Hey friends! I thought I’d take you through a week in my life – not down to the minute – but the moments that I captured on camera and reflect on what they mean to me. Also, just giving you questions to reflect on as time passes by. I hope that as much as you live in the moment, you also live with discerning eyes, eyes that hold this moment eagerly and reflect in order to do the next moment better.
Some days there are no words for. There is just the simple beauty of living life that we get to be thankful for.
A piece of advice that I don’t need right now, but may need one day – be united with your partner when it comes to making decisions.
Weirdly enough (or not), my conversations with my friends and I are ending up on dating. Only one close friend of mine is in a relationship. I don’t know – on one hand, it feels weird to talk about this thing now, to consider that one day we might be married and have children and own homes – that just feels strange. But it’s a thought of mine these days. This decade will change me so irrevocably, in ways I do not have knowledge yet to grasp.
Here is the podcast.
I loved this blog post on Tolstoy’s view of history in my 19th century Russian Literature class. Not to get all philosophical, but these days we’re living will be a history our grandchildren will look back into. The future generations will look at 2020 and wonder how we endured and grieved and gave thanks. Our present is a story for those who will come after us.
Not to mention history are the threads of lives and decisions that we have taken liberties to mark some things as important and others as insignificant. I wish I knew more about African Americans and their contributions, more about women and Native Americans. That’s not to say our history is wrong (although viewing the Civil War about states rights is wrong according to members of the Confederacy – this needed to be said) but that there are so many layers that we haven’t yet explored.
A meme I needed.
Another way the idea of relationships showed up in my week.
What thread showed up in your week?
Every week, on Friday afternoons, I’d take a walk beyond Grounds and end up at a home for a meeting between friends, talking about Christian greats and eating some good food. This time I headed there on Wednesday for a bonfire, and I love this house! It may be superficial of me, but I’ve been paying attention to homes lately (quarantine had me watching Fixer Upper), and I’m so excited to have one of my own!
Here’s another blurry photo! Look at last week’s post if you want to see a different blurry photo.
2020 has been rough and as much as we’d have liked reaching goals, we haven’t had the best opportunity for that.
What do you have that 2020 has given you? If the pandemic had not occurred, what do you have that you are grateful for?
The amount of times I went to Cookout this semester is astonishing, but I am grateful for it. On Thursday, I was lucky enough to have someone share their testimony of this year with me. It’s the small encouragements that are building me up to be better.
Lots of reading planned for winter break.
Here’s a quote I loved from Intimacy by Henri Nouwen – “The task lies in the desert when God is not feelable and naked faith is all we have.”
No matter your religious belief, there are so many ways we rely on our emotions to carry us through. But what happens when we are downtrodden, what happens when we are numb? How do you go on when you don’t feel like you can?
This is me in a picture – cup of tea, funky pants, denim jacket (both thrifted), and my Vans.
A fight song to keep me going.
More memes…
A quote I love from my last post to reflect on.
On Friday, I did an art project at the house I had mentioned before. The words you can see are seek, knock, and find. Despite my certainty in God’s existence, I am still seeking Him, knocking on the doors of opportunities around me, trying to find His presence.
My room was messy on Saturday due to packing, and I needed to get my art project due to the next day done.
Here is the podcast.
Another quote from David Levithan’s The Realm of Possibility (which I have mentioned SO many times this year on the blog) – “Once time is lit, it will burn. Whether or not you’re breathing it in. Even after smoke becomes air, there is still the memory of smoke. THIS WILL LINGER.” I love to reflect on this one.
What’s the one thing about your hometown that helps you remember your home? For me, it’s the amount of smokers I immediately descend upon once arriving in NYC.
After trying (and failing) to do my art project, a friend and I headed to a thrift store. This Goodwill was tiny, but I did end up with 2 cat shirts. One for my twin brother and one for myself. If there ever was a good find at a thrift store, cat shirts are it!
After more packing, finishing my art project, and talking to hallmates late into the night, I rise early Sunday morning for a walk to meet with one last friend before heading on home.
I took some photos of poetry as a reminder of what I’m leaving behind.
This lamp catches my eye as someone that I want to be in my life: someone that lights up all others around me.
This train ride home was the worst train ride I have ever been on. I’m not even exaggerating. I sat next to a mother and her kid – and the kid was great. But the mother just spent the whole train ride being loud and rude and sometimes cursing at her kid. Yes, mothers get tired and cranky too but she wouldn’t stay quiet the whole ride to NYC, and I legitimately didn’t finish listening to a single podcast. So I was cranky by the time I got home.
Here are three final questions to reflect on:
What’s a photo you took last week that surprised you?
What’s a quote that is clinging close to your heart?
What is something simple that you want to be reminded of as you enter into your next week?
That’s it, folks! Thanks to Emily P. Freeman for inspiring this post! And thank you for reading it!
Signing off,
Gigi
