Ah, facial perception- the exciting and useful ability to recognize faces and read the emotions on them. Are you perceiving faces at your best possible level? You may test your skills and/or practice and refine them by guessing the emotions my handydandyassistant Favorite and I are portraying in the following photos. To the victor go the spoils (or "to the person who guesses the most correctly go the bragging rights")
7/13/10
some nights i believe i've only ever written what i fear
only ever recorded the ends or beginnings of feeling
the lost and the losing
the broken and the unclaimed
written only the empty space born of loving alone
of the restless elation that accompanies your hand on my shoulder
of the silence that follows the abrogated beating of breakable hearts
i am constantly to wonder if theses thoughts and the fears that bore them
are merely dog-eared pages of someone else's novel
tadpoles in the widest river
a wriggling army of identical echoes and photocopied emotion
my mind here written only the same drumbeat
heard by a thousand others a thousand times before
some mornings i believe i've only ever given what i lack
only ever offered empty vases and blank pages
the vague and the unworthy
the hopeless and the unnamed
given only the shadows of things you have left me
a woebegone recital of pieces i've cherished
a slapstick production of a symphony i can't begin to claim
i would have you dance where i can see you
in rooms where you have always played me songs
i would wrap your stories around my fingertips
and squeeze them into pencils
and rejoice in knowing i have nothing left to say
love.
In my beautiful friend Jodi's Bible, Proverbs 4:7 reads:
The beginning of wisdom is this: get wisdom.
Helpful, right? Does anyone else feel like Solomon seems a little snarky here? Our group reaction to this last night at Home Community was essentially "Gee, thanks a lot for the tip." I mean, it's a lot like saying "The way to be cool is to be cool" or chirping "Remember to ____" exactly 30 seconds after someone tells you to remind them of ____ later - accurate, sure, but not exactly helpful. This passage, standing all on its lonesome, seems to require a basic understanding of what wisdom is and how to get it. Which requires wisdom. It's sort of one big biblical catch 22.
But maybe, just maybe, the beginning of wisdom, or in my Bible, the recognition that wisdom is supreme and worth giving up your life for, starts with discussion. Because as confusing as this little verse is, it did bring up some pretty interesting talk about what wisdom is and how we go about pursuing it.
Through our talk, I decided I like to use the word "perspective" as a synonym for wisdom in this chapter of Proverbs. I think that we as a culture tend to define wisdom as knowledge, as having all the right answers and knowing what to do in all situations- the ability to apply a wealth of accumulated information to the making of good decisions. I'm not sure that's the whole picture. I think it's worth thinking about seeking God's wisdom and understanding as seeking the ability to see the world, your situations, other people, with God's perspective. Maybe wisdom isn't learning all there is to know, but learning to become of one mind with the Master, and in doing so, beginning to embody all of the character traits that come along with that - humility, grace, mercy, compassion, love, virtue, honesty, general strength of character. Peace and humility are so closely linked to wisdom in my mind- I think the people I believe are closest to the heart of God are the first to admit that there is a lot they don't know for sure, but are still somehow able to approach the world with the God lens in place, receiving it with patience, with kindness, with understanding and love.
I'm certainly not saying that I think the quest for knowledge is a bad one. I think the Bible is pretty clear that we should use the resources we've been given to search actively and desperately for the truth. However, I think after last night I'm looking at wisdom differently. I'm seeing it as a way of being, a way of viewing life, instead of as an encyclopedicreferencemanuallike eight ball of answers in your brain. The idea of pursuing wisdom as trying to become part of the mind of God, seeing through His eyes, approaching the world with His almighty, just, and perfect perspective - that's a goal to which I'd like to aspire. That's a journey I know I'll never complete, but one that I'm happy to be on.
My prayer for you, and for me, today is that we are able to get a few steps closer to seeing our world, our God, and each other with His wisdom, His perspective. May you look with God's eyes and love with His heart, and may you be seen by others as He sees you - whole, holy by grace, and wholly loved.
love.
Ok, so I'm not usually the sort of girl who gets all married to beauty products, as in "OMG, this moisturizer is life changing" or "I have not lived before this mascara." If anything, I'm sort of fickle... I gravitate toward whatever is new and shiny and on sale at Target and very rarely maintain any sort of brand loyalty. I'm fairly certain that most eyeliner is created equal. However...
I love, love, love, love, LOVE... Dr. Pepper Lip Smackers.
