First of all, I am in raptures over Sammartini's Sinfonia in F Major, No. 32. It's beautiful. The first and second violins playing that C after the sort of foreboding intro measures is wonderful!
Second of all, I have a story to tell. I just remembered it as I was stuffing envelopes at work and it made me laugh, but it actually happened this summer.
I had gone to Borders to read for a few hours in the morning, and I left without washing my hair or anything like that. I was very un-made-up. So to cover that up, I wore my long white skirt from Jerusalem, hoping nobody would notice that the rest of me didn't go well with it. After reading for a while in an armchair in the cafe, I wandered over to the fashion magazines to pick out a haircut for myself. I pulled four or five magazines off the shelf and sat on the floor there, obstructing everyone else's view of the fashion section. Fortunately, there was just one lady looking at the cooking magazines and one old man several feet away from me, just perusing.
In a few moments the lady left, and the old man- he had to be eighty, and looked very proper- started to leave as well. He stopped in front of me, looking serious.
I probably paled, thinking he was an employee about to tell me I was being rude and couldn't just read Vogue without buying it.
He said, "Young lady, I'm a very old man, so I say what I'm thinking, and I must say something to you."
I paled even more, certain now that he was about to lecture me on sitting with my legs crossed in a skirt. No matter that they were covered to the ankle; it just isn't done, I pictured him saying. He was still very serious. But I waited.
"A young lady like you-" uh-oh, he was definitely going to give me the lecture!- "A young lady like you should not be sitting here in public alone. Someone so beautiful should be surrounded by at least five adoring young men, all flirting with you."
I sighed with relief and gigled nervously. At the same time. I didn't sound very ladylike then. But he smiled reassuringly, and I thanked him, blushing now.
"Thank you, that's very sweet," I said, smiling back.
With that, he nodded his white head and ambled out, leaving me cross-legged on the floor, with my ankles peeking out from under my Israeli skirt.

In My Brokenness Complete

Do you listen to Starfield? They were popular a few years ago, but I haven't heard them lately except on the workout mix on my iPod. :-) But my favorite of their songs, ever since I heard it, has been Unashamed. Look it up. :)
The words in the tag, for lack of a more descriptive word, are this:

"Here I am at your feet
In my brokenness complete
At your feet I'm complete"

What an intriguing and wonderful idea to be whole in brokenness. It must be the same as when Paul says that God's strength is made perfect in our weaknesses. What a good God!
This mercy and real love is what sets God apart from the all other idols and gods ever invented, doesn't it? None of them are merciful; they are all quick to avenge themselves for any failure on man's part, and slow to forgive. They never compensate for their servants' weaknesses, and they never call them "children," "My people," or "My beloved." (Hosea 2).
Why would anyone make up a false god with qualities less desirable than our Living God? I don't know. But I know that I love our God, and hope someday to love Him with all my soul, strength and mind.

Burn Us Up

This song is my favorite Shane & Shane song, and one of my top favorite songs of all. The words are beautiful; I've always felt that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's story is so compelling. Their faith is astounding, and so is God's mercy.
The music in this song is amazing, too. I love it.
On Wednesdays several of us fast and meet to pray over lunch, and this song always helps refocus my heart if I feel too busy to stop and pray that day, or whatever it happens to be then- I had it in my head all day. :-)

What Is This, Minnesota?

It's not as cold as it was at Katie's house the other day, but for southern Michigan it's pretty cold: -2. Although, Yahoo Weather told me it's -2 and feels like -1. How does that work?

Today is the first day of Tuesday/Thursday classes of the semester. I have two English classes, which I am excited about- in Restoration & Romantic, we get to read Sense and Sensibility! I also have racquetball, which I've never played before. This will be fun. :-)

Pictures from break

Here are a few snapshots of my home. It's been so nice to be with my family!

Obligatory Starbucks picture....

snuck in a shot or two while Dad took portraits...

Banana bread with freshly grated nutmeg

Mom and I at borders...

My friend Hayley's goodbye party- she left for college last weekend.

Jack, my favorite.

"...My struggle was this. You may well believe that I had set out sad enough; I came on a sad errand. Now, flung at me like frolic or insolence, there came as if it were a voice- no words- but if you made it into words it would be, "Why should your heart not dance?" It's the measure of my folly that my heart almost answered, "Why not?" I had to tell myself over like a lesson the infinite reasons it had not to dance. My heart to dance? ... and yet, it was a lesson I could hardly keep in my mind. The sight of the huge world put mad ideas in me, as if I could wander away, wander forever, see strange and beautiful things, one after the other to the world's end. The freshness and wetness all about me (I had seen nothing but drought and withered things for many months before my sickness) made me feel that I had misjudged the world; it seemed kind, and laughing, as if its heart also danced."
--Till We Have Faces, by "Jack" Lewis.