Today.

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old-nonsense."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Just a Lazy Day.

It's one of those days.
It's a lazy day.

The gray clouds and glorious rain fits like a glove.
JJ Heller singing in the background.
Now Beach Boys and Kokomo.
Cranial nerves and laundry.
Lemon with hot water.

Isn't it weird how seeing a name
can instantaneously raise stress levels?

Pitter-patter. I love
the sound of raindrops.
Everything is gray,
but my umbrella is a brilliant azure blue.

Rubber, yellow boots
are for splashing in puddles.
Come play, come play!
Dance in the rain with me!

Bermuda, Jamaica
c'mon pretty mama.
Fly.

6:03 already?

Hike of Death.

When I was in the Caribbeans, I went on a lot of tours. Unsuspecting me, I decided to go on a tour to the waterfalls, crater lake, and national forest. For most of the tours, they would drive us to the spot, we'd walk 5 steps and proceed to take pictures. The waterfalls were ok. The crater lake was disappointing.

[Sidenote: Here's a picture of me and monkey at the waterfalls. For some reason, I want to name him Maurice.]

"Let's take a walk through the national forest," the guide says.

Heavy purse in hand, I follow the crowd. Keep in mind, it had poured rain an hour before so the trail was pretty muddy. The walk soon turned into a hike, mostly because we kept going.

Because it had rained, I found myself sliding backwards with each step that I took. As my feet sunk into the mud, I soon found that the mud had made its way into my shoes and between my toes. Additionally, as we tried to push uphill, there was nothing to grab onto. I found myself grasping at mysterious vegetation. To my joy, the blades of grass I grabbed onto turned out to be blades of spikes. (I counted over 17 cuts in my arms and legs afterward.) When I think back now, I laugh that I asked people to hold my purse while I climbed over tree logs.

I was lucky because the guy in front of me took it on himself to watch over me. This stranger seriously did everything. He would pull me over things, push me when I needed momentum, catch me when I slipped countless times. Not to mention, I called him the wrong name for half the hike. Oops.

We reached a point when half the group turned back because they had worn flip-flops. (We weren't told it was a hike, remember?) I contemplated turning around, but the hard-core hikers ahead of us pushed on. Sadly, we pushed on for no reason because after an hour of slipping uphill, we were told to turn around.

Going down a slippery slope (teehee) was even worse than going uphill. Everything that went wrong could have. The girl in front of me almost plummets off the cliff. Stranger caught her and she ended up with a twisted ankle. Then night begins to fall. As we traverse in the growing darkness, a torrent of rain starts to shower upon us. Dirty, wet, hungry and blind, what could possible happen next?

Our guide turns around and yells, "We are lost, mon!" Turns out, we went on a wrong path and ended up on the other side of the crater. We wonder around some more and by the time we finally reach the buses, they're out of sight! The first group that had turned around had waited for an hour for us and decided to leave. And it's still raining.

By now, you can either be miserable or make the most of the situation. So we started cleaning the mud off ourselves in the rain. To your right is a picture of my shoes after the rain cleaned it. I ended up throwing them away.

I don't normally like hikes because I end up looking down more than I do around. BUT, I think everyone should go on a dangerous hike if they want to bond, because there's nothing like keeping each other alive to force immediate intimacy. And everyone should get down and dirty some time. In any case, we finally made it back "home".

Would I do it again if I had the choice? You bet my sore butt I would.

Hold my hand.

I love...

that children always take my hand when I hold it out to them.

Because they don't have to,
but they do.

Naked.

The funny things children say.

One of my preschoolers, Santi, has a new vocabulary word. Naked. And he uses it all the time. You can tell he's testing me. "I'm naked. When I take a bath, I'm naked. Me and Matteo are naked." Sometimes, he just says the word for his own pleasure. Oh boy. Inside I am laughing, and I'm probably smiling on the outside since I don't hide it well. Oh the joy of taboo words.

One thing about children is that they say what's on their mind. I was at the post office today. There's always a long line because the guy that works there is the slowest worker ever. I counted the seconds it took him to walk 5 steps, which would be under 10 seconds for the average human. He took three times as long. So whenever I go, I also hope I get the woman. Anyway, everyone's always really quiet when we wait in line. You know-- the awkward waiting silence. In dental or doctor offices, you have magazines to preoccupy you and background music from 96.5 KOIT, but not here. (This would be a good idea for them. It'll also make work more fun because then you can get your groove on behind the counter when no one is looking.)

I digress again. The awkward silence hanging in the air is pierced by a little girl's conversation to herself. She thinks she's talking to her grandfather, but he's ignoring her, so she's really talking to herself. It is one of the funniest things in the world, and again, I am laughing to myself because I have no one to laugh out loud with! Here's a tidbit of her monologue:

Grandpa? Look at this! Look! It's a circle!
It's a hole. How did the hole get here? Maybe a gun shot it and there's a hole.
Triangle. Circle. Triangle. Ciricle. Triangle Circle.

This goes on for about 10 minutes.

Grandpa? That's a triangle circle.
I need to pee.

And the whole time, I just wanted to ask her, "What's a triangle circle?". Everyone can hear her. How do they keep such stoic faces on?

Children are undignified in a pure way, and I love it because you can certainly be undignified in a grotesque manner. How refreshing. So then, as a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, let us proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). To be holy because he is holy (1 Peter 1:16). To have a faith that enables us to experience the perseverance of hope (1:13-16), the persistence of wonder (1:17-21), the power of love (1:22-23), and the praises of Christ (2:4-10). [Yup, going through 1 Peter.] NAKED!

I will dance,
I will sing,

to be mad

for my King!

Nothing Lord

is hindering

this passion

in my soul.

David Crowder.