Snow and Spontaneity
Well, I've done it again. I've gone what seems like an eternity without writing. I guess I'll backtrack to last week....
Harmony and I were having a serious discussion about her grannyish behavior and I informed her that she simply needs to be spontaneous every once in a while. The hitch in this theory is that my dear friend is an obsessive planner. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, because it's not. However, it significantly hinders one's ability to be spontaneous. So I came up with a genius idea: we would plan a night for us to be spontaneous. I realize that is slightly oxymoronic, but hey, it works for us. Well, in theory it works for us. You see, this sneaky winter storm came for a surprise visit. This is Arkansas...we very rarely get a good snow. But of course, the one night we plan for spontaneity, the weather beats us to it. Ironic? I think so. I'm not giving up though. Harm and I will find a time that suits us both, she'll write "be spontaneous with Sam" in that cute little planner of hers, and her grannyish behavior will be cured!
When Harm got off work Thursday, she headed home to beat the ice and I was left in our room, shaking my head at the irony of the situation. I consoled myself with the fact that classes were canceled for the following day and proceeded to finish getting ready for the activities I had planned to be a part of that evening. (Yes, I even had a plan of action for our spontaneous evening. Harm would have been proud.) I went over to Tesa's for dinner and we enjoyed some delicious pasta. After watching a bit of television and preparing cookie dough for baking, we headed over to the BCM for a game night. There was music, lots of people, some very entertaining dance moves, and the best part....nertz! My life would be significantly less enjoyable if nertz was not a part of it. When we tired of playing, Tesa and I headed back to bake the cinnamon, sugary goodness commonly known as snicker doodles. The rest of the night consisted of hanging out in stadium where we delivered cookies and ended up watching Rudy, which I had never seen before.
Friday and Saturday were both glorious days of sleeping in, playing in the snow, watching movies, cooking, and sledding. We had a well-balanced diet of action and romantic comedy thanks to the Bourne trilogy, While You Were Sleeping, and Post Grad. We got into a cooking mood Friday evening when watching Food Network led to perusing through cookbooks, so we planned a brunch for Saturday. We realized we needed potatoes for a dish we wanted to make, so our friend Josh offered to drive us to Wal-Mart through the ice and snow in return for breakfast the next morning. It was a deal. The next day, we feasted on a breakfast casserole, biscuits, and chocolate chip muffins. Then came sledding. It was so much fun! There were some traditional sleds and some makeshift sleds, but they all performed their duty well.
Sunday, some of us girls with with Tesa to her church in London for a movie night. We watched the Book of Ruth and discovered that one of the characters in the movie goes to school with us, which was really cool. I feel like I've been going nonstop since then. It doesn't look like things are going to be slowing down anytime soon either. One of the highlights of this week so far was an interview I conducted yesterday afternoon. I had to write a business feature for the first time and it also happened to be the first assignment for my feature writing class. I couldn't help but feel unsure of myself, but God blessed me with an awesome opportunity.
I decided I wanted to write my business feature about Vintage Books, a local used bookstore. It's the neatest little place, and I have visited it a couple of times in the past when I was looking for a good read. I left a message for the owner on Monday and ended up meeting with her yesterday. I was thankful to have an interview set up, but was still apprehensive since I wasn't exactly sure what I was doing. Mrs. Lynn was awesome though. She told me everything I needed to know and much more. She has one of the coolest stories! Vintage Books is her retirement project. She worked in social work for over twenty years and began collecting books about five years before she moved to this area. When she was getting ready to move, she had accumulated 480 boxes of books that resided in the master bedroom of her two-bedroom apartment! She kept doing social work for about four years after she moved here, until she was sure that the bookstore was running successfully. Then she finally retired about six years ago and has been able to delve into her retirement project full-time ever since. Every month, she goes to a huge metropolitan book sale in a different city. For instance, this month she will be going to Oklahoma City where there will be over 600,000 books to choose from. She and her husband turn it into a little vacation. Sounds like the perfect retirement plan to me!
