A Toast to Cori in Honor of her Birthday

*taps spoon against glass*

It's crazy to think that only a year ago I was just getting to know Cori. Since then, she has become one of my favorite people on earth. I am fully four years older than her, yet she has taught me so much. She shows me that being strong is not being unfeminine. She taught me that feelings come and go, but truth prevails. I learned from her the importance of knowing what you believe and why you believe it. She is moral but not legalistic, blunt but empathetic, opinionated yet discreet. She's generous, snarky, literate, funny, hard-working and - this is the best part - honest.

When Cori sees something that interests her, she doesn't just say "That's cool"; she learns how to do it. She is possibly the best dancer I know. Her artwork is absolutely amazing. She blacksmiths, people: really well, too. Then there's beekeeping, candy making, gingerbread architecture, choir, guitar, poetry (rhymed poetry!) and many other things I'm sure I'm forgetting. And I know the list will only continue to get longer.

Right now, however, Cori faces some rather more commonplace activities than bee keeping or dancing the Charleston. She's lined up for some college classes, which of course won't be as fun as forging marshmallow roasters. But however ordinary her classes may be, Cori will always be anything but ordinary. Here's to Cori, an amazing individual and a wonderful friend.

It was worth it.

I climbed out of bed and pulled on my shoes,

Then stepped out into the cold.

Cool, clean moonlight glowed on the snow,

And the night sky appeared not dark,

But richly blue.

I looked at the stars and wished you could see this, too.

But as you could not,

I assure you, it was beautiful.

Living Beyond the Moment

Good news, everyone: I have been convicted of something that I have been doing wrong. I am really very grateful for this, and though it is troubling to see something within myself that I am ashamed of, I am so glad to be able to begin to see it clearly. 

Here it is: I live to make myself, and those I love, feel happy. 

In some ways this is not such a very bad thing. I love to encourage people and to cheer them up when times are hard. But too often I resort to distracting them from their troubles rather than trying to help them work through the problem at hand. I do this to myself, too. Rather than dealing with things that need to be addressed, I distract myself with friends, music, books, movies, writing, Youtube, candy, cooking. I live to feel good, and often I desire little more for my friends than for them to feel good, too.

Which is so shallow and short-sighted. Of course what I should be living for is seeing God's will done in my life. The problem is, God's will for my life does not always make me happy. My sinful, selfish flesh resents everything God wants for me. Too often I let the desires of my short-sighted flesh overrule my wish to do what is right. I need to take the reigns away from my emotions and give them to God instead. Because obviously I am not strong enough to resist temptation on my own. I've been trying to do that for years, and it just doesn't work. 

Favorite Things Tag

So, I've been tagged by Embers, who is awesome, to share some pictures of my favorite thing in my bedroom. Soooo, I introduce to you ... Simba.

Simba is the oldest and wisest of the stuffed animals in my family's stuffed animal kingdom. In all our childhood games he was the kind, wise ruler of all the toys. I don't really play with toys anymore but Simba still lives on my bed, and he lets me hold him whenever I want. He's better than most cats in this respect. Also he never pricks me with his claws.

Simba has gotten "a lot of love" over the years, which is to say that he looks pretty beat up. As you can see in this picture, he has lost a lot of the hair on his back, and I seem to recall accelerating that process. He's also lost a lot of weight ... somehow ... but in spite of all, he is still a nice stuffed animal to cuddle, soft on the outside, yet pleasantly firm.

He's so mellow.

This is where you can usually find Simba, up near the head of my bed.

Fun facts: Simba's wife is my stuffed animal Nala, who does not live on my bed. Their four children are Rosie the bulldog, Tiger the kitty, Michael the horse, and Jordan the bull. All of them are biological children except for Kitty ... just kidding. She's their biological child, too.

All right! Now that I've shared pictures of my favorite things, I get to tag five other bloggers to do the same! Except I don't know five bloggers who haven't been tagged ... so I'll tag some others too and you can share the picshys on Google+ if you wish.

My sisters

Julie

Lady Gargoyle

Cassie

Anybody else who wants to!

Have fun! Adios.

Freedom

You found in your pocket the keys to my cage,
And came to let me go.
I raised my head and smiled at you,
But shook my head sadly, no.

"I've got so much to do," I said,

"I can't possibly get away.

But if you wait a little while,

I'll soon come out and play."

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Reality Check

You

are

important,

though not for the reasons you think.

It has nothing to do with how smart you are.

