Unexpected company

~opens door~
"Oh! Snow! I didn't expect to see you today. It's been what... a month or so since you left Syracuse? I didn't think you planned to come back until November... oh, no no no, I'm not trying to say I'm not glad to see you, I was just surprised is all. Yes, of course, we've known each other for years.... let's not talk about that time I spent in California, you know it only makes you upset. So.... umm... are you planning on staying long? Oh no? Oh, um, shucks. Of course I'm sad to see you go, let's not have this fight again. Well, yes, of course I love Sunshine. No, no, I love you both, just in different ways. Let's not make this more difficult than it already is, why don't we just enjoy the time we have together. Would you like some tea?"

It's a Battle of Me VS the SERRATED KNIVES

I have never seriously cut myself with a smooth edged kitchen knife. We've always been good friends. However, I firmly believe serrated knives are out to get me. Most recently I neatly sliced off the tip of my left pointer finger (just the ball of my finger, not the nail or bone) with a bread knife. A mere month later that same finger was cut with yet ANOTHER serrated knife while doing dishes at the cafe I volunteer at. Only moments ago one of my steak knives violently twisted toward my fingers while I was cutting (no blood spilled). Coincidence? I think not!

At this point I would be only mildly surprised to enter the kitchen one night to find all serrated knives plotting my demise.

Will April 16th always make me sad and homesick?

You see, I want a lot.
Maybe I want it all:
the darkness of each endless fall,
the shimmering light of each ascent.

So many are alive who don't seem to care.
Casual, easy, they move in the world
as though untouched.

But you take pleasure in the faces
of those who know they thirst.
You cherish those
who grip you for survival.

You are not dead yet, it's not too late
to open your depths by plunging into them
and drink in the life
that reveals itself quietly there.

-Rilke

What happened at Virginia Tech April 16, 2007 isn't something I like to talk about. It's something I sometimes feel like I want to talk about, but when I start I want to stop. The Hokies I love understand the ache that terrible day has left in my heart.

So let me just say, 4/16 makes me remember how precious life is, how loving God is, how much I love my family and friends, my hometown and school. And I'll pray for the families and friends that lost people they loved and hope that they can grip God for survival.

He is Risen

At that moment they heard from behind them a loud noise — a great cracking, deafening noise as if a giant had broken a giant’s plate…. The Stone Table was broken into two pieces by a great crack that ran down it from end to end; and there was no Aslan.

“Who’s done it?” cried Susan. “What does it mean? Is it more magic?”

“Yes!” said a great voice from behind their backs. “It is more magic.” They looked round. There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself.

“Oh, Aslan!” cried both the children, staring up at him, almost as much frightened as they were glad….

“But what does it all mean?” asked Susan when they were somewhat calmer.

“It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”

-CS Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever."
-Revelations 1:17-18