July 31, 2011 A.D.
In lieu of doing something I thoroughly do not enjoy doing (packing) on an evening of the week that I do not believe should be absorbed with anything unpleasant if it can be helped (Sunday), I have decided to begin writing as if I were writing a blog. I have recently discovered (via my sister Lianna) a blog that I big time dig reading. I have generally been, in the past, pretty unenthused by blogs. I realized why when I discovered one that I am excited to read. For me, It is all about the writing style, the writers POV (“point of view” for those non-watchers of the Next Food Network Star), the honesty and authenticity with which they write, and the photos. Every human is wonderfully different and brings their completely unique experience of life to the proverbial table, but there are just those few people in this life that we can totally relate to and jive with on an existential plain. yeah i took phil and eth freshman year. deal.
When you find a someone like that writing a blog, it is exciting. It is exciting to see someone articulating an appreciation for what you appreciate in the quietest parts of your soul. For me this came through Kelle Hampton’s blog “Enjoying the small things”. First of all, let me say, that I have my true and beautiful friends who really do get those parts of myself that are so difficult to articulate to someone that doesn’t experience certain things (like shadows or the shape of a cloud) as I do. They are so dear to me because I recognize it is one of the rarest of gifts that the Lord gives us; these kindred spirits as Anne of Green Gables would say, but I do not get to communicate with these friends daily due to distance and just life busy-ness. Thus it is lovely to wake up in the morning, fill my favorite mug (the one that has a colorful depiction of a partridge in a pear tree on it) with some too-strong-for-my-grandma’s-taste coffee, and sit upstairs as that golden morning sunlight, so young and promising, streams through my cozy upstairs windows and understand just what a human being whom I never met is saying.
This woman is married. I am not. This woman has children. I have not. This woman lives in Florida. I do not. But we are both human. We are both children of the same Heavenly Father. We are both infinitely and perfectly Loved, known, and desired by Jesus. We both desire to love and be absorbed into the world of beauty created for us by the Creator. And we both see this world, at least insofar as I can tell, as a place filled with goodness, beauty, joy and happiness. Even in the midst of pain, disappointment, suffering and sorrow. I do not think, based on my reading of her blog, that she would term our similarities in this way. I view the beauty of the earth and life through, in and with Jesus, and I do not think she does; but, she recognizes the beauty and writes about it in the way that I think about it and experience it. And I am grateful for her and her willingness to share herself and little pieces of her life with the rest of the human family (the computer using members at least).
I have an artistic soul, but not an artistic hand. As in I cannot draw or paint or sculpt. I certainly do not have a remarkable voice or the drive to take up an instrument. I do however have vision and a need to be creative. To use five different shades of green to decorate the envelope of a card for a friend, to bake banana bread in the spring and pumpkin bread in the fall. To make a cake something pretty and fun (and sometimes funny) to behold; and to wear my clothes just so they almost rhyme while still conveying that I view the world in a myriad of different lights and colors that refuse to be contained within the narrow boundaries of what “matches”.
I LOVE crafts and homemade gifts and taking photos and making them into a work of art with a wonderful quote from Scripture and some blank frames from Michael’s just begging to be transformed into something beautiful for someone i love. i also love to write and to write how i think and articulate what i feel, but i don’t know how i feel about actually sharing this with the world wide web quite yet. And perhaps I never will. And that’s just fine. But since reading Kelle’s blog everyday, and seeing how she writes so similarly to how i think, and how she expresses her love for life through the realities of every day life in a way that speaks to me, has inspired me to write. Has made me want to write how I think and feel and experience. But being me, i don’t think anyone would care enough to read. which again, is fine. but that need to create, to express, to take something ordinary and to make it more colorful (in this case words) is bubbling up in me and i must quench the thirst before it quenches me...so here i am in googledocs writing to myself for now. China needs her computer. Praise the Lord for Sunday, His Mercy and most of all, the Eucharist. Pax Vobiscum, world.
later on that night...
i feel i could explode with all of the beauty that rushes upon me at certain times, and every single day and i somehow want to capture it, like a wave upon the sand. so here i am writing again. to try to capture that beauty into words that never suffice and shall never suffice but are still beautiful tools from our Creator. and His grace is always sufficient. so it’s okay when words fail. because as He always does, He takes our tiny offerings and efforts, and transforms them into beauty and goodness we could have never before dreamed of. i imagine it’s kind of like a child going to the garden that her daddy planted, picking a basket full of berries that the rain and the sun allowed to grow, and giving to her mama the little stained handful she could manage to hold (minus the ones that could not wait until they reached the house to be enjoyed) to transform into an exquisite pie. God gives us the gifts freely, just because He Loves us, accepts our smallest efforts, and then turns what we offer back to Him into something exquisite and beautiful and more flaky and sweet than we could have ever imagined or hoped. He is so Good.
i went to a celebration of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony this Saturday. oh how i love the Sacraments. an outward sign of an inward reality. and how i love marriage. the union of two souls. an image of the Trinity on earth. two distinct individual human beings, living in a relationship of self-gift and receiving another self in the process, and becoming one through Grace. and their love, when they unite body and soul, creates. it creates a human being. another person in which to give themselves to in love. to serve another for the rest of your life and have someone to help to get to heaven. and someone to hold your hand as you walk toward Jesus, toward eternity, toward our destiny. we all share this destiny. this heavenly home to which we are all meant to dwell forever. and to have a true friend to take that walk with. well, what can i say. a little taste of the joy of heaven. and that was what the wedding was. congratulations, John and Sara Mistrot. i love you both and know that with Christ, you will create a beautiful home to welcome more life and greater amounts of love than you could ever fathom. i am honored and blessed to know you, and to have celebrated your marriage with you. thank you both and i pray that each moment brings you closer to Christ, each other, and heaven.
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