It has nothing to do with your talent, your sense of style,

your conduct, your looks, or your social status.

It's not because of the people who love you,

or the people you love.

It's not because of the great things you have done,

the lives you have saved.

No.

You are important because 

God made you,

and nothing you can do will ever change that.

What a relief.

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I found a swingset beneath the stars,

And I could not resist.

I swung as hard as I could,

Grinning into the wind on my face,

Flinging back my head to stare at the stars.

I told myself, if I could just swing high enough,

I could fling myself upwards,

And soar into the stars.

I could compare notes with the astronauts,

And we could talk with shining eyes about the things we had seen.

No one else would understand just how wonderful it had been.

It would be our secret

That we wished the world was in on

All of a sudden I had an urge to write a long passage in elvish ...

My handwriting is a lot more compact than J. R. R. Tolkien's when he writes in elvish. For those of you who can't read elvish, here's what it says ...

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all who wander are lost

Old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be King!

Which Lord of the Rings civilization do you think you'd fit into best? Pretty sure I'd live in Gondor ... yeah, I'd live in the city with all those tall, dark-haired people. (I know what you're thinking: But Faramir and Boromir are blond! Well, not in the book they're not. Look it up!)

Beauty Bittersweet

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""Pretty? Oh, pretty doesn't seem the right word to use. Nor beautiful, either. They don't go far enough. Oh, it was wonderful--wonderful. It's the first thing I ever saw that couldn't be improved upon by imagination. It just satisfies me here' --she put one hand on her breast-- 'it made a queer funny ache and yet it was a pleasant ache.'" ~ Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables

***

Do you ever feel a queer, exquisite pain when you see something truly lovely? I do. I'll see the sun shining through the trees, or the lights of Portland shining on the river at night, and the sudden rush of joy I feel will be mingled with what Anne very aptly described as an ache. Now, why do you suppose that is? Why should the sight of something so beautiful give me pain?

Perhaps it's the knowledge of the transience of the moment. The sun moves, light shifts and fades, trees are felled, morning dawns, and the mystery of night slips away. The beauty of an instant is shadowed by a consciousness that the moment will soon be gone.

I think this may be a part of it. But I tend to think that another part of it stems from a feeling that I am unable to fully appreciate what I am seeing. I cherish the hope that when the distractions of the flesh are gone, I shall be able to appreciate truth and beauty in a way that I never can in this fallen world.

Someday this world will be renewed. The beauty we see here on earth is just a shadow of the wondrous land to come. Those who have placed their faith in Christ shall be renewed, too. And with unclouded eyes we shall behold creation as it was meant to be.

I can't wait.

September

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I hope you were out in the mellow light

Between evening and afternoon.

I hope there was not much else on your mind

Except that the sky is blue.

I hope you stood for a moment there

With the breath of fall on your arms

I hope you breathed in the golden air

And carried with you its charms.

Just Being A Girl

1. I have a new pair of high-heels, and I love them. They are black with a suede finish and they have a strap across the instep. See the picture? That's what they look like. I call my new high heels Bonnie and Clyde. I have never seen the movie Bonnie and Clyde, but I know it's set in the 1930s and these shoes remind me of that era. I have broken the heels in successfully, which means that they don't hurt me WHILE I'm wearing them, only AFTERwards. -- High-heels, I might add, are bad for you. Even when mine fit perfectly, as Bonnie and Clyde do, they still hurt my calves and my back after I wear them for too long. Why do I wear them for too long? As Louisa May Alcott self-deprecatingly said, "Dear me, let us be fashionable or die!"

Last night, I literally had a dream that the suede finish rubbed off my shoes and they were ruined. O.O I didn't know my subconscious was that preoccupied with my shoes, but apparently it is. It was a terrible dream. When I woke up this morning, I had forgotten about the dream, and I didn't remember it till I went downstairs to put on the black high heels. Then it all came back and I thought, "HEY! MY SHOES AREN'T RUINED." Such a good start to the day.

