C'est La Vie
|
What a beautiful piece of heartache this has all turned out to be. Lord knows we've learned the hard way all about healthy apathy. And I use these words pretty loosely. There's so much more to life than words..
Contact Me
Other Weblogs I enjoy
Recommended Readings
Recommended Listening
Things I love
Things I wish I owned and could listen to or read
|
Wednesday, February 27, 2002
The TV was on. The new lamp was on. The little chain of bubbley celestially shaped lights and the box-shaped lantern with a rotating disc inside so that stars of various sizes and colors display against the translucent walls were both on.
I think the light in the dining room was on, as well as the light in Erin's room. And the porch light. The central heat, the heater in the bathroom, and the plug-in clocks were all on. The refrigerator was functioning. Water was electrically-powered through the pipes in the normal way. Erin and I were having a discussion about sea life in response to the special on the Travel Channel on sea life and on Sea World. POP! -- a loud noise something like a pop or a bang rang out from across the street. Loud enough to startle us, but so brief it was gone before it had reached our ears. Nothing was on. More startling than the noise was the sudden silence, and the flash from the appliances as the lights were suddenly out and the TV flashed off. It was very dark, though not completely. I think Erin and I were attempting to look at eachother -- we'd been making eye contact before the noise, so maybe we still were looking at eachother -- but the 5 or 7 feet of darkness between us allowed me to only see the most vague outline of her very blonde hair against the window -- which was letting in just the tiniest amount of light from the fire station across the street, which still had power, and the street lights a few houses down that were still on. The light in front of our house -- usually providing enough light so that even if all the lights in the house or on the porch are out, we can see our way around fairly well -- had also fallen victim to the popping noise. We didn't realize this just yet, though. I quickly went to my room to find my flashlight, which fortunately is kept in an open and accessible place for just such an occasion. Meanwhile, Erin found some matches on the window-sill in the living room and began lighting the candles on the bookshelf, coffeetable, shelf above the TV, another bookshelf, and anywhere else she could find them. Once the living room was fairly lit-up, and each of us with a flashlight in hand, we began exploring the possabilities. Erin pointed out that we didn't have an unusual amount of power. I remarked that she had just changed the light bulbs in her room to a higher wattage bulb, though I couldn't imagine it made that much difference, especially considering that she had left one socket empty so as not to make it overly bright in her room. So off to the fuse box we went, stopping at the kitchen window on the way to see that our neighbor also had no power. We could usually see his Christmas lights lit up (white icicle lights that he leaves up year-round) and his porch light was almost always on at night. Neither were visible. Erin, being much more of a genius than I could ever pretend to be, turned off her flashlight for a moment to see that Jeff's windows had candle-light glow showing through, so that we knew for sure he was home and was also experiencing the power outage. The fuse-box looked fine, which was what we expected after seeing that the outage extended past our house. The people that live behind our property also had no lights coming from their houses -- much more visible now without leaves on the trees -- and a trip out the front revealed to us that the people living on the other side of Jeff also had no lights on. It was then that we noticed the street-lights being out as well. "Must have been a transformer," Erin pointed out as she picked up the phone (fortunately, we have one that's not a portable plugged in) to call the power company. We were, apparently, the first call about this outage. "So you're the third brick house on the right?" the woman asked after taking down our address. "Yes," replied Erin, a touch confused and frightened. "They must have a REALLY good map of the city, or some extra special notes on their route plans," she told me when she got off the phone. Erin grew up in central NC, which she called Thunderstorm Land while explaining why she knew so well what to do and not to do when your power's out. Getting the flashlights and candles out I can handle, along with turning off everything that had been on so they don't blow a fuse when power's restored. Not opening the freezer or fridge more than absolutely necessary was obvious enough. But not flushing the commode or running water -- I had never thought of that before in my life! To me, water is water and electricity is electricity. I had never known how dependant our running water is on electricity 'till Erin explained all of this to me. I grew up in Hurricane Land, sure .. Hurricane Andrew passed right near my Floridian hometown on its path of major destruction. But I don't remember ever having a power outage for more than maybe an hour or two during my childhood, and I don't think I'd ever been told about the water problem. At any rate.. the power was restored around 4am, Erin tells me -- which she knew because she'd forgotten to turn her room light off before going to bed. And we got along just fine reading by candlelight before drifting off to sleep. (We each read for something like an hour or two before bed. She, not being a student, gets to read fun books. I read some of my school textbooks as well as the book I'll be doing a review on for my English class.) Before bedtime, though, Erin went outside to get something from her car. When she came in, she told me I had to go outside and look at the moon, which I did gladly. I love the moon, in any stage, color, or position in the sky. This night, it was beautiful, clear, very white. Only the slightest hint of the characteristic yellow we usually see in the moon. In a large, wide circle around the moon was a hazy ring. In certain parts of the ring, I could see what appeared to be a rainbow. After telling Erin that it wasn't a regular power outage, but rather a UFO attack that was causing our troubles, I put on a sweater to go lay down on our front walk and stare at the moon at its ring for something like half an hour or so. We would not have been able to see the ring so clearly had the power stayed on that night. Indeed, we probably wouldn't even have noticed it. Ah, the Lord does work all things for His glory.
