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..
I really think I'll be ok. They've taken their toll these latter days.
-- Over the Rhine, Latter Days

Home

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Contact Me

by email
change to proper format: pattyt81 at hotmail dot com
(I hate Spam)

By mail
(contact me for my new address)


Other Weblogs I enjoy
(In no particular order)

Katy Raymond
Beth-Annie
Kaly
Matt
Andrew
Alex
Steve/Opie
mel
Kcaarin
Brandy
Caren
Compassion

Ishy
Dawn
Katey
Sco
Kristen
Caren

Recommended Readings

A Grief Observed
C.S.Lewis

Wishful Thinking
Frederick Buechner

Divine Conspiracy
Dallas Willard (may never finish)

Rich Mullins: An Arrow Pointing to Heaven
James Bryan Smith


Recommended Listening
(from my collection)


The Hymnal, Arkadelphia
Randall Goodgame

Land of the Living
Eric Peters

Laryngitis, Longing
Katy Bowser

Walk [EP], Carried Along, Clear to Venus, Love and Thunder, and live bootlegs
Andrew Peterson

In the Company of Angels
Caedmon's Call

Delusions of Grandeur
Fleming and John

The entire CD catalog
Eddie From Ohio

Bootlegs including Eddie From Ohio, Rich Mullins, David Wilcox, and Andrew Peterson


Things I love
(AKA: Ways to win my heart)
Music, gift certificates, ice cream, music, chocolate, meatballs, music, books, knowledge, music, good movies, music, animals, art supplies, music, cotton candy, fajitas, music, safety, music....


Things I wish I owned and could listen to or read
found at Relevantmagazine.com,
and at pastemusic.com, too


Saturday, July 28, 2007






This is my breakfast in New York City ... went to Lenny's, had an H&H whole wheat begal, toasted, with cream cheese, and a moccachino. Mmmmmmm!








Sunset as I entered NYC on the train. What a nice route to take!












This is another one of those cloud moments, on the way back from Kansas a couple weeks ago now... I love clouds!

(0) comments

New York City was quite amazing. I kinda think my cousin Scott is trying to prove to himself, his dad, or me that I can handle myself anywhere... I already knew I could, I just don't always want to.... but he seems to be really excited about having me take new forms of transportation places and then get from point a to point b by myself, usually including a significant amount of wear to my shoes. I've had a great time doing it, and I really have learned a great amount.... and there is always a throwback for me to the first moment I remember in high school of really feeling grown-up:

I was walking down the hallway on the second floor, to the stairs, and I stopped to buy myself something from the vending machine. I was wearing one of my floor-length hippie skirts and a flowey top, had my hair down (perhaps with a headband), my backpack over one shoulder, and my beverage in one hand. I just felt free, independent, and adult. It was that moment that I always remember as the moment of crossing over, realizing that I was on my own now and really could do anything I chose to do if I had the means (even creatives ones) of doing it. In other words, my age was no longer really stopping me, or my functionality. I was no longer a child.

This is how I felt walking down the streets of NYC yesterday from Penn Station to our hotel in Times Square. I really enjoyed it, I really felt free. It was much better to have the alone experience on my way to meet someone than just alone, so I am glad my cousin keeps putting me through these drills...

I bought a couple of clothing items in NY just so I could say "this is the shirt I bought in New York City", basically. And something for my niece, of course. I would've loved to get stuff for my brothers and everyone else, but there just really wasn't time for that on this trip.

My cousin Scott and I got together with my cousin Rob (who is also my Godfather) and his girlfriend Shavona. We four have such great times (and I know they three do and they two do and they with others do, but I like to think it's different when I'm there, and I like to think the difference is positive or nuetral at the very least), always giving my stomach a good belly-laugh workout.

I had lunch with a friend on the way to the train station on Thursday, which was really nice... and my time with my Uncle in Boston was fabulous, as always. So it's been a continuingly great trip. And now I'm at Caren and John's and have finally met their younger daughter and seen their older daughter much older than last time, and it's great seeing them after all these years.... plus talking military with one of the few people who both knew me before and has had recent military experience. Like me, John does not plan on staying in -- and actually, he's already done with his four years and more-or-less a civilian now. It's so nice talking with people who can really understand all that and not give me lines about why I should stay in, or agree with me that I may be done after my contract but spout off the wrong reasons for getting out....

And things may be coming together really well for the return trip, and I'm looking forward to seeing my father in South Florida (flying in for the half-week) and my twin brother if something doesn't stop him from coming to see me (and I can't imagine what would), and my mother will be back from Haiti, and there we go...