2. Am I the only one who gets dressed up for church, comes home, and then feels despondent because I have to change back into ordinary clothes? Sometimes it's so depressing that I DON'T change back into ordinary clothes. Granted,  I took off the heels. But I still have on my skirt and my nice white cardigan. I feel so gloriously domestic, sashaying around the kitchen with an apron over my nice clothes, doing dishes and cooking eggs for lunch while singing Brandon Heath, The Mowglies, and songs from the new Annie soundtrack. It just wouldn't be as much fun if I were wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

3. Okay, so I wasn't a HUGE fan of the new Cinderella movie, but I did like the incorporation of the song "Lavender's Blue" (good call, Kenneth Branagh and Patrick Doyle). And I was wondering how such a sweet song could have a faintly haunting quality when Lily James was singing it a cappella. I say WAS wondering, because I'm not wondering anymore. I figured it out O.O. It's because the first two notes of the song are a fifth. Fifths are unresolved. It takes the addition of the third to make a chord either major or minor. And, obviously, there is no third when you're singing it a cappella with no accompaniment! So the melody comes off as neither major nor minor, but soooomeeething in betweeeeen. Hence the haunting quality. 

Ahhhhhh. You have no idea how excited this makes me. I loooooove unresolved chords. *waltzes around singing* Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, Lavender's green ...

Also, just so you know. I knew that song BEFORE the movie came out. *drops microphone*

Right. That's all for today. Tootles, kids! *eats string cheese*

Just when I was afraid no one needed me anymore,

You asked for my help.

Just when I thought I'd be left behind again,

You begged me to come along.

I prepared to go back into my shell,

But you asked me to come out.

I resigned myself to loneliness,

But you made me laugh.

It's going to be different, that's for sure.

 But that doesn't mean it won't be all right.

Thanks to you.

love, Emily

When You Can't Have It, Draw It

Here's a dress I drew tonight :). I was inspired by Treksie's drawings to try to get the folds of fabric on clothing right. I drew this one from a reference picture for practice.

And, here! Romantic song to go with romantic dress. Ahhh. The bridge. So beautiful. *swoooonn*

Story Writing Challenge!

I don't know WHY I'm doing this right now, just when school is starting back up. Of course, I did school all summer, and I'm halfway through my August term, so it's nothing new for me. But I suppose that YOU all are toiling over snowdrifts of papers with math proofs and essays and notes for upcoming tests scribbled all over them. So I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to participate in this story writing challenge!!!!

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Just to make things fun, your story must include all of these 5 elements:

1. A basket of cookies
2. A character who can breath fire
3. An object that can talk (say, a clock, a sword, a carousel horse)
4. A death scene
5. The word "lugubrious," because I like it.

Yes. All those things. Also, your story does not have to be long! 2 or 3 pages of story is nothing to sneeze at (as long as it's not double spaced O.O). Either share your story with me on Google+, or post it in the comments box (trusting it will fit :P), or post it on your own blog. I'll be posting mine here within a week or so, and I'll do an illustration for it, too! Eee! So excited. Can't wait to see what you all come up with. Happy writing!!!!

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Mumford and Sons and Company: My Favorite Lyricists

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Okay. I am an extremely words-oriented person. And I also love music. So songs with lyrics are potentially the greatest things in the world as far as I'm concerned. I'm always terribly happy to stumble accross an artist who combines good music with strong, unique lyrics. Here are a few of my favorite wordsmiths. 

1. Adam Young

link to dorky picture

I love his lyrics, particularly in the albums All Things Bright And Beautiful, Maybe I'm Dreaming, and Ocean Eyes (which is just about my favorite album in the world). His lush lyrics evoke mental images saturated with color. Apart from the frequent occurence of the word blue, he employs a wide vocabulary, which is always refreshing. Charmingly enough, he positively puns; the endless wordplay and the playful use of colloquialisms from many different decades give his lyrics a tone that is quaint and sly by turns. Plus, bonus: the content of his songs is remarkably clean in this degenerate day and age. I am sorry to say that he is the only secular lyricist that I can recommend across the board; just goes to show how awesome he is.

Favorite lyric: Oh, gosh, I can't pick favorites. But I do like this one from "Technicolor Phase":

I am the black in the books, the letters on the pages that you memorize

And I am the orange in the overcast, a color that you visualize

2. Mumford and Sons 

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Fun fact: Did you know Marcus Mumford's parents are the national leaders of the Vineyard church in the UK and Ireland? Explains a lot, doesn't it? I love the sparse, simple, yet deep and inscrutable lyrics that Mumford writes. There's a sort of raw quality to his songs. He mixes good, strong verbs with ... well, earthy metaphors, but earthy as in references to nature, not earthy in the sense of bawdy and vulgar. His vocabulary leans on the archaic side; I rather fancy this is the result of his exposure to the Bible and other old sources. He quotes Shakespeare in his lyrics, you know. For heaven's sake, his first album is entitled Sigh No More, which is in itSELF a quote from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Pretty awesome, right? (I like Shakespeare.) I can recommend the tracks "Sigh No More" (the song, not the whole album unfortunately), "Awake My Soul" (ahhhh love that song, so gud), "Roll Away Your Stone," "Dust Bowl Dance," annnnnd I suppose "The Cave," although that song doesn't really do for me what the other songs on the album do. -- Never listened to Babel, by the way. I didn't particularly like the singles from it I heard played on the radio, and didn't bother to look into it further. I should, one of these days, though ... it may very well be good ...

