Rebecca is stinking hilarious. She's my favorite seester. She has pet gerbils again! I love pet gerbils!
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Sarah DeGrado is in town. She's my favorite moonamasha.
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Things are so good. God is so good. I'm almost speechless, but I just wanted to throw that out there. oo...and I'm going to see Sarah Palin on Monday morning at the crack of dawn. yeehaw!
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Thanks so much to all of you for your encouraging words. I love what we have in Christ! Glory to Him!
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and, I debated this, but I decided to post this super-personal poem that I wrote for my class. another terrifying experience, but definitely worthwhile. I love taking risks and being scared stupid and then realizing it's all not that big of a deal anyway.
God is the Big Deal.
It is to Him I dedicate this poem. and to Ralph Keyes, author of The Courage to Write. and to my future husband, if he's out there somewhere. sorry man, but you'll never compare...
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A Promise We Made to Each Other
You are strength and sweat,
mine to possess, mine to explore, from
chocolate diamond eyes
to tender peach smile. You are the scent
of home and of want.
You are arms of muscle and safety.
You are height, and bright
lighthouse after hours and hours
of cold, violent,
cruel storm. You are the ache in my core
after laughing sick.
But you’ll never be it, my Only
real love. I won’t be
so lost in something so temporal
again. There’s always
more. You are not my swelling music,
nor my oldest, most
precious memories. You are not rain,
the only one to cry with me when I was so alone.
You are not the sun
who loved me, toasted
me, and burned me day after long day.
You are not writing
my sanity, savior, and friend.
You are not my goal,
bright and yellow on the horizon.
I’ll always have these
beside you. There’s so much that I love
besides you. I love small faces, big
ideas and this
fleeting freedom I still have for now.
Looks from a stranger who knows he can’t
have me, or that look
from you, who does, but never complete-
ly will. You are not that long green stretch
of unexplored road
between then, now, and forever more.
You are not Always.
You gave me not life, watched me not grow,
and grow bitter. You are not the best,
the very best For-
giver. There’s a thick blackness, just One
can overcome it.
You are not the Light, dispersing all
doubts. You are just
a promise we made to each other.
You die. I die. Yet,
there’s always Another, always there.
I’ll always have Him
and I love Him so much, so much more.
So you see, my love,
you’re not the only one I adore.
“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things...” Romans 11:36
“For in Him we live, move, and have our being.” Acts 17:28
I never dreamed what talking with my astronomy teacher might do.
He ended up getting up in front of the entire class and giving a speech about religion and its relationship (or non-relationship) with science. He said he never meant to offend anyone, and he told me to shake my head "no" if he was misrepresenting me.
Hence, everyone was looking at me. oh the love.
My classmates and I were able to get these points across:
-orgins cannot be measured, and are therefore outside the realm of science
-no matter what you believe concerning the origin of the universe, all viewpoints demand certain elements of faith
-the Genesis account deals with super-natural events, events which are outside of science
-the bible talks about Christ being through all and in all things, and the bible does not suggest that God created the universe and then stepped away from it to no longer to have a part in it. quite the contrary.
-science says that stars are still being created. this is not a biblical impossibility.
some other students brought up:
- if God created adult men and women who were already aged, could He have not created an adult earth that had already aged, therefore making the age of the earth less significant?
I was really scared about coming to class after confronting him, but I prayed a lot. Professor Kevin MacKay and I are now friends on facebook.
Believers were able to clarify some things, make some points, and get the class of about 200+ people really talking.
How grateful for all those Christian doctorate degree holders who gave those speeches on origins last year!
God is amazing!
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in related news, I have my first astronomy test today and I know it's not that important, but I would really like to do well, and I'm not quite sure what to expect since it's our first test.
I'm almost jealous that you are taking astronomy! I love that you had the strength to make the teacher think, and I love that you have a considerate professor! I do hope you'll do well. Could you come up here and help Tim with constellations and stuff. I'm running out of knowledge!
Leah, that is so awesome. I'm so proud of you for being brave enough to approach your teacher! I've wanted to do that in the past, but I've been too scared. Way to make a difference!
Wonderful, wonderful! It shows that your attitude in confronting him in the first place was such that it opened doors of thought instead of slamming them! WELL DONE!
Wow. That is so cool! I am glad that you were able to stand up for what you believe in. God was glorified!! I love you and I hope that you have a good day!
-got in from babysitting at 1am yesterday morning.
-slept in till 1pm today. do I feel guilty? yes.
-it is 1:09AM right now. This is NOT good.
-after a blatant, presumtuous, and snide remark from my astronomy teacher regarding the creation account in genesis, I had to have a little chat with my astronomy teacher. scariest thing ever. God sent me help. Thank God! Job 38:4-21
-attended Thursday night's gospel meeting at Nebraska Ave as my first time meeting there. Roy is amazing!
