my girls

The best solution to summer boredom is a little trip up to Memphis, city of the only tigers I truly love, weird men in ditches, barbeque, and the Coplons! (Some of the most fabulous people I know). N and I drove up there for Apryl's wedding and to spend what Sarah counted out to be 30-something hours with my fave family-away-from-family. Some highlights:

This weekend, God said something funny to me, and we both laughed. It was cool.

To understand Plath's "terrible fish"...

a girl can see a lot in a dark computer screen
other dark things aren't so illuminating
but my computer screen is darkness highlighting darkness

blue eyes stare squarely into the black shape
gray eyes swimming above deep dark circles
stare back

i never knew they were there
the dark circles under my eyes
nor did I realize they are so asymmetrical

Dear me

pre·cious (adj.)
1. Of high cost or worth; valuable.
2. Highly esteemed; cherished.
3. Dear; beloved.
4. Affectedly dainty or overrefined.

I've been thinking this week about being precious to the Lord.

Often God communicates that to us: "You are precious to Me." Sometimes, our response is to look down at ourselves and yelp, "Yikes! I am precious! And we understand the term in its "affectedly dainty" interpretation which leads us to panic, "I could break so easily!" Fragile though humanity is, this is not the aspect of precious on which we are to concentrate, I think. Rather, because we are preciously valuable to Him, he holds us in a place of protection--as we who are created in His image, also give places of protection to those things that are valuable to us.

Ms. Wallace, Congratulations! It's a baby-girl-bunny!

I haven't posted updated photos of the garden latey. Perhaps, that is because I have become one of those obssessive pet owners who thinks their bunny actually shares their DNA. Perhaps. I'll post some broader photos later. For now, here are some rose close-ups. I am really lovin' the oranges and lemon right now.

I have a whole list of friends who...if I met today...I don't think I'd be friends with.

There's a vitality and energy to people that causes them to evolve and revolve and dissolve and reemerge (the snowflake melts and becomes the water that is the life that feeds the flower). Not all people reemerge as flowers.

In all fairness, I've definitely had moments where I lost myself. But as moments pass to years, my list seems to have such little hope.

Closing my eyes I see all these memories, meaningful conversations, real progress towards becoming truly alive and joyful, yet social security numbers are mostly all that has stayed the same about them. Once they were people I loved very much, and now there's no common ground.

One youth group girl asked me the other day if our imperfect attempt to be godly was all there was to Christianity. But I think that's all there is to humanity. The constant, hopeless struggle that never produces solid fruit. Relationship with God, however, is designed to be perfect, but as long as humanity holds onto us in the form of mortality, it will always cause some problems.

I've been pretty lonely for the kind of close friends I once had--people who really saw into me and invested their love in my life. I want to start a new list with some promising names on it. Names that won't feed the losses column.

Midsouth Love

Apryl is my bff from undergraduate.

She's getting married in Memphis in 11 days.

Her registry includes packages of toilet paper.

It is one of the reasons we will always be friends.