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Thursday, October 15, 2009

Jesus Answers All

I can't even explain how much I would love to put this on my desk at work! I could get my answers from Jesus in tangible form!

in reference to: ANSWER ME JESUS (view on Google Sidewiki)

We Can Do It!

Friday, October 9, 2009

To all you college students

Friday, October 2, 2009

Google Sidewiki entry by Angela

I like this concept.... It gives me inspiration! I can see myself doing something along these lines in the future. :)

in reference to: Hanging Candle Lantern Cobalt Streak Stained Glass by wishartglass (view on Google Sidewiki)

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Fairyland

Can I just say how much I love this facebook app? It's everything I ever wanted in my childhood. My imagination games were made up of this stuff! Schweeeet.

in reference to: Fairyland on Facebook (view on Google Sidewiki)

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Untitled.

Yet again I find myself in a happy, wonderful place in my life full of love and possibility. So, I don't write. I'm too busy enjoying the little things. But I'll get back on that literary train. My creativity is fluid and my words are present.... I just need to drop anchor and float with my journal for a while.

My life is a good place to be :)

Monday, April 13, 2009

Family

Yesterday was a good day. Actually, it was a great day. It was the first holiday that I've ever spent completely away from family. Not a single member of my immediate or extended family was there. Instead, I stayed in Champaign and I went to my pastor Keith's house. It was awesome! There were so many different people from the congregation there, many of whom I am already friends with, so it was really nice to be able to just relax and eat and chit chat with them all. The spread was great, the company was fabulous, the weather was perfect, and it was just an awesome day.

I actually ended up staying after everyone left and Keith and Amy and their kids and I all played a game and watched a movie. I've been adopted, lol. I'm a sister/aunt. And I'm just as loud and crazy as the rest of them. I missed my family, but I definitely didn't feel sad or lonely. I have another family here. And they love me!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Just a lot of things....

I'm feeling a lot of different emotions right now. It's slightly overwhelming at times, even though I have complete trust and faith in God.

My heart still hurts so much from the recent changes of heart concerning homosexuality amongst my siblings. And it keeps coming up in conversation, I've tried avoiding the topic, but occasionally it comes back up and tears open the wound again. It ripples all the way to the depths of who I am. I cannot help but be affected in a negative way by their change of heart. And like many times before, I am left to patch up the tiny pieces of my sense of self that have been torn away by people who love me. Maybe I'm learning about just how much my sense of self shouldn't rest so heavily on the actions and beliefs of the people I hold dear. It's a sad realization, but it's one that I cannot ignore.

Through all of this though, I find my heart growing in love for someone. It's completely unexpected and, quite frankly, it's a bit scary. Again, I have complete trust and faith in God that whatever happens is in Her plan and I am doing my best to not follow my own wants and desires, but my love continues to grow. One thing I know is that now is not the time for either of us to be in a relationship. Not with anyone. We are both still healing from the hurts we've absorbed in our most recent relationships. I'm in a place where I have no desire to get back into my last relationship; she cannot say the same.

I don't want to get stuck in this frame of mind that I have to act now or I'll lose her; that I'll lose the possibility of something more than friendship. I won't get stuck on that because I know it to be untrue. But it's still in the back of my mind, trying to spring forward and force something beautiful to blossom in the wrong season. When she no longer desires relationships of the past and only desires a relationship with me and God, we'll be on the right track. I believe it will happen sometime in the future, but I don't know when. And the waiting is hard. But I love her. I love her enough to wait until she's truly found a relationship with God and an unshakable desire to be with me and only me. I love both her and myself enough to show patience until the time is right instead of acting on selfish desire, no matter how true the feelings are.

These two matters of the heart are completely opposite. I feel like my heart is almost split in two and each half is trying to run in a different direction. But ultimately, they are still connected. Each matter somehow relates to the other. They feed off each other in both positive and negative ways.

I just wish my heart would take a xanax and calm the hell down. Le sigh.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

I'm getting a signal!

The past 24 hours have irrevocably altered my life.

I did not think I would ever have conversations with my siblings where I was defending my God given sexuality and right to love another woman. But I have. In their journeys towards deeper relationships with God, they have somehow come to the conclusion that God has told them that homosexuality is wrong and that if I only read the Bible more carefully and with an open heart, I would come to that conclusion as well.