Favorite Lyric: Usually this verse from "Awake My Soul":

Lend me your hand and we'll conquer them all
But lend me your heart and I'll just let you fall
Lend me your eyes, I can change what you see
But your soul you must keep totally free

3. Ben Gibbard

... okay, I could seriously not find a good picture of him. It's all his fault. He just stares blankly at the camera.

Ben Gibbard is a master poet, with a vast vocabulary and flexible sense of meter. I always read his lyrics before I listen to the songs, and when I read them, the meter is almost perceptible: I can rarely tell which words are supposed to rhyme. Then I listen to the song, and rhymes appear out of nowhere. Magical, really. I can scarcely pin down what it is about his lyrics that entrances me so much. I guess it's the very concrete nouns and precise language communicating abstract ideas of love and sorrow. For instance, take this verse from his song "Title and Registration":

The glove compartment is innacurately named
And everybody knows it
So I'm proposing a swift orderly change
Cause behind it's door
There's nothing to keep my fingers warm
And all I find
Are souvenirs from better times

Like that. I don't know, I just love it. I can recommend the tracks "Soul Meets Body," "Title and Registration," "Different Names for the Same Thing," and, especially this one, "Transatlantacism" (the song, not the album).

Favorite Lyric: Well, of course the lyric "Brown Eyes, I'll hold you near / Cause you're the only song I want to hear" -- which I just find so sweet, nobody says nice things about brown eyes, everybody's going on about the blue ones and the green ones! -- but aside from that one, I luuuuuuv the whole of the song Transatlantacism. Here's just the first verse.

The Atlantic was born today, and I'll tell you how

The clouds above opened up and let it out

I was standing on the surface of a perforated sphere when the water filled every hole

And thousands upon thousands made an ocean making islands where no islands should go

Oh, no

Ah. You'll just have to listen to it to find out what happens next.

4. Robert Robinson

Evidently, he wrote "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" at age 22. If that's not awesome, I don't know what is.

Oh to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, 

Bind my wandering heart to Thee:

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for thy courts above

5. Whoever wrote "Be Thou My Vision"

I don't know who it was for sure, and neither does Wikipedia, but whoever he or she was, I'm a fan.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise

Thou mine inheritance, now and always;

Thou and thou only, first in my heart,

High King of heaven, my treasure thou art.

So, yes, there you have it, some of my favorite lyrics and lyricists. What are some of yours? Do tell! I'm ripe for some new songs :).

AIEEEEEE!!! WE GOT CHICKENS!!!

Aren't they beautiful. They are four days old (except two of them which are two days old) and are settling into their new home. We got all different kinds, which certainly makes it easier to tell them apart. Good thing, too, because we wanted to name them. We got two Ameraucanas, one Rhode Island Red, two Buff Orpingtons, one White Leghorn, one Barred Plymouth Rock, one Silver-Laced Wyandotte, and one Red Star: nine in all. 

This one's mine, Arrietty the Buff Orpington. Like all the Buffs, she's a mellow, easy-going bird, which is why I picked her. She's a strawberry blonde right now, but when she grows up she will be a proper ginger, like this:

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Everybody else in the family got one chicken, too, and Mom got us one extra in case one of them DIES :P. For the longest time, we just called her "The Extra." She belongs to all of us generally, I suppose, but I guess she will officially become the hen of whoever is the first to lose theirs. Oh, and we also got her in case one of our "hens" turns out to be a cockerel. There was a sign above the chicks at the store that read "90% ACCURACY IN SEX DETERMINATION." So, yeah, one of our chicks might very well turn out to be a guy, and in THAT case we shall have to get rid of it. We live in the suburbs, and we don't want a rooster crowing and waking up all the neighbors ... or us, for that matter.

So, yeah! Chickens now, in our garage! Which one is your favorite? If it were not for my loyalty to Arrietty, I would like Hannah's Ameraucana best. It's the little dark brown one you see in the first picture. Her name is Celesteabellbethabell, Celeste for short. But mine is pretty cute too.

