A Dollar Short and a Day Late

Yesterday I was too joyful over the birth of the first child of a dear friend to post something here as solemn as an Ash Wednesday prayer. So today I'll encourage you to go check out this prayer that my friend Christie posted yesterday -

may you,

in this Lenten season

discover

something

beautiful

about God.

Irony, anyone?

Last night I managed to catch a little bit of the Oscars.  I'm not a huge movie person and usually haven't seen a full 90% of the movies that are nominated, but last night I tuned in to root for one of my favorite actresses, Kate Winslet.  She's pretty freaking talented.  Anyway, last night after the telecast showing that she won (yay!), someone had a link to this satirical video that she did on a Ricky Gervais show a few years back.  In the name of humor on a Monday morning you must take a peek. 

 

Ricky Gervais = hilarious.  Kate = hilarious.  Plus, it gets 147% more ironic by the minute, when you consider that the Oscar she won last night was for her role as a Holocaust villain.  Bloody brilliant!

I is a writer.

               

If you have a minute today, go check out the article that I wrote for Got2BGreen.com, which was just listed as one of TIME's 25 best blogs on the internet.  From now on I'll be contributing an article weekly, so bookmark it! 

Deep Creek

This past weekend was spent in Maryland in the mountains at Deep Creek Lake.  It was a big comfy house and we piled it full of Ron's family!  

We had a great time spending time with all the fam, including our deliciously adorable nephews and our sweet baby niece.

It snowed while we were there and we had some wicked snowball fights. I think it was the first time the west coast contingent (including us!) had been in snow for a few years.  The weather was pretty and fun - but it was borne with grace mostly because we all knew we were getting on a plane back to sunshine in a few days.  It's easy to be amiable about the weather when it's only temporary! One of the highlights of the trip were the long talks after dark in the hot tub that overlooked the lake.  Beautiful.

Ron and his sibs.

Friendship and Beer Go Hand in Hand

I have been way remiss in failing to mention that a few weeks ago, I got to spend a lot of time with one of my favorite people.  My friend Christie came out to visit from Oklahoma City.  

She and I met while we were studying abroad in Prague together.  We bonded in tea houses in Vaclávske Namésti over our shared love of good books, subversive expressions of love for God, Czech beer, and Derek Webb.  We have one of these friendships that slowly and subtly changes who we each are, and how we see the world.  We talk a lot about life and art and theology and our futures and our weaknesses and faults and strengths. She is one of the coolest people I know, and I am pretty lucky to have her around.  I always walk away from our interactions feeling inspired, and I don't think I have a higher compliment to pay than that.

If you wish you had a little Christie in your life but you are deprived, never fear!  She happens to blog in her own little corner of the internet right here.

P.S.  Aren't these pictures cool? Christie is awesome enough to have a digital SLR camera (ENVY ALERT!)and I am lucky enough to have an obliging photographer on hand (thanks, babe!).

Blast From the Past

Emily and I

When I was a junior in high school, a teacher of mine gave an interesting assignment:  write your life's mission statement.  This little piece of homework somehow captured my imagination.  So I cobbled together a bunch of quotes and sayings that had inspired me, added some personal flair, liked it, and then mostly forgot about it.  

Four or five years later, I walked into my little sister's bathroom, and she had that same familiar piece of paper taped to her mirror for inspiration.  I was shocked - where did she find that?  She was shocked - you wrote that?  I was pretty proud that I had written something that appealed to someone other than myself!  Anyway, I finally got her to get me a copy of it, since I lost the file long ago. I thought it might be funny to reprint it here in all its original glory - font and creative type sizes included!

I will live each day as if it were my last –

it might be.

 

I am only one, but still I am one.  I cannot do

everything, but still I can do something.  I will not

refuse to do the something I can do.

 

I will choose to be happy, remembering that

earth is crammed with heaven.

 

I will keep going, especially when the going gets

rough, remembering that in the battle between the stream and the rock, it is always the stream that wins – not by strength, but by perseverance.

 

I will accept what is inevitable,

realizing that if you can’t change the direction of the wind, adjust your sails.

 

I will not complain of trials that comfort me, knowing as I do that the strongest steel is molded under the hottest fire.

 

I will enjoy the people I love and tell them so; I will be a fountain, not a drain.

 

I will take risks, keeping in mind the turtle, who makes

progress only when he sticks his neck out.

 

I will keep my sense of humor – aside from rare life and death instances, nothing is as serious as it first seems. 

Lighten up.  Life is funny.

 

I will strive to become a woman of excellence in

everything I do – for if I reach for the moon, even if miss

I will land among the stars.