I am not saying they are bad people, just as they are not saying the same thing about me. I love them unconditionally and am proud and blessed to be their sibling, and I know they feel the same way about me. I just cannot support their position on this, just like they cannot support mine. So as much as I hate to, we are going to have to agree to disagree. I will not talk about it with them anymore because we both feel like the other person isn't open to the idea that the other will be right.

But that doesn't mean I can't talk about it with other people.

I'm getting a signal from God that I may just be starting a movement. It may just be a book. It may just be a series of conversations with people that help them reconnect with God. Either way, I've been made aware of an issue and I plan on providing some help.

LGBT people are worthy and completely capable of having a God-centered, loving commitment. We just haven't really been told that. Hell, we're not even allowed to get legally married in 49 states. But there are churches in all 50 states that will marry and honor a "marriage" between two people of the same gender. That's a very valid and important fact. The government may not validate a gay marriage, but God will.

I not only see the need for a movement based on "Waiting for Commitment", but I feel it, I taste it, I hear it, I know it. The gift of our sexuality from God has been shamed and broken and exploited by our society. And it's time to reclaim it. It's time to reclaim our sacred sexuality and our relationships with God and rooted in God.

I'm filled with God's grace and warmth when I think about this. It is something I must do. God is calling me to this. How exactly it manifests itself is certainly not set in stone, though. I just know that it's rooted in God and love and I can't wait to do Her work :)

Get ready, world, because you're about to change!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

A Speech on Vaginas

So I was turning in some writing samples to someone at Wolfram and I found this Rhetorical Criticism Speech that I wrote during my senior year of college. I reread it and WOW. It's a good one! I decided I should put it up here. I believe I wrote it for my Advanced Public Speaking class with Dr. Payne. He was cool.
**********************************************************************

“We forget the vagina. What else would explain our lack of awe; our lack of reverence?”

Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues has made a profound impact on the world. In the February 2004 edition of People magazine, Susan Horsburgh writes about the background of the Vagina Monologues. “The Vagina Monologues began as a small Off-Off-Broadway production in 1996. Since then, the show has been staged in about 1500 cities around the world and has spawned a global movement: V-Day, a campaign to fight violence against women that began as a Valentine’s Day fund-raiser in 1998 and is now an annual two-month season of Monologues benefit performances.” Yvonne Delaney of the New York Amsterdam News states that “Through a combination of vignettes, music and dance, the play details the horrors of violence and physical abuse that are committed against women and girls every day.”

In a world where over one million women are victims of domestic violence each year, changes need to be made. One in three women will suffer some form of domestic violence in their lifetimes. These women are your mothers your daughters your sisters your friends your students; and Eve Ensler has made it her goal to end the violence against them.

In less than ten years, Eve Ensler and her Vagina Monologues have made tremendous strides in ending violence against women. Therefore, we must examine her use of rhetoric, which is in the form of a theatrical show.

In order to best analyze Eve Ensler’s rhetoric, we will examine her work through the eyes of Lloyd Bitzer’s Situational Methodology.

This is the best choice because Eve Ensler has truly made a difference in the world through her Monologues. She discovered a situation that she wanted to change and with her rhetorical method, she has, and still is, successfully responding to it. An article in Contemporary Rhetorical Theory: A Reader, abridged by Kathy Maboll, quotes Lloyd Bitzer as saying “Rhetoric is a mode of altering reality, not by the direct application of energy to objects, but by the creation of discourse which changes reality through the mediation of thought and action. The rhetor alters reality by thought and action, is so engaged that it becomes a mediator of change;” and Eve Ensler does exactly this.

Therefore, we will consider three points: one, the exigencies which Eve Ensler addresses; two, the audience and how they are affected by the rhetoric; and three, the constraints that she must work with.

We will first look at the exigencies which summon Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues.

Bitzer describes exigencies as “events, people, and happenings which demand that someone speak.”

There are two exigencies that have sparked Ensler’s rhetoric: women’s own lack of confidence and knowledge about their bodies, and the lack of decreasing rates of violence against women.

Vagina is not the sexiest word in the whole world; in fact, some people consider it down-right rude. Just talking about vaginas can make any person, man or woman, completely uncomfortable. And I’m sure that it by the end of this speech, after I’ve said the word “vagina” __ times, many of you will feel quite uncomfortable.

