I Spy...

One of the many things you can find in the City of Harrisonburg!

A New Beginning Starts NOW.

Small panicky moments flit across my brain as I unpack my things in the basement of the place I'm living for the next month or two. Questions flash like stars of dizzy vision.

Am I really doing this? Will this make or break? How soon can I afford another cat to snuggle with? Where should I make my home church? Will I be a good oncology nurse... a really good nurse? What will the next week, month, and year bring? How do I even buy a car? Where do I invest myself in my spare time?

Time to grow up, Kelly, and be an adult.

Dad and I enjoy some pumpkin Kline's ice cream as he leaves me with my Great-Grandpa's 1990 Buick Century - a borrowed, classy ride until I purchase my own car. He takes my hand before leaving and prays with me. For the ability to stop and be present. For wisdom and discernment in all relationships and choices. For the ability to determine what is good and what is best. It is a prayer of a daughter and her father to our Abba - the hearts of child and parent to the heart of God. How beautiful and wonderful. I am so thankful and grateful for the love of my earthly father and my Heavenly Father.

Here goes everything.


Hey, when are you gonna stand
Stop looking over your shoulder
See, there's a sun in the sky
And a moon that will take us 'til morning
When are you gonna stand
Stop and begin this moment
Hey, Let go
Let go


Begin
Nicky Mehta of The Wailin' Jennys

Amy & Giles Engagement

I had a lot of fun shooting Amy & Giles' engagement photos. They're a good-lookin' duo, no?

Lady

critterbug.

simple solutions.

Her band-aids have fallen off again.

And the world is not okay.

She's desperate for anything to cover her wounds.

Her feet are covered in dirt. I take some soapy gauze to the caked on layers of the day. One half of the foot is miraculously clean, and the other half quite dirty and smelly. She knows they are awfully dirty - "dirtier than boy's feet!" But all she cares about are the blisters.

I clean, apply ointment, and place bigger and better band-aids (I hope) on her aching ten-year-old feet.

Fixed right up,
she walks out,
still wearing the shoes that have rubbed her dirty little feet raw.

clean hands & pure hearts

 

Who may ascend the hill of the Lord?

Who may stand in his holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

who does not lift up his soul to an idol

or swear by what is false.

Psalm 24:3-4

                                                                             K.Brewer

This week's goal:

clean hands

& a pure heart

  

Already, this week looks like a doozy. 2x the campers means 2x the injuries and needs. But it also means 2x the opportunity to serve and offer what I have to give.

Allergy shots. Broken families. Boo-boos. Caring. Building patience. Extending grace. Being an example.

In Step

The charcoal outlines of limbs, branches, and tree trunks are glittering with the activity of glowing bugs. Serene - and yet still chaotic.

This evening, we eat with hands tied to each other. We find each other blind-folded and take trust walks. In all this, I realize, though seemingly obvious, that I am here to serve others this summer. In this community, I am called to sacrifice things I wouldn't normally otherwise give up: Freedom of independent living, sleep, dignity, and the list goes on.

Lord, I DO want to be in your community this summer. I want to love uninhibited, give with vigor, and learn with curiousity and heart.

If you have any encouragement form being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in Spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of other.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

Phillipians 2:1-5

something beautiful.

In your ocean, I'm ankle deep

I feel the waves crashin' on my feet

It's like I know where I need to be

But I can't figure out, yeah I can't figure out

Just how much air I will need to breathe

When your tide rushes over me

There's only one way to figure out

Will ya let me drown, will ya let me drown

Hey now, this is my desire

Consume me like a fire, 'cause I just want something beautiful

To touch me, I know that I'm in reach

'Cause I am down on my knees, I'm waiting for something beautiful

Oh, something beautiful

something beautiful by needtobreathe

a burst of birthday joy.
[happy 22nd, kate!]

so are you to me.

Your love is extravagant

Your friendship, it is intimate

I feel i'm moving to the rhythm of Your grace

Your fragrance is intoxicating in the secret place

Cause Your love is extravagant

Spread wide in the arms of Christ

There's a love that covers sin

No greater love have I ever known;

You considered me a friend

Capture my heart again

Casting Crowns - Your Love is Extravagent

congratulations, rae & greg

5.8.10.

Over the Bay

friends at dusk :: a wonderful thing.

2010

Gather up your things.
Run with arms open, eyes shut.
Aim to
Dream
Until forever.
Adopt all words which mean "to live."
Tuck all hopes
Into your pocket;
Oh, lets hope the currency will make
New and countless change.

The love thing.

1 Corinthians 13 speaks about love, and for some reason, I feel it fits my experience this week's clinical experience in the hospital well...

Love is patient. 

Love is patient with clients who demand three biscuits for breakfast against medical advice. 

Love is kind . 

Love is kind to patients in physical and spiritual distress. 

It does not envy; it does not boast. 

Love does not boast about superior situation, status, or health. 

It is not proud. 

Love leans in to wipe up bottoms and messes. 

It is not rude. 

It is not rude when others are rude to you. 

It is not self-seeking. 

Love recognizes that no task and no one is “below” you. 

It is not easily angered. 

Love is not easily angered by the demands or statements of coworkers or families.  

It keeps no records of wrongs. 

Love does not keep a record of how many years a patient has smoked or drank to the detriment of health. 

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 

Love rejoices when patients are presented with the truth, with answers, and with value. 

It always protects. 

Love always protects the patient with little mobility and a habit of crawling out of bed. 

It always trusts. 

Love trusts that at the end of the day, you have done your best. 

It always hopes, 

even when others have no hope. 

It always perseveres, 

even without all the answers. 

Love never fails…

Sunshine brings.

Sunshine dances through our apartment, and I decide to go outside to dance with it this afternoon. I walk across the neighborhood, up the hills, and down again. In a short walk, the neighbors are out, and the encounters are simple, but so sweet.

...

She rides, slowly, slowly towards me on her bicycle. I am used to bikers whizzing past me, but she is going as slow as a bike can go, right down the middle of the street. She is probably in her 60s, and she is dressed in warm clothes and flashy sunglasses. On each handlebar balances a bag of groceries from the grocery store down the way. She smiles at me, and I smile back.

"A beautiful day outside, isn't it?" I ask politely.

"Simply wonderful!" she responds with gusto.

When I wanted to go slowly up big hills, my dad used to tell me to use "granny gear" on my bike - the lowest gear. This older lady on the bike gives a whole new meaning to the phrase.

As I walk on, I think of this quote:

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined.  - Henry David Thoreau

...

He stares at me as a draw closer. A minute ago, he was driving a yellow dump truck, about a third of his size, up and down the driveway. Suddenly, the locomotion is halted with the show of a stranger.

"Hello," I say. I smile at him.

"Hello," he replies simply.

I continue past him, hearing him cough as I walk away.

"I have a cold."

Suddenly, I am no longer a stranger. He has announced his ailment to me. He coughs several more times, no doubtedly a cough produced from the warming temperatures.

I reply to his statement, "Oh, I'm sorry! I hope you feel better!"

He nods his little head, still grabbing hold of the yellow dump truck. I walk on and smile as he resumes his dump truck adventures, uninhibited by his cough and cold.

Ah, the dedication.

19 years and going strong.

february 16, 1991

january 2010

Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad. :)

As the music at the banquet

As the wine before the meal

As the firelight in the night

So are you to me

As the ruby in the setting

As the fruit upon the tree

As the wind blows over the plains

So are you to me

As the wind blows over the plains

So are you to me

So are you to me

::eastmountainsouth:: so are you to me

When snowflakes (and college students) accumulate...

This is what happens when college students play in snow:

This is what college students find amusing in snow: