Today it's gloomy.

The leaves are gone.
Cold is here.
No sunny skies.
December is not single person friendly. Maybe I can get a girl to just sign a one month agreement? Not likely.
It is amazing to me that on gloomy days like this, the Lord still fills my heart with joy.
I have much to be thankful for.

Thursday

Oh to Grace,
how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be.
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Here's the Mount,
I'm fixed upon it.
Mount of Thy unchanging love.

Weekend Highlights

This weekend was incredibly fun and exhausting, but mostly fun. At times it was a big "past meets present" fest, but that just made it more interesting. Friday I went to the university's production of "Our Town." It was really great - take a moment and enjoy life folks. Afterwards, a great game of Apples to Apples with old friends. Side note - I love when I hang out with people for the first time in several months and we are able to just pick right up where we left off.

On Saturday, Dan and I went backpacking around the Buffalo River. The trees were gorgeous. Here are a few highlights from that trip:
-We saw a herd of 15-20 elk on the side of the road, one of the bulls was MASSIVE.
-While driving to Erbie, I saw a dog on the side of the road with something in it's mouth. Upon closer inspection, it was a fresh bloody deer leg. Yum!
-We had a sweet campsite, complete with reclining couch and fire pit.
-I woke up in the middle of the night to a coyote howling about 40 yards away from me.
-Saw an old cemetary, an old farmer's house (with a sweet barn), and awesome views of the river.
-Learned how to off-road in a Honda Civic.
-Random puking incident in Harrison.

And the last, but definitely not the least, highlight of my weekend: pillow talk with Jordan - twice!

Life lessons from the trees

When walking to/from school, I have a few options for my route. Most of the time I just take the main roads, but occasionally I walk through the cemetery. I find myself taking the cemetery route more in the fall because the trees are so beautiful. When I was walking home through the cemetery yesterday I started having all these thoughts of how trees are like a model of how I want my life to be remembered when I'm gone. I don't know if being surrounded by tombstones just brought the subject of death to the forefront of my mind or what, but it was like a flood of thoughts all at once. I started thinking of spring when the trees are flowering and putting on leaves as birth. It's a beautiful event and the new leaves have such a delicate look to them. As the spring/summer progresses, the leaves turn a darker green color and they withstand storms, drought, whatever the world throws their way. I want my adult life to be like that. Then, just before the leaves wither and fall, they put on an awe-inspiring display. I want the end of my life to be like that - the most beautiful and meaningful part of my life. I hope God allows me to shine in the waning moments of my life.

Random thoughts for your Thursday

The trees are actually turning colors - I thought we were gonna jipped this year.
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I've never actually written the word "jipped" before the last sentence, and I have absolutely no idea if it's spelled even remotely correctly.
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Brian's bed is comfortable.
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Girls who use Halloween as an excuse to dress as slutty as humanly possible annoy the crap out of me.
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An upcoming weekend road trip has the potential for greatness.
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I'm loving the cooler weather, but I'm so not ready for winter.
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I wish I had better organizational skills.
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Murder in the dark is a fun game.
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Microscopic Faith

Lately I've been convicted that I'm not depending on God like I should. It's easy for me to see God and ask for his help with big things like family issues, health problems, world peace, etc., but it's hard for me to feel like I need to depend on God for the small everyday things like food, clothing, joy, shelter. I guess it's somewhat a testament to how blessed I am that I don't feel like I won't ever go without a meal or have a roof over my head, but at the same time I forget that God has blessed me and it's not of myself. I'm starting to be able to see God in everything. The orange I had after lunch was exceptional, spring roommate situation taking care of itself, I had warm jacket to wear this morning when it was quite chilly outside. He is everywhere, and is in control of everything. I want to get to the point where I see everything that happens in my life, big and small, as a direct involvement of God.

Girl's best friend, or utter injustice?

Mankind is sick and twisted. I used to think that people are inherently good, but that is hard to justify with the Bible (all have sinned and come short....). So, the richest 1% or so of people in the world think that some stupid rock is "pretty" and the poorest people in the world have to slave to dig these things out of dirt and rock and make next to nothing for it. Talk about injustice. I don't understand the big deal about diamonds anyway. I mean, they're basically just clear coal. Sure, they are beautiful, but do you really need to adorn your body with them? By no means am I trying to say that I am not a materialistic person, but if we were constantly aware of the hardship we bring to other people as a result of our lofty desires I think the world would be a wildly different place.