Dear readers, Let me just reiterate that you are very dear.
If you were not very dear, I would not let you read this.
But you are dear. So I will let you read this.
If you're reading this blog, I assume you know me. You're probably aware of some of the good, bad, and very, very ugly events of my life.
Today, I would like to tell you about a very,very good one.
However, it might not be the kind of good news you'd expect.
A very important part of my life has changed.
And before you even start, No, I am not pregnant, catholic, or dying.
I'm simply changing my obligations and focusing on other things.
In other words, I'm not really in a relationship anymore.
Now before you get up in arms and get ready to chew someone out, let me ask you to refrain. I'm so glad things turned out this way. So is the other person involved. Life became too stressful for us and at our age, the obligations were just too much. I'm proud of the guy I love, and I think he made an extremely mature decision. Whoever he ends up with, be it me or someone else, she will be a very lucky woman indeed.
Do we still like each other? Yes.
But that's not the important part. We are best friends, first and foremost, and that's all that we will focus on for now.
Let me tell you what happened last night.
I was surprisingly happy at how things turned out, although there was a slight twinge of sadness. I guess the best way to explain it was that my brain was perfectly happy and content, but my heart was stuck in the pit of my stomach. I knew things were happening for the better, but at the same time I knew I'd miss the way they were. At that point, I knew what I had to do. I turned my nightstand light on and reached for my Bible. Normally when I need a quick uplifting, I'll go for the Psalms. So I turned to the Book of Psalms, and read the first one I stopped on.
What a perfect passage.
"Then I realized that my heart was bitter,
and I was all torn up inside.I was so foolish and ignorant—I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you. Yet I still belong to you; you hold my right hand.You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny. Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth.
My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever." Psalm 73: 21-26
After I read that, I turned off my light and thanked God for being who He is. I thanked Him for holding my right hand and guiding me. He knew what I needed better than I did. He will make all things new.
Ad astra per aspera, dear readers.
~Caroline
Friday, August 19, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Kangaroos Came Into This on Accident
Once upon a time, a young man lived in a forest all alone. Most young men live in cities, or towns, or at least in a forest with someone to keep them company. But not this one. There were a few occasional bears, or even a kangaroo, but nothing much more than that. A small family of mice lived only a mile away, and he went to visit them sometimes when he had run out of anything else to do. However, as a whole, it was a rather boring life. It seemed rather like this young man would move into town, so he could see people, but he didn't. Namely because where he lived, there weren't any towns.
Now that might seem odd to the average reader, namely because it is indeed odd. But since most things in life are odd to some extent or another, we'll leave it at one more oddity and move on. What might you move on to in a rather uneventful story of a man living completely alone in the woods who seems to have appeared there one day and whose only friends are a family of mice and a few stray large mammals? Well, for one thing, there is his name. We haven't mentioned that yet.
Now, you might well wonder what a man living in the middle of a forest with all those things mentioned a few times above might do with a name. First, he had it above his door (which presents another topic we can move onto later - his house) and had carefully engraved it onto all his dishes and embroidered it onto all his clothes. Now, this may indeed seem strange, since there was no one else with which he could get his laundry mixed up with. He always hoped someone would come along though, and so whenever a new article of clothing was achieved, he embroidered his name on it.
Achieved you say? Yes, in this part of the world, clothing was most certainly achieved. In fact, it was hunted down and subdued before becoming even remotely wearable. Thus, many of his clothes had holes in them before he even started wearing them, especially the tougher ones like overcoats and button down vests. They always resisted being caught. He could understand the overcoats, but it must simply have been pride that kept the vests from surrendering sooner. Very prideful types, vests. Much higher class than a mere T-shirt or some other commonplace creature.
He would usually do laundry once a month (he was an accomplished hunter, and had quite an extensive wardrobe) on whichever day he thought was probably the first of the month. Most of the time he was wrong, but since he didn't know that we'll leave him be. Laundry day was the best and worst day of the period he declared a month. It was good, because he suddenly ad a renewed wardrobe full of freshly washed and subdued clothes. It was bad, because he had to wash and subdue all the clothes.
