Hand-Me-Loves
Happys and Sads, Part Due
-When I sit on the bus, my feet don't reach the floor. It makes me feel childish.
-Sometimes, the bus just doesn't see me and passes by. Then I have to wait another 10 minutes...and it's getting cold.
-It's dark when I wake up now
-Two midterms and a paper in the span of about a week and a half.
-UVa getting our butt kicked by UNC for homecoming. :( :( This is double sad.
-Counting incidents of diarrhea...every time we analyze data we seem to be counting this. Seriously. And it gets old. Can we please count some other outcome every once in awhile???
Happys:
-Having class outside in the grass on a sunny fall day.
-Mom and Dad spending almost three weeks on the East Coast and getting to see them 4 times! (Great visits, free food, free oil change!!, free wine, free hugs, lots of love)
-My best friend in Washington getting engaged!!!! (And asking me to be a bridesmaid) LOVE YOU EM!
-Fall break. (AKA, Fall "Two days off but there's a paper due the day you get back")
-Running on the trails in the Duke forests.
-Expanding my mind.
-Running into brotherkind on campus sometimes and getting really excited, even though we intentionally see each other most days...
-My friend Halley from UVA moving to Durham :)
-Two beautiful fall weekends away- first with my family in the mountains, then in Cville with almost all my best friends.
-My awesome roommate bringing new lamps from home so our apt isn't dark anymore...followed by said roommate doing a jig in the living room to celebrate the new lamps and how bright our apt is.
-Pumpkin season.
-Scarves, Hats, Boots, Jackets. (These are the boots my parents are getting me for my birthday!)
-Surviving two midterms and a big paper in about a week and half.
-Team "Other". Members: Read, Write, Think, and Eye Candy...
-Gelato study sessions (Can you say pumpkin chocolate chip gelato? Changed. My. Life.)
-Oh, and did I mention Adam is moving to N.C. in about 2 weeks?!!!! That's a happy, I guess. :)
Randoms: (New Addition)
-One of my best friends, who is a speech pathologist, explained to me what makes me snort when I laugh. Phew. Now I know. It's my soft palette's fault.
-The other day Adam asked me, "Are you at the Nerdery?" Aka, the library (where yes, I do spend a lot of my time). What exactly was he implying?
-Nirupama's random quotes: "China, what diseases to you have??" "I can't be a doctors without borders." "I think I'm brain fried."
-I eat A LOT of Acorn Squash. I want to make this soon:
Life here is still crazy. But still so wonderful. Can't wait for more happys, sads, and hopefully a lot more randoms in the months to come!! Happy Fall.
The Last SHALL Be First
More specifically, I had a conversation about how people without faith deal with hopelessness, especially in reference to global health. No doubt, everyone deals with difficulty in life, some much more than others. And many people do not believe in God.
I love Brooke Fraser. If you don’t know her, you should. This song is from her new album and I cannot stop listening to it. There is a line about little ones thirsting that is so powerful to me, particularly because of my passion for clean water. This song speaks beautifully to the reality that, it is often hard to explain why things are the way they are. But that we can be sure that God has a heart for the "least of these".
3 Hours and 1/2 Tank Gas
A Little Ironic
Yet, now I write a blog. Several times a week I dump onto it anything and everything that goes through my mind, slightly edited of course.
Then,
I let people read it.
A Weekend Among The Hills
My family and I retreated to the mountains this weekend. We ate good food. Drank good wine. Played a lot of bananagrams. Watched sports. Walked. Rode Horses. Snuggled. Said ridiculous things like: “For all he knows, we're the pope.” Or “Mom! You’re in your IPOD on EVERY pic.” Or my fave, “I feel so stupid. I'm reading a book that is written in first person dog. And he just used a word I don't know.” But nothing about this weekend was more special to me than this:
We met up in Charlottesville and drove up skyline drive. Every season God made is beautiful. But folks, God painted an absolute masterpiece when he created the Shenandoah Valley in the middle of fall. We stopped almost every ten minutes to pull over and take pictures. Unfortunately, true to any awe-inspiring work of the Creator, pictures cannot do it justice.
I think fall is my favorite season. Not because it’s when I have my birthday. Not because of pumpkin everything, fall drinks at Starbucks, the start of college basketball season, getting to pull out my countless hats, scarves, and coats. And not because of Thanksgiving or the start of Christmas season. I think it’s my favorite season because to me, it paints a picture of God completing a work that He has started. When I look out at hill upon hill upon hill of brilliant color, I hear God saying:
“You were just a small seed. All you had to offer was a morsel of faith. But I have nurtured you, pruned you, and grown you up into something strong and secure. And now, I am going to use you to paint the most beautiful landscape imaginable. It will be a symbol of the work of my hands and its UNMATCHED beauty.”
Maybe they are just trees.
Maybe they are just almost dead trees.
But to me they symbolize the pinnacle of what they were created to be.
And they illustrate God's all-encompassing beauty.
"One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all of the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD."
Psalm 27:4
Here are a few pictures:
The Little Things...
Dear coffee drinkers/addicts/must-have-its,