11:09

Uncle Tom's Cabin and Robin Hood have been two things tugging at my heart lately. Seems like an unlikely connection, doesn't it?

Because it is quite late for me, because there is no one around to whom I can pour my heart's yearnings, and because my words probably couldn't express them anyway, I will resort to quotations.

I'm probably breaking all the rules with quotations this long, but trust me, they do indeed have a purpose.


"The brown, frosted grasses under [Emily's] feet were velvet piles. The old, mossy gnarled dead spruce-tree, under which she paused for a moment to look up into the sky, was a marble column in a palace of the gods; the far dusky hills were the ramparts of a city of wonder. And for companions she had all the fairies of the countryside -- for she could believe in them here -- the fairies of the white clover and satin catkins, the little green folk of the grass, the elves of the young fir-trees, sprites of wind and wild fern and thistledown. Anything might happen there -- everything might come true.
"And the barrens were such a spendid place in which to play hide and seek with the Wind Woman. She was so very real there; if you could just spring quickly enough around a little cluster of spruces -- only you never could -- you would see her as well as feel her and hear her. There she was -- that was the sweep of her grey cloak -- no, she was laughing up in the very top of the taller trees -- and the chase was on again -- till, all at once, it seemed as if the Wind Woman were gone -- and the evening was bathed in a wonderful silence -- and there was a sudden rift in the curdled clouds westward, and a lovely, pale, pinky-green lake of sky with a new moon in it.
"Emily stood and looked at it with clasped hands and her little black head upturned. She must go home and write down a description of it in the yellow accound book, where the last thing written had been, "Mike's Biograffy." It would hurt her with its beauty until she wrote it down. Then she would read it to Father. She must not forget how the tips of the trees on the hill came out like fine black lace across the edge of the pinky-green sky.
"And then, for one glorious, supreme moment, came 'the flash.'
"Emily called it that, although she felt that the name didn't exactly describe it. It couldn't be described -- not even to Father, who alwasy seemd a little puzzled by it. Emily never spoke of it to any one else.
"It had always seemd to Emily, ever since she could remember, that she was very, very near to a world of wonderful beauty. Between it and herself hung only a thin curtain; she could never draw the curtain aside -- but sometimes, just for a moment, a wind fluttered it and then it was as if she caught a glimpse of the enchanting realm beyond -- only a glimpse -- and heard a note of unearthly music.

"[The flash] isn't ordinary -- it's the most extraordinary and wonderful thing in my whole life. When it comes I feel as if a door has swung open in a wall before me and given me a glimpse of -- yes, of heaven."
-L.M. Montgomery, "Emily Climbs"

"You may think that there is another reason for our silence about heaven -- namely, that we do not really desire it. But that may be an illusion... There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else. You may have noticed that the books you really love are bound together by a secret thread. You know very well what is the common quality that makes you love them, though you cannot put it into words; but most of your friends do not see it at all, and often wonder why, liking this, you should also like that. Again, you have stood before some landscape, which seems to embody what you have been looking for all your life; and then turned to the friend at your side who appears to be seeing what you saw -- but at the first words a gulf yawns between you, and you realise that this landscape means something totally different to him, that he is pursuing an alien vision and cares nothing for the ineffable suggestion by which you are transported... Are not all lifelong friendships born at the moment when at last you meet another human being who has some inkling (but faint and uncertain even in the best) of that something which you were born desiring, and which, beneath the flux of other desires and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions, night and day, year by year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for, listening for? You have never had it. All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul but have been but hints of it -- tantalising glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away jsut as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest -- if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself -- ou would know it .. It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work, and which we shall still desire on our deathbeds, when the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work. While we are, this is. If we lose this, we lose all."
-C.S. Lewis, "The Problem of Pain"


"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."
Ecclesiastes 3:11

Working girl

I suppose I have failed you.

I did not post yesterday after my first day of work. It was the one day that I've been counting down to, and I didn't do it. So be it.

For the record, do not expect an everyday-post any more. I am a working girl now, which means my life has become boring.

But even though my blogs will probably be more boring, work is great! Yesterday was consumed with filling out forms, bustling from Halls Ferry to Clay Street and back to Halls Ferry, sitting in a room for 3 hours to get paperwork organized, meeting a bunch of engineers and future engineers, filling out more forms and making some errands.

At home, Mom and I had already made a date to finish (or rather, almost finish) my first pillow. Truth be told, Mom sewed most of it, but I did do a little bit. No pictures until it's completely finished!

This morning I attempted to put the new, very official looking decal on my car. I failed miserably! Who knew it could be so hard? Oh boy. (That's my building in the background.)

Today was much different from yesterday. I actually did work! I did a lot of research about the Niger River Basin, which is essentially what I'll be doing all summer long. Yes, I am working on a research paper for the whole summer. And you know, I'm pretty excited about it -- at least at this point! As far as working (actually working) goes, there is little I like more than "leisurely slaving" over a paper. Sure, I will have deadlines, but I also have a lot of time to be working constantly.

Another fun thing about the day: Ice cream party!! Woo hoo! I never did catch what the reason was, or if there actually was a reason, but it was great fun and very delicious. As some of you know, I love ice cream. And I got to meet some fellow students.

All in all, a wonderful day. And I still have time to read.

(It's nice not to have homework, eh?)

Ice Cream and an epiphany

This morning in my quiet time, as I was reading 1 Thessalonians 5, I had a bit of an epiphany. I was struck by the simple metaphors Paul uses: "You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness." Most of us are really familiar with this imagery; so familiar, in fact, that sometimes we need to step back and look at the big picture. God made the day, and the light, and the darkness. God created all of the things he uses to illustrate his love, and who we are in him.

Taking that a little farther, do you think he might have created the birds so he could show us how he feeds them and cares for them, even though they don't reap or store things in barns?

Or that maybe he spoke flowers into existence to remind us that he will clothe us in beauty (far more beautiful than clothes from the Gap), too?Similarly, Jesus tells us that he is the vine, and we are the branches. "If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). It's really striking imagery, because we know that branches and leaves cut off from the source of life die. They get raked into the street to be picked up with the garbage. Do you think maybe God created vines (which don't exactly appear to have a purpose, but I'm no gardener) so we could actually see how dependent we are and must be on the Lord?

I don't really know, but it's something to think about.

After church, our family headed to Lake Claiborne for the afternoon to spend time with aunts, uncles, and cousins, sort of in celebration of my brother's birthday. My contribution was yummy homemade caramel ice cream.

Also, I just found out I won the bid for the melamine dish set! Be expecting photos in the week to come.

Speaking of the apartment (loosely), my good friend and future apartment-mate April is leaving for Mexico tomorrow!! Please be praying for her, and read her blog to find out more. She is absolutely awesome. www.seeingonlyhim.blogspot.com

That's all for now.