First he had to take any he was currently wearing off. This isn't really very shocking at all, since there was no one to see him (except his clothes.) He put them all in a basket and carried them down to the river, where he flipped the basket upside down before the clothes caught sight of the water. Then, one at a time, he'd pull an article out and wash it, before tying it up securely and hanging it to mellow. After the clothes were mellowed, he could think about drying them.
So it happened that one day this young man was out washing and subduing his clothes. He had only a few measly articles left, most of the more prideful and tough ones having already been finished. (He wore a lot of prideful clothes, since he prided himself on being a good hunter.)
And we'll leave you there for now, but maybe something else will happen. You'll have to look closely though, his country has a tendency to disappear.
~Not Caroline
Now that might seem odd to the average reader, namely because it is indeed odd. But since most things in life are odd to some extent or another, we'll leave it at one more oddity and move on. What might you move on to in a rather uneventful story of a man living completely alone in the woods who seems to have appeared there one day and whose only friends are a family of mice and a few stray large mammals? Well, for one thing, there is his name. We haven't mentioned that yet.
Now, you might well wonder what a man living in the middle of a forest with all those things mentioned a few times above might do with a name. First, he had it above his door (which presents another topic we can move onto later - his house) and had carefully engraved it onto all his dishes and embroidered it onto all his clothes. Now, this may indeed seem strange, since there was no one else with which he could get his laundry mixed up with. He always hoped someone would come along though, and so whenever a new article of clothing was achieved, he embroidered his name on it.
Achieved you say? Yes, in this part of the world, clothing was most certainly achieved. In fact, it was hunted down and subdued before becoming even remotely wearable. Thus, many of his clothes had holes in them before he even started wearing them, especially the tougher ones like overcoats and button down vests. They always resisted being caught. He could understand the overcoats, but it must simply have been pride that kept the vests from surrendering sooner. Very prideful types, vests. Much higher class than a mere T-shirt or some other commonplace creature.
He would usually do laundry once a month (he was an accomplished hunter, and had quite an extensive wardrobe) on whichever day he thought was probably the first of the month. Most of the time he was wrong, but since he didn't know that we'll leave him be. Laundry day was the best and worst day of the period he declared a month. It was good, because he suddenly ad a renewed wardrobe full of freshly washed and subdued clothes. It was bad, because he had to wash and subdue all the clothes.
First he had to take any he was currently wearing off. This isn't really very shocking at all, since there was no one to see him (except his clothes.) He put them all in a basket and carried them down to the river, where he flipped the basket upside down before the clothes caught sight of the water. Then, one at a time, he'd pull an article out and wash it, before tying it up securely and hanging it to mellow. After the clothes were mellowed, he could think about drying them.
So it happened that one day this young man was out washing and subduing his clothes. He had only a few measly articles left, most of the more prideful and tough ones having already been finished. (He wore a lot of prideful clothes, since he prided himself on being a good hunter.)
And we'll leave you there for now, but maybe something else will happen. You'll have to look closely though, his country has a tendency to disappear.
~Not Caroline
Monday, August 8, 2011
Have You Ever Noticed....
...That in order for a plant to produce fruit, a flower has to die?
In order for the plant to distribute that fruit, it has to fall from the branch?
And in order for the seeds within that fruit to grow, the fruit itself must perish?
Now I'm not about to get all metaphysical on you and say that "life is a great cycle" and "we are all one" or anything, but I think it's very important to remember that death is never the ultimate end of anything. Now this death can be the literal ending of life, or it can be the termination of something else: a relationship, a journey, a book series.
I will not sit here ( or lie here, rather; I wrote this post in bed last night around 10 PM) and tell you that death should be a joyful thing and if you're not partying after your fish gives up the ghost, you're a loser. I've known a fair share of losses over the short span of my 15-year-old life, and I can't say I really enjoyed any of them. However, I learned more during those moments of crisis than I ever have in the days when everything was hunky dory.
If you're going through a rough time or experiencing a loss, I feel for you. Really. I will cry with you, if you want. But keep your chin up, and try to focus on what you've gained instead of what you have to live without.
Ad Astra Per Aspera
~Caroline
P.S, one very important exception to this rule:
Nothing good will ever come from the end of Doctor Who.It is my firm belief that the angels in heaven will weep tears of crystal when that show concludes. Then again, I might get my homework done more efficiently without it....but is that really a good thing?
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