Moved.

I moved this past weekend. I was completely overwhelmed when we first started, as stated in my previous blog. Not only was I overwhelmed, but I threw my back out and pinched a nerve last Wednesday and couldn't move for a couple of days. That sucked, don't ever do that, if you can help it. However, as bad as it stinks to pack up all your stuff and haul it across town only to unload it, there's something nice about having a clean slate, a fresh start.

I always clean when I moved, and when I say clean, I mean clean really really well. Everything is dusted, vacuumed, scrubbed, clean. And when you begin hanging up your pictures on the wall and giving them a new place to live (for a while), and setting things out on your nice clean furniture you feel a sense of accomplishment. At the end of the day you can just sit back, relax and admire your new set up. Something about the old feels new again, and that's nice.

So as stressful as moving can be, it can also leave you feeling like you just got a new fresh start, and I like that!

overwhelmed....

I'm moving.

I'm not moving far away from where I live now, bascially just 5-10 miles away, but I still hate it. Packing up all your junk. I always end up throwing away more then I mean to, just to get rid of it, so I don't have to move it. Moving's terrible, it should be exciting, but in this case, it's just a pain.

So, I'll being moving this weekend. I'm hoping I can get excited about it!

American Idol

So...American Idol is a semi new thing for me. I just started watching it regularly last season, and have kept up with it really well so far this year.

I loved last weeks episode with everyone singing from the Lenon/McCartney songbook, but two weeks in a row? Even as much as I love and have been obsessed with the Beatles since 8th grade, I was hoping for something different this week.

I was REALLY disappointed in pretty much everyone's performances last night, especially Brooke White. I liked her singing "Let It Be" last week, but this week was just AWKWARD!



Maybe next week, Brooke.

Closed

I find I often struggle with finding balance in things. Whether it be spending too much time with one person so another relationship suffers from lack of time, or reading so many books in one month that I can't seem to even gather up enough concentration to read an email for months after, to the struggle of independence and dependence.

Today I was reading (its probably one of those months I refered to earlier)a book by Henri Nouwen, who else? Ha! He quoted Kahil Gibran's words from a wedding ceremony and they said this,

"Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone. Even
as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Stand together yet not too near together For the pillars of the temple stand
apart, and the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow."

So often we are forced into a false sense of honesty and many times this honesty can lead to harm rather than good. It enables us to live a life without healthy boundaries. Henri Nouwen says this, "just as words lose their power when they are not born out of silence, so openness loses it's meaning when there is no ability to be closed." I am in no means trying to knock on healthy community, but I think it's wise for us to understand that there is a good thing in finding balance between our need for vulnerability and our need to be closed.

I hope I can give myself the freedom to be closed sometimes.

I want a puppy...

Which one???



old english sheepdog??

OR



Shitzu???

They're both SOOOOOOOOOOH cute!

Community.

I've been experiencing a lot lately that's related to living in community. It seems like every song I've listened to, book I've read or sermon I've heard all hinges on this idea of community. I was very blessed to experience this idea of community while at Auburn. I lived and walked among people that understood what it really means to "love each other." It wasn't always easy, but at the end of the day we all managed to think the best of each other, knowing the Spirit that lives inside each of us and understanding the toil living in a broken world causes us.

One of my favorite authors is Henri Nouwen. In his book "Reaching Out" he says, "It is this inner mystery that attracts us to each other and allows us to establish friendship and develop lasting relationships of love. An intimate relationship between people not only asks for mutual openness but also for mutual respectful protection of each other's uniqueness." He precedes this statement by discussing how often times we rush into relationships with each other never really being able to see one another's uniqueness or "inner mystery", as he calls it.

Relationships are hard work. There's a give and take. So many times when we move to a new city or start a new phase of life, we jump into relationships/friendships with people in order to cure our lonliness and never allowing them to organically develop over time. I'm guilty of meeting someone and instantly wanting to know everything about their life in that moment. Instead we should take the time to allow these things to develop as they come.

My desire is to develop real relationships with people who want to take the time to get to know me, instead of jumping to conclusions about me after one encounter. I want these relationships to hinge on the fact that we're believers in Christ all doing our best to seek Him and encouraging each other along the way. I know we live in a broken world and I can't even begin to understand anothers pain the way in which they feel it. But I know who I am in Christ and I know that He lives in me and I trust in the guidance of His Spirit to lead me to the people that He wants me to love and who will love me in return.

PR

My latest obsession is Project Runway. Due to the writer's strike it seemed to be the only good thing on tv these days. Although, I have always loved Project Runway, I seemed to get way more into this season than other seasons.

So if any of you missed SNL this past Saturday and LOVE Project Runway then you HAVE to watch this!

blog'n

Well...it's been almost a year since I last blogged on my site. I'm not real sure why I decided to start back. I seriously doubt anyone ever checks this anymore, but I guess I just miss getting my thoughts out, posting fun pictures, telling stories, or the latest news. Not much on the latest news other than the fact that every weekend from here till July is booked due to the wedding extravaganza of my brother, Walker, and Emily. And I guess the best stories I have these days are usually ones of funny sayings from Ava that I get on a daily basis. So far today she hasn't said anything worth noting, although she has hit me and scratched me several times. I'm not sure what started this abusive phase of her life, but after enough stern looks and time outs I'm sure she'll figure out this is not a good idea if she wants to keep friends and stay out of trouble. I do have a lot of fun new pictures of my cute little neice, Campell Grace Norris. I'll have to post those soon. She's really cute and will be 3 weeks old on Thursday! My thoughts these days tend to wander and seem a bit scattered. My community group can probably testify to my scatteredness. Every Wednesday I come in and bounce from thought to thought, rarely ever making any sense, but thankfully they accept me that way and do their best to follow.

Well, it seems like that's all for now. On a day to day basis my life doesn't seem to exciting, but as I read over this post I see that there is so many exciting things happening. So, no promises, but I will continue to try and keep up with this bloggidy blog world.