-hung out with Holly Gilreath every night this week except for Friday. I adore her.
-the beach is one hour away. why don't I go to the beach more?
-I've always been drawn to damaged people. I don't know why. We're all damaged in our own way.
Jesus was a damaged human being. He was damaged for our sakes. He left perfection to live perfection in a damaged world.
and yet what a perfect, loving God.
He truly empathizes with this wild, painful, wonderful human experience.
I didn't go to the beach that often until my senior year at FC and then I kicked myself for not going more often!!!! The beach is such a wonderful time to relax and meditate and the waves and wind are such a powerful testimony to God's absolute power!
I think it's great that you're taking astronomy! And even better that you had the courage to tackle the teacher. Maybe you should talk to Tim about his biology teacher (and maybe borrow his t-shirt!)
Proud of you for taking on the teacher. We're in Chattanooga, getting ready to go hear Granddaddy tonight! Had to good flight from Philly to Nashville. Wish you could be here!
**** This poem is dedicated to my dad, Gardner Hall, for firmly believing that I could ever write a poem as good as one of Billy Collin's poems.
He believed it so much so that he thought that many of Billy Collin's poems which I had copied onto my blog were my own, and that gave me more confidence than he could ever know.
It is also dedicated to my dear friend, Holly Gilreath, who patiently sat through multiple readings of this poem and showed me the facial expressions I needed to see when something needed to be changed.
I love you both!
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Billy Collins
We met once
before I knew you
at that presumptuous poetry festival
The one that was somewhere
in the woods of Pennsylvania,
I think
It was my senior year of high school.
I was female, awkward, and eager.
You were male, bald, and bored with me,
I'm sure.
I probably said something as expected as
"I loved your poems!"
and you probably said something
as fresh as
the paper cut I have
from the careless swirping of my hand
down the sides
of this now red-spotted page.
I am furious at these feeble words
clouding up my first draft.
As stale as last month's bread
Or the sponge at the bottom of the kitchen sink
Language abandons me near the top
As I stumble down below
your haughty pedestal.
So I'm reaching up this literary ladder
leaving behind all scholarly disaster,
snatching images of gold-timmed tea cups,
Shakespearean playbooks and the freshly tossed coins
of this evening's superfluous spending
from the floating coffee table in front of you
surrounded by clouds as you glance up from this sheet
you'll never read.
Or instead of studying my work in the heavens,
you'll be standing at your window
in a quiet house with your quiet thoughts
pulling words from the wind with your fingertips
as the breeze scatters the furtive leaves you started
raking earlier this morning
which you never finished
because you had to pause
to pen a poem far superior
to this one.
And as the brown leaves
scurry away from sight
and you've snatched their whisper and life
from underneath my spiral notebook
I'll be sitting on my sticky couch in Florida
still trying to write a poem
expressing my affinity for your work
that touches me
without me
ever touching you.
*I'm still amazed at God's goodness, power, and beauty. He still answers prayers that don't deserve to be answered, and He is still with me, even though I've left him so many times.
leah that was incredible! i really love it! and i'm not just saying that because i love you :) i like the imagery and honesty of it. beautifully crafted.
Apparently Billy Collins is really popular? He says he can write a poem in 2-3 hours. That's just banter on his part. Your poem is top notch, excellent ideas! I'd copywright it if I were you.
Tonight, four-year-old Hagan Ulrich looked up at me quite seriously and said:
"I want to be your girlfriend."
"Don't you mean boyfriend?"
"well, I want you to me MY girlfriend!"
"Hagan, do you know how old I am?"
"Six."
"Nope."
"Seven?"
"Nope."
"Eight? Nine?"
"No and NOPE!"
"TEN?!?!"
Oh it's good to be young and loved!
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Saturday was so random and fun.
Went to bed about 3AM. Got four hours of sleep and then:
-got up at 7AM
-got dressed
-had breakfast with friends
-got dressed again
-went to the beach for a few hours
-came back
-got dressed
-ate lunch
-went to wedding
-came back
-got dressed
-went to bible study
-came back kinda late and then...
-got dressed for bed.
all in all one of the best saturdays ever!
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My room is a wreck, I barely got any sleep last night, and there's no classes tomorrow!
Finished the dark blue painting on my wall, and I am indeed waiting for His word.
oh, well blue canvasses (sp?) with white Bible verses written on them are just as exciting as blue rooms ;) So, I felt this terrible void last Thursday when I realized it was "Drinks n Doozies" night! I miss you all so much. Do you see Ali much? Do you like living in the house?
Brad was on the baseball team, right? Oh, I liked him! He was a nice guy! I'm glad he's happy. Oh yes..Polly Pocket..how could I forget?? ;) Did you have fun? Miss you too!
