Sky Dancing

Walking the dogs was not what I wanted to do. Outside on a dark, cold night was definitely not where I wanted to go. I wanted to sleep. But I live in a family and my opinion is not law. So outside I went to walk dogs.

*Sigh*

I trudged through the snow, trying to convince the dogs that they should hurry without having to drag them through any deep drifts - more for my sake than theirs. Bored stiff and cold stiff I walked around the corner of the house. A chill wind welcomed me forbiddingly. Then.

*Gasp*

The sky was adance (it's a new word...the Storyfingers Revised Dictionary) with northern lights. (Now you understand why I could say ablaze!)

Green magic slipped, shaped, twisted; made a silent music as I turned to stone under enchantment. Vibrant color waved and danced freely, boasting unreplicable beauty. I wouldn't have known if the dogs had tied me with their leashes and run away until I tripped when I tried to walk.

Mean while my conscience poked, jabbed, screamed and all but hit me upside the head to get my attention. Reluctantly I ran to the window to make my family aware of the beauty they were missing. Whether my muffled shouting and wild gestures actually meant anything to them, I remained unaware. Duty performed, I charged across the yard to get ouside the shelterbelt which hampered my view. I was soon joined by family members whose broken-record Oo-ing and Ahhhh-ing disturbed the night like small but self-important ripples in a lake.

I don't live on a lake but the image was to good to pass up.

I remained spellbound (and frozen) longer than anybody else, but it was worth it to see the northern lights. Later, my little brother asked for some pictures of the northern lights (since we can't see them extremely well from our home) and I showed him these images.

I love how bright the lights get further north.

Isn't the dancing and motion of the lights breathtaking?

I only saw green lights, so I had to find some pictures with more variety for my own sake.

A lot of the time they went straight up like this. I didn't notice any spectacular curls or twists.

*Yawn*

I went to bed a happy person.

Book order

My eternal gratitude to those 3 (three?!) faithful friends who actually took the time to vote. I'm giving you a list of the books that the first sentences were from - you are now obligated to read the books you voted for. Notice that there is no 11th book. Ah. The sad truth is that my short story didn't pass the first sentence test. (Inna, I had hoped for better things...) Sigh.

1. The Fellowship of the Ring J. R. R. Tolkien

2. The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley.

3. A Single Shard by Linda Sue park

4. Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer Wolff

5. Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss.

6. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

7. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

8. Crazy Love by Francis Chan with Danae Yankoski

9. The Search for Delicious by Natalie Babbitt.

10. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

First Sentence Test.

This is an intense test. It takes lots of studying to pass it. It takes tons of practice. But it takes even more skill. It's a short test, but you'd probably sweat buckets waiting for results from the FST. It's called the First Sentence Test.

It works like this. Judges vote on whether or not they would read your book and the answer is entirely based on their opinion of the first sentence.

Don't worry though. Today you're a judge. I'm providing you with the first sentences from several different books. They'll be numbered, so all you have to do is read the sentence, find the corresponding poll (also numbered) and vote. You will need to select 11 answers to vote on each book. Take note of how you voted for each (or some) sentence(s) and leave a comment regarding why you voted that way, or what you think of the sentence. To avoid scientific variables and all that jazz, I'm not giving you the authors or the book titles.

1. "When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton."

2. "Sylvie had an amazing life, but she didn't get to live it very often."

3. "'Eh, Tree-ear! Have you hungered well today?' Crane-man called out as Tree-ear drew near the bridge."

4. "Now that it's over, we are telling."

5. "Either this will ring bells for you, or it won't."

6. "In a city called Stonetown, near a port called Stonetown Harbor, a boy named Reynie Muldoon was preparing to take an important test."

7. "My father's family name being Pirrip, and my christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip."

8. "What if I said, 'Stop praying'?"

9. "In his workroom at the top of the tower, Decree, the Prime Minister, was pacing up and down."

10. "Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived right where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed by alders and ladie's eardrops and traversed a little brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum; itprobably  was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof."

11. "Deep in the soul of my family is a trait that lies hidden for most of the year but becomes manifest in mid-November."

(Pr)Icy Starlight

Ttttttttooooooodddaay................IIIII mmmmmeeeeaaaann toooonight, *pauses to blow furiously on fingers*...I went ouside for my first observational lab in my Astronomy course. I appologize for the wacky spelling, my fingers were a bit numb.

I'll provide you with the story.

I had the advantage--for such you could easily call it--of not being able to do the observation right away. Basically, a bunch of people who are taking this online class with me did the observational rather half-heartedly, or on a cloudy night, and my professor sent out an email warning us that we were expected to see more than three or four constellations! (He didn't put it so gently.) It behooved me to take note.

So tonight (and incidentally my father) found me practicing piano dilligently at about 8:15. Dad pointed out that the sky was clear and I shouldn't take my chances or sit on my duff (something I have done before). Sumarily he told me to make hay while the sun shines.

An aside: Sun shines? Truthfully? What is the world coming to? Something tragic, to be sure.

So I gathered a skymap that I'd printed off (here), a pencil and notebook, and booklight, a real flashlight, and a garbage bag-turned-desktop to protect my scientific studies from the snow.

I'll admit I was a bit queasy as I left the circle of light and the yard in favor of the open prairie/CRP where I could actually see the sky. It felt strange and alien to be outside of the protective windbreak of trees.

I crunched through and over the snow until I had a reasonable view of most of the sky. The snow was hard enough that my garbage bag did make a nice desktop. With the precision of a mad astronomist (astronomist sounds more mad than astronomer, agreed?) I arranged my notebook, pencil and skymap by the light of an LED flashlight stuck between my teeth.

The actual observing came by way of looking at the map with the light and then back at the sky while I muffled the light in my coat. The skymap, being such, has the directions reversed, so that facing north, east is to the left. It makes sense when held up against the backdrop of the stars, but that was difficult, and the light affected my night vision. The process ended up going something like this:

Locate a constellation on the map. Check the orientation of the constellation against the printed directions on the map. Close your eyes and try to re-orientate yourself to the sky. Lay down and look for the constellation, but only notice the few brightest stars. Sit up and look again at the skymap. *Lightbulb* Lay down and look at the sky. Pick out a few more of the stars in the constellation. Look at the skymap again. Oh, duh, those ones. Right there. Yep. I got it this time. Look back at the sky. Squint because you forgot to hide the light. Pick out a few more stars, enough to see the general shape of the constellation. Roll over and hold the light between your teeth as you try to write the name (usually borrowed from Greek and Roman mythology) with your mittins on.

Blow on your hands.

Start the whole process again.

It was a blast! I really did have a good time. I missed the Great Square of Pegasus, but I think that's because I got outside a little to late. Missed Jupiter too, but there was light pollution on the horizon where he was supposed to appear, so that wasn't my fault. Mom came out once I'd been out there a half-an-hour and we finished up together. I did find 13 constellations total.

I should mention the individual stars that I found too. Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, was out and in his glory. He was a part of...something Major. Can't quite remember. And Polaris, the North Star, was twinkling from his position on the end of a jeweled dipper.

Here's a picture of stars taken from a camera with a shutter left open. It shows how the stars rotate through the night.

Life is! (by Faith) Pt. 2

I am just collecting my thoughts as I write this so don't criticize me for thinking abstractly or drawing strange connections that don't relate. This is a rought draft that's published.



Yesterday during my devo's I was unsure what to read in my Bible. I wanted something that would make sense. I wanted something that I hadn't been reading over mindlessly for a few weeks already. I wanted something that would give me another Life is! blog post. Finally I sacrificed all areas except the second one and started in on Romans 1.



I'm going to go re-read it now.



Only one verse really stood out to me last night: Romans 1:17 "For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, 'The righteous will live by faith.'" (This verse quotes Hubakkuk 2:4)



Then today as I read, I noticed that word so many more times. Romans 1:5, 8 and 12. "Through him and for his name's sake we received grace and apostleship to call people from among the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith...First, I thank my God...because your faith is being reported all over the world...that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith."



I gathered that we are to live lives of righteousness through faith. To organize this like an boring professor-ish lecture, I should present a working definition of faith. I won't be elaborate. Read Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."



What questions remain? How do we live by faith? What do we do that requires faith?

I'm really not going to answer the questions, I'm just going to put down my insights about faith and you determine if you still have questions (which you then procede to leave posted as comments.)



"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certian of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead." Hebrews 11:1-4



Wouldn't you like to leave a legacy like that? Wouldn't you love to have people talking about you and your faith after the great-grand children who attended your funeral are dead and gone...2,000 years after your favorite niece sang that horrible swinging tune at your funeral...all those years and people talk about your faith and not the flowers on your casket! That's what I'm talkin' - sign me up!



Moving on.



"And without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exixts and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." Hebrews 11:6.



That is a powerful verse. Read it again.



Stop and think about it.



We can't live as Christians without faith. It just doesn't work. It's like trying to make a picture-perfect puzzle without using all the pieces. Not gonna happen.



As I was reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan I came across this question. "What are you doing right now that requires faith?"

For me, it takes faith to serve God. I want to do what I want to do so that I achieve what I want to achieve. But it takes all my faith to stop inviting Self to drive my car and make him sit in the back seat (or lock him in the trunk.) It's hard to keep reminding myself that God has a plan for my life, and it is the best plan possible for me. It won't always be what I want it to be, but it will be His plan, and that is all I need to know. In theory. In truth, I am constantly asking Jesus to pull over so I can run back and unlock that trunk. Ish-ta. Horrible idea. It never works out the way I think it should. I usually end up crying and clutching the keys on the side of the road, or handing them back to Jesus and leaning my aching head on his shoulder.

I want to leave this as a challenge to us.

"What are we doing right now that requires faith?"

Related blog post by a friend.

Today I did.

