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Surprises in the soon to be a new year?

Is it really a new year?  Or just a new date to remember when signing things?  Anyway I was feeling restless as I lay under my comforter so here I am adding what will likely be my last post for the year.

How often do we surprise the people in our lives?

It's such a multi-faceted question I'm not exactly sure where to begin.  I guess with the incident that made this question come up for me.  Today I met with a friend for lunch, you know the kind of lunch you do when you are in your mid-twentys and can't have play dates anymore.  We probably hear more about each other than we actually get to spend time together and talking, so for the most part it was catching up and just figuring each other out.  It turns out we agree on many issues and are thinking/dealing with some similar situations, anyway that's off subject.

At one point we were talking churches and when she found out where I am currently attending she was surprised.  It just so happens to be a very conservative and subtle church, which I actually really enjoy and am strengthened by.  She was amazed by that and proceeded to give some adjectives about me, the only one of which I actually remember is "bubbly".  I guess she pictures me as a very out going, willing to take risks, out-there (in a good way) and "bubbly" person.  And I guess in some ways I am, but that's not who I really am at my core.

So that is one facet: by going somewhere or doing something contrary to others' impression of us.  But another facet which is more readily though of for the average person:  planning an event or visit with out informing the other participant ahead of time.  For this I wonder what the ratio is of how often the average Joe/Jane thinks up these things verses how often they can actually follow through.

I feel like I could think of a new way to surprise my family and friends every day, but I only get the chance to follow though less than half a dozen times a year.  Let me see, for 2008 I surprised: my best friend and my g-padres with a visit in May... okay so not even a quarter dozen surprises unless you count each person!  Really I guess it's only once a year I get a surprise in.  What will it be for 2009?

Going back to the friend from lunch... I wonder how often I surprise people in that way and I don't even realize it.  I mean I love change and surprises myself so maybe I do every day!  There is a part of me that is a definate drama queen, I mean come on who doesn't like to surprise everyone once in a while!  However I think the biggest surprise of all is that at heart I am a mild tempered little girl who is in desperate need of rescuing.  But I think that is an issue best left for another day!

A lot of nothing...

So, its a new day.  Litterally.  It's just after midnight.  I like to have random conversations but I don't get to have them often anymore. What makes something random?  Is it just because it doesn't flow with the previous line of conversation?  Or that it doesn't make sense to those who are hearin it?  I don't know because really there is always some way or another to fit any topic into conversation... at dinner we connected Johnny Cash with the infallibality of scriptures and then on to Shakespear.

So why do we eat really big meals on Thanksgiving?  And sometimes even get holiday pay... for not working?  Talk about really confusing!  Then there are these crazy people who will line up at 5pm for a sale at a store that doesn't open until 6am!  All of that just for things... most likely things they don't even really need.  For example do we really need big screen televisions if we are going to potentially have our house foreclosed?  Or if we might be loosing our job in the next round of layoffs do we really need a new luxury comforter set?

Why do people fall in love and have babies?  I know you can go back to the very basic Adam and Eve scenerio, but why do we continue this cycle?  There are millions, actually probably billions of people who are starving and don't have a place to call home, yet they/we continue to make more little people who will grow into big people and potentially have even more people with out food and shelter.  I'd be interested to know if there are trackable statistics on why people get married or have babies.  My thought is that if you really truly figured out why it would stem from the fact that it's what the generations before us did and they expect it of us.  Don't get me wrong I'm not saying I'm not going to get married and that I'm not going to have babies... although it might happen that way.  I just hope and pray I don't do it because that's what my parents did and their parents before them and their parents etc.

Well the natural flow has started and the feast has been processed.  It is ready to reappear in a new form.  Off to see Johnny!  Too bad it's not Johnny Cash!

How Close to the End Are We?

Tonight we had a sermon on Revelation 6.  It's about the 7 seals.  Here is my quick synopsis of the seals.

1. White horse... Everyone wants to be the conqueror

2. Red horse... War is ever present

3. Black horse... Economy is ever tougher

4. Pale horse... Death and hell is never full enough

5. Christian Martyrs... As if we don't suffer enough from the four horses

6. Earthquake... Our world has been turned upside down

7. Talked about in a later chapter

If you are still and quiet enough can you hear the hooves?  What about the martyrs' voices calling out for their blood to be avenged?  Are you trying to set our world right side up again?

Some days it's just too much and I want to scream, "Lord, take me now!  I can't take it!"  But I would rather be one who can take the time to work at setting the world around me right side up.  Maybe we are close to having that 7th seal... maybe it won't happen for generations to come.  We won't know until it's too late... what can we do to lift each other's spirits?

Father, make us strong so that we may stand the test of time.  Keep us strong so we may proclaim you Lord of all and continue the conquest to set our world right side up!   Amen and Hallelujah!

Another chapter in the book of my life...

Last saturday I turned the page to begin a new chapter.  Although the pages will be mostly colored with working from dawn to after dusk they will also be colored with the times as Ate Christine and what ever other adventures living with the Cajigas family will bring.

I know the last update was a while ago... so here goes a few glimpses back into the recent past.

July began with a long awaited trip out to see my parents in Arizona.  We didn't go see any fireworks, but we heard them as we played Mexican Train Dominoes with the neighbors.  We also re-toured the Senoran Dessert Musem and I saw the San Xavier Mission for the first time.  Then we ate dinner at one of the casinos in town and I turned $2 into $19.

The rest of July must have been kind of boring because I don't remember much of what I did.  But August is a whole other story!  August 2nd Loretta flew all the way to Detroit and we took off on a road trip to remember!  2200 miles round trip... Detroit, MI - Hamilton, ON - Niagra Falls, ON - Seneca Falls, NY - Bennington, VT - Manchester, NH - Kittery, ME - York Beach, ME -Boston, MA - Providence, RI - Bridgeport, CT - Stamford, CT - New York, NY - Jersey City, NJ - Philadelphia, PA - Barkeyville, PA - Sandusky, OH - Ann Arbor, MI - Grand Rapids, MI.  I have plenty of picture if you want to see them sometime you'll have to come over.  By the way that was all done and Loretta was on her way home by the 9th!  Just one week!

The rest of the month was pretty much spent packing up and moving a little at a time into the Cajigas's.  Last Saturday I officially moved out of my apartment and into their house.  We are still praying and hoping that things will work out... but I haven't been around much this week with school starting up again and Pesto sitting.

I guess that covers a lot for now... maybe before the month is over I'll have something more to say.  Who knows.