Once upon a time, I used to be able to write without emoticons. 

Come to think of it, I suppose I still can. In the stories I write, my sentences aren't dotted with smiley faces, frowney faces, tongue-sticking-out faces, and so on. Don't believe me? I call to witness the chapter of The Princess and The Blacksmith that I posted on this blog a while back! No emoticons in that! Gosh, I really need to write the next chapter :P ... 

AHA. YOU SEE. AN EMOTICON. OBSERVE HOW EASILY IT SLIPS IN. Oh yeah, this, THIS is where the emoticons insert themselves: when I'm just TALKING. Say in letters, or emails, a blogpost, or on Google chat or whatever. I always use emoticons.

I know why I do it. The person I'm talking or writing to can't see me or hear me, and I can't show them through facial expressions or the tone of my voice how I am feeling. So I resort to emoticons. I guess you could say this is a good excuse, but really it's just laziness. "A picture is worth a thousand words," you know, and it's just faster to say, "Cool! :D" instead of "That sounds amazing! I'm happy for you." 

The problem is, if you use emoticons, they can be misinterpreted. For instance, I've heard of multiple uses for the :P emoticon. Is it a foot-in-mouth emoticon, or a tongue-sticking-out emoticon, or what? And either way, what emotion does it convey? And I'm sure there are several meanings associated with other emoticons, too. So, to avoid being misconstrued, I'm going to write out several of the most common emoticons I use, and what I mean by them. I'll start with the smiley faces ... because yes, there are more than one. 

:D
The waitress smile. It's big and bright, but it also denotes a little restraint, a little formality. Friendly, yes, but professional.

XD
The BIG smile. Picture me grinning so hard that my eyes squeeze shut. I use this when I think something is funny, or when I'm really happy. When I use several D's after the X, that means I'm really REALLY happy. As in, "AAAAIIIIIEEEEE I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU TOMORROW XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD." That sort of thing.

:)
This smile has a couple different uses (how's THAT for confusing). Sometimes I use it in place of the waitress smile when I don't want to come off as TOO perky or friendly. I mean, don't want to SCARE people *nervous laugh.* At other times, it functions as a "feelin' it" smile: it's quiet, genuine, empathetic.

8D
The annoying smile. My eyes are big, and my mouth is wide open. I use this when I'm teasing someone, or when I'm over-dramatising something in an attempt to be funny.

... so much for the smiles. Onto the miscellaneous expressions.

T.T
The "seriously?" face. Used more often for comedic effect rather than to convey real chagrin. This is the sort of face you'd get if you told me, "I don't like Owl City." What even, bruh. What is wrong with you.

o.O
The alarmed, disconcerted, or incredulous face. Used in "Y-y-you ate RAW SQUID?" situations.

O.O
The shocked face. I may be shocked in a good way, such as "YOU SAW TOM HIDDLESTON AT THE SUPERMARKET?!?" Or I may be shocked in a bad way. "TOM HIDDLESTON ISN'T GOING TO PLAY LOKI IN THE NEXT MARVEL MOVIE?!?" All depends on the context.

:P
Hm. I should really use the :T face instead of the :P face for the connotations that I associate with this emoticon. Instead of looking at it as someone sticking their tongue out ... which I think this face teeeecchnically indicates? ... I kinda visualize someone twisting their mouth to the side in an apprehensive or apologetic sort of way. It's sort of a "whoops" face, or an "oh, no" face. So, yeah: sometimes it's apologetic, sometimes it's apprehensive. But I don't stick my tongue out when I'm apologetic or apprehensive. WHO SAID THESE HAD TO BE LOGICAL?

XP
This one indicates extreme disgust. As in "Go camping for five days with no access to a shower? Hahahaha no."

... and then, of course, there's the sad faces, :(, :'(, etc. I don't particularly like the sad faces. They're not ... SAD enough. So I rarely use them. More often I just say something like *weeps*, *cries*, *sobs grotesquely*. Yeah. I really don't like the sad faces.

So, there you have it. My extensive, but by no means exhaustive, emoticon chart. How about you? What emoticons do you use, and what do you mean by them? Do you use any of the same emoticons I do but mean something completely different by them? I wouldn't want to misconstrue your emoticons! :P XD. Post your answer in the comment box below.

XD

Morning, all! I thought it high time I posted some of my art on my blog, so here it is! I drew this for my friend for her birthday. She gets to be in Ravenclaw house, because she's just about the smartest gal I know! 

