2010

Every year, I do a New Year’s 100 Resolutions list for things to live by that I try to accomplish within the year.

This year, I lost my sheet.

Whoops

But it's okay, I still made some awesome memories.

With that being said, here are a few memories I have acquired the past year:

Þ Having God discussions while watching the sunrise on the beach

Þ Moonlit skinny-dipping

Þ Sleeping in the middle of Alumni Park in a tent

Þ Roadtrips to Kentucky, South Carolina, New York and Pennslyvania with awesome people

Þ Potlucks, my favorite thing ever

Þ Seeing old friends, and realizing that we're still friends after all this time

Þ Drinking tea and pondering life with good friends

Þ Sleepovers...with lots of giggling involved

Þ Canoeing down the Duck River and pretending to be in Lord of the Rings

Þ Camping out in downtown Chattanooga in a Box City

Þ Watching thunderstorms

Þ Hiking

Þ Bonding with my roommates in God’s country, Gatlinburg, TN

Þ Sleeping out under the stars

Þ Seeing beautiful people get married

P.s. I didn't take this picture but this fantastic lady did!

Þ Laughing so hard I cried

Þ Crying for the first time since God knows when

Þ Crying more than once in a year

Þ Being part of a suicide hotline and talking to great people

Þ Creating beautiful art

Friends, let's make more memories next year, shall we?

"No, life cannot be understood flat on a page. It has to be lived; a person has to get out of his head, has to fall in love, has to memorize poems, has to jump off bridges into rivers, has to stand in an empty desert and whisper sonnets under his breath... We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?" --Donald Miller

Merry Christmas!

As you lay around your couch, stuffed after eating ridiculous amounts of food and not having gotten out of your jammies yet (and it's after 12), feel free to check out this retelling of Christmas:

I'm Done With Finals...Now What Do I Do?

The other day I finished everything...papers, projects, exams, those errands I've been meaning to do since October, and I even balanced my checkbook.

And so, once I had finished all those pressing matters that have been constantly bearing down on me, I found myself sitting on my couch, with nothing to do.

I would check my phone every few minutes, nothing. No movies I felt like I've been desiring to watch. No places I could go. Nothing I could really do in that span of time.

It was the strangest feeling, the feeling of being bored. An old acquaintance that came into my living room and settled in, and I wasn't really sure how to start the conversation. The feeling of boredom was the awkward pause when both members of the party's eyes are shifting, trying to find some sort of common ground and aren't quite sure what to do with their hands.

So I went to bed. At 9:30 pm.

A favourite life motto of mine is: When in doubt, sleep it out

It helps with all of life's problems. Except perhaps insomnia in which case I recommend watching Bob Ross or listening to the Bible in Spanish.

Anyways, once I woke up and started to find things to do, here is what I found:

• Pray by Justin Bieber. The song got stuck in my head and I honestly have to say that it's his best yet. I'm impressed Bieber, job well done.
• Make an origami elephant out of a dollar bill. Don't feel bad about leaving waiters crummy tips anymore--just leaving them a beautifully folded pachyderm.
• I just want you guys to know that I just spelled pachyderm correctly the first time without consulting a second source. Definitely one of my greatest accomplishments of 2010

• "I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally. I need a God who is with us always, everywhere, in the deepest depths as well as the highest heights. It is when things go wrong, when good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. We do not need the sheltering wings when things go smoothly. We are closest to God in the darkness, stumbling along blindly."

  Madeline L'Engle: Fascinating lady, brilliant writer. I've been going down to the public library and spending my days reading books. Like actually enjoying reading instead of rushing through a book to write a paper on it. Anyways, I just read A Wrinkle in Time the other day and loved it.
• Calvin and Hobbes. Also picked this up from the library. I hope my offspring end up being that awesome

• The Introvert's Corner: An interesting blog with articles about introversion. Being on the extreme introverted side (I'm an INFP), this was like connecting with folks who finally understand

Enjoy!

Night Stroll

The lights go off.

He wakes, shakes his mane, and stalks off as the night air is crisp and the stars are twinkling from high above. The lion nudges the window open and heads into the darkness. It's silent outside and no one is around, just the way he prefers it. He saunters down the street, stretching his legs from sitting all day and swishing his tail, slicing the cool air. He stops at a house and watches as an innocent child sleeps and growls at the nightmares, chasing them away. He keeps going, stopping every once in a while to nose through an empty Taco Bell wrapper. The lion strolls alongside a river until finally he finds a field.

Then he really comes alive

The magnificent beast begins to run, chasing after fireflies, leaping from park bench to park bench, madly on the chase as the lightening bugs taunt him as they flicker for a second then quickly disappear. As other nocturnal creatures come out of their homes, the lion playfully stalks them, pretending each one is a wildebeest out on the savannah. He pounces but never attacks them--he has no need to eat them.

Once he has finished startling his prey, he heads for a grassy knoll, high above the rest of the park. There, he looks up at the great stars above him, watching as stars shoot across the sky, too far away for him to catch. He sits and ponders his life and waits for an adventure to arise. There isn't one tonight but he'll always try again tomorrow.

The world around him starts getting brighter and it's time to head back. The glorious creature takes one last careless swipe at a noisy cricket and leaves. Although some people are already starting their day, the lion ambles down the city streets. He isn't afraid of them spotting him, they are too concerned with punctuality and traffic to notice a lion meandering down the sidewalk. At last, he climbs back through the window and plops back onto bed and Aslan Judah Mufasa settles down to sleep.

After all, lions do sleep nineteen hours a day.