Praise?

I was looking through some quotes of C.S. Lewis, and I stumbled on this one from his reflections on the Psalms "I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation." One thing I've noticed lately has been how many people "praise God" yet do with no enjoyment. They do it like it's rote memorization. That's the thing I dislike so much about modern churches....it's very difficult to find a church that doesn't use the rote method.

The thing that I love about Psalms is that David truly is a man after God's heart. He clearly enjoys God with everything. Even when he's upset, or angry about a decision, he still respects God and loves Him. So many people disregard the Psalms because it can be "full of fluff," yet I would argue that it's one of the best books in the Bible. If you truly read it, it's fascinating to see this one man's love for his Savior and his enjoyment in being given so many days and opportunities to worship Him. I can only pray that I am given the same opportunities to praise my Savior.

Dancing Through Life

I think last night tops the chart to date of my favorite nights. At least when it comes to dancing and friends. You see, I finally made it out to a contra dance at NC State. The LAST time I was supposed to go out there I had just injured my knee, so I was unable to attend. However, since I have been injury free for about 4 months now, I figured I'd be fine. :) And I have to say...if I had known it would be this much fun, I would have danced through the pain last time.

Mr. B was so kind to drive for us, since he attended State and knew his way around much better than Lizzie, Jess, or I did. They picked me up at Meredith, and we were off to State. We were all a tad nervous when we got there, but thankfully all three of us ended up with experienced partners the first set, so we were able to follow along pretty easily. And our square dancin' skills really helped a lot. I even shocked one of my old friends by telling her it was my first contra dance.

Since I didn't bring a camera, I'll have to wait for lizzie or Abigail to post pics, since I believe they both took some. But needless to say, it was so much fun. I can't wait until the next one! I actually have the dates marked on my calendar. :P Of course, now I am super exhausted, have a slight cold, and blisters, but it was worth every ounce of that. :P As Abigail commented this morning "I could have danced all night... I could have danced all night..." :)

I just haven't met you yet....

Ok. If anyone knows me, you know that I am a DIE HARD Michael Buble fan. His music makes me sooo happy. Anyways, he has an a new album coming out in early october, and he released a single off that album. This song has topped my Buble chart of favorites, so I thought I'd share it with you! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcx9cZEqP1U

Give me a sunday mornin' that's full of grace....

Sometimes I feel like my life is a little like Anne of Green Gables. I have the most amazing friends. Granted, there are quite a few more of them than Diana. But they are all what I would consider "bosom buddies" and "kindred spirits". And I am going to a girls school that might as well be considered finishing school. except you don't learn the same manners. :P I have an amazing community of friends and family. And lastly, I want to be a teacher. The only two things missing are Gil (who is adorable!!!!!! (yes I'm watching it now)), and Anne's red hair (though I did have orange hair for about a month...hmmm....). :)

That said, I have a study abroad appointment tomorrow at 1 about Oxford. As scary as it is for me to leave my family and friends for a semester and go that far away, I feel like I'm not going to get a chance like this ever again. Plus, it's oxford!!!

I have fallen back in love with my piano again. I forgot how wonderful it is to sit down and play. I did that the other night instead of homework, and I think it's the most relaxed I've been all year. Definitely something that I plan on doing again. In fact, I'm getting more scores monday! I have seriously missed sitting down and working on a piece, learning it perfectly.

a brief recap/summer plans.

Well, let's see if I can recap the last week or two.

School started a month ago, hard to believe it's been that long. My classes aren't too hard, yet they aren't easy, either. So far all my grades are A's or B's, but midterms are coming up....we'll see how that works out. :P I am now on the Meredith SGA (student government association) Senate. That takes quite a bit of time, but I'm loving it. I decided not to swim aqua angels, because my schedule is busy, but I am swimming practices with the team tuesday and thursday nights.

I'm looking into three options for the spring. Staying here at Meredith is the first. The second is a program I need to look into. Basically I can spend either a semester or a year in Colonial Williamsburg, attending William and Mary and working in the city. If you know me, you know that W&M was my top choice of colleges coming out of hs. The 3rd option is a semester long study abroad program in either Italy, Ireland, or Oxford. I'm not sure which program I'm going to be doing yet.

I've also been rethinking my career. I'm starting to get burned out a tad with what I'm doing. I love my major, don't get me wrong. But I am not sure that I want to spend the next 4 years doing this, and the rest of my life this way. I'm thinking about that, though.

I am super excited for the next few months. I'm going to see West Side Story, 10th Avenue North, TSO, and Phantom this year. That is going to be incredible. Phantom is one of my favorite shows ever, and I'm seeing it at the DPAC with some of my best friends. :)

Finally, I am really wanting to do something crazy in the summer. AnnaBeth and I talked about a road trip/race to california. Is anyone game for this? We could make it closer, but I am really at that point in my life where I want to get out and see what else there is...blame it on my gypsy blood. It's a wanderlust. BUT i think it would be amazing. :)

Where were you?

So where were you eight years ago?

I can still remember that day like it was yesterday. I was 11. Mom was sitting in the living room folding laundry on the couch. I was sitting on the floor reading. The phone rang, and it was my aunt. I can remember her asking mom if she had the tv on. When mom told her no, she said to cut it on.

I didn’t completely understand what was going on at first. I knew that planes had just hit the WTC, but didn’t know what that meant for Americans. I watched in horror as not one, but 2 planes hit. Finally, I couldn't handle the images anymore. I ran to my room, and turned on the radio. I ran back into the living room when I heard the 1st tower fall.

And then the Pentagon...that one scared me. at the time, my uncle was working in that exact section of the pentagon. Because of the nature of his job, we didn't know whether he was there or not. So we spent hours sitting by the phone, praying that either he or my grandparents would call and let us know he was ok. We finally got a call late that afternoon, letting us know he was on a plane to London when it happened.

That night, our church held a candlelight vigil. I can remember standing in church, surrounded by both friends, regular church attendees, and people I’m sure had never seen the inside of a church. Black, white, poor, rich, farmer, banker...it didn't matter. We were all united.


Where were you?

Have You Forgotten?