 Ah, Hogwarts clothes. Love them so much. This outfit was inspired by Cho Chang's ensemble in the fifth movie. Except Cho wears a button-up cardigan, while I made this one a pullover instead.

By the way, which Hogwarts house do you think you are in? I used to think Slytherin for me, but now I'm not so sure. I might be Ravenclaw. How about you? Send your answer via your owl, or just post a reply in the comments box below ...

Mischief managed.

Comfort Zones

2015 has been one of the most exciting years of my life.

Actually, strike that. I must go back a bit. 2014-2015 has been 

one of the most exciting years of my life. 

It all started with Ensemble at art school. I had never sung in a choir before. It was really exciting to work with different people and to learn so many new songs so fast. At the end of it all, we got to perform at The Festival of Lights at The Grotto. (Don't click on the link if you don't want to hear Christmas music at the end of August. DAWWWW, lookit our choir. Our little rag-tag ensemble in mismatching outfits. I so proud of us.) Far from being just the highlight of the holidays, this was one of the highlights of my life. I've always loved the Christmas season, and musically, carols are just about my favorite things in the world. I was so happy to actually be a part of the tradition of making music at Christmas time in such a special way. 

Another exciting thing that happened to me this year: partly due to my involvement in Ensemble, I became friends with a certain homesteading family, a rough-and-tumble cow-herding song-singing gun-shooting study-booking Bible-thumping homeschooling clan called the Whitlocks. Spending time with them entailed firing a gun for the first time in my life (thank you, Cori; the credit for the photo goes to her, by the way), getting powder-burned, charging through a veritable wall of blackberry bushes on the back of a mule, and nearly getting gored by a cow in the pasture late at night (at least, that's how I remember it. Cori may tell you something different). And let's not forget the time Cassie got a horde of people together and dressed us up as goblins and robbers and rangers and elves and a Gollum-esque creature (Cori did the face-paint for the ruffians and the Gollum-esque) and we all acted out a massive Lord-of-the-Rings-type adventure for their cousin's birthday. And then there was the time I went with them to the Mother Earth News Fair and got to watch Cori blacksmith pretty much the whole live-long day ... well, yeah. Just about everything I've done with the Whitlocks, I've never done before.

To top it all off, this year I got to go adventuring with a friend who is practically the real-life version of Finn the Human from Adventure Time. I climbed up steeper inclines than I've ever climbed before; what's even harder, I climbed back down them again. It was scary, but also one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had. And at the end of it all, I got to stand at the edge of a precipice and look out over vast wooded slopes, with no trace of civilization that my eyes could see. The world outside my comfort zone certainly is beautiful.

It's funny, though, isn't it, how quickly the world outside your comfort zone becomes your comfort zone. My horizons expanded. Things I look forward to now, I never would've dreamed of doing just 12 months ago. The fun is still there, but the element of stepping-out-in-faith is gone. I want more of that.

I want to continue to grow. Sure, I have been stretching my mind a lot, which is what you would expect in the course of getting a BA in English. But there are other parts of me that need stretching, too. I need to work hard. I need to seek God's will and let go of my own. I need to try new things and not worry about looking bad. My comfort zone has expanded, you see. And I need to step outside of it again.

So, here's to a new school year! I'll be teaching choir for the first time; honestly, I'm terrified about it, and so I guess it counts as a valid first step outside my comfort zone XD. Love you guys, and thank you all for an amazing year. 

Also, speaking of children's choirs, this is the best.

Let's play a game! It's called, What Stage of Society Would You Like Best to Live In?!?

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It's easy! Here's how you play. I will describe for you four different stages in the progression of societiey. All you have to do is post an answer in the comments box about which one you would like to live in, and why. Ready? Here we go! Also, brief aside, the titles of the stages of society are pretty self-explanatory, so if you want to guess at what the titles denote and just skip my descriptions, go right ahead. Y'all are smart. Your guesses will probably be close enough. 

Stage 1: Hunter / Gatherer (Nomadic) Society

In this stage of society, the people don't raise their own crops or keep livestock. They live off of food that they gather or game that they hunt. Because of this, they often have to move around the land to follow their sources of food. Some Native American tribes were nomadic. 

Stage 2: Agrarian Society

In an agrarian society, people raise their own crops. The economy centers around planting crops and keeping farmland. The era of farmers, planters, craftsmen. 

Stage 3: Industrial Society

I'll quote Wikipedia on this one (don't you judge me): "A society driven by the use of technology to enable mass production, supporting a large population with a high capacity for division of labour." This always makes me think of the Victorian Era in England. Factories, steam engines, railways ...