Why are vaginas so taboo? They are the life-force of humanity. Every woman on earth has one. We all came from one! So why are so many women afraid of them? In a December article in Nation, Jennifer Baumgardner recalls how Janet Kiarie of Nairobi, Kenya first realized the effects of her fear of talking about vaginas. “After the meeting [with Eve Ensler and company], Kiarie went home and asked her 7-year-old daughter if she knew what ‘down there’ was. Her daughter didn’t know the word for vagina – not in English and not in Kikuyu, her own language. ‘That’s when I realized I was depriving her of her own sexuality in some way,’ said Kiarie, ‘by being afraid of my own.’”
Through each monologue, Ensler offers many reasons not to be ashamed of having a vagina, and even more reasons to embrace having one.

There is a more prevalent exigency, though: violence against women. It comes in all different forms: physical abuse, sexual abuse, rape, and female genital mutilation, amongst others. Eve’s monologues sparked V-Day – a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. In her same article, Jennifer Baumgardner states, “The salient question is, ‘Is V-Day effective in liberating women and ending violence?’ The answer to that query is ‘yes’ – and at a time when people tend to dismiss the women’s movement as a thing of the 1970s, V-Day boasts 1281 events around the world and $14 million raised in the past few years. It grants more money to antiviolence initiatives than the UN Development Fund for Women does, who, this year, dedicated $1 million to be divided among 22 countries.
Eve’s monologues have also inspired the college campaign. www.vday.org, states the purpose of the college campaign, “The V-Day College Campaign invites members of college and university communities around the world to present benefit productions of "The Vagina Monologues” on their campuses on or around V-Day to raise awareness about violence issues as well as raise money for local beneficiaries that are working to end violence against women and girls.”
Each college performance of The Vagina Monologues reaches out to the audience not only in the theatrical way, but also in a humanistic way. It gives them more of a reason to listen and learn and donate time or money to a good cause that they might never have even heard about before coming to the monologues.

The second aspect of Bitzer’s model is the audience. Bitzer states that “a rhetorical audience consists only of those persons who are capable of being influenced by discourse and of being mediators of change.”

The Vagina Monologues has an amazing way of getting the audience to really think about the exigencies and how to become a part of the change.

There are two parts to the rhetorical audience: the change of the mindset, and the after party action.

In the V-Day edition of the Vagina Monologues, Gloria Steinem writes in the foreword, “The value of the Vagina Monologues goes beyond purging a past full of negative attitudes. It offers a personal, grounded-in-the-body way of moving toward the future. I think readers, men as well as women, may emerge from these pages not only feeling more free within themselves – and about each other – but with alternatives to the old patriarchal dualism of feminine/masculine, body/mind, and sexual/spiritual that is rooted in the division of our physical selves into ‘the part we talk about’ and ‘the part we don’t’.” She’s completely right. The rhetorical audience comes away from the Vagina Monologues with the knowledge of what is wrong, and what needs to be fixed.

Once this mindset is discovered, change is made. The world campaign, the college campaign; all these campaigns are proof that the Vagina Monologues is great rhetoric. People come away from the show with a desire to help stop violence against women. I am a personal example of a rhetorical audience. After finally getting over the shock of the title of the show, I decided to go see the Vagina Monologues in 2003. I was completely blown away. I came away from that show with more knowledge about vaginas and women than I had learned in 19 years. I decided that I HAD to be involved the next year. When next year rolled around, I tried out, and was cast in the show. Our proceeds benefited two anti-violence programs called Artemis House and Woman Line. This year I am working on bringing the Vagina Monologues back to the North Central College campus. I’m just one person, and look at the effect it had on me. I performed, and educated, over 800 people my four performances in the Vagina Monologues. If I changed the mindset of even one tenth of that audience, 80 more people are out there working to decrease violence against women.

The third aspect of Bitzer’s model is constraints. “Besides exigencies and audience, every rhetorical situation contains a set of constraints made up of persons, events, objects, and relations which are parts of the situation because they have the power to constrain decision and action needed to modify the exigencies,” says Bitzer.

There are two huge constraints on Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues: conservative Christian groups and patriarchal society.

Many colleges, especially Christian-oriented colleges, have a problem with the messages that come across in the monologues. An article in USA Today’s March 2004 issue quotes Cate Brumley, “the play ‘reduces the full potential of a human person’ to a single body part and ‘encourages college women to be sexually promiscuous.’” The Cardinal Newman Society is a national Catholic group has been one of the more prevalent constraints. They call the Vagina Monologues an “assault on young peoples’ minds and morals”. Less and less Christian-affiliated colleges are allowing the production each year. The monologues are still being performed all over and the number of performances is still growing, though its Christian College days are waning.