I know this isn't the first time you've heard about the magic or DPLS- I've heard many a celebrity rave about it and read about it on other blogs- but just in case you didn't believe it then, I'm telling you now. Holy cow, Dr. Pepper Lip Smackers will change your life. It tastes good (not really like Dr. Pepper at all, but good) and is perfectly pink (in an "I'm not wearing anything my lips are just naturally this sexy and kissable" way) and perfectly subtly shiny without being any stickier than Chapstick. I got some for Christmas several years ago and ignored it for awhile, but I'm telling you, I didn't know what I was missing.
So I like Tuesdays. Tuesdays are currently the first day of my weekend, my Saturday. I generally don't try to get much done on Tuesdays, apart from planning what I'm going to get done on Wednesday, which, let's face it, often doesn't wind up getting done at all. Today, for example, I've done a lot of cleaning and laundry (productive, but sort of stress relieving and restful in its own way) and a bit of knitting and dog loving and now I'm thinking about blogging. As in, what do I want to do with this blog? How do I be better at paying attention to the blog? How do I make this a regular part of my day?
I think the answer is structure. I follow a lot, I mean, a LOT of blogs, and most of the ones I like best are just a little bit predictable. I'd like to be the sort of girl who blogs something five days a week (ohhh, ambition), and I'd like to have the sort of blog that follows a pattern of sorts. Here's what I'm thinking:
Mondays will be the day for other people's words. I'd like to use Mondays to link to other articles I think are interesting, or post other people's poetry, or invite friends to write something. Plus I won't have to think much on Monday. Not that Mondays are all that difficult for me, but still.
Tuesdays, I want to post things I like. More specifically, cheap things I like. Many of the fashion and lifestyle blogs I follow are constantly telling me that I can achieve happiness by purchasing $300 dresses and $45 mascara and $1500 pairs of shoes. No offense, fashion blogging masses - I adore you, but let's face it. Buying those shoes will not make me happier in the long run. Buying those shoes will make me poor. So, on Tuesdays, I'm going to present you with one silly, superficial, short term way you, yes you, can buy a little happiness for $5 or less. The perfect price for a temporary retail high. :)
Wednesdays I'll try to write a good God observation for the week, as has been my usual routine so far.
Thursdays will be poetry days. Mostly to force me to write.
And Fridays I get to do whatever the heck I want. Cause that's what Fridays are for. Knitting, or linking, or rambling, or lists, or fun things to do in PDX... Friday is choose my own adventure day.
What do you think? I'm going to give it a shot, anyhow... we'll see how well we do.
love.
6/30/10
i will begin, as always, with words already written
unqualified, i, to redefine spring
but today portland is the sun-hungry skin of Your body
that something always that glistens justly
and i am
glad for the prick of grass blades on bare ankles
tempered by the nearly violent sting of midday on the back of my neck
composed of only lazy almosts and flirtatious possibility
cradled merely by a swaddling of wildly vibrating mazarine sky
i am captive to the birth of hand-drawn freckles
arriving on my shoulders like a signature
like stars
every miracle is You and You only
there is he, there is spring
and i am for You wholly
i will place Your songs in evaporating puddles and watch the city breathe them
i will write Your name on the pavement
i will wear You home
I'm doing that thing again where I stubbornly sit outside and try to use my laptop, even though I can't really see the screen, because it finally feels like summer and I don't want to go inside and be practical, dang it. You'd laugh if you could see my stubborn squinting face.
I was watching late night TV last night/this morning, which I haven't done in years, and wound up catching a bit on Nightline about The Secret and the booming self-help industry. I don't know much, but I'm pretty sure that The Secret isn't really a secret at all. The idea that positive thinking, creating a vision for your future, and believing in the possibility of success will help you to accomplish your goals is as old as religion, as old as logic, as old as dirt. Now, granted, I believe in a God who actively intervenes in our lives, and The Secret is more about quantum theory and mind over matter and self-fulfillment than seeking the will of the Almighty, but it all (prayer, intentional thought, a good attitude, visualizing success) boils down to the same idea: things are more likely to happen if you believe they will happen. If you have faith. If you have hope. If you speak the words and put the idea out there.
Which is why I like bucket lists. There is something powerful about writing down the things you'd like to see happen, about having them visibly before you. I'm more likely to accomplish goals when they are clearly laid out for me. I like assignments, and really, that's what a bucket list is: life homework. Things to do before the deadline, pun intended.
I've been extremely blessed to have had the opportunity to check a lot of big things of my list, which causes me to rethink and restructure and rearrange my priorities so as to always have a goal to push toward. When you aren't a particularly career-driven kid, it's easy to become sort of, well, stuck. Bucket lists are a little magical for me because they give me something to aspire to, and some idea of what I really want to be when I grow up.
So here's my list, as it is today: incomplete, ever evolving, and completely unrealistic - exactly the way I want it to be.