Comments:
Post a Comment
|
Hippie: (after hearing Max wants to avoid the draft)You still have options man. "So how do i do normal "It's been known for a train to jump its track. It's ok, so you'll know, most times they come back. It's ok to lose your life, when you finally see your birth. It's ok to say, "I love you," and figure sometimes it's gonna hurt. "As a comedian, you have to start the show strong and you have end the show strong. Those are the two key elements. You can't be like pancakes, all exciting at first, but then by the end you're sick of 'em!" "Hey, this is weird! I ordered one frozen yogurt and they gave me two. You don't happen to like frozen yogurt, do you?" "I love it!" "You're kidding! What a crazy random happenstance!" "Only one more trip," said a gallant seaman, "It was Flannery O'Connor who said that 'grace must wound before it heals.' Her words help me to separate what is most true about life from the things we want to be true. We want life to be painless. True grace is a hard sell because in order for the human heart to understand forgiveness and love, it must first experience darkness and isolation. A life lived under the rule of grace is a life of need which allows us to receive an appreciate the gift of the giver of grace. This is why we will always have the poor with us; this is why God will not allow us to ignore injustice; this is why we are called to a life we cannot handle alone, which can and will break us in the effort to live it -- because grace must wound before it heals." Regarding 2007: Should auld acquaintance be forgot, I thought Christmas Day would never come. But it's here at last, so Mom and Dad, the waiting's finally done. And you gotta get up, you gotta get up, you gotta get up, it's Christmas morning. O little town of Bethlehem, Walk humbly, son Strings of lights above the bed "In a little while I'll feel better "Please tell me once again that You love me. That You love me. Please tell me once again that I matter to You and You really care. Please tell me once again that You're with me, forever. It's not that I could ever doubt you, I just love the way it sounds. I just love the way it sounds." "Every once in a while, a bannerzen posts." "7:30. What kind of people have to be at work at 7:30?" have you seen my love Traveling is significant because it takes so much effort. Either you're going to some place you love, or you're leaving some place you love. Usually it's both. I think I have Bond's ability to get into trouble but not his ability to get out of it. Someday I'll be in some foreign country with 5 thugs with automatic rifles pointed at me, and I'll just.... fart "You had no alternative .. We must work in the world. The world is thus." --- "No .. Thus have we made the world." The summer ends and we wonder where we are And there you go, my friends, with your boxes in your car And you both look so young And last night was hard, you said You packed up every room And then you cried and went to bed But today you closed the door and said "We have to get a move on. It's just that time of year when we push ourselves ahead, We push ourselves ahead." Looking out the bedroom at this snowy TV.. ever since commencement, no one's asking 'bout me. But I bet before the night falls, I could catch the late bus.. take small provisions and this Beethoven bust. I could find work in the outskirts of the city, eat some fish on the way.. befriend an old dog for a roadside pal, find a nice couch to stay -- a pull-out sofa, if you please!" Ooh! Get me away from here I'm dying "The trouble with folks like Brownie is they hold their life in like a bakebean fart at a Baptist cookout and only let it slip out sideways a little at a time when they think there's nobody noticing. Now that's the last thing on earth the Almighty intended. He intended all the life a man's got inside him, he should live it out just as free and strong and natural as a bird." "Life is a phantasmagoria .. It is a pell-mell of confused and tumultuous scenes. We try in vain to find a purpose - to bring an order, a unity to life. I suppose that is the appeal of art. Art is the blending of the real and the unreal, the conquering of nature. It is real enough for it to reflect life, but has the unity that life lacks." "in time memories fade. I've always had this feeling about Patty that she's complex and intriguing...I like Patty alot. She's got a good heart and tells terrible squirrel jokes. "Try to remember that world-weariness isn't necessarily a bad thing. In the book of Mark, I think its Mark, Jesus looks at a blind man and sighs. Jesus sighed before even telling the man he would be healed. He sighed, and I'm not sure that there's a much more human expression of frustration than this. Faced with the horrid picture of a cursed earth and looking into the white eyes of a man blind from the day he was born, He sighed. The Creator of the universe in human form was sad "of the evils of this world," the world He created. Your Creator sighed for you in the same way before He healed you and made you His." After the last secret's told After the last bullet tears through flesh and bone After the last child starves And the last girl walks the boulevard After the last year that's just too hard There is love -- Andrew Peterson, After the Last Tear Falls "when you most need people, you don't need perfection - just to know someone gives a damn" "A CALL TO ACTION: "My brother's always [telling me], 'You should be more mysterious--boys like that.' But I'm not good at that. It would just make me more uncomfortable." "Loners want to kill you, but not for any particular reason, and they'd probably like you if they weren't being guided by the violent voices in their head." "No one wants to oil a snake these days!"