Patriarchal society has taught us that boys will be boys and girls will be girls. What that means is that boys are to be strong and masculine and unemotional and that girls are to be pretty and silent and eager to please. It may seem like an over-dramatic statement, but in all seriousness, it is not. In a web article called “”Competition and Feeling Superior to Others”, www.mentalhelp.net states, “[the fight for gender equality] also seeks to eliminate sexual harassment and sex-role stereotyping in which women are seen as dependent on and inferior to men; as sexual objects for men to leer at; as neurotic, emotional, irrational, weak; as attractive creatures who wait for the right man to come along, have babies, become good mothers, and then have no idea what to do for the last 40-50 years of their lives. A part of this patriarchal mindset is that the vagina is not something to be talked about. It is supposed to hide inside your skirt and only come out when someone else wants it to play.
The Vagina Monologues continues to struggle with that mindset, but slowly and surely it’s winning. It’s becoming easier to say vagina. It’s not as taboo to talk about vaginas.

We now have a general insight of how Eve Ensler has battled with the rhetorical situations she confronts. We have learned about her rhetorical audience and how they contribute to solving the exigencies. And finally, we have discovered a couple of constraints that are holding Eve back from completely eradicating violence towards women all around the world.

“We forget the vagina, all of us. What else would explain our lack of awe, our lack of reverence?”

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Do you know you're worthy?

Here is part of a fantastic conversation I had tonight with a friend of mine. Names have been changed just in case. It might give you some food for thought....

9:49:22 PM L: Thanks. How are you?
9:49:45 PM ME: i'm freaking fantastic :)
10:04:19 PM L: Yep, but why do you say that?
10:04:37 PM ME: if you read my lastest note on fb you'll understand why
10:05:41 PM L: Lol care to explain though?
10:05:57 PM ME: i'm just totally in love with God right now
10:06:41 PM L: Great! What happened?
10:07:16 PM ME: i finished reading that book and it just really spoke to me and opened up my heart in so many ways
10:08:02 PM L: In what way?
10:09:39 PM ME: just how much God loves me and how there aren't any expectations or conditions in our relationship, so even though i'll screw up, She already did her part to pave the road to Her. Everything just seems so much more illuminated now
10:12:42 PM L: Hmm. . Are you online?
10:13:14 PM ME: yep
10:14:56 PM L: Well. God is love.
10:36:46 PM L: It's all about 1 John 4:7 and 8
10:38:22 PM ME: that's certainly it in beautifully simplified words
10:39:04 PM L: Do you know what is says?
10:39:15 PM ME: yep
10:40:04 PM L: and. . We can't fully love others if we don't love God. . Whatever we show him will pour out through our heart onto others. . The two greatest commandments is to Love God with all your heart, soul and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself.
10:40:46 PM L: Which we often feel that it's about loving others. . But, it's not.
10:41:28 PM ME: you can't fully love your neighbor if you don't fully love yourself. and how can you love god to your full extent if you don't love yourself, one whom She created in Her image?
10:42:23 PM L: You can try to portray and pour out what you feel love is. . By exhibiting those emotions to God . .
10:44:02 PM ME: try is the key word there. but if you don't love who you are enough to deem yourself worthy of a beautiful, intimate relationship with god, then you'll consistently keep him at a distance... and you won't be able to experience all the love She has to give
10:44:49 PM L: I think God meets us where we are at. . .
10:48:31 PM ME: well yeah, god is always with us wherever we are. but we have to do our part too. god's worth it. that's why it's so important to work through the things that keep us from loving ourselves. we are beautiful creations in her eyes and when we are blind to the fullness of that truth, we can't see the path laid down in front of us to travel closer to Her
10:50:42 PM L: By having low self worth it's almost a slap in the face to God, because ourselves were made in his image
10:51:06 PM ME: yep. that's exactly it.
10:51:38 PM ME: you're judging His creation by your socialized standards of merit and worth... which are tragically skewed.
10:52:44 PM L: Sometimes though, our problem with your worth has been implanted into us as a child. . and in adult hood It's not a judgment. . It depends on the person.
10:54:56 PM ME: i can understand where you're coming from, definitely. but as an adult, you're much more aware of the fact that it was a lie that was implanted. And yet we continue to judge ourselves by that criteria. True freedom comes in part by breaking ourselves of that.
10:55:50 PM L: I don't know. . I think sometimes it has been implanted so much, you can't see the lie. . You can see every reason why it's true.
10:56:29 PM ME: can you see the lies, L?

