Batter My Heart

Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you

As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend.

That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me and bend

your force to break, blow, burn and make me new.

I, like an usurped town, to another due,

Labour to admit you, but oh, to no end;

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,

But is captived and proves weak or untrue.

Yet dearly I love you and would be loved fain,

But am betrothed unto your enemy;

Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,

Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Not ever chaste, except you ravish me.

~John Donne (1573-1631)

While the Trees Sleep

I should be going to bed...but instead I am up. (No way hey!) I like being up at night. It's so quiet and peaceful and there's a sense of calmness that you don't have to worry about anything that happened during the day. Or maybe you do, but since it's night and most normal people are sleeping (at least on this side of the world) there's not much you can do about whatever it is. Lately I'm finding I do some of my better thinking at night and with it being super muggy/hot out these days, I can stay up and do so. (Except that it's kinda rough the next day...) In my house in particular, my roommate also happens to be a bit of a night owl, more so than me, since I'm somewhat losing my night owl habits in favor of getting a good night's sleep...but anyway. It's great because it means I can stay up and play piano and it probably won't bother her. Somehow I like playing better at night. It's not rushed or on a time crunch as it is throughout the rest of the day. Reading late at night is also great. I like early mornings too, cuz it's also quiet then and if I've had a proper amount of sleep the night before than it's all good...Basically I think I'm just really enjoying the peace and quiet that the end of the day brings when I can finally sort things out that have been shoved to the back of my head for future thinking...

Anyway. Have a lovely night.

Here's a lovely song to listen to...if you are into solo piano and even if you're not you should still check it out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-4wUfZD6oc&feature=related

Glimpses of Royalty and Cowboy Duds

I went to the Stampede Parade today. I figured it would probably be about the only part of the Stampede that I actually get to see due to lack of money for such things and work and everything else. But ya. I joined my friends Emily and Esther and a couple other thousands of people at the very early hour of 6 am in the hopes of getting a good seat for the parade. Actually there weren't thousands of people at 6 am but there probably were by the time the parade actually started. Anyway. So this year was a bit of a special year for the Stampede as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were to kick off the Parade and the Stampede with a drive by about half an hour or 45 minutes before the parade actually started. Hence being downtown at 6 am. Craziness. But anyway. We kept ourselves occupied with Timmies for breakfast and various games spoken in somewhat overdone accents. It was a good time. And in general I for one just enjoyed the atmosphere and people watching. Out of nowhere a couple jets roared overhead and then the sirens started blaring and we waited with anticipation with our cameras ready. And then in one split moment Will and Kate drove by waving to the cheering crowds and escorted by at least a half dozen or so members of the police force. (Kate waved directly at me; I would swear it!) Just kidding. But ya. Kate was the only one I saw since Will was on the other side and it was a car with a roof (as opposed to a convertible/ other car with the top down). And then after about another half hour or so of waiting, the pre parade entertainment started. It wasn't too bad but not exceptionally great either (in my opinion). And then my camera died half way through the pre parade stuffs and I couldn't find a pair of batteries that worked....Dang....Then finally the rest of the parade came. There were so many different floats and bands represented. Some of the floats were pretty cool. My personal favorite was the Chinese float, mostly because it had a pretty epic dragon. :) Toward the end though, it started to feel longer than it was. Apparently though the Stampede Parade is the second longest parade in North America and this year it lasted for about 2 hours and shut down about half of downtown for almost the entire morning. Surprisingly, when the parade was over and done, things got cleared up really quickly and fairly well organized. (We were somewhere near the end of the parade route I think though). But ya. It was fun. And it's not everyday one sees royalty even just for a brief moment right? So I guess it was worth getting up at 5 am for.

Long Weekend Fun

So life has been keeping me busy. Work is good, but makes up only a small portion of life. The rest is spent in trying to hang out with different groups of friends. It's good times but can sometimes get tiring. On the whole though it's good; I like getting to know people, they're so interesting. Lately I've been getting to know the people in the young adults group at my church. They're a great bunch and so diverse and ya it's great. I spent the whole of Sunday with one of my friend's families who graciously let me join them at a church function place for the afternoon, including providing me with a ride and food. It was just a really good time of fellowship and getting to know other people. Also played a good game of soccer and I actually got a bit of sun. Yay! And got led around on a horse...That hasn't happened since I was like 8 or something...Good times.

Canada Day was insanely busy at work. It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be but it was still crazy. And then I hung out with the youth/young adults to before the fireworks. Played a good old school game of Capture the Flag and American Eagle 123. The youth pastor made a point of mentioning something interesting-that it's because of the love of Christ that the youth group stays together. The youth group there is made up of grade 7-12. And like the young adults group, it seems like it's just as diverse. But it is the love of Christ that binds them together and I just have to think that it's pretty amazing that it's like that. The focus was not placed on the differences in personalities or tastes in music or movies or whatever; the focus was placed on Christ. It'll be interesting to see what happens to this group in a couple years and to get to know the individuals better. It would be interesting to see if the focus was always placed on Christ, then what would happen to our own personality types and differences. I don't think they would disappear entirely; God made us unique and different for a purpose. But it would be interesting to see what would happen between 2 people reputed to not get along really well to say the least.

Anyway. I guess there's a thought to leave with y'all.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in his wonderful face

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace