Joyeux Noel!

It was a day of planes, trains and automobiles, but I made it! 700 miles of travel, and I’m home for Christmas. Born with a penchant for the dramatic, I had to fly in on Christmas Eve- my life is a movie, and that’s what you do, right? Regardless, I am home, typing away in my childhood bedroom, simultaneously loving and dreading it at the same time. I get homesick when I’m here; I think that my heart knows that I can never really “live” here again, and therefore homesick is more like a sad, childhood nostalgia. At the same time, I’m glad that I have a home to come back to, both physically and emotionally. Hug your family, smile, take a deep breath. Have a happy holiday.

LiveBlog! Hurricane Sandy.

7:15 pm, 10/29 My life is pretty much shut down for the next few days, but I’m okay, and still have power (and internet!) so I’m not doing badly. Time to watch some musicals, and call my friends in less damp places. Stay warm, and dry, everyone! Be safe!

7:24 pm, 10/29 The building that collapsed on 14th and 8th is 19 miles away. I'm good.

7:35 pm, 10/29  

7:48 pm, 10/29 Hurricane anthem!

9:50 pm, 10/29 Watching Yentl and knitting. As one does.

11:19 pm, 10/29 Finished Yentl, talked with mom on the phone... Something she mentioned was how cold it is in North Carolina; it's actually in the 60's here, so power outages would be inconvenient, although it's not as though we're in a blizzard. Staying warm isn't as much of an issue, thank goodness. Most of Manhattan is out of power, but everyone I keep hearing from is doing fine, even those without power, throughout Brooklyn, SI, the Bronx and Queens. The real problem is that the power went out at NYU's hospital, and their backup generators are down as well. Keep them in your prayers. Wind and rain have mostly died down here, and supposedly it's quieted down on the Upper East Side as well.

5:30 am, 10/30 The problem with this hurricane is that it's letting me be nocturnal, which I love. Yesterday I slept in until the afternoon, (had been up until 4am) and I have the next few days off from work. PLUS, (Sandy Bonus!) All public transportation has been shut down, so I'm not going anywhere. Therefore, I can pretty much be nocturnal until Thursday. It's going to be an icky habit to get out of later, but hey. I'm having fun while I can!

Coming at you LIVE- from... Well...

Guess who has two thumbs and will be in North Carolina in about 12 hours? This gal! ;) I'm heading back to see my family for a few days... Going to the beach, and enjoying the mountains, before I hike back up to this crazy city, write three books, and move around the world in February.

Yep. February.

I'm [planning on] moving to Sydney in February instead of July, in order to help plant a church with my pastors here in New York. I'm really excited, and will never say no to travel.

I've lived in New York for a year, now. Every day, the skyscrapers still make me smile, and I know that I'm a city girl at heart. The journey from North Carolina to New York (and the stops along the way) sometimes feels like it took forever, and yet I can remember sitting on my bed at home, looking out my window at the trees and my bags, packed on the floor, desperately wanting to cancel the whole thing. Call school, tell them I'm not coming after all, give my scholarship money to someone else.

But I didn't. I leaped, not sure how my landing would be, and I'm better for it. I'm sure that I will have the same feelings next year when I move even farther away than New York, but I'm going to cross that ocean when I come to it. Literally. For now, it's just me on my computer, typing away, drinking too much caffeine, and daydreaming.

Gotta go pack.

Later!

Seasons of love.

Last season, my life was a bit different. I had everything that I needed, and more; my reliance on God was for my emotional stability, and direction towards the future.






 It’s funny how we take so much for granted. 

I’m in a phase in my life right now where my reliance on God has become pretty... overwhelming. My reliance has gone from the emotional, to the emotional and the physical, and I am gently reminded that I only like to pretend that I have everything together. As my mom put it, “God works things out in the nick of time- not necessarily when we want, but definitely when we need.”

Faith in action is believing that God will provide for you, say- something like an apartment, and trusting that you will have a place to sleep at night. This doesn’t mean that freak-outs won’t happen, (you ARE human, after all) but in that last hour, right as your heart is beating and you’re unsure that something will work out, and you can only be on the floor in front of God, giving up all control, he flips the switch and there’s an apartment available TODAY, 10 blocks from where you’re currently crashing, and- yeah, God is good.

Faith is knowing that God is good even when things look hopeless. God did not provide for me because I said my prayers the right way or because I didn't curse or I paid my tithe on time- God provided for me because he loves me. That’s how I believe this thing works... God created the world out of love, and yeah- I don’t have the answers to why bad things happen to good people, or why there is hunger and poverty in the world, but I know that it’s my duty to help if I can, and sometimes even if I can’t. Because that’s what Jesus would do, and he was a pretty good guy.

I live in a chaotic world, interwoven with grace, and am constantly reminded that God is good, even when it doesn't look that way.


I am loved.