It's times like these that I know I'm pursuing the right major. Mrs. Lynn is an amazing woman and it was a joy to visit with her and hear all about her story. I couldn't wait to sit down and organize all of the information so I could share it. Of course, the only person who will see it is my professor, but that's okay. What I get really excited about is the thought of doing this for a living. The thought of meeting different people, hearing their stories about what God has done in their lives and sharing it with others makes me anxious to graduate. I have absolutely no idea what God has planned for my future, but I can't wait to find out!
There's one more thing I want to share. In the Bible study I lead, we've been going through 1 Peter. This week we kind of got stuck on verse 22 of chapter 1 and went off on a bit of a tangent. It was a really good discussion though. Later that night I came across a quote from a devotional that one of the members of MeInMotion, a Christian band, had written on one of their songs, "Loser." I thought he made a really good point, so I included it below. I have been a part of more than one discussion on love and how we, as Christians are supposed to show it. This summer, I actually thought of love as a challenge: to love others in a pure, sincere way that can't help but point people to Christ. HIS love needs to flow through me. That's what the world needs to experience, not the perverted form of love that we've grown accustomed to. Love without attachments....without even a hint of resentment or envy to distort it. Genuine love. Also, to love someone means to take action. It's something you do purposefully. It may seem unnatural or uncomfortable, but that's because God's version of love is different from ours.
"Now that you have you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
1 Peter 1:22:
"I do admit, this kind of thing can feel unnatural for us because it stretches the limits of what we are comfortable doing or maybe even willing to do. But this attitude of open arms must be made a lifestyle practiced with every person we meet. Otherwise, we will find ourselves retreating to a comfortable bubble where we live a "safe and secure" life. I encourage all of us to remember that our #1 calling in life as Christians is to first find our identity in Christ and then to spread that to the people around us, through living out our faith in a life of love and compassion to all."
-Seth from MeInMotion
My prayer is that I live out His version of love on a daily basis....that I don't let myself get in the way of what God's love is capable of accomplishing through me.
Love is the challenge.
Harmony and I were having a serious discussion about her grannyish behavior and I informed her that she simply needs to be spontaneous every once in a while. The hitch in this theory is that my dear friend is an obsessive planner. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, because it's not. However, it significantly hinders one's ability to be spontaneous. So I came up with a genius idea: we would plan a night for us to be spontaneous. I realize that is slightly oxymoronic, but hey, it works for us. Well, in theory it works for us. You see, this sneaky winter storm came for a surprise visit. This is Arkansas...we very rarely get a good snow. But of course, the one night we plan for spontaneity, the weather beats us to it. Ironic? I think so. I'm not giving up though. Harm and I will find a time that suits us both, she'll write "be spontaneous with Sam" in that cute little planner of hers, and her grannyish behavior will be cured!
When Harm got off work Thursday, she headed home to beat the ice and I was left in our room, shaking my head at the irony of the situation. I consoled myself with the fact that classes were canceled for the following day and proceeded to finish getting ready for the activities I had planned to be a part of that evening. (Yes, I even had a plan of action for our spontaneous evening. Harm would have been proud.) I went over to Tesa's for dinner and we enjoyed some delicious pasta. After watching a bit of television and preparing cookie dough for baking, we headed over to the BCM for a game night. There was music, lots of people, some very entertaining dance moves, and the best part....nertz! My life would be significantly less enjoyable if nertz was not a part of it. When we tired of playing, Tesa and I headed back to bake the cinnamon, sugary goodness commonly known as snicker doodles. The rest of the night consisted of hanging out in stadium where we delivered cookies and ended up watching Rudy, which I had never seen before.
Friday and Saturday were both glorious days of sleeping in, playing in the snow, watching movies, cooking, and sledding. We had a well-balanced diet of action and romantic comedy thanks to the Bourne trilogy, While You Were Sleeping, and Post Grad. We got into a cooking mood Friday evening when watching Food Network led to perusing through cookbooks, so we planned a brunch for Saturday. We realized we needed potatoes for a dish we wanted to make, so our friend Josh offered to drive us to Wal-Mart through the ice and snow in return for breakfast the next morning. It was a deal. The next day, we feasted on a breakfast casserole, biscuits, and chocolate chip muffins. Then came sledding. It was so much fun! There were some traditional sleds and some makeshift sleds, but they all performed their duty well.