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

A Musing: My Ultimate Love Letter

We should never underestimate the uniqueness of God or our relationship with Her.  More so, we should acknowledge and rejoice in the fact that His love for us is deeper and more profound than we can even begin to comprehend.


My Love Letter.

In you, Lord, I find my best friend, my inspiration, my parent, my guardian, my lover most pure, my heart, my soul, my life, my love, my everything.  You are my ultimate goal, my destiny, my eternal salvation.

The struggle in truly finding you seems all the more beautiful now.  It makes our love more incredible than words could possibly describe.  And I cannot wait to be wholly united with you again.

Although it's accurate to say that everything in life pales in comparison to you, God, it's so much the opposite.  Your dwelling inside of me has magnified every color, every sound, every emotion, every moment.  The world is truly breathtaking because of you.

The Shack

Wow. I read this book in less than 24 hours and I may just have to read it over and over again. I cannot even begin to describe how special this book is. It is divinely inspired in word and truth. It has affirmed my own theories of God and the Trinity in more ways than I can even begin to comprehend! I am and will continue to be forever changed by this book.

The Shack

Monday, February 23, 2009

Musing: As a Woman

 I wrote this musing on Jan. 29, 2007.  It was prompted by this question: What privileges in society are you afforded that you take for granted?  What privileges are less available to you because of groups to which you belong?


As a woman, I am afforded the privilege of spending time and money on more makeup and clothing than I'll ever use just so that I can look pretty for a day.

As a woman, I am afforded the privilege of being extremely moody and emotional at any time as long as I blame it on PMS.

As a person with white skin, I am afforded the privilege of walking almost anywhere and not being looked at as a threat or out of place.

As a person with white skin, I am afforded the privilege of automatically being stereotyped as a good worker, never lazy and always on time.

As a Christian, I am afforded the privilege of not being persecuted in America for my religious beliefs.

As a woman of size, I am afforded the privilege of not being objectified by men on a constant basis.


As a woman, I am not afforded the privilege of ignoring fashion, beauty and health without my entire character, confidence and beauty being questioned.

As a woman, I am automatically viewed as weaker, more unstable and less intelligent than a man.

As a woman, I am not afforded the privilege of making as much money as a man no matter if we have the same qualifications and degrees.

As a woman, I am not afforded the privilege of getting angry or emotional without being considered a bitch or a cry baby.

As a woman, I am not afforded the privilege of becoming a priest.

As a woman, I am not afforded the privilege of working my way to the top of a company without people contemplating who I slept with in order to get there.

As a person with white skin, I am not afforded the privilege of embracing my culture, heritage and traditions without explaining which European countries it stems from; never is it okay to just be "white".

As a Catholic, my spirituality is questioned by other religions and Christian denominations because I pray to Saints and Mary, as well as God.

As a woman of size, I am not afforded the privilege of being viewed as sexual and sensual at first glance.

As a woman of size, I am not afforded the privilege to buy my clothes at brand name stores or stores that cost less (unless I want to wear "unfashionable" clothing.)

As a white woman of size, I am not afforded the privilege of being considered beautiful by my culture.

As a bisexual woman, I am not afforded the privilege of my sexual identity being something I was born with rather than a negative effect of being sexually abused as a child.

As a bisexual woman, I am not afforded the privilege of expressing my love for a man within the homosexual society without fear of rejection.

As a bisexual woman, I am not afforded the privilege of expressing my love for a woman within the heterosexual society without fear of rejection.

As a bisexual woman, I am not afforded the privilege of talking openly about my relationships within my workplace without fear of termination.

As a bisexual woman, I am not afforded the privilege of marrying a woman.

As a bisexual woman, I am not afforded the privilege of showing a woman affection in public without people looking on in disgust or lust.

As a bisexual, Catholic woman, I am not afforded the privilege of feeling comfortable and accepted for who I am in my church community.

As a liberal, I am not afforded the privilege of being opinionated without being condemned as a sinner who's out to ruin the minds of good, conservative children everywhere.

As a feminist, I am not afforded the privilege of having any values or morals for human life or respect for men.


But as Angela Isola Maria Potticary, I am afforded the privilege of knowing there is no one else out there that can be me better than I can be myself.  And I wouldn't trade that for all the privilege in the world.