For now, time for bed.

(1) comments
Wednesday, July 25, 2007

I am just bubbling over with excitement and with how great this trip has been so far.... and that's impressive since I am SO-not-a-bubbly person. But that's the only phrase that really works for this... I am bubbling over.

It has been amazing. It has been out-friggin-standing...

One of my main concerns was that I would be so whirl-windy on this trip that I wouldn't really get to just relax and enjoy my company and surroundings at various points. That has not been the case at all. There are people I would have liked to have spent more time with, yes, and there are people I didn't get to see at all, but I have gotten to see and spend time with SO many people (most of whom I hadn't seen in two to three-plus years) and it has been Quality Time. It has been great. I have relaxed a lot of the time, and I have enjoyed it all.
A main reason I wanted to drive this trip was so that I could spend a lot of Me time, just driving along and thinking a lot, processing things I haven't been able to process just yet. .. I've always had a connection with driving (as so many people do) and felt at home on the road. This trip has only increased that. Travel is in my blood, and it's stronger than ever now... which I suppose is really good timing.

I have picked up not only an Army deck of cards while I was in Kansas, but also a knot-tying instructional deck and a Navy ship recognition deck today at the USS CONSTITUTION gift shop. I have picked up several other decks over the last couple of months. Why so many decks of cards? Because with enough decks of cards, you can get lots of people involved in playing Nerts, of course!
And with such an exciting week ahead of me, I am just bubbling over.

So, a couple of pictures before I go to bed...
My brothers, and the one who looks less like me outright would be my twin:
Then we have my niece, playing Woockit, since she takes after me so much:
And, finally, this is the picture of Marblehead Harbor I've blogged about before, the one that is home to me. This picture is still the background on my computer and my phone, and is the magnet already on its way to my new command where it will be on or near my desk, just as it was in Jax.... the picture I gave Peter as an invite. I won't be seeing Marblehead on this trip, but it's not just there that is home to me.... and since I saw Portsmouth last night (which is very similar in many ways), I feel like I was there anyway. So, here is that picture:

(0) comments
Monday, July 23, 2007

I am going to post more pictures soon, but so as not to overwhelm you with the joy of my photos, I will leave the early-leave pictures below for the time being.

I am, meanwhile, more than halfway through my trip, time-wise if not distance-wise. I have already been to Kansas and to Kansas City, which were both really wonderful. I got to spend time with Jana and her boyfriend, including seeing the new Transformers movie just for fun. I got to spend lots of time with Paul and Karleen, Beth and Josh, and Ava. I got to hold kittens and one of the cutest babies ever, and really enjoy some great time with them all, as well as relax a lot ...

I went back to pick up my eval afterwards, as well as my will and other important documents, and say my real goodbyes to all my coworkers at Jax.

I had my goodbye party at my bar and it was really nice, really low-key, and a good send-off for me.

I spend lots of time with friends and loved ones, and I FINALLY (with the help of some very previous friends) got completely moved out of my apartment... boy am I gonna miss that place.

Following all that, I went to my Grampa's house and spent the night there, including some really precious time with him just sitting and watching the news together. He's been on hospice for a while now, so the more time, the better. I'm really hoping to bring my niece up to see him in a week and a half if I can get better communication going and finally work it out.

Anyway, I ended up skipping Atlanta, which turned out to be a good thing anyway since most of the folks I know there were outta town. I went straight to Charlotte and then up here to the Burg, where I've been for the last week except for my side trip to DC. It has been such an amazing time, between long-time very close friends in Charlotte, and the great number of people I've been able to see in the Burg. I am so blessed to still be able to get in touch with this many people in town, and to be covered in so much prayer for the rest of my trip and my big trip... and I know that the in-person friends are just the start of that covering.

My poor little brain, though, has had so much trouble trying to match the memories of some of the boys I left three years ago with the current young men standing before me... the kids I babysat, families I spent time with, and jr. highers and their younger siblings have all grown up so much, and it's bizarre trying to piece together who is who now.... and update my "file" of who they used to be.. They change oh-so-much in that time frame, it's just incredible to come back.

I'm off to PA tomorrow, Boston the day after, and then New York City with my cousin a few days later .. he said it would be wrong for an American to go overseas without ever seeing NYC, and I couldn't be happier about my company there. I am really excited to finally see our Nation's capital... oh, I mean, to see such a historical area and the melting pot and social atmosphere it remains today.

Then I've got Caren and John's house (and Katy and Maire-- yay!) and the Falcon Ridge Folk Fest, and South Florida, and then I leave. It has been such a great trip already, with much fun to look forward to, and then I can sleep on the plane...

