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| With all the crap going on in our country and in the world, I'm down. But it doesn't have to be that way. So for myself as much as for anybody, I'm going to focus this blog on how good this month is. October is undoubtedly and irrevocably my favorite month. I felt it begin to blow in last night when I was running: the cool crispness and dusty scent on the breeze. God paints the trees this month, giving them glory right before the winter, foreshadowing the rebirth in spring. Leaves fall on your head, brush your hair, and float down lazily, slowing time. And when they reach the ground, their crackling and crunching makes you feel autumn deep in your chest. They make your hands dig deeper in your pockets and your neck scruntch farther into your sweater, reveling in coziness-- the comfort of the disparity between inside and out. October ushers in some of my favorite holidays: Thanksgiving and eventually Christmas. And October leaves you no choice but to be thankful for God's provisions of food, clothing, family, and shelter and look to the reminder of hope in the birth of the Christ Child on Christmas morning. You can't get off the October road that leads to these things, but you don't want to. Yes, January isn't fun, and February outright sucks, but they're too far away to see or care about. The October road is too wonderful to care about anything else. And for crying out loud, who doesn't love the wonderful harvest of apples in October? Cider in spring is a complete faux-pas, but in October, it is essential. Apple pie in the summer may be nice, but how much better is the hot, sweet, crumbly taste in the October cool. And apples never have the same crunch in winter as they do in October. Camping in October is better than any other month: it's cool enough that fires give comfort, but it isn't so cold that you freeze your butt off. Many awesome people (my lady-friend, me, and Jacob) have birthdays in October. That increases its value a significant amount right there. And lastly for me, though this is not by any means an exhaustive list of October's merits, is that God is with us now, in October. Yes, he is with us in every month of every year. But now it is October, and now he is with us. That brings this October's value up immeasurably. The Father is with us while our economy is faltering; he is with us while we fight a demoralizing war; he is with us when morality is declining and when Christians turn away from the truth and when we look for leaders that can pull us out of the darkness. He is with us all of every day, and he will stay with us every October from now until the end. God loves us this October. And so Vayan con Dios | | |
| I've been in the desert for a month and a half, now. I think I may go blind when I get back to the green east. There'll be way too many colors for my eyes to process. Actually, it's not that bad. While I would never choose to live here, I can't deny that it has beauty. Ironing board flat washes that stretch for miles break on craggy, rust-colored mountains with no transitionary foothills. On the mesas, mounds of creosote bushes and scraggly mesquite trees form islands in the sand. Lizards, quick as thought, race among these islands, looking for food and evading predators, and shovel-nosed snakes slither through the sand while their sidewinding cousins make ladder tracks in it. The desert orchestra typically rests in unassuming silence, but an occasional coo from a dove or whistle from a flycatcher will break the stillness. And the wind, ever of a tidy mind, often sets a brisk pace, sweeping the desert floor clean and cooling it simultaneously. From time to time, however, the wind without much warning gets its ire up and scourges everything clean with a gritty storm. One of the interns says there's nothing like the wind around here. The wind is nice, but I'd have to say my favorite things are the stillness and the mountains. I don't like the mountains here near as much as the ones out east, though. No trees grow on these: they're completely bare. For me, mountains are supposed to be wrapped up in greenery and fog; they're supposed to be mysterious and cool. They keep things safe and can hide things away. When I look at a mountain, I want to know that what I see from a distance is only the surface. The mountain should have secrets--some for people to know, some to find, and some to remain hidden. These things draw me to mountains. But the mountains here hold nothing back. They have no secrets: they're just the bare bones of the earth--majestic, but translucent. They don't hold my attention like the Appalachians. If my readers haven't already done so, they should look at my facebook profile to view the Joshua Tree National Park pictures I took; they're unbelievable. Aside from looking at lizards and landscapes, I'm reading some classics (I just finished The Scarlet Letter which I wasn't too impressed with and so have now turned to Dickens for solace. I'm hoping that isn't as poor a decision as it sounds...), writing my long story and a short story, watching free anime online, and playing video games. Maybe it's not a thrill ride of a summer, but I'm getting relaxation aplenty. I've also taken, and will be taking, some great trips on my time off. San Diego and Joshua Tree were the last ones, and for the upcoming break, I'm thinking of making day trips to Anza-Borrego State Park, Picacho Peak State Park, and Joshua Tree again. The last break will be the kicker, though, with its destination being Yosemite. Saying I'm pumped for that would be saying too little. It's around eight or nine hours from here, so I plan to head out as soon as I get off work (which usually is between 10 and 11 AM. And before you start hatin', realize that I get up at 4 AM to start at 5. It's only five or six hours of work, but I have to get up before the butt crack of dawn) and head up there, staying for three days and leaving on the fourth. I'm all set to bust my butt with some intense hiking and tell God how glorious His handiwork is. My end date for work here is somewhere between August 13th and 15th, so I'll be home in time for classes and not much else. Updates as events warrant. Until then Vayan con Dios | | |
| I've arrived in El Centro, CA. There weren't any mishaps on the rode or any complications at all, actually, and I thank God for that. I'm sure that he deserves most of the credit for that. Thanks also for all the people who prayed for me on the way too. I know that helped. Yeah, I arrived and tonight was the group's "settle in" night. We had a briefing from the SCA lady and Jesse Irwin, the biologist for the local Bureau of Land Management, and we're starting training tomorrow. It should be fun, but just now, I'm having a terrible time trying to keep from yawning myself to sleep. I don't know if it's the two hour change in time (Pacific time is 2 hours behind Central for those who don't know) or that I've been driving for so long, but I am about to pass out. So I'm going to turn in for the night, and I apologize for typos; my eyes having been going in and out of focus... Vayan con Dios | | |
| I don't want to study for finals, but I'm gonna do it anyway, by hook or by crook! I'm definitely not procrastinating now. I'm definitely writing this for the purpose of stopping writing this; every piece of prose has to have some sort of wrap-up, you know. One can't just leave it unfinished. That would be like leaving a wall half-painted or a chord unresolved. Although, some endings leave one with a feeling of unresolved conflict or unifinished plot. This is a good tool, however, one which many good writers utilize, to the irritation to many such as my sister and mother and several others. In fact, I believe it there to be a general American problem with the unresolved. It's pretty ridiculous. Life has much unfinished business and unresolved conflict. People live their lives in degrees of intentional ignorance to old wounds between family and friends and inlaws and such. It seems strange that they can't manage to enjoy, or at least tolerate, some loose ends in fiction. Vayan con Dios | | |
| This summer I'm truly going to be embracing the maxim of not sleeping until I'm dead. I'm very excited about all the stuff that will be going on this summer: I'll be going on a cultural exchange program to North Africa for the first two weeks, and almost immediately after that, I'll be leaving for California for my internship; but all that running around seems like so much work. I'm afraid it will be too much. It won't be; I know. I always feel reluctant to travel and do big things before I do them. God put all this stuff in front of me so I could learn and enjoy it with Him. It's going to be awesome. I just not able to be all that excited yet... I am looking forward to one thing this summer: I'll have time to write and no excuse not to. I'm debating whether or not to bring my laptop out to California. Not bringing it will mean I won't be wasting my time with video games, but I won't be able to get emails either. Oh, what a quandary! Productivity vs. Communication? I'm leaning toward Productivity because Communication is too much like "communist." The end of the semester is turning out fine, though. Dead week is over, and glorious finals week is about to begin. I'm quite unmotivated to study for my finals, though. I guess that's bad. Maybe I'll take care of that now instead of writing this xanga. Vayan con Dios | | |
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