Here we go again...

Paper due 2:30 tomorrow.
No words typed.
Research done.
Rough outline.
Still nothing to show.

I am crazy.

Thoughts instead of writing:
1. my ill love
2. what to do about presents this year
-- low funds
-- donde esta alternative christmas market?
-- everything from 10,000 Villages?
3. Christmas decor for the apt
4. my new haircut's cuteness
5. sleep

alas.

Thanks, everybody

Here are things I am glad about:

my funny family
and our tendency toward quick-turnaround road trips

my love

old friends
who remember things like my hatred for processed cheese
and how much I used to say cute

new friends
who make me think about things in different ways
and have fun random adventures

Other People's Words

Because I love quotes
and because I am a procrastinator
(school work, dirty dishes, etc.
as opposed to doing fun stuff)
I have decided to share some
quotes relating to time,
in hopes that you, too,
might embrace your life
and really really live it.

"It's never too late to be what you might have been."
-- George Eliot

"Tomorrow's life is too late. Live today."
-- Marcus Valerius Martial

"If you let yourself be absorbed completely, if you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly those moments."
-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
-- Annie Dillard

"If you are ever to enjoy life, now is the time, not tomorrow or next year... Today should always be our most wonderful day."
-- Thomas Dreier

"And if not now, when?"
-- Talmud

"The one thing I regret is that I will never have time to read all the books I want to read."
-- Francoise Sagan

"Don't hurry, don't worry. You're only here for a short visit. So be sure to stop and smell the flowers."
-- Walter Hagen

"Life is all memories except for the one present moment that goes by so quick you can hardly catch it going."
-- Tennessee Williams

"Seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow."
-- Horace

"Light tomorrow with today."
-- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"I thank you God for this most amazing day; for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes."
-- e. e. cummings

Homer Simpson moment
mmm... donuts....


Mitch Hedberg moment
don't even act like i didn't just buy that donut.
i have the documentation right here.
oh wait it's at home
in the file
under d for donut

Maybe next time...

read the material


this time...

awake
IHOP run
purple back pocket flashcards
notes
cramming the OT
laws judges sacrifices murmuring

distractions...
movies
shopping
making the jewels
deco-fern-orating
living
donuts

and which will i remember in 10 years...

No Day But Today...

For me, a lot comes down to these words from my favorite play, "Rent":

There's only us. There's only this.
Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.
No other road, no other way,
No day but today!

Finding a calm, if not a peace

Someone said (remembering the struggles of the UMC General Conference this year, and how those played out) that they don't think the whole nation will hold hands and sing "Blest be the tie that binds."
Today, my lovely friend said she doesn't want to hold hands with the voters in this nation.

Many people are pleased with the outcome of the election.
Many people are angry, hurt, grieving, frustrated, confused...
Mostly, within me I feel a lack.
A lack of understanding, a lack of plan, a lack of anger even, certainly a lack of peace.
I just don't know. I'm just still waiting.

When I see the opposing sides, I see such passion, such conviction.
I see a lack of love, a lack of peace.

I did not like it.
I don't understand how people can ban gay marriage on principles of "morality." How can legal discrimination, fostering of hatred, spreading pain and oppressing someone's being... how can that be moral?
Yet, I know that as strongly as I believe, with every bit of myself, that loving someone should not be considered cause for oppression...
someone on the other side of this issue has an equal and opposite reaction.

In the church, we are oppressive in this same way.
We often fail to recognize the fullness of a person's humanity, fail to affirm their value, fail to embrace them wholely and lovingly.
We see an issue.
If we disagree with a person over a big enough issue, we discount them.
We are not the loving people God has called us to be.

When we are filled with passion over an issue, we are unable to truly hear the other side.
We don't allow ourselves to be open to the possibility that the truth lies somewhere between.
We see ourselves as right, and the other as wrong.

I do not feel a lack of hope.
I feel a lack of direction.
I am seeking, but that is hard and scary, and daily diversions tempt me away.
I pray that I can allow myself to be fully open, fully devoted, fully aware.
Calm, not necessarily peace, may be alright for now.

Maya?

A Conceit


Give me your hand.

Make room for me
to lead and follow
you
beyond this rage of poverty.

Let others have
the privacy of
touching words
and love of loss
of love.

For me
Give me your hand.


-- Maya Angelou