And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,


for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,


and picked the daisies fine ;

But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,


since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,


from morning sun till dine ;


But seas between us broad have roared


since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !


And give us a hand o’ thine !


And we’ll take a right good-will draught,


for auld lang syne.

CHORUS