Kite flyin' in hurricane winds

Life can be confusing and people can be straight up cray cray (a saying the hipsters are using these days for, "crazy")...can't we!?

I dedicate this post to all the little tikes out there...the 10 and younger crowd...just trying to figure things out.  I hear you little man...its not easy to understand the females around you - we are complicated- and little buddy, from what I hear from the grown-up boys....it doesn't get much easier :-/

And to the little ladies...oh sweet girl, if I could say one thing to you, it would be to: guard your heart.  You may not understand how important that is until someone takes it, messes with it, then gives it back to you in an almost unrecognizable condition :-/ but trust me...later you will understand what the scripture means when it calls your heart, "the wellspring of life." 

Not that I think there are young kiddos who are out there actually reading my blog instead of playing barbies or mastering the video game, Halo....but maybe I'm just speaking to the little ones in us all.  Or maybe us "grown-ups" are all just still tryin' to figure things out too.

Ever wonder why its just so refreshing when you are listening to a comedian or a preacher and they seem to be expressing the very thoughts that go through your head...the thoughts that you believed only did their drive-by's in your  brain?  It's one of my favorite feelings...when someone understands me without me having to explain me.  I think because I long to know God on this level.  I want to be walking along in life and then when something ridiculous happens, to be able to just glance up and smirk at the one who has known my every thought and moment and just gets it...gets why the thing is funny...or why its devastating...or why it makes me sobb or laugh so hard that I can't breath.

Its like that friend who, while you are both in a crowded room, you can look over at them...and the expression on your face gives voice to the thoughts in your head without you even making a peep.  I think that is my love language...being understood.  Okay, so maybe it's not one of the 5 denoted by the author, Gary Chapman, in his book...but I feel so strongly about it that I may just write and try to persuade him to do a revised version....adding my new language....and then maybe including my name on the front cover ;-)

Maybe that is one reason I can get frustrated with God sometimes.  He is not easily figured out.  Not that I don't like a challenge, but my favorite day is one where I have clearly communicated my heart and someone just got it..or vice versa.  Harmony in communication.  It's a lovely paradise where I like to set up my hammock and stay a while...and sip a nice drink with an umbrella in it :-)

I have a friend who recently began a new relationship.  Though this particular guy was not someone she originally thought she'd be with, when I got the chance to see them together...I thought, "wow, what a breath of fresh air for my friend." Her Mom even thought so.  She told me that she could see that he just, "got her," in a way that no one had.  And THAT is saying something, because she is a complicated girl; a multi-faceted lady who often describes herself as a kite who needs a man that could hold on to the end of the string to make sure she doesn't drift off too far....to keep her grounded.  From what I've seen, her man seems to be a good kite flyer...letting her soar, but grounding the string when the wind of her emotions wants to take her to reach the unknown people groups in Timbuktu. Don't get me wrong...it's an honorable desire to want to reach lost people groups...but maybe its not EVERYONE'S calling to move to a third-world country EVERY TIME someone mentions one. Woah! In my research to figure out how to spell "Timbuktu," I found out that it is actually a REAL place!?  Did anyone know that!?  It is in West Africa on the edge of the Sahara Desert!  COME ON! Not everyone besides me knew that, right!? I decided that I'm going to go there someday for my honeymoon....just so that when people ask where we have decided to go...I can say, "A little place called, Timbuktu!" I mean it sounds like a lovely vacay spot ;-)
Hmmm....the things I learn from blogging.

Anyway, I can relate to this friend.  Maybe many of us can.  I need someone to let me be adventurous and take risks with God, while at the same time...lovingly make me wear one of those leash backpacks that you see the prone to wander kids wearing at the mall.....for when I tend to say things like, "I think we should sell everything we have and move to Timbuktu because that MUST have been a sign from God that I found out it is a REAL place!!!!??" Woah...leash it up, girlfriend. 

I'm sure God does this with us when we get cray cray sometimes.  I have to believe He has protected me from some disastrous situations that seemed like great ideas while they were floating around in irrational girl emotion inside of me...and yet there are some that He has purposefully let me fly my kite right into...only to return to Him all ripped up and stuck in a tree...and usually thinking...."Yo...I could've used a SIGN that this wasn't the best wind to take, God!"  Then He probably smiles...repairs my kite...and shortens the string a bit, to protect me of course....'cause I ain't no cat with nine lives...I'm a Dora the Explorer kite who tends to set sail beside large trees or in hurricane-force winds.  He knows what's up.  

Sometimes, when I come to the end of a blog post, I think....woah, where the heck did that come from, and then I usually end up changing the title to make it relevant to my rant :-)
He's a good God...but He ain't afraid to let you get a good paddlin' sometimes, for your own good. 
He disciplines the ones He loves. 
Job puts it well, "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.  Nevertheless, I will argue my ways before Him."  haha I love that!  Job's like....Okay, He let me get the crap beat out of me for His name's sake...and I am still going to love Him and hope in Him....but I'm probably not going to stop asking, WHY!!?? :-)

