Creativity

I was working on some speech write-ups for Comm class when I remembered my professor mentioning a guy I should look up on TED...
I couldn't remember his name, but I googled some stuff and found this amazing video on creativity and education, and how education stifles it.

the TED talk:

Rain and Shane

Shane Claiborne is now officially my favorite speaker. yep. :)
He had some awesome stuff to say about getting the church back to being the way the church was meant to be, where they had "everything in common" with one another. If one person had more than they needed, they gave their excess to those who had less than they needed. It's about unity and community, not individualism. Yes, our faith is supposed to be personal, but not individual. It's supposed to be personal and public. I also really liked what he said about singleness; pretty much that it's ok to be single. We are called to love God, first and foremost. We are not first and foremost called to have a boyfriend or get married and have children. It's ok to be single. If you think about it, Paul also said it was ok to be single. He told people to marry if they would marry, but to be single if they would be single... or something like that. In life, we are not expected to get married. We are, out of God's love for us and our love for him expected to follow God and spread his love and light and life to all peoples. Can I best serve God in my singleness or if I'm preoccupied with getting out of my singleness? Shane had some great stuff to say. He serves a great God who had some great stuff to tell us, and God chose a great vessel to tell it through.

On to the rain. I think the rain and the Shane kind of go together. :) I see the rain as God spilling down his blessing on us and being like, "yes! look at all these people coming to hear truth on a Thursday night!"... it was God's way of touching the earth and bringing joy. ...and it didn't just spit... it spat... then it sprinkled... then it rained... then it began to pour. I left my huge drawing pad in my locker in mcnally, took off my shoes, rolled up my pants... and walked barefoot back to Hart. What a thrill!... the whole time I couldn't help but sing praise to God. Blessed be he that reigns now, reigned in the past and will reign forever more. Amen.

in the midst of suffering...

the last couple days, Biola has held its annual torrey conference, this year on suffering. we have had some incredible speakers. they have told us some incredible things, stuff that all of us needed to hear, because on some level, all of us relate to suffering. we all suffer. we are encouraged to comfort those around us who suffer, and to seek out other people if we are suffering.
but in suffering, who do i seek out? i know that in suffering, God is my number one, he is the lifeline, but how do i tell others i need help and who do i tell?
for the past year and a half that i have been "away" from home, at college, i have not been a very jubilant person. i have had sorrows and i have had joys, but covering it all has been this layer, this thin blanket of depression. my world was altered, drastically, and i don't know how to share the hardship of transition with someone and have them help me through it when the people i talk to don't understand it, or they don't understand the depth of pain that it has caused me, the depth of withdrawal from what was into what is.
...and sometimes i think feeling that pain of loss of home is stupid. i don't like recognizing it as pain; i'd rather shove it under a rug and pretend it's not there, but it is. the people i have talked to either just want everything to be happy and perfect instantly, or i don't feel like they really empathize, or like i said before, they don't understand the depth of the hurt. grief is a process. it's not instantaneous, but i can't walk it alone. yet, who do i have to walk it with? yes, God, but who else? who can i trust to walk with me? yah, my closest friends from high school. where are they? everywhere but here. scattered all over the world.
as i wrote in a status earlier this year on facebook, "now hiring: mentor or resident best friend"... the offer stands.
i'm tired of walking alone.

Rainy Days...

...Roll my blues away?

I honestly confess to spending my entire afternoon/evening in my room. It was delightful. I watched my favorite show for far too many hours, but I think I needed the break from life and school. Microwave-made pasta isn't too shabby, either... or the last of my goldfish crackers dipped in hummus. ...and then marshmallows and chocolate for dessert!... :) it made me so happy.

I was mad at the washing machine, though... it didn't wash my clothes like it promised, so I had to spend an extra dollar to re-wash them... most of them were dry when i took them out to be dried and the bottom ones had soap on them still... like... un-dissolved powdery white stuff.