She only asked, "How?"

As I was reading the Christmas story tonight, I noticed a beautiful piece of the story that I often have overlooked, and that is Mary's reply to the angel. When the angel appeared to Mary, she only asked “But how can this happen?" (Luke 1:34).

"The angel replied, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she’s now in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.[b]”

Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true."

She redefined trust. She was reminded that she can do anything through her God, and she simply trusted that it would all transpire. The birth of Christ continues to show the world he will overcome our fears and worries, and sustain our futures as the Lord said he would.

My prayer is that we can all remember Mary's prayer that eve, over 2000 years ago, and know it holds words that communicate undisputed love for the Savior of the world....

Mary responded,

“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.

How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!

For he took notice of this lowly servant girl,

and from now on all generations will call me blessed.

For the Mighty One is holy,

and he has done great things for me.

He shows mercy from generation to generation

to all who fear him.

His mighty arm has done tremendous things!

He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.

He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands.

He has helped his servant Israel

and remembered to be merciful.
For he made this promise to our ancestors,

to Abraham and his children forever."

Luke 1:46-55 NLT

A Night to Remember

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a Senior Prom at Colonial Oaks nursing home that was hosted by some IWU students.

I have been visiting my good friend Norman for about two years now. Our Wednesday nights have consisted of Bingo, Wheel of Fortune, and talks of life (from all angles might I add). Visiting Norman is always a highlight of my week, and he seems to enjoy telling residents that I am "his girl". He has really been a second grandparent to me these past couple of years. It is strange to think that 3 years ago we knew nothing about each other. Now I know a 75-year-old, life-loving man who enjoys helping out, giving advice (and often strong opinions), takes life as it is, and will forever be disappointed that "As the World Turns" went off the air.

Since I have spent some time at the nursing home, I have gotten to know a handful of other residents fairly well. Several of them are unhappy with their situations and many struggle with Alzheimer's. However, residents are always pleased to have students from IWU visit them, so when the Senior Prom was coming up, all of them wanted to attend.

The dining hall was decorated with black and white streamers, balloons, and handcrafted centerpieces. There was an overall gleeful ambiance that radiated through the room. Residents sipped on punch and enjoyed a variety of refreshments, while IWU students tried their best to find themselves dancing partners.

Before I knew it, residents were swaying back and forth to Frank Sinatra and some of them were on their feet dancing with students. It was one of the most remarkable sights when I saw Miss B out of her wheelchair....dancing. I have never seen Miss B too happy; she is always roaming the halls looking for someone to talk to. I have never seen her out of her wheelchair..... but now I watched her dance, wearing a subtle smile I never want to forget.

The night finished with the crowning of the Prom Queen and King. One of my favorite little ladies, Mary Lou Clark received the Queen's crown. She wore it so proudly, but yet so humbly.

I am starting an Adopt-A-Grandparent program for IWU students to reach out to this generation of elderly people. This is one project I want to see to completion because nights like this show the happiness that can only come from a selfless love.

A quick November update

Click photos to view better versions (did not turn out quite the way I wanted it to)

Verbal Shorthands

Currently reading:

"Papaaa!" by Carles Cano

(I am learning spanish from reading children's books with Santi. This one is a tough start. It took me an hour to get through 20 pages, but I am learning!)

Currently listening to:

"Salvation Dear" by Greg Laswell

Currently working on:

I just completed this magazine cover idea for my Desktop Publishing class. Learning and playing with these Adobe Creative Suite programs has been a lot of fun.

This month I would like to share some of the things I feel strongly about along with some ideas I have gathered in my junior year here at IWU.

_______________________________________________________________________

Abstractions are a useful kind of verbal shorthand in the human race. We have grown so accustomed to answering "Good, how are you?" to the notorious "How are you?" question. We say "Thanks for everything" instead of saying: "Thank you for your help on this project, your guidance and leadership has been so helpful. I could not have done it without you."

I believe we are getting further and further from expressive gratitude and connection, and we are getting closer to pragmatic rules our society has set for us.

I am currently taking an Interpersonal Communication class (thus all the interest and gumption) and I have read a lot on the technicalities of linguistics in communication. All of it is extremely interesting. The definition for pragmatism almost always goes unstated. The best way to appreciate how pragmatic rules operate is to think of communication as a kind of cooperative game. Communication scholars use the word "coordination" to describe the way conversation operates when everyone involved uses the same set of pragmatic rules. Although pragmatics are mostly seen as a good thing, pragmatics in society are numbing us to settle for shallow conversations. Don't we have better descriptors of our current state of feeling than that? Of course, it is just that our culture has shaped our conversations and greetings to go a specific way and we are too afraid to step out of that box to express our untainted thoughts and feelings.

Obviously, one can sway to the opposite extreme of unfiltered rants, but most of us could probably benefit from a more sincere vocabulary. If we could expand our emotional vocabulary from "good" and "fine", we could start to make important connections that don't seem to exist in a lot of our communication. Maybe then we will make our language less of a concise standard and more of an opportunity for genuine expression.

Terabithia

Currently listening to:

Airplanes, by the Local Natives

Currently reading:

Conscientious Objections

(I never liked Postman until now)

Currently Appreciating:

this guy

He has been such an encouragement to me, especially lately. From late night bike rides to some of the best and most honest, selfless, advice I have ever received. He surprises me with chocolate on bad days and makes me laugh until I cry. He is my best friend.