-- Her mom: "We're all safe." -- Jamie Bevill and her mother during Christmas-Decorating dinner, December 20, 2002 i'd throw out all my shoes i'd set up cans for friends to dump their shoes senseless shoes a pioneer of callouses lordy-be and bless my soul i'd be a barefoot spaceman the first you'd ever know" "The best way to have God's will for your life is to have no will of your own!" "Generations circle and each one atones. The sins of the father are seperate from my own. In Pilgrim's Progress, it's forgiveness that makes whole, and as time levels and consoles, I place the daisies in your bowl." "For a moment he just stared at her. Then, with an urf-urf-urf of laughter, he turned back to the controls." "It's on the internet.. so, then, it must be true." "Be at least as interested in what people can become as you are in what they have been." Blessed be the rock stars!" Get up for the shower.. wash and scrub and scour every part as if a cleaner man could better bear the shame.. "She was eating gnarly amounts of calcium." Homeless man to girl trying to give him money: "No, thanks, ma'am. I never work on Sundays." "Wow! I never thought I'd need a radar-guided spatula!" "Isn't it great that I articulate? Isn't it grand that you can understand? ... I can talk, I can talk, I can talk!" I believe that people laugh at coincidence as a way of relegating it to the realm of the absurd and of therefore not having to take seriously the possibility that there is a lot more going on in our lives than we either know or care to know... I suspect that part of it, anyway, is that every once and so often we hear a whisper from the wings that goes something like this: "You've turned up in the right place at the right time. You're doing fine. Don't ever think that you've been forgotten. When I lay these questions before God I get no answer. But a rather special sort of "No answer." It is not the locked door. It is more like a silent, certainly not uncompassionate, gaze. As though He shook His head not in refusal but waiving the question. Like, "Peace, child; you don't understand." CCM: You've spoken a lot more about crying than I ever thought you would. "Youth is not a period of time. It is a state of mind, a result of the will, a quality of the imagination, a victory of courage over timidity, of the taste for adventure over the love of comfort. A man doesn't grow old because he has lived a certain number of years. A man grows old when he deserts his ideal. The years may wrinkle his skin, but deserting his ideal wrinkles his soul. Preoccuptaions, fears, doubts, and despair are the enemies which slowly bow us toward earth and turn us into dust before death. You will remain young as long as you are open to what is beautiful, good, and great; receptive to the messages of other men and women, of nature and of God. If one day you should become bitter, pessimistic, and gnawed by despair, may God have mercy on your old man's soul." ""Don't go matchmaking for me, Ilse," said Emily wit a faint smile... "I feel in my bones that I shall achieve old-maidenhood, which is an entirely different thing from having old-maidenhood thrust upon you." "I wish Aunt Elizabeth would let me go to Shrewsbury, but I fear she never will. She feels she can't trust me out of her sight because my mother eloped. But she need not be afraid I will ever elope. I have made up my mind that I will never marry. I shall be wedded to my art" "Tomorrow seems like a long ways away. But it will come, just like any other day... Deep inside, where the wounded creatures hide, I am afraid. Maybe I got lost somewhere along the way somehow. Please rescue me... Yea, though I walk through the valley of the dark shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me... Though I fear, though I am afraid, You are with me. Though I'm angry, tired, broken down and confused, You are with me. Though I sin like I've never sinned before, lose myself right out an open door, You are with me." "The invisible people agreed about everything. Indeed most of their remarks were the sort it would not be easy to disagree with: "What I always say is, when a chap's hungry, he likes some victuals," or "Getting dark now; always does at night," or even "Ah, you've come over the water. Powerful wet stuff, ain't it?"" -- C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader "When People object... that if Jesus was God as well as Man, then He had an unfair advantage which deprives Him for them of all value, it seems to me as if a man struggling in the water should refuse a rope thrown to him by another who had one foot on the bank, saying, "Oh but you had an unfair advantage." It is because of His advantage that He can help." "But, you know, as a Christian, one of the big questions you always ask yourself is, "So we believe in Jesus, we believe in the teachings of the church, but what does that look like when it's lived out?" Because surely, one of the things that Jesus said that I think we often overlook is, "The person who hears my words and does them is like the wise man who built his house on the rock." He didn't say "the person who hears my words and thinks about 'em" or "whoever hears my words and agrees with it." But he said, "Whoever hears it and does it." "find that which gives you breath and grants you more to give "I have packed all my belongings. I don't belong here anymore. This pair of sandles, one pack to carry, this old guitar and this tattered old Bible. And I know I won't be afraid. 'cause I know, I know Home is where You are." "Open up your weepy eyes, everyone is dancing. Angels peer through sweet disguise, through a fire of cleansing. "Long hair, no hair; Everybody, everywhere:
Breathe Deep, breathe deep the Breath of God!" "You may be bruised and torn and broken, but
you're Mine!" "I don't deserve to speak, and they don't deserve
to hear it. It's makin' me believe that it's not
about me." "Kickin' against these goads sure did cut up my
feet. Didn't your hands get bloody as you washed
them clean?" "They say God blessed us with plenty. I say
you?re blessed with poverty. ?Cause you never
stop to wonder whether earth is just a little
better than the Land of the Free" "Computers will know everything in the 21st
century. They'll be like me in the 20th
century." |
