suite?

I'm feelin pent up at the mo...Gotta spring a leak.

My days are filling up...it makes me feel a little weird. I mean, I feel good because..well, I enjoy all the wonderful people in my life. But I certainly am also concerned that I will not be leaving myself enough breathing space. I need to watch out for that.

Something that changed my life (ever so slightly):
I saw Antony Hopkins choke up while reciting some W.B. Yeats poetry. WOW. (Yeats is in his bloodline but I forget where. It might be his grandfather.) Hopkins spoke too quickly for me to grab all the words so I wasn't able to fully appreciate what he was being moved by but still - he made an impression.

Something that meant much - and must have just fallen out of a textbook:
I think maybe that textbook could be The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman or something close thereto. I was talking to a friend of mine - good friend of mine - about the immediate future, how I'm leaving the country soon and that we'll need to say an indefinite good-bye sometime soon. We had already said goodbye for the night a few minutes before but I decided to recall to snag a hug. I need a good hug evry now and then. The car stops and I am obliged. A few minutes into the ensuing chat, he grabs the binder I had been holding to my chest, throws it into the open door he'd been leaning on, and says, "Let's go for a walk." (<--that's not the critical part) I laugh because it's absurd. I was actually QUITE taken aback at first...I don't don't get surprized that often in such a way...how bizarre. I don't quite know what to say but he supplies, "I decided I had time."

For the record, for the ladies and gentlemen of the jury, for the kids in the back row, my strongest love language is quality time.

Considering...
Considering that a) I wasn't even expecting to see my friend that night, b) we hadn't had a proper conversation in literally seven weeks, c) we should have parted ways at 8.30 but it was now 10, THIS MOMENT, where he says, "I decided I had time," I feel incredibly valued. Just incredibly valued. WOW. And I mean.. it's not subtle, it's not cloaked, the sentiment. I get that YOU had something else you were going to do and YOU have elected to hang out with me instead. Oh how pleased I was. Well....more than pleased I think I was beyond flattered into just being humbled. (I'm not sure I've known this kind of humilty before. It's a special brand.) I wasn't about to leap for joy: Really? Really? We can hang out??? Oh, AWEsome; this is going to be great!!! I wasn't even thinking that way. I was simply being grateful for every moment given to me which happened to ALL be surplus to my nil expectations and I wasn't going to grab for any future moments, either. (If only I could adopt this attitude elsewhere...)

A Unique Experience
It's been a while but I finally rediscovered the place where I can worship (through music) with another person but also by myself. It's like the ideal balance you'd find with corporate prayer. We are there TOGETHER but we are also there for God so, we pray on our own and as a group at the same time. Maybe that doesn't sound like it makes sense but it is true.
I had begun singing and playing because I wanted to sing and play. My friend joined me and I sang with but also alone. We continued for the better part of an hour and it was better than hot apple crisp and cold, cold ice cream. Ahhh. I mean that. I mean that. Wow. I guess a little Thanks, God is appropriate here.

Thanks, God
Thank God for His patience, else I'd be doomed.
Thank God for the wonders of the human body, that an open wound stops itself up in a matter of minutes.
Thank God for awesome H'AWESOME friends, and thank You, God, especially for the experience of moving from acquaintancehip to friendship. Oh, delight!
Thank God for diligence...thank God for sticktuitiveness...thank God that He is strong in our weakness.
Thanks be to God for helping me overcome the insurmountable. What's amazing? that it's not a one-shot deal, no. I'm surmounting gradually and THAT seems to be more glorious (that is, bringing more glory to Him) than a snap-o'-the-fingers deal.
Thank God that His name can be blessed though there's pain in the offering.
Thank God..... .
.