"That the great are not as happy as they seem, that the external circumstances of fortune and rank do not constitute felicity, is asserted by every moralist; the historian can seldom, consistently with his dignity, pause to illustrate this truth, it is therefore to the biographer we must have recourse. After we have beheld splendid characters playing their parts on the great theater of the world, with all the advantages of stage effect and decoration, we anxiously beg to be admitted behind the scenes, that we may take a nearer view of the actors and actresses." 

 ~Maria Edgeworth in her preface to Castle Rackrent

The costume is not my favorite, but this variation is basically perfect 

note on life

It is a sad day when Microsoft Word doesn't recognize the correct spelling of Sylvie Guillem's name :( 

"Corporate worship is designed to remind you that the story of your little life has been included in the grand eternal story of redemption." ~Paul David Tripp

Thank you Lord for this beautiful reminder today :) Thank you for a pastor from Maryland who shared this quote this morning and thank you for a pastor's wife from Erie who took time out of her busy morning to go out of her way to pick me up :) Thank you for her lovely little girls that make me smile  all morning long :) Thank you for the opportunity to stand (and dance) next to these little girls as we worship You :) and thank for the blessing of sharing time with their family every Sunday :)  

Aya again . . .

* * * advanced warning - a flood of Prix de Lausanne videos may occur over the next few days . . . I haven't decided yet . . . Anyway, Aya is lovely :)

I called home to ask my Dad a few questions and he told me some of my siblings wanted to say hi.

 Zach -- "How is Caleb?"

Charlotte -- "What is your address? You'll be getting mail soon."

Joel -- "What do you think it would feel like to enter a black hole?"

interesting links

best bookstores in the world

dancing with family

looking God in the face

a way to understand the scale of some of  the Olympic tracks

"Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! 

O what a foretaste of glory divine! 

Heir of salvation, purchase of God, 

born of his Spirit, washed in his blood. 

This is my story, this is my song, 

praising my Savior all the day long; 

this is my story, this is my song, 

praising my Savior all the day long. 

Perfect submission, perfect delight, 

visions of rapture now burst on my sight; 

angels descending bring from above 

echoes of mercy, whispers of love. 

Perfect submission, all is at rest; 

I in my Savior am happy and blest, 

watching and waiting, looking above, 

filled with his goodness, lost in his love."

~Fanny Crosby, "Blessed Assurance" 

blessed assurance -- I don't need to live in worry or fear, I can live in full assurance of the beauty and eternal stability of the gospel

this is my story -- people love stories - they love to hear/read/see them and they love to tell them, it is so beautiful that my story is in fact the story of my Savior and I can share joy and friendship with others who have the same story :)

lost in His love -- I don't need to have any reservations about the way in which I interact with my Savior, I am free to be fully lost in His love

"To live beautifully from day to day is a battle all the way." 

~ Anna Lee Walters, The Warriors

source: http://soliroma.tumblr.com/post/75310181877

"One effect of the Technological Revolution has been to uproot us from the soil. We have become disoriented, I believe; we have suffered a kind of psychic dislocation of ourselves in time and space. We may be perfectly sure of where we are in relation to the supermarket and the next coffee break, but I doubt that any of us knows where he is in relation to the stars and to the solstices." 

~N. Scott Momaday, in "The Man Made of Words" 

"Optimist:

 someone who figures that taking 

a step backward after taking

 a step forward is not a disaster,

 it's a cha-cha." 

~Robert Breault 

Esmae decorated our window :) 

Those moments when being in three literature classes really means reading from different authors, in different cultures, at different time periods, in different genres with different stylistic elements, but about the same thing . . .

" . . . Once again/Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,/That on a wild secluded scene impress/Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect/The landscape with the quiet of the sky./The day is come when I again repose/Here, under this dark sycamore, and view/These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,/Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,/Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves/'Mid groves and copses . . . These beauteous forms,Through a long absence, have not been to me/As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:/But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din/Of towns and cities, I have owed to them/In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,/Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;/And passing even into my purer mind,/With tranquil restoration:--feelings too/Of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,/As have no slight or trivial influence/On that best portion of a good man's life,/His little, nameless, unremembered, acts/Of kindness and of love . . .."
~William Wordsworth, "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey" lines 4-14, 22-35

"Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth, I believe. He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience, to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it. He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the sounds that are made upon it. He ought to imagine the creatures that are there and all the faintest motions in the wind. He ought to recollect the glare of noon and all of the colors of dawn and dusk."
~N. Scott Momaday of the Kiowa tribe, in "The Man Made of Words"

"Nothing in my hand I bring, 

simply to the cross I cling; 

naked, come to thee for dress; 

helpless, look to thee for grace; 

foul, I to the fountain fly; 

wash me, Savior, or I die."

~Rock of Ages

"It gets to why letters are so valuable. There is this

tangible quality to holding the actual paper 

that these troops once held. . . . 

There is something very intimate about a letter." 

~Andrew Carroll (speaking about American war letters) 

"Legalism says God will love us if we change. The gospel says God will change us 

because He loves us." ~ Tullian Tchividjian

interesting links

these pictures are fantastic (the video is a bit weird, but definitely scroll down and look at the pictures)

nutrition myths

Matt Walsh has an article in Huffington Post :)

the search for silence

 

ah. lines.

source: http://soliroma.tumblr.com/post/74989917073