"The difference between the right word and the wrong word is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." --Thomas Kinkade, A Gathering Place

"Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit--wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad." --c/o Nick Lamain

"[Being in college and going on break] is like taking a baby animal out of the wild, babying and nurturing and spoiling it, and then releasing it back into the wild. During hunting season." --Kayla

"If I say 'exploration' and you write 'explosion', we are not communicating." --Tibebe

My World Civ prof is awesome. He's Ethiopian, and has a heavy accent. If you pay attention you can understand him, but sometimes it's a little tricky. He's aware of this, and so he stops every now and then to make sure that we correctly heard him on something. This was one of his examples of how we could be like ships passing in the night when it comes to communicating. 

"The place where God calls you is where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger intersect." --Frederick Buechner

"Oh gently lay your head upon my chest, and I will comfort you like a mother while you rest. The times can change so fast, but I will stay the same in the past, the same in the future, the same today. 

I AM constant, I AM near, I AM peace that shatters all your secret fears.

I AM holy, I AM wise, I'm the only One who knows your heart's desires." --lyrics from Jill Phillips' 'I AM'

"Whether you know it or not, you have a teaching philosophy." --PVD

"Alfred is the antichrist." --Dana

Piano Pedagogy with Dana Rumbarger, Marty Lamain, Paul Dyer, and PVD. Welcome to a semester of awesomeness. =]

"If you ever need help...I would probably be the equivalent of Morgan. Good for witty comments and the occasional accidental takedown." --Kalie

The second new Chuck of the year and I'm watching it with Leah--yay for weekly dates for Chuck-watching!!!

"WAIT--back up. There was a whale tied to the underside of a helicopter, and another helicopter came up and harpooned it--IN THE AIR?! And you act like that's normal?!" --Kayla

"This is my first pair of glasses! Proof that my parents hate me!" --Kalio

"What, are you going around the world in 80 days? Elton John callled--he wants his glasses back. Ozzy Osbourne and you would make great friends. I believe your spectacles will help you solve that case, Dr. Watson." --Kayla

"Babcock second floor--you're responsible for bringing vegetables." --Jim

*whips her head to look at me* "That'll be easy--you already HAVE farmville." --Kayla

This is the first Special Edition of QOTD--I've decided that whenever something monumental happens (world event anniversaries, someone's birthday who constantly provides me with quotes, etc), I'm going to put out a 'special edition' honoring that. Today's first Special Edition is brought to you by the fact that I'm moving back to school today, where quotes like these are just a normal part of every day. I'm so excited to get back to these girls. =]

"When your heart is involved it all comes out in moron." 

--Lorelai (Gilmore Girls)

"I've got good news for you. If you're still speaking to me by the time eternity gets here, I won't be dumb anymore." --Mom

Between my mom and me, there's a lot of dumb and mis-communication and word-making-up going on in our house. She solemnly informed me of the above while we were in Barnes and Noble one day last week. I thought it was a precious declaration of her love. =]

"So you're stalking me now?" 

"No, I'm just running into you in a premeditated manner."

--'When in Rome'

"You're too old to ground. Next time we want to punish you, we'll just take away the keys to your car. Or, if we really want to crack down, we'll take away your coffee in the morning--though that's really more of a punishment for us than for you." --Dad

What a comfort to know that 1. my parents still consider punishing me from time to time, and 2. they are so caring and nurturing as to rule out a form of punishment because it would be too unpleasant for them. Ah well--it's conversations like these that make the annals of our household swell and are good to pull out during family get-togethers as entertainment. What I'm worried about is that they'll whip out these stories on my wedding day and scare off my husband and/or his family. =]

"Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light." --Roethke

Think about it--all winter long, there are no flowers. But, all perennials sprout again in the spring, without fail, as though there had never been a winter. What is going on deep down in the earth? Somehow, inside of the seed/bulb/root, all flowers manage to keep life, though from the outside it appears dead. Shouldn't that be true of all of us? Though outside circumstances cause us to look dead, as long as there is some little light left inside of our soul, there is hope for rebirth and growth. 

