cape town

;

Kalk Bay, Cape Town, South Africa

It’s beautiful here; just fresh and lovely!

The photography school has just started so I don’t have much to say about it yet.   

We’ve taken a few photos and gotten some feedback, so we’re just learning the mechanics and figuring out composition as well. 

So lots of practice, and hopefully lots of learning…we’ll see. :)

soul map

"Too often people try to change their lives by using the will as a kind of hammer 

to beat their life into proper shape. The intellect identifies the goal of the program, 

and the will accordingly forces the life into that shape. This way of approaching the 

sacredness of one's own presence is externalist and violent. It brings you falsely 

outside yourself, and you can spend years lost in the wilderness of your own 

mechanical spiritual programs."

-John O'Donohue

dave-o

 

My little brother left for college today..part of me just can't believe, it's weird.

He's the best little brother a sister could ask for I mean look at that little face..no wonder this:

 

happened so much :)

But we truly have a relationship that I doubt many other siblings have. 

For one, we love each other, and we admit it!

And I admire him, he's such a smart guy and the most giving person that I've ever met. Ever since he was a wee one it's given him joy to give to others. That's something that I've always envied about him; not many people really feel that blessed to give and have it be so natural, not forced at all.

But it's time for him to spread his wings..hahahaha. (I couldn't help it)

He will update all the time though, right Dave????

dear soul..

Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
      Why are you crying the blues?
   Fix my eyes on God—
      soon I'll be praising again.
   He puts a smile on my face.
      He's my God.

That was from David (Psalm 42), and he's struggling. He's struggling to remember God when it seems everyone is telling him that God's not there anymore.

He knows that He's near, for He's always close, but the talk of others seems to prevail at times.


I just love knowing David struggled with his soul; he struggled with not being "happy" all the time.

But he knew how to overcome it; he fixed his thoughts on the things God had done before. Proving He was there and showing to himself how good he always knew God was.

Sometimes it takes a little reminder of how wonderful He is even if it's not apparent in that moment.

It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

John 6:63

Jesus-qualities

Lately I've been figuring myself out; how to be truly me all of the time. And finding out who God has made me to be is freeing and also a little scary. Parts of me aren't the most attractive or "cool," but I know that we all have something different about us; something inexplicable that ultimately shows a part of Jesus when we let it out. I wish I could say I knew exactly what that was for myself, or others, but I don't. I just know that when I am truly myself, who He has made to be, that quality shines forth.
I read somewhere that we as people/Christians have this idea that we must become/improve in every are that we are lacking. We're always striving to be that "perfect person," having every quality that seems noble. That's quite a strain.. I think that yes, people have things that they have to work on in their life, we're never perfect, but adopting this "idea" is saying that you don't need anyone else. There's a reason we're different, and we can feed off of each other in our weaknesses. We learn from each other and lean on each other when we're in a situation that we're not equipped to handle.
It takes time for all these Jesus-qualities to develop in a person, so one day we'll all be like Him, it's just gonna take a while..

Idea

The strain and longing,
they huff and give.

Thought comes
and seems so right.

A thought with an origin of low;
instilled all the same.

But more and more
is gone from them,
Try, strip.

Just beyond,
hope fading--still present.

Questions arise,
Hope to smash.

But all seems gone,
the feeling felt.

Though they know
they fake a smile.

Too late, who they were is gone
Who they were made to be is scoffed.

Lost in that thought,
unable to see their light.

all this beauty

"The heart is where the nature, feeling and intimacy of a life dwell, and without heart the world grows suddenly cold. In its desire for beauty, it reaches toward the beyond. This poignant desire for beauty suggests that beauty is the homeland of the heart…. When God created [the heart], it was fashioned for an eternal kinship with beauty; God knew that the human heart would always be wedded to him in desire; for the other name of God is beauty. The heart is the tabernacle of divine beauty. St John of the cross puts this poetically:

I did not have to ask my heart what it wanted
Because of all the desires I have ever known,
Just one did I cling to
For it was the essence of all desire:
To know beauty.

-John O-Donohue

bonsai

 

 

Went to a Bonsai Tree Farm the other day, and they are quite amazing.
I'm thinking about buying a small one (some are about $4,000!),
but I haven't decided.
I just feel like they're in a tiny world of their own,
and it makes me start to dream which I do too much of already.

Feelin' The Pull

And I'm feelin' the pull
Draggin' me off again
And I'm feelin' so small
Against the sky tonight.

-the swell season.

 

  

I just want to go, right now, anywhere. 

freeeeze

It froze here and everything looked and sounded lovely outside. All the plants were coated in ice and 

Went to Indiana the other week with my mother; she made drapes, and I ironed. Really tough stuff, but I made it through.

camera

It took me a while, but I finally decided on the Canon Rebel XSI.

Went on an outing with Mark and Jeanette to Shelby Farms and the sky was amazing. Besides the sky pictures I don't really like what I took but hey, I'm learning!

"That is why Christians are told not to judge. We see only the results which a man's choices make out of his raw material.  But God does not judge him on the raw material at all, but on what he has done with it. Mos of the man's psychological make-up is probably due to his body: when his body dies all that will fall off him, and the real central man, the thing that chose, that made the best or the worst out of this material, will stand naked. All sorts of nice things which we thought our own, but which were really due to a good digestion, will fall off some of us: all sorts of nasty things which were due to complexes or bad health will fall off others. We shall then, for the first time, see everyone as he really was. There will be surprises."

-C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity

I'm not going to lie; this passage kind of scares me.

I've never actually envisioned myself without all the things that make me human; that would include talents and abilities that I see as me. But to just see my heart and my soul.

What will we see, I really don't know...

graham cooke

http://www.outlawedwonderings.com/graham/index.html

A message by Graham Cooke, earlier last year.
Such an awesome man, and hilarious!

יָחִיד

"Lord, how long wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions." 

Psalm 35:17

יָחִיד [yachiyd /yaw·kheed/]

 1 only, only one, solitary, one

I'm such a doubter, I don't mean to be, but it just happens I guess.

Sometimes I need that realization that He can do everything, and the only one I can count on for anything.