Today I opened the window. The air was so fresh! When the cool breeze washed in and over my bare toes, it felt like summer. Somehow when I'm in my bedroom with the window open the outside always seems so much more mystical and desirable than when I'm anywhere else in the house.

Saturday: Today I wrote a letter to a friend who'd expressed that she was struggling with a lot of stress. I shared some verses and expressed my prayer that they be a blessing to her.

Thursday: Today I named a squirrel. I had named him the other day: Cocky. Somehow that didn't seem right. At first, the word that stuck in my brain was "Shuttlecock" but...honestly? A squirrel named Shuttlecock? I decided to think about it for a while. Then as I mulled it over I mispronounced it "Coddleshuck." What more considering did I have to do?

Friday: I should inform you that some other things that I see often but have no relation to myself have also been named, unbeknown to themselves or their owners. Example: The German Shepherd that lives at the house on the corner--exactly which corner being irrelevant--has been dubbed "Roverandom" which is stolen from a book title (by J. R. R. Tolkien. Read it.) Also, a small child who leaned out of a window and called to me to day has been named "little Red" because of his shirt. Cute little tyke!

Today I packaged up my books to send back to Northwestern College. Northwestern is a good college, but it felt very good to be shipping books back to them. I heard of a friend who took his out to the rifle range and shot them up. Afterward he took a red marker and drew drips of blood. Morbid, yes, but almost an inviting idea sometimes.

Sunday: Today I went to a friend's house and, together with several mutual friends, proceeded to dig a snow fort. Since there were so many of us, there ended up being a few useless cubby holes, but two of us actually coordinated efforts and the end result was that there was a tunnel through Snowy Ridge and a room on one end. Highlights of that evening included: I lost my mitten. Caleb did a back flip off the snow pile - it was a tense moment, he landed on his elbows. We had at least 5 or 7 intermittent snowball fights. I ended up being the first one through our tunnel when we finally broke through. I crawled through on my belly with my coat unzipped and it felt good!

What did you do today? (Or yesterday, or last week. You can see I wasn't very picky.)

Life is! (not Random) Pt. 1

10 minutes ago Mom said "Gianna, it's time for you to be in bed." To my credit, I am. So is the laptop. I can explain! I sat down to have my devotions when suddenly I was violently overwhelmed in an ocean wave of words. Whereupon I calmly took out my handmade wooden pen and wrote. My entry was largely regarding life in a less-than-general sort of way. Read on.

"Every time I enter a new situation I have new emotions, new stresses and a new monocle. Each time something different happens, I respond in a different way. In short, where I am, what I am doing and what happens to me interpret how I view life. I have thought all of the following at least once before.

"Life is beautiful. Life isn't fair. Life is terrible. Life is embarrassing. Life is very sad. Life is awesome. Life is good. Life is stressful. Life is easy. Life is hard. Life is insane.

"But each time, I interpreted all of life through a stained and limited monocle. Now the question becomes How are we to view Life according to God's intentions?"

That was inspiring. I've decided to look for God's view(s) of life throughout the Bible (this does not mean I will be reading the Bible in a month or anything) and write about them for all to read.

The first scripture that came to mind was Jeremiah 1:5-10, "'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.' 'Ah, Sovereign Lord,' I said, 'I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.' But the Lord said to me, 'Do not say 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,' declares the Lord.
Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, 'Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.'"

I know that's a lot, but what I got out of it is that

"Life is not Random."

I know that some of you are instantly protesting my boldness. You like Random! He's your constant companion, your closest confidant, etc. Randomness in creativity, projects, photography, writing; that is not what I'm discussing. I think that God clearly says those verses that our lives are not happenstance. God puts us in situations for God's glory. God gives you gifts for His magnification. God gives you friends and acquaintances who need the words that you have to speak, the pictures you have to draw, the doodles you have to doodles, the fish you want to catch...(ok, ok. I give on that one.)

But seriously. Before we even boasted of being 2 cells worth, God knew us. Before the doctor said, "It's a girl(boy)!" God had set apart your audience. God had and still has a plan for my life and your life.

Before I tuck in and hit my snooze button, I have polish up this facet of our newly discovered, many-faceted gem. No spiritual information is really useful until you can apply it to your life in a meaningful way. So how does Life's lack of Randomness enhance our remaining time on this planet?

This is the time where you hear how I think this can be applied, and then you leave a comment to let me know how you agree, disagree, or can add to my thoughts.

My 'umble opinion: Knowing that God has a plan for my life is reassuring. I can pray for guidance with confidence, knowing that there is a plan and that if I keep seeking His will, I will not stray from it. Also from time to time I sit down beside the trail for a moment and look back down the mountainside to see how far I've come.
When I see things in hindsight, I'm able to recognize how things that I regarded as discouraging and things that I thought must hinder God's plan were really surprises designed specially for me. A rock in the trail may have forced me to walk further - but then my detour brought me through a beautiful copse of birtch. Missing the bank and landing in the stream seemed pointless at the time but my wet footprints left a guiding mark on somebody's map.

*Yawn* "Goodnight."