This is over 2 years old.  It's amazing to see how much is the same and how much has changed.  I now work in a place where I can be open about my sexuality without fear of termination.  There is now a law in place that allows women to press charges against their employer if they find out that they are being paid less than men in their same position.  I am no longer a Catholic and I found a church where I am loved and affirmed for all aspects of who I am, sexuality included.  And if I decided I wanted to be a pastor in the Presbyterian church, I could.  I also don't have nearly as much fear about being bisexual because I live in a place where there are more than a few like-minded people.  This world is starting to change for the better :)

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Roomies are Cool

Well, at least mine is.  This weekend has been full of passing friends and visitors, most of them Laura's, and all of them interesting and fun to talk to.  We'll all sit down and have a drink and converse before going our separate ways and each time it's been so incredible.  


Lately I've found out just how sociable I can be.  I don't know if it's just Laura's friends or Laura or ME, but whatever it is, I find myself really coming out of my shell.  It's easy for me to just sit down and slide into a deep, intellectual conversation with them every single time.  It's not even this easy with my own friends sometimes.  I'm definitely more of an extrovert than I realized.  I definitely still like to stay in and do my own thing, but small groups and intimate conversations are becoming more and more regular with Laura and her friends.  We laugh, we get serious, we talk about triumphs and harsh realities.... 

It's really nice.  And I'm really enjoying the surprising ease of it all.  And I definitely count my blessings for having such an awesome roommate.

Thanks, Laura!

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Albertine

You know how sometimes it seems like the whole universe is working with everything around you to send you a message? And you keep getting the clues, but either you just don't get the message or you're almost afraid to really open your eyes to what the message is....

I'm getting a message. A big part of my soul is passionate about peace and social justice and I've never really been able to do consistent service work, even though it's always been on my mind. Well, in the past few weeks I've had sermons, songs, prayers, conversations, readings, etc that point to turning my faith into a more proactive, service-oriented faith.

There are two songs that I haven't been able to get out of my head for this entire week. Albertine by Brooke Fraser and When I Leave by JJ Heller. Every time I listen to these songs I start to cry. It reaches deep down inside of me and I feel compelled to leave everything and follow Jesus. I want to live in a community of progressive Christians and do service work and talk about faith and spirituality in all our free time. I want to feel like I'm making a difference in the world. I feel called to do this. I'm still praying for more detail to be revealed, but as of right now, I'm doing my part to make connections.

I turned in an application to volunteer at the Center for Women in Transition in Champaign. Even if it's just a few hours a week, at least it's something! I have a lot of skills. I have a lot to offer. I want my eyes to be opened even wider to the injustices of this world so that I know even more what I can do to ignite change.

I am willing, Lord. I am open to your call, ready for your instructions. I am ready to be used by you in any way that you desire. Live within me, Lord, live through me, Lord. I am ready.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Suddenly Alive: A musing for my brother, Eric.

Your faith suits you well, oh brother in Christ. Your words ring loud and clear to those who happen upon your striking wisdom. Like a calm amongst the storm, your message is suddenly clear.

You speak of hope
And I am suddenly lighter.
You speak of truth
And I am suddenly wiser.
You speak of compassion
And I am suddenly warmer.
You speak of trust
And I am suddenly stronger.
You speak of prayer
And I am suddenly trying.

Your love and passion for all things holy is deep like the ocean and true like the sky. Your witness is powerful, your stores are divine. God lives not just within you, but through you most sure.

Your faith suits you well, oh brother in Christ. You are a testament of reparation and triumph. The truth indeed set you free and now you teach others to fly.

And I am suddenly alive.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire

You know, when I first heard of this movie I wasn't interested merely because of the "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" theme. But then I read a little more about it and decided that it was something I wanted to see. Last night, Chandra and I went and saw it in the little art theatre right down the street from my apartment.

WOW. It's the best movie I've seen in a long time. It was so well done, carefully thought out, beautifully sequenced and brilliantly acted. And as someone who can be a bit ADD through movies, this one kept my attention the whole time. Chandra and I were captivated the entire time. We laughed, we cried (well, I did. I'm not sure about her), and we left feeling really good. I also left feeling really lucky to live the life that I do and to have the things that I have, but not in a guilty way. I felt genuinely blessed.

Go see this movie. Pay the money. Support this fantastic film. It even won a few Golden Globes last night! And when it comes out on DVD - BUY IT! I know I am.