Stage 4: Information Society 

That's where we're at now in the U.S. Again, I'll quote Wikipedia on this one: "A society where the creation, distribution, use, integration, and manipulation of information is a significant economic, political, and cultural activity." This is the era of software engineers and Google. 

Sooooo, which sounds most to your liking? Post your answer in the commet box, either below or on Google+. 
Thanks for playing! 

Good morning, everyone. Today we're going to talk about bucket lists. 

buck·et list

noun

informal 

1. a number of experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have or accomplish during their lifetime.

verb  informal

     to maintain and actively attempt to fulfill items on a bucket list

People have different opinions regarding bucket lists. One of my friends bucket lists prodigiously; he adds things to the list on a regular basis and is better than most people at actually getting them done. The last item he added was participating in the ongoing nighttime massacre of the invasive opossums that are destroying New Zealand's ecosystem. (Yes, this is really a thing, and frankly it sounds like a worthy cause. Forget Sauron. WE MUST SAVE THE SHIRE FROM THE OPOSSUMS.) 

Another friend of mine does not see the point in keeping a bucket list. His thought is, "Why the rush to do awesome things on THIS side of eternity?" I suppose I see his point. Most secular people keep bucket lists in a sense of desperation, I expect. They don't have the hope of eternity, and so for them, this life is it. They've got to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro before they die because they aren't going to get a chance to do it afterwards. With Patrick the Starfish, they bellow, "I'LL TAKE IT EASY WHEN I'M DEAD."

And yet there are Christians who keep bucket lists, too. I'm one of them. For starters, I've got this hankering to see Aurora Borealis. So what if it's the old earth version of Aurora Borealis? It's still beautiful, right now, right here, today. As King David said, "The Heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork." The heavens DECLARE, he wrote, present tense: they're declaring God's glory right now. 

I think that it's great that Christians have a desire to experience and enjoy this world God created in ways that resonate for them in particular. But here's the thing: I wouldn't want to go see Aurora Borealis at the expense of forsaking God's plan for my life. 

That's always the ticket, isn't it? Instead of declaring legalistically that CHRISTIANS SHOULDN'T KEEP BUCKET LISTS or CHRISTIANS SHOULD KEEP BUCKET LISTS, I'll just say this: I think you should do what God is calling you to do. If God is calling you to massacre opossums in New Zealand, go for it. If God is calling you to go see Aurora Borealis in Norway, do it! Lord willing, I'll see you there. And for those of you who DO have bucket lists ... what's on them??? Me wants to know. Post your answers in the comment box below :).

The 777 Challenge

So, Becca challenged me to do the 777 challenge, to post seven lines from the seventh page of one of my stories. Here's seven lines from the seventh page of my story about a boy who gets tangled up with figures in Norse mythology:

She drew her sword from its scabbard. A sharp ray of sunlight flashed on the steel. Faldir’s stomach felt empty, but only for a moment. Then all at once, the Valkyrie seemed to fade away. Faldir was whisked back to that day long ago, when he opened the door of the longhouse to find a bloodied messenger standing on the doorstep. “Stabbed clean through the heart, he were,” he heard the messenger say. “We found his body on the field after the battle.” The man’s hand half-rose, then dropped to his side again, as though he had considered putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder but changed his mind. “I’m sorry, lad. He was a good man, your father.”

Wedding Plans

It has been a very wedding-y sort of week for me. A friend of mine got engaged last Friday. I attended another friend's wedding today. And to top it all off, I just read a blog post where someone said she would like to arrive at her wedding in a hot air balloon. All this got me wondering: what do you want your wedding to be like? I wrote up a questionnaire for y'all, and I answered the answers myself ... not because I have any desire to share with you MY wedding fantasies, though; I just wanted to make sure you know how questionnaires are done. XD. Jokinnnnng ... I'd LOVE to share with you some of my wedding schemes, and I'd love to hear about yours, too! Post your answers on your own blog, or put them in the comment box below.

1. Inside or outside? Why?

Outside, in a glade in a forest. Because it would feel so much more vital to be married with a breath of fresh air blowing about me. And I'd feel closer to God's presence outside.

2. What time of year do you want to have your wedding at?

Um, summer. Because outdoor weddings in Oregon negate just about any other option.

2. What do you want your dress to look like?

I rather like the idea of a wedding dress shaped like Princess Aurora's. Except obviously it'd be white instead of pink or blue. The skirt has so much mobility! And the bodice is just beautiful. 