Maybe it'll help me adjust to the time change, anyway.

(1) comments

So, Blogger added image-capability for me and I didn't even notice. What an ingrate.



Anyway, this is the cloud I was talking about, as recorded by the crappy digital camera (which I think is now broken) Ed won while visiting in Feb/March. He gave it to me, which was nice, since he already had his own. It's come in handy a few times, but if I can't get it working again, that part may be not-so-helpful... I think the shutter is just stuck shut, but I don't know how much sense that makes in crappy-little-digital-cameras... should be a simple issue, though, if that's the case.



This is Ava in the car on the trip through the Flint Hills. She is such a cuteyface!

















This would be Paul and Karleen (not in that order) in true Kansas style, ready to start of on their own road trip...


And, finally, Paul and Karleen (still not in that order) during a deep Kansas sunset in their backyard.


(4) comments
Tuesday, July 03, 2007

The thing I love most about the actual process of flying is the clouds... I'm going to try to add pictures to my blog very soon and then post the pictures I took from the plane. We were just above the clouds for a lot of it, and it was mostly that puffy kind of flat that clouds often are, but then there was this large columnular extraction coming out of this one part a good distance away... it just looked incredible. And then, as we started our descent, we got into much bigger, puffier clouds, and one was right next to the plane window... not so close as to obscure visibility, but close enough that I could really see it close-up. They are such strange states of matter, clouds are... so incredible.

It's like how I still refuse to learn enough about computers to understand the intricate how's... I like being amazed at the way that moving a mouse (especially a wireless one) appears on the screen and how the computer knows where you click and everything... I am like that with clouds, where I want to continue to be amazed by them, rather than learn all the tiny little bits of why they are how they are.

My other favorite part is people-watching. There were some rednecks on my plane, and a really cute little girl who knew that she could make anyone smile just by doing so herself, and some old folks... and our flight attendent only just graduated from training in May, but did a really wonderful job.

On which note, I can highly recommend Express Jet (which can be found at xjet.com if you're interested) .... very pleasant experience. This being my first time flying with them, I can't give the more reliable long-term review, but if this flight says anything about the company, I may have just become a loyal customer when flying between the cities they serve.

I am in Kansas City now, and have already stopped into Jana's workplace to make arrangements for when she gets off. I'm at a little place called O'Dowd's Little Dublin Irish Pub, which is a really nice spot. If you find yourself in KC, be sure to check it out. Jana and I will see the Transformers when she gets off, and then tomorrow I go out to see Karleen and Paul and the gang. Yay!

I'm a little overwhelmed trying to move out of my apartment, pack for overseas, and make my personal travel arrangements (my road trips and such) all at the same time... now that I'm done with my current command, that helps a little bit.. desk is all cleaned out and everything. But that's just more stuff that I have to sort through at home now, and not any more time to do it.

So, I should be around a little bit more over the next month than I have been lately, maybe...

Oh, and I'm going to wait on CLEP'ing the rest of my Associate's courses 'til I get to my new command... didn't make sense to spend my time locked away studying when I really needed to be packing/sorting and spending time ith friends. So that will be my first big goal when I get there.

I'm going to enjoy my chips and dip now (chips as in fries).. 'Til next time...

(3) comments

So the thing about adding comments is that I don't really get to check them much more often than I blog, or really any more often than I blog.

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Hippie: (after hearing Max wants to avoid the draft)You still have options man.
Max: Yeah, jail or Canada and they both suck. I mean I could never come home, so what is it, it's a choice of a 6x4 cell or an endless wasteland of frozen tundra.
Hippie: Montreal is cool.
Max:Man, they speak French there.
Groupie: So learn French. Learn French or die.
-- Across the Universe

"So how do i do normal
The smile i fake the permanent way
Cue cards and fix it kits
Can't you tell - I'm not myself
-- Frou Frou, Hear Me Out

"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.
Don't forget to bring kindness, don't forget to say thanks. Don't forgot to spend your love, no it will break the bank. Don't forget to bring some empathy, for the saints and the sinners. Don't forget to bring encouragement. Yeah, we're all just beginners."
-- Bill Mallonee, Bank

"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!"
-- (The late) Mitch Hedburg

"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!"
-- Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

"Only one more trip," said a gallant seaman,
As he kissed his weeping wife,
Only one more bag of the golden treasure
And 'twill last us all through life.
Then I'll spend my days in my cosy cottage
And enjoy the rest I've earned;
But alas! poor man! For he sail'd commander
Of the ship that never returned.
Did she never return? She never returned,
Her fate, it is yet unlearned,
Though for years and years there were fond ones watching
Yet the ship she never returned.
--The Ship that Never Returned, Henry Clay Work

"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."
-- Justin McRoberts

Regarding 2007:
"the year has gone quick, but most of the days haven't"
--melvanini

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o' auld lang syne


CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stoup !
And surely I’ll be mine !
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS
We twa hae run about the braes,
and pou’d the gowans fine ;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,
sin’ auld lang syne.

