ouchy.

This happened today...


Thanks ridiculously heavy, swiftly closing, starbucks bathroom door, for slicing my fingers and bruising (and/or something worse) my fingers and their respective bones.

To lose one's voice...

is truly awful in either sense. Though I have had plenty of experiences with losing my voice figuratively, I had forgotten how powerless and frustrating it is to lose my voice literally as well.

For the past week, my body has been racked with illness. Racked, I say, because my body has felt entirely taken over by the "dark thing," that is, evil in molecular form, that is, pathogens. I have undergone the complete spectrum at this point: basic head cold, to flu-like all consuming achy-ness, to chest cold, to bronchitis, to sinusitis. I guess it can only get better from here, right? Oh please, Lord. May it get better.

Anyway, my vocal chords have been physically unable to phonate at all for the past 24 hours. There have been multiple occasions today in which I was extremely tempted to burst into tears or throw a mute temper tantrum. It is infuriating! It feels as if a part of my identity is gone. I cannot express myself. I cannot even begin to think about singing. I cannot communicate, and therefore truly commune with people.

At the restaurant today, I probably came off as a cold-hearted, disengaged bitch of a host since I had to avoid all communication with guests. And for those guests that insisted on talking to me, all I could do in return was smile, nod, and point to my throat. Ugh.

And so, after canceling a coffee date with a friend, getting work off at the store, and feeling entirely estranged from the world, I comforted my heart by reading A Wrinkle in Time...again. Comfort did ensue, as I was reminded of the simple reality of the fight between Good and Evil (the "Dark Thing"). I feel a bit like Meg after she tessered out of Camazotz and was racked with the lingering effects of the Dark Thing. Jealous as I currently am for an Aunt Beast to nurse me back to health, I was surprisingly encouraged and refreshed by the reminder of said fight and the fact that there is always hope. There is hope for this world, racked with darkness. There is hope for my heart racked with darkness. And, thank God, there is hope for my poor body racked with darkness.

Praise God for the light that "shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:5).

"My heart leaps up when i behold"

I am a storehouse of interesting things to blog about currently. If I am not careful, they will all spew out in this blog post. Here's to being careful...

Today was quite the eventful one. One of those with a vast array of contrasting events, emotions, people, and extraordinary experiences.

Brianna-my pseudo-sister, other-half, and a little piece of home-was with me in Seattle.



Brianna and I went to a place neither of us have been to: Discovery Park. Our excursion was thoroughly enjoyable. There's a lighthouse too!




As we were walking back to the parking lot, unknowingly enjoying ourselves by making various rhythms with our stomping, we approached a very broken-into car. As I proceeded to freak out, we discovered that ALL of Brianna's luggage and both of our purses were stolen out of the trunk of the car. Literally hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of Bri's stuff was stolen. We filed a police report, during which we learned that there were two other reports within the past few hours of cars broken into. Oh good. We eventually got Bri to the airport, thanks to a nice friend in Seattle, who drove us and loaned Bri some money to change her flight. As BriBri is talented at haggling, she talked her way onto her plane without any form of ID and is now safely home.

After that drama, I decided to de-stress at a coffee shop and start on David Copperfield (since my MacDonald treasury is in my stolen purse!!) During my time sipping coffee and reading/talking with random people, it began to snow! Fremont magically transformed into a winter wonderland within hours.

So naturally, I took a midnight walk around my neighborhood. Oh the loveliness! How peaceful and silent everything is. And the crunch beneath your feet. And flakes on your eyelashes. And whirling white everywhere. My walk was delightful.

As you can see, the horror and violation of being stolen from, was drastically contrasted with the magic and delight of snowfall. From shock to enchantment in a matter of hours.

Perhaps everyone needs one experience of being stolen from to remember how fleeting life and it's material possessions are. Things* rot and are destroyed. Beauty, however...

*I suppose that is easy for me to say, since my stolen things were nothing compared to Brianna's.