Sunday, some of us girls with with Tesa to her church in London for a movie night. We watched the Book of Ruth and discovered that one of the characters in the movie goes to school with us, which was really cool. I feel like I've been going nonstop since then. It doesn't look like things are going to be slowing down anytime soon either. One of the highlights of this week so far was an interview I conducted yesterday afternoon. I had to write a business feature for the first time and it also happened to be the first assignment for my feature writing class. I couldn't help but feel unsure of myself, but God blessed me with an awesome opportunity.
I decided I wanted to write my business feature about Vintage Books, a local used bookstore. It's the neatest little place, and I have visited it a couple of times in the past when I was looking for a good read. I left a message for the owner on Monday and ended up meeting with her yesterday. I was thankful to have an interview set up, but was still apprehensive since I wasn't exactly sure what I was doing. Mrs. Lynn was awesome though. She told me everything I needed to know and much more. She has one of the coolest stories! Vintage Books is her retirement project. She worked in social work for over twenty years and began collecting books about five years before she moved to this area. When she was getting ready to move, she had accumulated 480 boxes of books that resided in the master bedroom of her two-bedroom apartment! She kept doing social work for about four years after she moved here, until she was sure that the bookstore was running successfully. Then she finally retired about six years ago and has been able to delve into her retirement project full-time ever since. Every month, she goes to a huge metropolitan book sale in a different city. For instance, this month she will be going to Oklahoma City where there will be over 600,000 books to choose from. She and her husband turn it into a little vacation. Sounds like the perfect retirement plan to me!
It's times like these that I know I'm pursuing the right major. Mrs. Lynn is an amazing woman and it was a joy to visit with her and hear all about her story. I couldn't wait to sit down and organize all of the information so I could share it. Of course, the only person who will see it is my professor, but that's okay. What I get really excited about is the thought of doing this for a living. The thought of meeting different people, hearing their stories about what God has done in their lives and sharing it with others makes me anxious to graduate. I have absolutely no idea what God has planned for my future, but I can't wait to find out!
There's one more thing I want to share. In the Bible study I lead, we've been going through 1 Peter. This week we kind of got stuck on verse 22 of chapter 1 and went off on a bit of a tangent. It was a really good discussion though. Later that night I came across a quote from a devotional that one of the members of MeInMotion, a Christian band, had written on one of their songs, "Loser." I thought he made a really good point, so I included it below. I have been a part of more than one discussion on love and how we, as Christians are supposed to show it. This summer, I actually thought of love as a challenge: to love others in a pure, sincere way that can't help but point people to Christ. HIS love needs to flow through me. That's what the world needs to experience, not the perverted form of love that we've grown accustomed to. Love without attachments....without even a hint of resentment or envy to distort it. Genuine love. Also, to love someone means to take action. It's something you do purposefully. It may seem unnatural or uncomfortable, but that's because God's version of love is different from ours.
"Now that you have you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
1 Peter 1:22:
"I do admit, this kind of thing can feel unnatural for us because it stretches the limits of what we are comfortable doing or maybe even willing to do. But this attitude of open arms must be made a lifestyle practiced with every person we meet. Otherwise, we will find ourselves retreating to a comfortable bubble where we live a "safe and secure" life. I encourage all of us to remember that our #1 calling in life as Christians is to first find our identity in Christ and then to spread that to the people around us, through living out our faith in a life of love and compassion to all."
-Seth from MeInMotion
My prayer is that I live out His version of love on a daily basis....that I don't let myself get in the way of what God's love is capable of accomplishing through me.
Love is the challenge.
SORRY! It will happen. I love the fact that you can sniff out good finds, like a charming and inexpensive bookstore, with your little reporter nose. Good work Lassie!!!
ReplyDeleteIt has been happening. And it's been AWESOME.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you very much :)
p.s. You used a reference to Psych, even if you didn't realize it. I knew you secretly loved that show.