Yes.

Serra is......

PAINTING. Well, I'm going to be..very soon. I've begun to decorate my house (for realz) and I'm off to Lowe's this evening to check out paint. I'm also looking for some antique wingback chairs and....yes....a piano.

Pictures coming soon.......

His Love is Deep

taken with my Polaroid Land Camera... my favorite toy.

  I wish I could truly explain the love I have for God's creation. I can try but you will never fully understand.  As I conquered  the fuzzy caterpillar ridden plateau this morning, I realized again how blessed I am to be young and healthy and able to hike and run and just breathe in beauty.  I think of my sister and the health issues she's facing and I wonder, how could I ever take for granted the gifts God has given me? How could I ever sell short the desires God has planted within my heart? This world is so corrupt.  Outward beauty trips up the soul and we forget about what lies inside. We cultivate and manicure the outside, but on the inside a continuous emptiness abides. Adoption of the norm often goes unnoticed. The world is gray. I look at my reflection in the mirror and realize time is passing and passing quickly.  I have many passions in this life. I'll be the first to tell you that I am not skilled. I am not beautiful. I am not perfect. I fall quite short of what this world calls "successful."  But, I've felt and feel the presence of God and I wouldn't trade that fulfillment for anything this world has to offer.  When I think of God's glory, I think of kids.  I remember sitting amongst at least a hundred in Vacation Bible School in Big Bear (outdoor amphitheater), closing my eyes, and feeling tears fall listening to them sing to God.  No wonder God wants us to approach him like a little child.  As I ran this morning, I cried to God.  Why is there so much deception in this life?  Why can't we all just shut up and listen?  Turn off your ipod...close your mac...get off facebook...and listen.  We are so angry when we are not heard...we fret because God doesn't speak.  Just stop and listen. Then you will know.

"His love is deeper than my view of grace, higher than this worldly place, longer than this road I travel, wider than the gap He fills"  

Loveshack

For most of my life I have been fascinated with the poorest of countries. I've grown up in a nation of great wealth and opportunity. My first ever trip out of the country like most of us Americans, was to Mexico. I remember riding with a group of people in a van and listening to their comments about the awful housing, I was thinking "this is beautiful." I was in awe...and this strange peace overcame my heart. I watched as the ladies did their laundry, bent over and carried water in for their families. I saw children laughing and playing beside the colorful wood that was used to create makeshift housing. When we arrived at our destination, I felt odd...as if we were there "to make a difference." I struggled with the idea of making a difference...feeling this pressure....to make a difference. But, as my friends wandered around an orphanage trying to help out I stayed outside and played basketball in the rain with some of the kids. I gave up on trying to be something for them because deep in my heart I knew what corruption came with wealth and that really, I wasn't better than them..I had just the same amount of pain and struggles in my life..just in a different fashion. I didn't want them to have the wealth. So, it rained and we played and laughed and a few hours in we were covered in mud. I didn't talk much..it was freeing just to play. As we left, later on that day, in my heart was formed a vision for my life. I look at America and I feel pain..pain for what this nation has become. I grew up in a broken family and came out of it completely confused and true love was and still is somewhat foreign to me. I look around me and I see brokenness all over the place...but the funny thing is that people here in America have money...have opportunity..have plenty of people to choose to be around...plenty of things..have everything really...except true love. Now, as the "things" are being taken away our nation is left empty...with nothing left. People are depressed...discontent..worried... because without money what will people do? How will they function? A few years ago I visited Bacolod, Philippines. I met 150 kids who were saved from abuse and neglect and brought up to know and love God by a couple of missionaries who had given every inch of there lives for them. These kids to this day are not rich, do not have everything..they share most things..but they know love. They aren't perfect...but they know truth.

