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