Probably stuck in a tree somewhere,
Julie

moving sidewalk

I grew up as an airline kid and traveling used to be quite the event. I remember seeing the advances in technology on planes and at the airport... and my favorite would have to be the "moving sidewalk." A pretty funny invention if you think about it... but when the moving sidewalk came onto the scene - I always opted for it...I mean why not? A speedier way to get to where you're going without the added energy one would have to exert by simply....walking faster :-/
Because, when we flew, we were, "representing the company," we had to dress up for every flight...which, for me, meant a chance to wear my sam and libby shoes, stockings, and a spinny dress. My brothers and I used to hate when we would have to sit by strangers on the plane...but flying stand-by, without guarenteed seats, as a family of 6... we had to suck it up and take any seat we could get!  I have two favorite "stranger" stories from the plane when we were kids.  One was when my brothers had to go to the bathroom really bad, but were blocked in their row by a stranger who was snoozing in the isle seat.  My parents and I watched from the seats behind as, in desperation, the boys crawled under the man's legs...and successfully made it to the bathroom.  The other story was when I fell asleep and woke up when we landed...only to realize that my head had been comfortably resting on the stranger-man's shoulder next to me the whole trip...one of the reasons I can no longer fall asleep so easily on planes ;-)



In Ashley's wedding in Atl. Mom and Dad came too!

I've been quite the travelin' lady lately.  I went to Savannah, GA....then back to PA....then back to Atlanta to be in Ashley's wedding (my friend since age 3)....then back to PA....then to Maine....then to Conneticut....then to the Jersey shore....and now here I am....back home, where the 55 and older is a nice reminder that I have 30 years until I was actually meant to live in one of these neighborhoods...but God works in mysterious ways.....? hmm.... not sure how that one applies to my situation or what is so mysterious about living in a neighborhood where the highlight of the week is usually the "first Tuesday women's club," or my Mom's nightly water aerobics routine.  I know my tone seems snarky but I really am grateful to have a roof over my head, food in my belly, family that loves me, and a plethora of neighbor's grandkids to babysit while I finish school :-)   just keepin' it real...

This blog post has been a draft just sittin' patiently in my computer...waiting for its debut as my first post in quite some time now. My computer did die on me, so I have a bit of an excuse for the lack of blogs lately.  My fingers have been on hiadas from their normal tap dance across the keyboard to tell a story, or make a point... or to tell a totally pointless story. On one of my recent trips to the Atlanta airport, I was on the moving sidewalk and suddenly remembered that this little post was waiting for me to come home and give it some attention.  Not sure why today is the day...but the typers are back in gear and ready to tap once more! 

 

There is so much to blog about from the trip I took to Maine with one of my best friends, Shu (pronounced "Shoe"). Oh my Shu :-)  If she was a shoe, she would be a converse all-star...but with a light purple, satin ribbon for a shoelace!
We always have the best time together and we laughed so much that I came home with a six-pac of newly formed abs!

hahaha I seriously did this pose from
"The Little Mermaid"-only a few will actually get this!

Pop-overs and blueberry tea in Maine

Anyway, in an effort to keep things interesting, I will not post a picture of EVERY morsel of food we ate or include EVERY detail of how incredibly amazing the fresh lobster and smoked gouda omlets were, or about the wild blueberry pancakes, lobster/pineapple pizza, pop-overs, blueberry coffee and tea, goat milk fudge and caramels....I'll just tell you the MAINE-ly important things and give you an appetizer of pics from our lovely hikes, a seven mile kayaking trip in the Atlantic ocean, a jazz concert, a hard-to-describe-Maine-backwoods-bluegrass-ish music fest, and MAYBE just ONE more mention of the best fudge this side of the Mississippi....and on every side of the Mississippi...I don't know where these phrases come from- but my friend, Christine, says I've gotten my southern accent back since I've been hanging out with all of my friends from below the Mason-dixon line....

 

Shu and I gearing up to sea kayak....olympic style,
U.S. vs France...or so we told ourselves for
motivational purposes...to try to beat the French ppl
who were on our tour...unsuccessful :-(

We stopped in CT on the way home to see Bean!



These bluegrass-ish musicians were playing at a bar in Maine and

every one of them looked like a character from "Deliverance"....

and they smelled like pirates (none of us have probably ever smelled a pirate,

but I can't think of anything else that could accurately display this level of smelly!)

We met an old couple from GA there, who asked me what type of music this was...

When I said the closest thing I could think of was bluegrass, they were offended.

Lesson learned: don't tell an old couple from the deep south what bluegrass is...

So it has been great to do some traveling lately and to experience some new adventures with loved ones. I feel like everyone always says this, but the summer really has flown by and I can't believe its almost fall...woah...and then winter, where a Pennsylvania style snow will be coming to a driveway near me...very soon.  I'm excited for what the fall has to bring: two new nephews (YAY!!), being done with school...again, and getting ready for whatever season God has in store for me next...maybe I'll move somewhere really cool...or join that bluegrass-pirate band and travel with them...and give up showering...you never know...God works in Mysterious ways ;-) 
I still have the tendency to jump on the moving sidewalk and hurry to the destination to see where I'm headed next, but I am enjoying taking the slower, scenic route for now....learning to see God in the moment and growing to trust Him...and trying to laugh a lot along the way...but I'm not sure my abs could get more defined then they are now ;-) ...hopefully the sideways wink face shows that I am using sarcasm.

Much love,
Julie
p.s. I had a lot more neat pictures to post but for some reason my Mom's computer won't let me...I'll try to add more later :-)