I am constantly amazed at my friends. Not just that they are there, that they have stuck around for so long but also at the people that they are.
When wedding is over, the one thing I will give thanks for is the fact that the whole business of organizing it has really shown me who my friends are. And I am honestly amazed.
I don't think I ever expected my friends to stick around for me for so long. I've known some of them 10 or 12 years now .... and I'm still thankful for them.
*
The only thing that amazes me more is the sheer amount of help and love Mr Grey and I are receiving from our church group. Mr Grey and I haven't always been in this church; in fact, all things considered, we're still new-ish and in the last couple of years, we've really struggled to settle in.
One of the things we confessed to each other not too long ago, was that we'd each made the decision to quietly give up one of our other extra curricular activities.... so that we could invest our whole heart in the church group. Otherwise it would be too easy to get distracted by another group and have it "fulfil" all our social needs and just simply go to church group out of a sense of duty.
Plus in between work and other commitments, if we invested our time in other groups, there simply wouldn't be enough time to go around to church group as well.
It's so odd that we both made the same decision without even consulting each other but I'm so glad we did.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
on Christ and marriage
Marriage is not mainly about prospering economically; it is mainly about displaying the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his church. Knowing Christ is more important than making a living. Treasuring Christ is more important than bearing children. Being united to Christ by faith is a greater source of material success than perfect sex and double-income prosperity.
So it is with marriage. It is a momentary gift. It may last a lifetime, or it may be snatched away on the honeymoon. Either way, it is short. It may have many bright days, or it may be covered with clouds. If we make secondary things primary, we will be embittered at the sorrows we must face. But if we set our face to make of marriage mainly what God designed it to be, no sorrows and no calamities can stand in our way. Every one of them will be, not an obstacle to success, but a way to succeed. The beauty of the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his church shines brightest when nothing but Christ can sustain it.
-- John Piper This Momentary Marriage
*
I've had a trying weekend - what with Mr Grey being very sick and needing care and attention, trying to run errands and various other commitments.....
But when i look back, i wonder if i could have been more patient, less crabby about it.
I mean, i did everything i was supposed to but I don't think my attitude was very good - i'm a person who loves her creature comforts and having to tend to a very sick person isn't the most cushy job.
i think i wrote before that Pray for Ian is one of my favourite blogs but it didn't really occur to me until now .... what an enormous leap of faith and love .... for Larissa to marry Ian.
And yet. what a crazy display of Christ's love it is too. Self sacrificial, looking heaven ward the entire time.... in the time I've been reading their blog, I think I've grown to appreciate heaven so much more and I've started looking heaven ward more and more too. Not in a crazy fatalistic way but in an appreciative way, knowing that what is sick and wrong with this world can never be cured without Christ.
So it is with marriage. It is a momentary gift. It may last a lifetime, or it may be snatched away on the honeymoon. Either way, it is short. It may have many bright days, or it may be covered with clouds. If we make secondary things primary, we will be embittered at the sorrows we must face. But if we set our face to make of marriage mainly what God designed it to be, no sorrows and no calamities can stand in our way. Every one of them will be, not an obstacle to success, but a way to succeed. The beauty of the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his church shines brightest when nothing but Christ can sustain it.
-- John Piper This Momentary Marriage
*
I've had a trying weekend - what with Mr Grey being very sick and needing care and attention, trying to run errands and various other commitments.....
But when i look back, i wonder if i could have been more patient, less crabby about it.
I mean, i did everything i was supposed to but I don't think my attitude was very good - i'm a person who loves her creature comforts and having to tend to a very sick person isn't the most cushy job.
i think i wrote before that Pray for Ian is one of my favourite blogs but it didn't really occur to me until now .... what an enormous leap of faith and love .... for Larissa to marry Ian.
And yet. what a crazy display of Christ's love it is too. Self sacrificial, looking heaven ward the entire time.... in the time I've been reading their blog, I think I've grown to appreciate heaven so much more and I've started looking heaven ward more and more too. Not in a crazy fatalistic way but in an appreciative way, knowing that what is sick and wrong with this world can never be cured without Christ.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
7 month itch
I have figured out the hard way that there is no way I can last more than 7-8 months at work without at least a 10 day break. By Month 6, I'm suffering from an extreme form of exhaustion, sleeping all the time on weekends and yet unable to get much work done.
