Sunday, November 28, 2010

e.e. cummings

a wind has blown the rain away and blown
the sky away and all the leaves away,
and the trees stand. I think i too have known
autumn too long

(and what have you to say,
wind wind wind--did you love somebody
and have you the petal of somewhere in your heart
pinched from dumb summer?
O crazy daddy
of death dance cruelly for us and start
the last leaf whirling in the final brain
of air!)Let us as we have seen see
doom's integration.........a wind has blown the rain

away and the leaves and the sky and the
trees stand:
the trees stand. The trees,
suddenly wait against the moon's face.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

from Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

O 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.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Glasswork by Hester Knibbe

my love who shelters in his words
sometimes falls silent for a sudden eternity
breathes that silence into a bell of glass
in which he calms storms

he draws lee lines in what was
it's more like a firefirm crackling
when he takes up words with ease
in a single glance, caressing my body

I read him day and night. What will it be like
when he withdraws into the word old,
arranges a last room, silver-white,
pushes the furniture a bit closer together

and crams still more fragile glass inside -
what will it be like when he grows transparent and breaks

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

She said,
"I didn't want to do it but I did it 'cause I didn't want to

break your heart."

Monday, November 15, 2010

Operation Christmas Child!


Saturday was a big "Packing Party" for Operation Christmas Child through the organization Samaritan's Purse. What they do is collect and send shoeboxes filled with toys, hygiene items, school supplies, and candy to children around the world in time for Christmas. The wonderful part about it is that anyone can pack a shoebox for the kids and personalize it.

My mom had my niece Grace (6) and nephew Ian (12) both fill shoeboxes before we went to the event; they filled them for another little girl and boy and wrapped the boxes.

The Packing Party event itself also had ALL kinds of supplies and toys for people to go there and pack more boxes. Gymboree donated thousands of cute little girls' pajamas.

Other people donated tons of other things: toothbrushes and toothpaste, coloring books, toys, stuffed animals, pencils and pens, notebooks, soaps. They had it set up so that you started with a box and went around to every table to pack the box filled with things for a little boy or a little girl.

Then we were able to write a letter and put it in the box telling the child something about ourselves.

We then prayed over the boxes and got them ready to send. While we were there they breached the 3,000 box mark, and that was only for our location! It's such a great cause and I'm so happy that these children who may not have received gifts this Christmas will get something from someone, even someone that they've never met. It was also great for Grace and Ian and the other children there to think about giving to someone else this Christmas.

It is National Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child, which means there's still time to get a shoebox packed and dropped off at a location.
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/index/

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

cielo

Phil Wickham:
I'm walking through the bright white gates, breathing in & out Your grace;
All around me melodies rise that echo with the joy inside.
So I start to sing......but I can't sing loud enough, I can't sing loud enough,
When I'm singing for You, my God.
No, I can't sing loud enough, I can't sing loud enough,
When I'm singing for You, my God.
With a thunder roll & a brilliant light, Your glory bursts & the heavens shine;
The saints & angels stand in awe, captured by the beauty of it all,
So I fall to my knees.....but I can't bow low enough, I can't bow low enough,
At the vision of You, my God.
I can't bow low enough, I can't bow low enough,
At the vision of You, my God.
I can't hold it all inside,
I'm reaching for the One who brought me out of death & into life.
Now I can't lift my hands high enough, lift my hands high enough,
When I'm reaching for You, my God.
I can't lift my hands high enough, lift my hands high enough,
When I'm reaching for You, I'm reaching for You.
I can't lift my hands high enough, lift my hands high enough,
When I'm reaching for You, my God.
I can't lift my hands high enough, lift my hands high enough,
When I'm reaching for You, my God.
Cielo...

Monday, November 8, 2010

November Showers


It's finally fall outside! It's Monday and we had a great November weekend with Dad visiting full of some of my favorite things: Beer, Band of Brothers, Apple Hill, Indian Food, Football, Videogames, Pizza, Snuggly Rainy Weather. We went to Salmon Falls and hung out by the river on Friday, had a throw-rocks-at-another-rock-and-whoever-hits-it-first-wins contest, (I won 2/2 beating Rachel, Dad, and Chris. Call me Lincecum.)
Saturday we went to Apple Hill, first getting a flat tire at a nasty spot in El Dorado Hills, but it all worked out. Made it up to the little fruit market before dusk and had some hot apple cider. It was so beautiful up there with the vineyards and the sunset. Then we stuffed ourselves at an old stomping ground of ours, an Indian Restaurant in Folsom. It was packed, and we later found out that they were celebrating Diwali, a Hindu holiday. It was DELICIOUS and I could eat Indian food every day of the rest of my life. They probably do that in India.
Sunday was rain, football, In n Out, Pizza, Band of Brothers mini-marathon. Love. I think I gained ten pounds this weekend!
I dropped Dad off at the airport this morning and went to Mom's; we spent all day going through boxes of photos. I have been alive 22 years and I have already done, seen, and had so much. It's unbelievable when I take a look at my life and I thank God for everything.