"I hate the way you talk to me,

and the way you cut your hair.
I hate the way you drive my car,
I hate it when you stare.
I hate your big dumb combat boots
and the way you read my mind.
I hate you so much it makes me sick,
it even makes me rhyme.
I hate the way you're always right,
I hate it when you lie.
I hate it when you make me laugh,
even worse when you make me cry.
I hate it when you're not around,
and the fact that you didn't call.
But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you,
not even close,
not even a little bit,
not even at all." 

--'10 Things I Hate About You'

'How do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways...'

"A little child at mother's knee

Plies woolen strands and needles bright.

Small, eager hands strive earnestly

To fasten every stitch aright.

But soon perplexing knots appear

Which vex and hinder progress' flow;

Impatient fingers pull and tear, 

While ever worse the tangles grow.

How surely then in wiser hands

The roughest places are made plain!

How easy now the task's demands,

How wonderful the lesson's gain!

Thus, God, we bring our snarls to Thee; 

Though human sense and stubborn will

Oft clamor loud for mastery,

We hear alone Thy "Peace, be still."

--Edith Shaw Brown

"Though everything else may appear shallow and repulsive, even the smallest task in music is so absorbing, and carries us so far away from town, country, earth and all worldly thinking, that it is a truly a blessed gift of God." --Felix Mendelssohn

I'm getting ready to give my junior piano recital in a few weeks, and so today I gave my second "practice" recital. It was really informal, just playing through three of my four pieces, but it helped out my overall confidence--which was the whole point. No matter how difficult practicing is, no matter how badly I feel my music-making is going, when I sit down and give a performance, all that disappears into the background as I play and remember why I'm a musician.

“What is music, asked Walt Whitman, but what awakens within you when you listen to the instrument? And Jesus is the music of the reality of God, and faith is what awakens when we hearken.” –Bishop Kenneth Cragg

"You can't judge a book by its cover, Castle." --Beckett

"Yes I can--when it's MY book!" --Castle 

(from the TV show, Castle)

I am one of the prime offenders of the age-old adage, 'You can't judge a book by its cover.' Well, okay, I guess it can't be age-old, because actual books with covers date to the late 1800s. Not the point. The point is that I judge books by their covers (and also the print type, how small the print is, and the color of the paper), and it is unlikely that this will change. Why, you ask? Because I am continually rewarded by this, much less feel the consequences of it! Prime example: back in 2000, when I was merely 9 years of age, I was a summer camper for the first time. In the camp bookstore, I picked up a book (called Springs in the Valley), and bought it because the cover picture and the title were pretty. It sat on my bookshelf for years on end because it was WAY over my head. Then, probably six or seven years after I bought it, I picked it up and started using it (it's a devotional). It took another two or three years after that for me to really start grasping and comprehending and loving it. Fully ten years after I bought a book 'because it was pretty', I am reaping endless rewards from it! It is one of my favorite books, and in my opinion blows all other devotionals out of the water. (And this is coming from someone who traditionally is not a fan of devotionals.) So there you have it. There are many other examples of how I judge books (and other things) by their covers, but this is one fresh on my mind this morning, since I just read, once again, something in that devotional that blessed my heart. So, if you're looking for help in the area of wrongful and hasty judging of covers, I'm afraid this is not the place to come. =]

"Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart's desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patently for Him to act. 

The Lord directs the stops of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand." --Psalm 37:3-7a, 23-24

 

This particular collection of verses has been something of an anthem for me the past six months or so--it has turned into a refrain, a mantra, a passage that I go back to over and over again in my morning devotions. This is underlined, highlighted, and starred in my Bible, and the page it is on is worn and wrinkled with use and tears. It is an amazing promise from an amazing God.

"You know, you're like a thousand times as big as those bugs you're terrified of." --Dad

"Yeah, but it's like a thousand times grosser than I am." --Mom

All in all, I'd like to say that I'm fairly brave when it comes to bugs. I don't scream and fling my hands up into the air when they suddenly appear (unless it's ON my hand, then I do). But lifting my towel off the rack, in a dark room, as I'm half asleep and ready for bed, and seeing a not small spider scurry from underneath it is not what I'd call conducive to sleeping. Ah well--I slept anyway. But I threw down that towel to be washed, just the same.