Anyway. I'm holding out for just ONE more month before I get to .... run away somewhere but.... argh there is so much to be done in the ONE silly month!
At this point I just want to fast forward to the moment where i get to lie by the pool in a swimsuit and laze the day away.
However I take heart from the fact that things are moving, work has started on the long awaited kitchen and that I've found these cool recipes to try.
Easy sounding two step pasta
Lamb Tagine that doesn't require browning
Banana Cake
I suspect that the pasta might become a staple. I'm very fond of a quick and easy pasta for a weeknight meal - plus it sounds (sorta) healthy too.
My own kitchen! No more huntiing for spatulas and pots and pans through someone else's kitchen and having to ask where everything is! I will know! Because it will be MY KITCHEN!
Oh and Mr Grey's too of course :)
[insert appropriate territorial animal sound]
Anyway. I'm holding out for just ONE more month before I get to .... run away somewhere but.... argh there is so much to be done in the ONE silly month!
At this point I just want to fast forward to the moment where i get to lie by the pool in a swimsuit and laze the day away.
However I take heart from the fact that things are moving, work has started on the long awaited kitchen and that I've found these cool recipes to try.
Easy sounding two step pasta
Lamb Tagine that doesn't require browning
Banana Cake
I suspect that the pasta might become a staple. I'm very fond of a quick and easy pasta for a weeknight meal - plus it sounds (sorta) healthy too.
My own kitchen! No more huntiing for spatulas and pots and pans through someone else's kitchen and having to ask where everything is! I will know! Because it will be MY KITCHEN!
Oh and Mr Grey's too of course :)
[insert appropriate territorial animal sound]
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
3 + 2 + 1
How sad is it that in the 5 week run up to my own wedding, I am thinking - not of flowers or make up or whatever - but about the fact that I have these hurdles coming up before the day comes:
3 days of trial
2 hearings
1 mediation.
They might need to peel my sleeping form off Mr Grey's shoulder at the reception.
3 days of trial
2 hearings
1 mediation.
They might need to peel my sleeping form off Mr Grey's shoulder at the reception.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
reading and writing
I used to read other writers / bloggers and feel small. I love writing and reading - but somehow, I never had the drive to go get published or ... well, yeah, just get published.
In my life, I've only ever sent one piece off to be published at a local poetry journal and once that was done and my curiousity satisfied, I stopped. It was there - in some kind of print and it was enough.
It's odd but there it is. I just don't really have anything I want to say badly enough to write it all down.
The one thing I do like about my job is that it involves writing - lots of writing. I like it when it's just me, a blank screen and my keyboard. I like shaping the arguments, finding the right ... shape to the whole story that I want to tell.
This place is just for the bits of non work writing that happens to spill over.
*
Ok so I've been on a non-fiction sprint lately. Read the Steve Jobs biography and now reading sl-o-owly through 'The Struggle for Europe' by Chester Wilmot.
WWII and the story of modern Europe definitely trumps the retelling of Steve Jobs' terrible and mostly weird behaviour.
In my life, I've only ever sent one piece off to be published at a local poetry journal and once that was done and my curiousity satisfied, I stopped. It was there - in some kind of print and it was enough.
It's odd but there it is. I just don't really have anything I want to say badly enough to write it all down.
The one thing I do like about my job is that it involves writing - lots of writing. I like it when it's just me, a blank screen and my keyboard. I like shaping the arguments, finding the right ... shape to the whole story that I want to tell.
This place is just for the bits of non work writing that happens to spill over.
*
Ok so I've been on a non-fiction sprint lately. Read the Steve Jobs biography and now reading sl-o-owly through 'The Struggle for Europe' by Chester Wilmot.
WWII and the story of modern Europe definitely trumps the retelling of Steve Jobs' terrible and mostly weird behaviour.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
clear skies
Dear world,
I am in such a good mood that I have astounded even myself.
Work has gone well, other things in life are trundling along as they should be, the sun is shining and my head is clear and I haven't even had any coffee yet.
Do you know how miraculous that is?
some weeks ago it was all foggy and where a skyline ought to be was a cloud of smog. Yes, not just fog but smog. Ugh.