CHORUS
We twa hae paidl’d in the burn,
frae morning sun till dine ;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
sin’ auld lang syne.

CHORUS
And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere !
And gies a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak a right gude-willie-waught,
for auld lang syne.
--Robert Burns, "Auld Lang Syne"

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.

Did my sister get a baby doll? Did my brother get his bike? Did I get that red wagon, the kind that makes you fly? Oh, I hope there'll be peace on Earth, and I know there's goodwill towards men, on account o' that baby born in Bethlehem.
--Rich Mullins, You Gotta Get Up (Christmas Song)

O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie,
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.

O Holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us we pray,
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels,
The great glad tidings tell,
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel.
--L.H.Redner, "O Little Town of Bethlehem"

Walk humbly, son
Walk humbly, now
And cherish every step
For a life well spent
On this earth we're lent
Will be marked by the void you have left

May you conquer (not curse) challenges
May you hold back the dark like a dam
May you lead your life with lion's roar
May you leave it like a lamb

Don't await rewards for your good deeds
A reward won't make them good
Don't await judgment of any foes
They'll receive just what they should

When you find the axis of this world
Don't tread too far inside
Run away as far as you think you can
Be well and enjoy the ride

Walk humbly, son
And store your pride
When you need strength later on
For your life's work will be judged if earth
Is saddened when you have gone

Walk humbly, son
Walk humbly, how
And forget not where you are from
May you go further than those before
And provide for those to come

Will you walk humbly, Son?
--Eddie From Ohio, Walk Humbly, Son

Strings of lights above the bed
Curtains drawn and a glass of red
All I ever get for Christmas is blue

Saxaphone on the radio
Recorded 40 years ago
All I ever get for Christmas is blue

When you play my song
Play it slowly
play it like I'm sad and lonely....

Weatherman says it's miserable
But the snow is so beautiful
All I ever get for Christmas is blue

It would take a miracle
To get me out to a shopping mall
All I really want for Christmas is you
--Over the Rhine, from Snow Angels

"In a little while I'll feel better
Gonna travel around the world
Gonna see it all

Gonna go to Paris, maybe Rome
But I'll feel better miles away from home,
Gotta figure some things out

So sell all my things, I'm not coming home
There's nothing there to keep me there
Just heartache and panic and worries and things that'll bring me down
My head feels much clearer being here

In a little while I'll feel better
Gonna spill my heart to every stranger in every town
I'll visit castles in Ireland, have some fella play the violin and play a song for me

So sell all my things, I'm not coming home
There's nothing there to keep me there
Just heartache and panic and worries and things that'll bring me down
My head feels much clearer being here
--Rosie Thomas, Sell All My Things, from Only With Laughter Can You Win

"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."
--This Train, I think it's from a song on Emperor's New Band.

"Every once in a while, a bannerzen posts."
--Me, during the 2002 Boredeys at Cornerstone Festival

"7:30. What kind of people have to be at work at 7:30?"
--Mr. Holland's Opus

have you seen my love
is he far away
have you seen the one for me
whose face lights up my day
i won't let one boy steal a kiss
or call me his instead i'll wait
for his voice to call out to mine
and carry these daydreams away
have you seen my love
is he far away
have you seen the one for me
who won't let me get away
please tell him that i'm
waiting for him praying for him
night and day for now i'll be a
lonely girl just longing for his sweet embrace
--Rosie Thomas, Have You Seen My Love, from When We Were Small

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.
--Friend of a friend of a friend

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
--Peter, my twin brother, while we were talking about bicycle accidents.

"You had no alternative .. We must work in the world. The world is thus." --- "No .. Thus have we made the world."
-- The Mission (a movie)

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."
And it was cloudy in the morning And it rained as you drove away And the same things looked different It's the end of the summer It's the end of the summer, When you move to another place
--Dar Williams, End of the Summer

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!"
--Eddie From Ohio, Fifth of July.

Ooh! Get me away from here I'm dying
Play me a song to set me free
Nobody writes them like they used to
So it may as well be me
Here on my own now after hours
Here on my own now on a bus
Think of it this way
You could either be successful or be us --belle and sebastian, 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."
--Leo Bebb in Frederick Buechner's "Treasure Hunt"

"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."
--D., in a recent email.