I don't know why I always feel a need to blog about change, and growing up...I guess it is just what I like to think about sometimes. And today is a sometime.

Autumn’s popularity seems to be rising in the hearts of college students. My good, best, dear, friend Allison Dowell lives for fall. She just showed me her list of fall activities and events- I love her and her planning. She is going to be a great public relations specialist and a phenomenal mother someday.

I happen to be mackin on fall a lot this year too. It is the one time of year you want to be outside for longer than an hour, just to look around, just to see that the leaves did in fact change to a crisper shade than they were the day before. Fall reminds me a lot of my childhood and all the things I miss about being so young with such a stellar imagination:

1- Playing drive-in movie theater. My good childhood friend Jenny Taylor and I used to ride our bikes around and collect "tickets" off of trees. We would then ride our bikes further up the hill to a clearing where the movie was being shown. After that, we'd find another tree to deposit our -then crumpled up leaves- in front of (or if we were lucky, we would find a hole in the tree and declare it the ticket booth).

2- Build a bridge to Terabithia (after reading the enchanting novel by Katherine Paterson). I found an old door my dad wasn't using anymore, tossed it in my Radio Flyer, and attempted to get it to span the creek bed without falling in. Jenny and I ended up making our clubhouse there. Of course we tidied up the place, planted some flowers, and sang songs that could only be conjured up by our imaginations.

3- Go scooter dancing. Yes, this one is the most special of all. My friends and I would meet up at this random woman's house in our neighborhood (We had never met her, and it was rumored that she had a killer Rottweiler. But we did it at her house because she had the best driveway for scootering). After we arrived at the agreed upon time, we would take turns performing with our awesome Razor scooters. Our performances consisted of tricks (extending one leg over the handlebar was considered advanced), songs about love and friendship (that were the best improvs you may have ever seen), and of course, the judging.

I’m not sure how many of us are stretching our imaginations anymore, or how many children will actually make it outside to jump into a pile of leaves this fall. I do hope kids are still using their imaginations to create, and I hope some are building bridges to Terabithia.

18B

Currently listening to:
Currently reading:

Current obsession:

If I didn’t want a family someday and if I wasn’t afraid of blowing up I would be a flight attendant. You get to wear red Patent leather heels, navy blue pencil skirts, and an overwhelming smile (I realize I can do this last one with any occupation, flight attendants’ smiles just seem forever pasted on. That’s all.). You can act all important in a crowded airport and you meet new people all the time. But the main reason I would want to be a flight attendant is for the view.

This past week I got the privilege of vacationing with the Jaramillo family in St. Thomas. The beach was beautiful, but so were the four plane rides. I have a thing for window seats and sunsets from 35,000 feet in the air. On our way home from the island I saw the most magical painting of hues across the sky. I first noticed the clouds turning bright pink on one edge, so I smushed my face against the window to see where the sun was setting. For the next 30 minutes I watched the sky turn from baby blue to lavender to the softest orange. After the sun had pretty much retired for the evening, the colors grew richer and stars started dancing across the darkest of blues.


As I watched clouds roll by weightlessly and such a beautiful picture painted before me, I wondered how one could (see something so astounding and) not believe there was a god. Lately I have been reminded of God’s beauty and how he created something, somethings so unique and he hasn’t ever lifted a finger from it, from us.

In his book, Don Miller closes with this thought: "It is a wonder that those exposed to such beauty forfeit the great questions in the face of this miraculous evidence." (How often we see nature as something so simple, yet we fail to see the vastness and complexity of our creator; how often those searching see something so miraculous, yet fail to see a hand in it all.)


Psalm 104:

O my soul, bless God! God, my God, how great you are!
beautifully, gloriously robed,

Dressed up in sunshine,
and all heaven stretched out for your tent.

You built your palace on the ocean deeps,
made a chariot out of clouds and took off on wind-wings.

You commandeered winds as messengers,
appointed fire and flame as ambassadors.

You set earth on a firm foundation
so that nothing can shake it, ever…. (The Message)

It is off to another year at IWU. It is my hope that I can remember nights like those in seat 18B. I pray I we all can cling to moments that we have been left whispering “thank you” to the Creator of the sun in the sky, the Creator of new chapters in lives, the Creator of the universe. He is worthy of praise for all he has done and will do.

Liar Liar, Pants on Fire

Oh, what a liar I am. I said I would keep up with this blog. I failed.

My dearest friend Allison Dowell has motivated me to get back into blogging this summer.

I am currently sitting in a Panera Bread in South Florida. Santiago and I made the drive down yesterday and today, quite a haul. But we had splendid times together in the car. I get the pleasure of staying with the Jaramillo family for the next week, then back to Ohio to start my job in Columbus! All of those updates will come later.

I cannot make a full post due to my limited amount of time. I just wanted to blow some dust of the blogging shelf- if you will.

I leave you with the following link:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/storysupplement/walmart_spread/index.html

Walmart never ceases to blow my mind. I told Santiago I wanted to do a study on the world's largest retailer (with over $405 billion in sales), you know, study the characters in good old Bentonville, Arkansas. He says I could never get any of their top secret information.

I like to think differently.