Thank God its clear skies today.
Mr Grey and I have been reading and praying from this book lately (the non leather paper back version) and it has blessed both of us immensely.
A common problem for a lot of Christians is that they don't know how to pray according to God's will. Prayer time becomes this laundry list of wants and needs ..... when it shouldn't be.
There's a prayer from the book excerpted below.
Have a blessed weekend!
Di
*
O Lord, in prayer I launch far out into the eternal world, and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs over all evils on the shores of mortality. Time, with its gay amusements and cruel disappointments never appears so inconsiderate as then.
In prayer I see myself as nothing; I find my heart going after Thee with intensity, and long with vehement thirst to live to Thee. Blessed be the strong gales of the Spirit that speed me on my way to the New Jerusalem.
In prayer all things here below vanish, and nothing seems important but holiness of heart and the salvation of others.
In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, anxieties disappear, and are of as little significance as a puff of wind.
In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively thoughts at what Thou art doing for Thy church, and I long that Thou shouldest get Thyself a great name from sinners returning to Zion.
In prayer I am lifted above the frowns and flatteries of life, and taste heavenly joys; entering into the eternal world I can give myself to Thee with all my heart, to be Thine for ever.
In prayer I can place all my concerns in Thy hands, to be entirely at Thy disposal, having no will or interest of my own.
In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers, sinners, the church, Thy kingdom to come, with greatest freedom, ardent hopes, as a son to his father, as a lover to the beloved.
Help me to be all prayer and never to cease praying.
I am in such a good mood that I have astounded even myself.
Work has gone well, other things in life are trundling along as they should be, the sun is shining and my head is clear and I haven't even had any coffee yet.
Do you know how miraculous that is?
some weeks ago it was all foggy and where a skyline ought to be was a cloud of smog. Yes, not just fog but smog. Ugh.
Thank God its clear skies today.
Mr Grey and I have been reading and praying from this book lately (the non leather paper back version) and it has blessed both of us immensely.
A common problem for a lot of Christians is that they don't know how to pray according to God's will. Prayer time becomes this laundry list of wants and needs ..... when it shouldn't be.
There's a prayer from the book excerpted below.
Have a blessed weekend!
Di
*
O Lord, in prayer I launch far out into the eternal world, and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs over all evils on the shores of mortality. Time, with its gay amusements and cruel disappointments never appears so inconsiderate as then.
In prayer I see myself as nothing; I find my heart going after Thee with intensity, and long with vehement thirst to live to Thee. Blessed be the strong gales of the Spirit that speed me on my way to the New Jerusalem.
In prayer all things here below vanish, and nothing seems important but holiness of heart and the salvation of others.
In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, anxieties disappear, and are of as little significance as a puff of wind.
In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively thoughts at what Thou art doing for Thy church, and I long that Thou shouldest get Thyself a great name from sinners returning to Zion.
In prayer I am lifted above the frowns and flatteries of life, and taste heavenly joys; entering into the eternal world I can give myself to Thee with all my heart, to be Thine for ever.
In prayer I can place all my concerns in Thy hands, to be entirely at Thy disposal, having no will or interest of my own.
In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers, sinners, the church, Thy kingdom to come, with greatest freedom, ardent hopes, as a son to his father, as a lover to the beloved.
Help me to be all prayer and never to cease praying.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
the apple of my eye
It's only our second valentine's day.
Last valentine's I made him a fruit basket with stickers (see photo above) which i downloaded for free because I don't believe in commercialized Valentine's hoopla.
Then we went out and deliberately ate an awesome meal in a run down coffee shop near my place. There were no candles but there was really fantastic chinese double boiled soup.
I think my only regret is that we have so few photos together. I've been looking through the tumblr blog of an acquaintance and she takes gorgeous gorgeous photos of her trips, of her boyfriend, of the stuff they do together etc etc.
And the only thing i could think of was: darn I should've taken a photo of us with all that fruit. Plus I'd love some blue sky photo of us all smiley and happy together like the world is just candy dandy perfect.
But never mind.
I have every reason to believe that *ahem* ..... the best is yet to be :)
happy valentine's to all and sundry!
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