More Than 22 Days

The past several years, there has been a growing popular thing to do in November. I'm speaking of the "30 Days of Thanksgiving" ritual. On Facebook or Twitter or any other social media site, the user posts one thing a day for which they are thankful. I think this is a great way to get people to dig deep and realize how blessed they are, but I have never participated. I have the same issue with this that I do with New Years' resolutions. "Why just now? Why not the rest of the year as well?" I always ask myself. But with all my high and mighty reasoning about how we should "be thankful all year long," I rarely take the time to stop and think. Perhaps I offer up the quick, robotic prayer to thank God for the basics (family, shelter, food, friends,church, school, etc.), but do I become deeply grateful? No, no I don't. I cherish the fact that we, as Americans, even have a time set aside for thankfulness, but I wish more of us searched, thought, prayed, and reminisced. I wish we told more stories about God's faithfulness. I wish we threw ourselves on our faces because we didn't know how else to show our gratitude to the Lord for who He is.

As I write this I am afraid that I don't have enough time to even cover the tip of the iceberg of things for which I am thankful. I will write what I have time for, though. I hope that maybe God will use today as a catalyst for future times of open and frequent thanksgiving! Well, here are some of the things for which I am so thankful....

1) My wonderful parents

2) My amazing sisters

3) Mimi and Grandmother

4) My extended family on Mom and Dad's sides (My family is crazy-awesome!)

5) My beautiful home

6) North Greenville University (and all of my professors there)

7) My close girl-friends (they constantly encourage and challenge me)

8) My job (Coast 2 Coast Camps ROCKS! My kids are the coolest kids ever!)

9) My "adopted" siblings (I love how they visit my house all the time)

10) My CityGroup of AWESOMENESS

11) CityLights Fellowship Church

12)  Clemson football (especially Dabo Swinney)

13) My dreams (they seem so far off, but they inspire me)

14) My gift for writing and language (Mostly Spanish)

15) My cute, little, blue car that gets amazing great gas mileage

16) NGU Interdisciplinary Studies program

17) the opportunity to learn things I love (education and Spanish)

18)The opportunity to go to Cuba (2 weeks from today)

19) My friends all over the world

20) Music of every kind (it moves me and makes life so much more interesting)

21) Life experiences that have allowed me to love and build up people I care about

22) The ability and sufficient funds to do and enjoy things that many people are unable to

The Waiting Place

In Dr. Seuss's book, "Oh the Places You'll Go!" he speaks of a place called "The Waiting Place." He describes it somewhat like this...

"[You're] headed, I fear, toward a most useless place... The Waiting place

...for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go

or a bus to come, or a plane to go

or the mail to come, or the rain to go

or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow

or waiting around for a Yes or No

or waiting for their hair to grow.

Everyone is just waiting..."

When I woke up this morning, I was reminded of this part of the book and thought to myself, "I'm in The Waiting Place right now." I'm in college, so thankfully it's not a counterproductive waiting place, but it would still fall into that category. I have no clue where I'll end up when I graduate. I am essentially as far from dating or marriage as possible. There are many wonderful, admirable, godly men in my life, but my soul doesn't seem to be becoming knit to any of them. I am certainly not complaining because singleness is a gift in disguise, but to me there is no disguise to be found. It is just a blessing. I am a part of a young church, whose direction is largely unknown. We don't know where we will be meeting in a year, or how many people we will have attending our church, or who will still be around. My job, which is wonderful yet difficult, is at an after-school/summer camp for kids. I have learned so very much from it, but it's not where I want to work the rest of my life. It's not my ideal niche. This waiting place pushes me and twists me and makes little tugs at my heart every day. The Enemy whispers in my ear, "You're going nowhere... You're nothing... This seemingly useless place defines you, seemingly useless." I am frustrated often because I feel as if I'm floating about, my toes barely off the ground and my head in the clouds. I have a great fear that the waiting place is making me lose sight of what is important. Instead of getting wrapped up in test grades, essays, and pointless drama to which so many people I know are in bondage, I want to be wrapped up in the Lord. I want this waiting place to make me look more like Jesus every day. I think, if I willingly surrender myself to him daily, Yahweh can use this useless place and this useless person in ways I could never imagine. Most days are very difficult, but I must fight to remember what is true of my God and what is true of me. He is always good and always faithful, and I am loved by him more infinitely than I can comprehend. So Waiting Place, you're on! You can't conquer me! I'm already conquered by one who lives eternally in the present, past and future! Bring...it...on!