"in time memories fade.
senses numb.
one forgets how it feels to have loved completely."
--Pedro the Lion, The Longest Winter

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.
--Julie, from her blog on 4/8, after a large group of friends from all over gathered at my house for the weekend.

"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."
-- Jesse, in response to my Weltschmerz blog entry

"After the last tear falls
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"
--Jamie, during a recent IM conversation

"A CALL TO ACTION:
How will you answer when, years from now, your child asks you: 'Mom or Dad, what did you do to combat the evil of squirrel hazing?'"
--From Dave Barry's Blog

"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."
--Rosie Thomas, in an interview with Kathleen Wilson

"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."
--The non-box result from a random quiz I took today. (No, I frankly can't recommend this quiz site, but if you're really bored and you're not seeking to remain pure, go right ahead..)

"No one wants to oil a snake these days!"
-- Emmett Otter, Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas (Found under the Specials section of the TV section of the Henson website.)

Jamie: "I am one of the greatest criminal masterminds in the world."
--
Her mom: "We're all safe."

-- Jamie Bevill and her mother during Christmas-Decorating dinner, December 20, 2002

"and if i were a jetson
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"
-- Eddie From Ohio, If I were a Flinstone

"The best way to have God's will for your life is to have no will of your own!"
-- Charlene Potterbaum, Thanks Lord, I Needed That!

"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."
--Jan Krist, 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."
...
"They made good time, despite the lingering tenderness of Mara's ankle and the distractions inherent in a faceful of itch."
-- Timothy Zahn, Star Wars: Heir to the Empire

"It's on the internet.. so, then, it must be true."
-- Five Iron Frenzy, The Untimely Death of Brad

"Be at least as interested in what people can become as you are in what they have been."
-- Steve Griffin

Blessed be the rock stars!"
--Justin Dillon Stevens

Get up for the shower.. wash and scrub and scour every part as if a cleaner man could better bear the shame..
--The Waiting, Look At Me

"She was eating gnarly amounts of calcium."
--Samuel Hernandez

Homeless man to girl trying to give him money: "No, thanks, ma'am. I never work on Sundays."
-- Amilie, the movie.

"Wow! I never thought I'd need a radar-guided spatula!"
-- Larryboy, Larryboy and the Angry Eyebrows

"Isn't it great that I articulate? Isn't it grand that you can understand? ... I can talk, I can talk, I can talk!"
-- Wilbur, Charlotte's Web (the movie)

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.
(and in another entry)
When we close our eyes to the deep needs of other people whether they live on the streets or under our own roof -- and when we close our eyes to our own deep need to reach out to them -- we can never be fully at home anywhere.
(and in another entry)
Maybe at the heart of all our travelling is the dream of someday, somehow, getting Home.
(and in another entry)
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. -- Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker's ABC

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."
-- C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

CCM: You've spoken a lot more about crying than I ever thought you would.
JK: Oh, I've cried a lot. Truthfully, I've cried a lot more this past year than I've probably cried in five years.
CCM: Why?
JK: It's fun to feel.
-- An Interview with Jennifer Knapp in the January Issue of CCM Magazine

"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."
-- General Douglas MacArthur

""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."
-- Emily, from the Emily books by L. M. Montgomery

"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"
-- Emily, from the Emily books by L. M. Montgomery

"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."
-- Waterdeep, 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."
-- C. S. Lewis

"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."
-- Rich Mullins, during a radio interview, as quoted in An Arrow Pointing to Heaven

"find that which gives you breath and grants you more to give
because life ends not in death but with what dies inside while we live"
--Christopher Williams, Breathe

"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."
--Dog Named David, Heavenly Rain

"Open up your weepy eyes, everyone is dancing. Angels peer through sweet disguise, through a fire of cleansing.
--My Brother's Mother, Finest Hour

"Long hair, no hair; Everybody, everywhere: Breathe Deep, breathe deep the Breath of God!"
-- Lost Dogs, Breathe Deep

"You may be bruised and torn and broken, but you're Mine!"
-- Asiam, Relentless Love

"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."
-- Justin McRoberts, The Story Stands Alone

"Kickin' against these goads sure did cut up my feet. Didn't your hands get bloody as you washed them clean?"
-- Caedmon's Call, Here I am Again

"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"
-- Andrew Peterson, Land of the Free

"Computers will know everything in the 21st century. They'll be like me in the 20th century."
-- Crabby Road