I've found the greatest of all loves is found in God and is found in sacrifice for others. This statement almost sounds silly in the society we live in but it's still true. Jesus on the cross is true love. I remember the story in the Bible and the part where Jesus sat and wept to God...WHYYYYY? If there is any other way!! But He followed God's will. When I was in college I researched religion. I searched all over wondering if I had been duped into believing some "opiate for the masses." I read and read and came to the conclusion that the Bible's teaching was selfless and true....that it wasn't about finding some inner peace by being selfish and "successful" but it was giving of yourself to help another. It was about an eternal peace and contentment which only comes in taking your eyes off of you. I see beauty in brokenness everyday. My adopted mom is one of the most sacrificing women I know and she is so exquisitely beautiful. She has given every bit of her comfort for my little sister and her health issues that have been going on now for about 13 years. In this I see love...and it's not even her biological daughter.

I feel sad for our nation and for the pressures we face everyday to conform but really what makes you beautiful is your uniqueness. Don't be the same. Love others before yourself.

Serra

Le Balloon Rouge

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048980/

When the New Fails You.....

The old won't.

"That Girl" tv series aired 1966-1971

I'm a bloomin photographer...

Photos by Serra and her trusty (sometimes..he's French) Polaroid Land Camera, Pierre.

A Very Merry UnChristmas to you....

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more......"

A Rastafarian Proctologist....

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are the winners:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxicaton: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of having sex.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it..
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. And the winners are:
1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.
6. Negligent, adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown
7. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp..
8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash
9. Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle, n. A humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. Pokemon, n.. A Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men

Wasp Vs. Obama

So, today I was sitting in a waiting room...waiting..when I observed something kind of humorous. I glanced up to the ceiling and saw a large wasp bzzzzing around. Meanwhile, about 6 ladies were scattered about sitting around me in this small area. All the ladies were watching the news while Obama was speaking about the equal pay thingamajigger that he signed. Unnoticed, the wasp flew down around the heads of the ladies. The ladies nodded methodically, not because of the wasp, but because they were intently watching Obama. So, killer wasp....or Obama. Obama apparently.

Waste Not Want Not

Frugal! Not Cheap!

A brilliantly insightful article that nails why we all feel so poor in a culture of such abundance and waste. Read it if you have any desire at all to be free from the fatal burden of American consumerism!

Brandon

Wouldn't it be nice.........

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for." Epicurus

The Path is Narrow

Last night I went to the night session for the missions conference at the Bible College. A European (for the life of me I forget his name and country....obviously I was riveted) guy reinacted the life of Hudson Taylor..or should I say James Hudson Taylor. For all of you who are unsure who he is...google it because it will be a long story..longer than his life story probably. Anyway, three hours later I realized how much literature he memorized and was slightly floored..(particularly due to the fact that 5 minutes after he started, I forgot his name and home country) 3 hours in to the session my right hip was asleep and I think I checked out when he turned 68. But even still, I am a fan of anyone who has the ability to memorize and act out a man's life story for three hours without one mistake and with a cold...and in a London (that's where he's from...) accent.

For all those who are too lazy to google:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Taylor

P.S. If you happen to think of it, pray for this little one in the photo above. He is the beautiful son of some good friends of mine who live in China and due to circumstances have brought him up as there own but haven't been able to adopt him legally. Pray God would give them the desire of their heart.

Also, pray for the children in China. From birth they know no God and few are there to tell them differently.

Happy New Year!

So our break from the monotony of the 40 hour work week has ended with the passing of holidays and the dawning of the New Year and Serra and I have both returned to our wonderfully exciting jobs. Yay! And I am still recovering. I enjoy working but for some reason these past two weeks not working has been rather satisfying. I should make more time for that sort of thing. But then again there are those bills to pay. There's the "Man" always keeping me down. But seriously I had a great time over the holidays. Took a lot of photos and had a lot of fun spending time with friends and family. Serra got some reading done in the little time we had when we weren't required to be social and I got some (very little) well earned rest. Didn't get to stretch our legs very far though. Only made it up as far as Ventura. I am going to Sundance soon so that will be out of the state but what I really want to do is go out east. WAY east! Europe perhaps? Or maybe Israel? Serra is feeling a bit twitchy as well. Something's in the works, we'll just have to wait to see what God has planned.