Well, well! I don’t update in a month and a ton of stuff happens. Go figure. Here’s the short list, because I don’t feel like writing a tome:
The picture above won me a silver ipod shuffle. I entered it in an International Interterm/Study Abroad Photo Contest and it won “Best in Show.”
I entered a random Doane-themed haiku contest and won a nice Doane sweatshirt blanket. I wrote the poem in about two minutes while supervising a study hall at school. It is decidedly lame: Merrill bells ring clear/We at Doane with open minds/Searching for the truth.
The Doane Choir sang at the opening concert of the Nebraska Music Educators Association conference. The conference was a blast; I bought a bunch of guitar music and a great book on vocal jazz. I also hung out with friends at Applebees and Old Chicago and went to see Twilight, which was hilariously awful.
On a sad note, I found out that my best friend’s brother has cancer. Keep Chris in your prayers.
I only have about ten days left of driving to Lincoln Christian and student-teaching. I know I’m going to miss my teacher and the students there a lot, but I’m also ready to move on and dig into this last semester of my college experience. I apologize for the lack of Saltillo Skies…once winter creeps into Nebraska, the sky seems to become stubbornly gray and uninteresting for days at a time! I’m trying to think of ideas for a new photo project; thoughts are welcome!
Ok, well, I need to get to work on some things, so I’m going to cut this short. I’ll update again soon!
The other day while I was sleeping, Nebraska exploded into yellow (& a tinge of rust, which make up its primary fall colors). If I had a lot more time, I would go to Nebraska City with Phil and take the Fall Foliage Tour. Heck, maybe I’ll make time. Sometimes you have to do that, you know?
Today I found thisyellow guitar pick on the ground in front of Grisanti’s.
Right now I’m going to curl up with my yellow blanket that I’ve had since I was born (I think) and hopefully, in a mere matter of minutes, I’ll be sleeping like kinda like this: CLICK.
P.S. - The guitar picture was originally going to be significant to this post, but uh…I’ll write about guitars some other time.
Well, it’s 11:32PM, which means I should either be working on something, or sleeping. Aw, who am I kidding? I should be sleeping. Today I heard a faculty member refer to their bed as the “Church of the Inner Springs.” Being the religious person that I am, I think I’d like to spend about 14 hours there…
So anyway, I’m writing this because I’m still learning so much about life, and I figure I’d better write it down before I forget it. Lately I’ve had a lot of friends approaching me with various problems, and through our dialogues I have come to a few conclusions. First, life is not about avoiding hurt and pain, it’s about how you respond to whatever happens to you, good or bad. Your response requires a choice and will always reveal your character. Second, always extend your hand to the people who mistreat you when they are in need. It’s the right thing to do. Third, sometimes, when you need to talk to someone, God sends people into your life that seek your advice instead. Stop worrying about your own troubles and talk them through theirs.
The nice thing is, all of these ideas come right out of Scripture. God’s Word tells us that happiness is not the primary goal of life, that we should treat our enemies with kindness, and that we should help bear one another’s burdens and consider others more important than ourselves. Pretty powerful stuff!
My car is in the shop - needs a new starter. All I know is that the value of having a day off far outweighs the cost of the repairs, although my parents would probably disagree.
I feel kind of materialistic lately. There’s a couple of new cameras that I want despite the fact that I would have no time to use them. When I get like that, I know I’m losing my focus. What were my goals again? What am I looking for out of life? What do I want? I think that when I get impatient waiting for the things I really want, I start buying stuff. And eating stuff. Although at this point, many of my friends would say that that’s probably not a terrible thing…:\ At any rate, I’m not sure what to do with myself and I don’t feel like I’m contributing much to the world around me. “Brighten the corner you’re in,” they say. What gifts do I have to share?
[edit: I wanted to mention the addition of some new links on the right!]
There was a brilliant sunrise on Friday morning, September 19th, when my grandmother died. That’s what I thought of as I prepared the next three additions to Saltillo Skies. And while it’s hard to think about it a lot right now, I know the grief will pass, and life will be just a little bit different. In the meantime, here is some information about a phenomena that my grandma described to me when she lived in Florida and frequently watched the sun set: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_flash
One of my favorite parts of the day is lunchtime, but not because of the food. At lunchtime I get to hear a lot of great stories and perspectives on life from the other faculty members at LCS, and some of them are quite incredible. As I think about the skies I see every day and the sun and the green flashes and the stories I hear…I guess I just don’t understand how anyone can say that there is no God. His presence is evident in every aspect of our life, as described in this song that the LCS choirs are singing:
