This Christmas was extra special because it was the first for both my niece and nephew. It's always more exciting to have little ones to shop for. As adults, some of the magic of the holiday seems to disappear. It's become less about me being surprised about what is under the tree for me and more about giving to the ones I love. So, needless to say, it was super fun buying gifts for my nieces and nephew and watching them open them. I started taking a few videos at some of our holiday gatherings because pictures only do so much. I want to capture the tiny voices and laughter so I can revisit the moments again and again. Home videos from when I was a kid are the only way I remember my dad's voice, so I want to take more of them.
The quality of the ones I'm about to post is not great because I just took them on my digital camera. Also, I sound weird. Why is that our voices sound so much different on film or answering machines than they sound in our own head? I can't help but laugh listening to myself.
This one is my niece opening up some of her Christmas gifts. Oh, and my sister-in-law pretending to be thrilled about her new flannel pajamas. [My grandmother is notorious for buying everyone the most random presents. This year she got just about everyone a zip-up hoodie from Old Navy that has ear phones in the hoodie string. I think half the people she purchased them for don't have any type of mp3 player. Oh well, gotta love her!]
I don't know how this came about, but my cousin Tanner put two balls in his shirt and started bouncing them around. He took my wine glass and started acting like a total lush. He was some sort of drunk Dolly Parton. I thought it was hilarious, but I was a few glasses in. Who am I kidding, I laugh at it sober. He struts through the house and interrupts our cousin Gage, who is intently playing some football game, and begins shaking about.
And a practice round...? I'm not sure what he was going to do with the lampshade, but I bet it would have been hysterical, too.
If you are at first lonely, be patient. If you’ve not been alone much, or if when you were, you weren’t okay with it, then just wait. You’ll find it’s fine to be alone once you’re embracing it.
We could start with the acceptable places, the bathroom, the coffee shop, the library. Where you can stall and read the paper, where you can get your caffeine fix and sit and stay there. Where you can browse the stacks and smell the books. You’re not supposed to talk much anyway so it’s safe there.
There’s also the gym. If you’re shy you could hang out with yourself in mirrors, you could put headphones in (guitar stroke).
And there’s public transportation, because we all gotta go places.
And there’s prayer and meditation. No one will think less if you’re hanging with your breath seeking peace and salvation.
Start simple. Things you may have previously (electric guitar plucking) based on your avoid being alone principals.
The lunch counter. Where you will be surrounded by chow-downers. Employees who only have an hour and their spouses work across town and so they — like you — will be alone.
Resist the urge to hang out with your cell phone.
When you are comfortable with eat lunch and run, take yourself out for dinner. A restaurant with linen and silverware. You’re no less intriguing a person when you’re eating solo dessert to cleaning the whipped cream from the dish with your finger. In fact some people at full tables will wish they were where you were.
Go to the movies. Where it is dark and soothing. Alone in your seat amidst a fleeting community. And then, take yourself out dancing to a club where no one knows you. Stand on the outside of the floor till the lights convince you more and more and the music shows you. Dance like no one’s watching…because, they’re probably not. And, if they are, assume it is with best of human intentions. The way bodies move genuinely to beats is, after all, gorgeous and affecting. Dance until you’re sweating, and beads of perspiration remind you of life’s best things, down your back like a brook of blessings.
Go to the woods alone, and the trees and squirrels will watch for you.Go to an unfamiliar city, roam the streets, there’re always statues to talk to and benches made for sitting give strangers a shared existence if only for a minute and these moments can be so uplifting and the conversations you get in by sitting alone on benches might’ve never happened had you not been there by yourself
Society is afraid of alonedom, like lonely hearts are wasting away in basements, like people must have problems if, after a while, nobody is dating them. but lonely is a freedom that breaths easy and weightless and lonely is healing if you make it.
You could stand, swathed by groups and mobs or hold hands with your partner, look both further and farther for the endless quest for company. But no one’s in your head and by the time you translate your thoughts, some essence of them may be lost or perhaps it is just kept.
Perhaps in the interest of loving oneself, perhaps all those sappy slogans from preschool over to high school’s groaning were tokens for holding the lonely at bay. Cuz if you’re happy in your head than solitude is blessed and alone is okay.
It’s okay if no one believes like you. All experience is unique, no one has the same synapses, can’t think like you, for this be releived, keeps things interesting lifes magic things in reach.
And it doesn’t mean you’re not connected, that communitie’s not present, just take the perspective you get from being one person in one head and feel the effects of it. take silence and respect it. if you have an art that needs a practice, stop neglecting it. if your family doesn’t get you, or religious sect is not meant for you, don’t obsess about it.
you could be in an instant surrounded if you needed it. If your heart is bleeding make the best of it. There is heat in freezing, be a testament.
It's probably stupid that this bugs me, but this model is sort of blah. Could've totally picked someone better to model all of the DKNY coats. just sayin'. But anyways, I've been wanting a not-so-dressy winter coat and I really liked this one (liked it better in navy, but it was sold out in my size). Stuff of Rue La La can still be pretty pricey, so unless I'm completely in love upon arrival, I might be returning.
Forever 21's shoes are pretty cheap and I was in the market for some simple black heels. My previous pair are from Target and were ready to be replaced. And ever since I watched a random Regis & Kelly episode where they talked about the necessity of owning a pair of nude pumps, I have had my eye out. I'm not sure these are the right pictures of the ones I purchased because mine look cuter in person.
Of course, BOOKS! If you have read my blog, you will gather that I am a fan of God. Lately, I've been trying to get better about spending time with God and growing in my faith. I tend to have a hard time sitting down and reading the Bible, but I have always enjoyed and taken away a lot from books like Blue Like Jazz or The Shack, so I purchased a few recommendations from friends.
I like buying books used - makes me feel a little more earth friendly, but I have a hard time finding the books I want in Half-Priced Books. Usually I forget the author's name, and I feel bad harassing the employees to constantly look up books for me. Plus, Amazon always has some pretty good prices and the past two times I have ordered them online, free shipping was offered for orders over $25, which is easily spent.
Greg Boyd has actually come to my church on numerous occasions and I have always enjoyed what he has to say. He is a smart man and, for a former atheist, very well educated about the Bible. If you live anywhere near St. Paul, Minnesota or happen to be out that way, I would suggest checking him out at Woodland Hills Church where he is senior pastor - if for no other reason than to tell me what you thought.
And for non-spirituality-related books I went with this series. I've seen them around and heard a little bit of buzz, so I thought I'd check them out. I really need to start doing book swaps and only purchase the ones I cannot live without. Or simply utilize my local library. But there's something aesthetically pleasing about a bookshelf and I plan on having a couple in my future home. What's on your shelf? Any other books I should be reading?
Love, it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you, it will set you free Be more like the man you were made to be There is a design, an alignment, a cry of my heart to see The beauty of love as it was made to be.
Love, it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you, it will set you free Be more like the man you were made to be There is a design, an alignment, a cry of my heart to see The beauty of love as it was made to be.
Love: it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you,itwillsetyoufree.
Be more like the man you were made to be
There is a design, an alignment, a cry of my heart to see The beauty of love as it was made to be.
Every year my church puts on a Christmas show. One year I will get the nerve to try out for the choir because I think it would be an absolute blast to be a part of this, other than volunteering to make hot chocolate, open doors, show people to their seats, etc. Anyways, if you happen to be stumbling across this blog and live in the Cincinnati area, you should check it out. Tickets are FREE and can be picked up here. The show goes from December 17th - 24th. MerryChristmas!
how is that that the relationships you thought were the best; the healthiest; the ones you cherished the most can end up being the most dysfunctional?
has it been that way all along?
sometimes i think we forget what it's like to be in a mutual relationship: one that consists of give and take; compromise and honesty. we are often too busy doing most of the work to realize we're doing most of the work. it's so easy to fall into an unhealthy pattern and not stop to realize it until we're buried underneath.