3. Will you follow the old tradition and try to wear something old, something new,

Something borrowed, and something blue? Also, btw,

Hee-hee-hee.

Yes ... I'd follow that tradition. It's so charming.

4. Will you dance the first dance with your husband? What song would you like to dance to for this?
First dance with husband, yes. The difficulty is picking the song. Of course the guy I marry would have a lot to do with it, but objectively I really like this song. So celebratory. (What kind of dancing could you do to that song, Cassie?)

5. What music will you walk down the isle to?
If I had to pick today, it'd be this. It's so beautifallllll.

6. What do you want your wedding colors to be?
Okay okay. Either coral and gray, like this

blue and orange, like this

or just a lightgreen.

7. What will you have your bridesmaids wear?
I'd like them to all wear about the same length of dress, maybe knee-length. Other than that I'd like them to wear whatever dress suits them best.

8. How about your groomsmen?
Vests. Duh. Mostly because of Ron. Ah, love you, Ron.

9. What food do you want to have at your wedding?
Peppermint ice cream. That's all I've settled on. Oooh! That would match the coral and gray color palette! 10 points for Coral and Gray.

10. Name any random other details about your wedding you have in mind. Arrival by hot air balloon, for example.
Hmmmmmmmmm. I think it would be really awesome if after the wedding ceremony, the bridal party all went down the isle in an epic folk dance of some kind.

11. And, finally, because I want to know and because it has to do with getting marrried: what character quality would you prize most in your husband?
Moral fortitude. I want to marry a man who doesn't give a cent for what anyone else thinks as long as he's doing what God has called him to.

Can't wait to see your answers!!! Also, invite me to your weddings.

Masks

Oh, dear,

Must you go to bed so soon?

Well, goodnight,

but I wish you wouldn't leave.

Perhaps if we stayed up long enough,

I'd find a way to tell you 

everything that's on my mind.

Perhaps everything would look better then -

then again, everything may look a good deal worse.

Oh well, it's worth the risk, isn't it? - maybe I will tell you after all.

But - we wear our masks for a reason, 

don't we?

And I worked so hard to make mine,

It seems a shame to throw it away.

It's such a pretty mask.

Maybe, if I take it off, you won't love me anymore.

Oh, I don't think I could bear that.

Why don't you take yours off, first?

Yes, do!

Then maybe I could summon up the courage to -

oh - 

but, of course, you've already gone to sleep.

Oh, I wish you hadn't gone away.

I've so much left to say to you.

Oh, well, perhaps another time.

Goodnight, and I hope you have
lovely dreams.

Hullo all! Found a poem I wish to share with you (i.e., I did not write it). Let me know what you think :). 

I do not want to smile

It's just the way I am

But if you let me be a while

I will smile again

I do not wish to carry

A burden that is not mine

But not long shall I tarry

Ere once more I help with thine

I do not want for company

I can be lonely on my own

But my hopes, though dim, are many

And I shall not stay long alone

I do not wish to want for

Things I can never know

But holes cannot be filled more

By cutting out your woe

~anonymous

The Piano

We rounded the corner, and I caught a glimpse

Of hammers and strings and keys all awry

And amber wood shattered in a thousand pieces.

The girl stood with her face in her hands,

And the boy stood with his arms about her

As she mourned the loss of a friend.

Gently, gently now, good sir,

Play adagio.

I think I know how it happened.

The piano fell from the bed of their truck

As they rounded the corner too fast.

Now it stood on its side, bent and battered,

Never to speak again.

Softly, softly, not too loud,

Play pianissimmo.

We drove on. And though I faced forward,

My heart remained with the girl who had suddenly lost so much. 

Oh, so many years they might've spent together! 

For pianos are made to live long, long lives.

This one's end came swift and soon,

And yet - though it is sad to think on her loss -

I am glad that this one was so loved before the end.

Dolce now, and dolore, 

And still adagio.

The Universe is Dancing

The universe is dancing - yes, that is the nature of it:
The planets whirl through the cosmos, dancing in the dark.
Here on Earth we dance together,
Our hands clasped as we whirl each other around and around.
We dance beneath the moon, that faithful lover,
Revolving ever with his face to his pirouetting partner,
Admiring her to the end of time.
One day, too, I may dance before my lover,
As he treads the sentry's loving waltz around me,
Keeping me from harm.
But till then we as friends dance together,
By the light of the wheeling stars.