Have a Listen 20.0

Appropriate.

A Great Love Affair

"It is impossible to be just to the Catholic Church. The moment men cease to pull against it they feel a tug towards it. The moment they cease to shout it down they begin to listen to it with pleasure. The moment they try to be fair to it they begin to be fond of it. But when that affection has passed a certain point it begins to take on the tragic and menacing grandeur of a great love affair."
- G.K. Chesterton

Big News

Yep. I'm getting married.

To this man, Chad Michael Cunningham:

Get excited!

Latch-hook Flashbacks

I'm having latch-hook rug flashbacks, only this time, I think I've actually made something kinda useful, not just aesthetically pleasing (hehe)... I now crochet, thanks to sweet Chad Michael. Stay tuned for the finished product. I think we're calling it a "placemat".

On a completely unrelated note, here are some pictures of the beautiful Nashville sky.

Poem of the Week CXVI

Our Lives Pass Away
David Budbill

Summer sunlight

glitters on the water.



Sweet colors of fall

drift down and land
on my new woodpile.

Winter is full of snow

and cold, but inside

the woodstove glows.



Then spring again

Our lives pass away.

Why I am a missionary...

As I was sitting in class on my first day of my second year of FOCUS New Staff Training (NST), I had this great moment of clarity for my role as a missionary. There are a lot of things that are being offered by campus ministries, bible studies, retreats, etc., but today, as I listened to Dr. J Reyes quote Blessed John Paul II, I was reminded of my unique and unrepeatable missionary call. This is basically why FOCUS exists, and why I am a missionary...

"People today put more trust in witnesses than in teachers, in experience than in teaching, and in life and action than in theories. The witness of a Christian life is the first and irreplaceable form of mission" (Redemptoris Missio).

I certainly haven't always lived it right, but this is exactly what I have tried to do this past year as a missionary-- to live my life as a Christian and hope that somehow I have been able to demonstrate at least the sort of "getting up when you fall" behavior that is essential to the Christian life. May the Lord continue to bless my efforts to answer this missionary call.

Please pray, as I do today and throughout my missionary life, that, like Saint Paul, I, too, may say to those I am serving, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1). O, that the Lord might grant it!

Beautiful.

It may be rainy today, but it's a beautiful day!!

Today, my sweet friend Codi is getting married. I have known Codi since the first grade in Mrs. Lankford's class. I am so blessed to know her and her groom Jim. What beautiful people!

May their life be beautiful and blessed forever.

Lifelong Learning

I am a huge proponent of lifelong learning. I think that each day, and its new experiences, provides an opportunity to learn more. 

I just read the most fascinating news about the ability to learn throughout one's lifetime despite factors that might suggest learning is no longer possible. 

If this interests you, please read this article. 

I am interested about what sort of "profound implications," as Dr. Berkinschetein says, there will be for neuroscience, medical care, and all those who are involved in making end-of-life decisions. Could these implications force us to better define life, and what it means to be "conscious," or will they drag us deeper down into our god-complexes, and further our illusions that being able to predict a patient's recovery or death equals actually having the power to grant life or death? 

I'm not sure how much press this small study will get, or how profound its implications will turn out to be, but I do know that it makes me feel foolish for grumbling about my exams and having to show what I have learned while patients in a vegetative state are fighting, in the only way they know how, to prove that they can learn, and are, indeed, not so vegetative after all.