sorry if i'm boring you but...

I just got several new books, and I feel like a kid with a new bike. So besides finishing up Mountains Beyond Mountains, this is what I'll be diving into for awhile:

A Circle of Quiet is the first in a series of memoirs by Madeleine L'Engle. I read A Wrinkle in Time when I was a kid and never really thought much about reading her again until Walking on Water, a beautiful book on faith and art. The title of this one is what allured me...


I picked up Cellophane to review for the Sonora Review. It seems very promising, and I'm excited to broaden my horizons of Latin American reading beyond Gabriel Garcia Marquez.


The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green sounded fun. This may seem weird, but I'm a sucker for those boys coming-of-age tales. I'd never heard of Joshua Braff, Zach Braff's (of "Scrubs" and "Garden State" fame) brother, until now, so we'll see if he can write.

And last but not least...Talk Talk is by one of my favorite authors, T.C. Boyle. He is usually so bizarre and quirky--I can't wait to read this one.

So, besides also pouring through Tom Wright's (or N.T., whatever you feel like calling him I suppose) "Everyone" New Testament commentaries, I think that's all on the reading list for now. You never know what might pop up though.

Yay for me and my nose in a book!

Anybody out there reading some good stuff?!

bellydancing=good for the soul

So I heard Rob Bell (of Velvet Elvis fame) speak in Atlanta several nights ago, and I thought he was great. One of my favorite things he reminded me of was that God is a pleasure seeker. He encouraged us to take time off for a true sabbath, true rest where we live in the present moment and do things that we enjoy. Things good for the soul.

Bellydancing in a Greek restaurant on a tabletop is good for the soul.

(and no, I was not "under the influence" while said bellydancing occurred...it was Bethany's bachelorette party, and that sort of thing was highly encouraged at this place)

mood enhancing fruit

AAAHHH! How does anyone have time to work a nine-five job? There's so much other stuff to do...If and when I quit freelancing, I won't know what to do with myself.

I think I've discovered my new favorite breakfast food/snack.

Low-fat yogurt with granola and blueberries (or raspberries!). It is oh-so yummy, in fact I am eating some right now. You should try it. The fruit is a real mood-enhancer. Oh how raspberries make me happy.

What's your mood-enhancer?

mountains beyond mountains

I am in the middle of reading Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder (a literary journalist I L-O-V-E). It is the story of Harvard educated Dr. Paul Farmer, a man dedicated to bringing decent healthcare to the world's poorest of the poor in Haiti. In this excerpt, Kidder relates Farmer's thoughts on faith:

"The fact than any sort of religious faith was so disdained at Harvard and so important to the poor--not just in Haiti but elsewhere, too--made me even more convinced that faith must be something good..."

In the peasant phrase, an unnecessary death was a "stupid death," and he was seeing a lot of those.

"Surely someone is witnessing this horror show?" he'd say to himself. "I know it sounds shallow, the opiate thing, needing to believe, palliating pain, but it didn't feel shallow. It was more profound than other sentiments I'd known, and I was taken with the idea that in an ostensibly godless world that worshipped money and power or, more seductively, a sense of personal efficacy and advancement, like at Duke and Harvard, there was still a place to look for God, and that was in the suffering of the poor. You want to talk crucifixion? I'll show you crucifixion..."

A place to look for God. In the poor. The world's forgottens and castoffs. Those living in ruins.

Something about this rings so true for me, and yet something else shines forth as well. Looking for God, searching for something holy and spiritual in this material world, doesn't have to go further than visiting my neighbor.

First of all, there are those right here in my city, my neighbors, who are in great need, and there are steps I can take to lend a hand. The first baby step, the easiest, and somehow the hardest thing to do, is to just say hello.

Second of all, I am blessed enough to live in a neighborhood with other believers, and all I have to do is walk down the street to hear them speak the voice of my Lord.

I am finding that walking in his Spirit doesn't have to be some ethereal, metaphorical kind of thing. Just take a walk down the street. Say hello. See where he leads you.

midnight discoveries

I recently had an experience I thought I would share. Mike and I have been in Indiana for his best friend Seth's wedding where Mike was the best man. I've known Seth and his family for as long as I've known Mike (since I was around 14 or 15), so it was definitely a joy to be able to help them celebrate. But despite the happiness that surrounds a soon-to-be-married couple, stress shows up to have its say in the matter. I know everybody knows what I'm talking about, right?

So anyway, I'm going throughout the days leading up to the wedding glad to be able to help Laura when I could (that's Seth's now-wife), feeling lonely at times (Mike was busy doing best man/groom things most of the time), and just plain emotional, because I'm tired from traveling, and stressed about the upcoming month in general (directly after the wedding we flew to Denver for work, then came back home where we will be packing up, going to another wedding, and moving to NC). Well its a wedding. Do I really need an excuse to feel emotional?

As we were wrapping up a dinner/chill time with the rest of the Irby family, we stopped on the way home to a local grocery store for some toiletries. It's around 11:30 or midnight, and as aforementioned, I am tired and a little cranky. The last place I want to be is stopping at a grocery store.

The cashier that rung us up was a girl who at first glance I took to be in her late thirties. The store was empty, and there's just something about a lone girl at a cash register late at night that makes me sad. I felt rough, but she seemed to be feeling even worse. When I looked closer I noticed that her skin wasn't lined with any telltale wrinkles and her long, blond, ponytail-ed hair was free of gray strands. When I really look I see that she is young, perhaps my age, or younger.

Something tells me to ask her how she's doing. She told Taylor (Irby clan) and I that her day wasn't going that well--her boyfriend seemed to be on his way to Iraq, and to top it all off, her knees hurt. I felt something in my spirit quicken. Pray for her. I tried to shrug off the feeling. Wouldn't she think I was crazy if I asked her if I could pray for her?

Taylor and I almost get out the door when we turn to each other. "Do you think we should pray for her?" she asked me.

"I got the same feeling," I told her. "Will she think we're crazy though?" (As you can tell, I am not in the habit of doing this sort of thing)

"What can it hurt?"

So, Taylor and I turned back around and sheepishly asked the cashier if we could pray for her. She agreed, and to my surprise, she started to cry.

"This really meant a lot to me," she mumbled through her tears. Thank you," she whispered when we were finished.

I wish we could've had time to talk to her some more and find out her story and just listen. But I think it was important that we saw this girl, I mean really SAW her, looked at her, and cared.

I'm just thankful that I had a sister with me who helped "validate," if you will, what I knew in my spirit. If not for her, I don't think I would've gone back.

Sorry to get sentimental on you, but here's to the church...to two or more gathered in his name...to family...to the Lord's binding ties of love.

some wedding pics

Sorry, I'm just now getting some pictures back from the wedding, and I can't help wanting to share some of them. Also, I finally got my scanner fixed, so I can upload pictures now...(sadly, we live without a digital camera). SO, anyhow, well, there it is.

*photos taken by Emily Davis

*and in case your eye is keen enough...one of these pictures was taken on my actual wedding day, and others were taken, well later. Call it post-bridal shots.