Life is a diverse and colorful thing, marked by flavors, experiences, and questions. It is not safe and contained; indeed, anything can happen. I find it highly inexplicable, apart from my Bible.

What a surprise, that the Bible is true! So many separate passages are flaring into brilliant life at this time. They bind themselves into the structure of my dependence on my Lord.

Where lies the joy of brokenness? It is here, in the growth of permanence in my soul. When permanence results, brokenness becomes addictive.  ¶ 2:14 PM (0) comments

  A Wintry Morning

Surprise!
Yesterday's cinnamon-stick forest,
To which the eye so accustomed slips past,
Has become a silvery landscape,
Tangled down by sky-sugar.
Strange, ethereal sight.
Rising sun reflects itself
From tips of broken trunks,
Which need no words to proclaim their strength:
"Still stand we,
Waiting for our Spring."
We slide along,
Splitting the scene apologetically
With whoosh of tires.  ¶ 6:17 AM (0) comments

  Yesterday was a witching day - 60 degrees, which is unusual for January in VA, to say the least. I arrived home after working out, and as I stepped out of my car in my short sleeves and capris, it was so windy and magical...

I whipped into my house. "Come swing on the swingsets!" I urged my housemates, but they were too tired. So I ran over alone to the little park area by the townhouses and swung in the wind, in the dark. Stars overhead blinked down, and the trees whispered.

"Lord," I prayed, "let me never grow too old to swing on a swingset."  ¶ 8:38 AM (4) comments

  Runners know that there is a tremendous difference in the mentality behind a sprint and a marathon. The sprinter uses up all his resources almost immediately, in order to go as quickly as possible. He knows he can recover afterwards. The marathon runner, however, maintains a slow and steady progression. He can't afford to chuck all his energy to the wind in the first mile.

I'm not built physically to be able to run marathons with ease, any more than I am naturally gifted with patience. I have unfortunately been able much of my life to procrastinate and then get through things with a sudden burst of brilliance.

Perhaps dogged persistance is less glamorous and fun, but it is part of adult existence. Life is an endurance race overall, not a sprint. This only makes sense for good stewardship, since the marathon runner achieves a much greater distance in the end.

The sprinter can see the finish line from the start. He keeps his eyes there and dashes for it like mad, ignoring everything that happens around him. The marathon runner sets small goals for part of the race, looks for people on the sidelines to cheer him on, and constantly drags his mind away from the pain in his body to the glory of the finish, even though he can't see it.

The sprinter doesn't take refreshment until the end. The marathon runner must constantly refuel along the way.

You have to keep going in a marathon, no matter how slowly. If you stop, it is ten times as hard to start again.  ¶ 6:34 AM (0) comments

  Oh, the joy of a new year! As my TKD instructor said, I can "leave all the bad in 2007 and take the good with me." Or something like that. He put it better, of course.

I spent the afternoon of New Year's with Gabi. I gave her a Pashmini scarf for her belated Christmas present, and she gave me a teapot + infuser + tea. Good stuff. We walked around my beautiful neighborhood for an hour, in the sunny, glorious - albeit chilly and windy - fresh air. In the park area near the townhouses, we swung on the swingset. Her scarf flew off. I lunged and caught it mid-swing, and we both laughed like a couple of little kids. Then we walked over to the movie theater and watched Juno. After the movie, I made us pancakes with bits of strawberry in the batter. When she had gone, I retired to my room, where I began a new journal with my start-of-the-year prayer and my resolutions. I read a lot of Bible and became lost in it, forgetting the time in a way I wish would happen more often. For dinner, I ate leftover marinaded steak, a small baked sweet potato with Splenda and cinnamon, and a fresh salad made with all my favorite ingredients - Romaine lettuce, carrot, sugar snap peas, mushrooms, half an avocado, walnuts, raisins, a sprinkling of Feta cheese, and a vinaigrette dressing I mixed myself. Dessert was a slice of a dark chocolate orange.

Everything has a fresh flavor to it. It was a good day.  ¶ 11:46 AM (8) comments