Jingle Bells Christmas Trees Soon-a-will be here

so these are just a few pics of our beautiful christmas tree and my lovely roomates!

Xmas & eXams

Top Ten Ways to Tell It's Almost Christmas & Exams

10."Basketball has started which means it's at least November." -amy phillips contribution
9. 93.9 FM's 24 hour Christmas Music" started about a month ago
8.The temperature's dropping! At 70 degrees I'm thinking white Christmas this year kids.
7.Christmas Movies on TV already!
6.The Thanksgiving Feast
5. Cider & Christmas Lights!
4.The coffee pot is drained by 8:30 every morning
.... It's a 12 cup pot.
3. ICECREAM? CHOCOLATE?! WHERE!?!?!?
2.Hysterical laughter through out the appartment for no obvious reason.
1. I'm making top ten lists to avoid studying.

not nearly as humourous as i was going for. hurray for procrastination

The Thirteenth Tale Part One

so I bought this book yesterday called "The Thirteenth Tale" by Dianne Setterfield. I put part one in the title line becuase i'm pretty sure I'll refer back to this book a few times in the future, its got good ideas to pensate on without actually loosing ones mind running in imaginative circles. From page 5- and the paragraph that captured my heart and my money:

"My gripe is not with lovers of the truth but with truth herself. What succor, waht consolation is there in truth, compared to a story. What good is truth, at midnight, in the dark, when the wind is roaring like a bear in the chimney? When the lightning strikes shadows on the bedroom wall and the rain taps at the window with its long fingernails? No. When fear and cold make a statue of you in your bed, don't expect hard-boned and fleshless truth to come running to your aid. What you need are the plump comforts of a story. The soothing, rocking saftey of a lie." -Vida Winters, eccentric author/main character

I like it. I like the observation that stories loosen fear's hold of us by drawing us into a world of wonder where we are safe. Or so we think. We operate under this notion that ideas only live on one level, that being the intellectual. But I dont think this is true. Our minds are never actually under our control, if counciling taught me one thing that was it. Our minds have lives of their own. Ideas and fantasies never run parallel to the real world but intersect it, penetrate it, and therefore inherently change 'reality.' We do not exist without stories, and the stories cannot exist without us. Myths and fantasies allow us a safe creative space to let reality flow out through a different censor. We can explore avenues of the every day we fear or distrust. Or we can explore facets of the divine that make our blood curl and a knot form in the pit of humanity's collective stomach. But it's just a fiction? Right? No harm done? Perhaps in some sense, fiction is that which is really real. Reality sheds the curtain of fear and we behold ourselves, naked in our terrible and beautiful glory. And truth becomes apparent, but we name it lie because we cannot face its consequenes. We shrug, close the book, and go about our daily stories as though we had never gazed upon ourselves at all. That's the power of the myths. Or maybe, it's just a story.

I'll see you in the morning, or the moonlight, whichever comes first. -love, anna

Save the Date: This Saturday

Hey guys... the annual thanksgiving feast will be held this saturday. If you arent on the evite, and want to come, please im or email me so i can add you on!!! It will be fantastic, hopefully lots of good food and good friends, its the one time of year we ALL get together. So

where: our house, 7pm this saturday. need directions? call
what: FOOD
why: Because its a darn good idea
what should I bring anna?: bring one dish that you have either bought or made. whether it is a desert or a veggie or a meat dish if you're really awesome, please bring them and let me know ahead of time so i can plan accordingly. also bring a smile and a friend if you have one that wants to come.

much love,
anna

All I Am Able

"How often have I desired to gather you in as a hen gathers her brood under her wings." -Jesus, Luke 13:34

Lord I am tired and sick.
It is not the tired a good night's sleep cures.
It is the tired only you can mend.
I am weary in my bones and in my soul Abba.

So this morning I come to you-
to this quiet place of meeting we share.
Because you have asked me to;
because it is all I am able to do.

I am weary of my own pride,
and from casting out my own demons.
Good intentioned though I was
I left your protection for my own.

And now, a shadow, I return
bleeding, bruised, broken and desperate
for your love to bind my heart
and restore my spirit inside your own.

So this morning I come to you-
to this quiet place of meeting we share.
Because you have asked me to;
because it is all I am able to do.

I am weary of the world
that invades me with noise, pain and death.
There was nowhere to run
on all sides I was groped, raped, and invaded.

Demolished by words and images
each one speaking fear, their hollow eyes staring
all without hope, lost, alone.
And I could do nothing but watch in horror.

So this morning I come to you-
to this quiet place of meeting we share.
Because you have asked me to;
because it is all I am able to do.

There is too much pain.
These wounds run too deep.
The noise is far too loud.
The violence grown too strong.

Alone, I am no more than a child
playing doctor to the withering in this death camp.
It is not I but you Lord- who can speak
and breathe life into these ovens we make for ourselves.

So this morning I come to you-
to this quiet place of meeting we share.
Because you have asked me to;
because it is all I am able to do.