"I don't like ultimatums." --Luke

"Well, I don't like Mondays, but unfortunately they still come around." --Lorelai, Gilmore Girls

Happy Monday, everyone.

"Do not let Sunday be taken from you...If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan." --Albert Schweitzer

"I was certainly in a state! 'Clogged with wishes.' I was wishing that my wishes were what God wished, and if my wishes were not what God wished, I wished that I could wish that my wishes would go away, but the wishes were still there." --Elisabeth Elliot (in Passion and Purity)

 

This is definitely the state in which I find myself currently. Elisabeth wrote this in reference to the period in time before she and Jim started courting, and that is similar to where I am now (though of course I have no way to know how my story will end, whereas she can write this in hindsight, knowing the outcome of marriage with her and Jim). It's interesting, isn't it? This place of not knowing, hoping, praying, despairing--it is something that is common with all humans when and if they find themselves in some form of love. Honestly, would Hollywood be the success that it is without this ubiquitous emotional state of agonizing? Movies, novels, music--I'd say at least 75% of the subject matter of modern Western entertainment includes this relatively unpleasant (but exciting) stage of love. And why should it not? Pretty much every human being on the planet can identify with this, at least on some level, and by nature we are drawn to that which is familiar; plus, in Hollywood films there is the added benefit that about 90% of the time, the agonizing ends in a happily ever after. What's not to like? That is how we all hope our misery will end: in the falling into our beloved's arms and waltzing off into the sunset. It is the tale of humanity that has been going on since world's beginning, and the tale that will repeat itself until the sun sets on time.

"You can't intercept a wink." --Me

"It's difficult. Though I just got a mental picture of what it would look like if you tried. BAM!--there's Mandie, two inches from your face: 'I saw that wink! You take it back!!" --Dad

"Three wise women would have: 

Asked directions,

Arrived on time, 

Helped deliver the baby,

Cleaned the stable, 

Made a casserole,

Brought practical gifts,

And there would be peace on Earth."

Today is Epiphany by the Christian liturgical calendar--the day that the wise men supposedly arrived to see the Christ Child. As I was sharing with my mom the funny quote I was planning on using today, she looked at me kind of funny and asked me if I really thought it was a good idea to mock the Magi on Epiphany. I calmly looked at her and told her that I wasn't mocking the Magi--I was mocking all men. She didn't think that was much better, and blissfully ignored the fact that I was kidding. Mostly. =]

"If thou could'st empty all thyself of self,

Like to a shell dishabited,

then might He find thee on the ocean shelf,

And say, "This is not dead",

And fill thee with Himself instead.

But thou art all replete with very thou

And hast such shrewd activity,

that when He comes He says, 'This is enow

Unto itself--'twere better let it be,

It is so small and full, there is no room for Me.' "

--Sir Thomas Browne

"Snarky. That's how you get friends." --Mom

"No, that's how you get attention." --Me

"Lydia Wickham. Ooooh--how well that sounds!" --Mrs. Bennet

I don't know about the rest of my unmarried girl friends, but I plead guilty on 'pairing' my crush's last name with my first name. Pretty much every girl does it at some time or another, right? And I must admit--some name combinations are MUCH better than others. Not that that's a good way to choose who you're going to spend the rest of your life with, but it's nice when everything else works well and the last name sounds good with the first. Just one of those things. =]

"Darkness may cover light, but that is not the same as putting it out. Whereas, to overcome darkness, all light needs to do is exist." 

--Cameron Dokey, in Sunlight and Shadow

"Yes, go, go--I would not wish you back again." 

--Elizabeth Bennet

This might sound like a depressing New Years quote, but considering all things it makes sense. 2010 was a big year for me--mostly on the dramatic side of things. I spent yesterday tying up some loose ends so that I could feel as though I was starting the new year fresh, with no hangers-on in the drama department. Here's to a 2011 that is blissfully drama-free, or at least drama-reduced. I hope and pray the same for all of you.