The Bard Poet

In my World Literature class this semester there has been tremendous amounts of dialogue about a wide variety of things. One of those subjects is storytelling. I have been learning and realizing more and more that stories impart life and truth in a way that is unassumingly invasive. I love stories, and I used to write them a lot. I haven't written one in ages, perhaps because I am too distracted by "real life." I have so much "bigness" inside of me recently, that I think if I don't find some way of purging my soul of clutter I will explode!

Well, while sitting in class today I was doodling. As I added embellishments to the doodle, it didn't really begin to look like anything real, but it did have an intriguing shape. I added another shape to it, and it gave me an idea. The inspiration for a story popped into my head and left me reeling. I am taking a break from writing my story to write this post. I just wanted to give you guys a heads up about it, and I will be releasing some "sneak peeks" as I write. Here's the first one.

"The emperor heaved a great sigh as he surveyed the moonlit landscape of his new kingdom. He looked at the moon and taunted it saying, 'O moon, how truly weak you must be to rule only the night. A time will come when I will rule every kingdom, their day and their night.' "

Nothing Wrong With Brevity

I have told myself that I should blog at least a few times a week, just to get into a good habit of it. The most difficult part for me in regards to getting involved in the blogging scene is remembering that I am not obligated to write a novel every time I blog. The result is that I give up altogether on blogging every day because some days I just don't feel like writing, or "the muse" is not with me, or perhaps my day was simply boring and uninspiring. But if I fail to use my gift for writing, I may lose my affection and knack for it in one fell swoop.

Class today was nothing extraordinary, but I was made keenly aware of the fact that I have SO MUCH STUFF to do before the end of the semester (which is in THREE WEEKS). I am trying to remain calm, cool, and collected, but taking things one step at a time has never been my strong suit. As my dad jokingly said to me one day, "Why do today what you can do tomorrow?" Sadly, that does not promise success in this end-of-semester madness. This afternoon I am just going to write out everything that needs to be done and make a schedule based on prioritized hierarchy. Until tomorrow, dear friends and readers. Carpe Diem, and enjoy the ride.

Elections, Cuba, Literature and Such: By a Scatter-brained Blogger

Wow, I am dreadfully frustrated that I haven't posted a blog in so long! But I suppose life has been rather crazy. I'm halfway through my second year of college, and life isn't looking like it will slow down any time soon. After reading back over my previous blog posts, I can see that, while I have grown a lot, my struggles are essentially the same. I am unspeakably grateful to the LORD today. This past week, between the election and other circumstances, I have been feeling very disjointed. I'm consistently surrounded by people who have strong opinions, which is by no means a bad thing, sometimes I just feel tugs at my heart from every direction.

I would like to, at some point very soon, write a post on my feeling towards religion and its relationship to politics. In my opinion, there is a very fine line between standing for what you believe in through voting and political stances and hailing politics as more important than it is. I won't go into it all now. For the time being I  will close my discussion by congratulating President Obama on his second victory in the presidential elections. I commend you, Good Sir, and will be praying often for wisdom and blessing to fall upon you!

On another note, I leave for Cuba in 26 days. I will be taking a trip with my Spanish class (Cuba Today), so we are going legally and taking a charter flight out of Miami. The duration of the trip is 7 days, and my anticipation and excitement grows exponentially every day. I imagine it will be immensely refreshing to drive down to Miami, enjoy a 40-minute plane ride, and disembark in sunny, humid, 80 degrees Fahrenheit weather. I'm packing sandals and shorts for a December adventure!

This semester I am taking 19 credit hours at North Greenville University. It has been a veritable challenge, but my professors are remarkable and my classes are enjoyable. These two things have most likely been the biggest factors in maintaining my sanity. I would have to say that my "Cuba Today" class and World Literature classes are my favorite (and consequently my most difficult). I must say that I expected to be floundering at this point in the semester, but I am not nearly as stressed as I perhaps ought to be. I am also commuting from home this semester. Most people say, "Aw, I'm sorry, Susanna," when I reveal my identity as a commuter, but it has been so wonderful. I almost always look forward to returning every evening to a house bustling with activity. I am most often greeted by at least one sister proclaiming to the whole house, "Susu, you're home! Yay!" which is lovely.

Well, there are so many things that I would love to talk about and tell you all, but it is past this "granny's" bedtime. Until next time, my beloved readers and friends. I bid you all a good night and an unusually joyous Monday tomorrow!