i have a love/hate relationship with my hips. see, on one hand, they're the best. they keep my jeans (and any other lower-half-of-the-body attire) from falling down without having to wear a belt. they give you something to put your hands on when you want to look chissed. and they're heaps useful for carrying things. chairs, amps, boxes, laundry baskets, 2yr olds...hips make holding all those things a whole lot more convinient. but on the other hand, they're just...annoying. ah well. i'm sure i'll get over it.
had my first ever live football game experience, finally. it was only a minor game but we had a great time. the players who weren't playing at that moment would be running up and down the side of the field, alternating between walking, jogging and sprinting. it's obviously to keep warm, and they wear these long jackets for the same purpose, but they just looked like a pack of nervous, stocky mafia boys on the run. was quite funny.
went with soul survivor to this youth group event a few weeks ago. one of those nights i wasn't really looking forward to, but that god used to wake me up a bit. miracles are funny things. we all talk about how amazing god is and how much he's done and blah blah blah...yet we so often don't seem to expect him to show his amazingness in the miraculous ways that the bible quite clearly talks about. a bit silly. maybe we get so caught up in what we think is absolute or certain or existent, somehow reasoning that what's possible is only what we humans can achieve, and forget that this limited world we live in can't limit god, that nothing can. maybe this is one situation where it's better to have our heads in the clouds, rather than clouding our heads with what's here in front of us. maybe we should let go of all 'stuff', stop depending on tangible things and realise that there is no spoon...well, there is...but the fact is that a stainless steel kitchen utensil has got nothing on god. sounds silly, and it probably is, but i think maybe we do tend to attach power and stability to things that seemingly might have power or stability...but in the broad scheme of things are really nothing. use the example of sims. in a game like simtown, for example, it would be silly for the sims to think that they knew everything (assuming of course that they think at all, which they don't, but they do for the analogy). they could strut around thinking to themselves, 'i can do this. i know how this town works. i know where my house is. i know what happens here'. but the fact is that the person in control of the game is, obviously, in control of the game. at any time they could change something or move something or whatever. maybe we get too complacent in our surroundings. we think we know how it all works, how it happens, how we function within it. but then - bam - god can do something crazy that goes against every preconception, every science textbook. like make a donkey speak. that's one of the points in the bible i sooo wish i was there for. how random. i'm not sure where i was going with all this. um. how embarrassing. um...what i meant to say was that people got instantly healed that night at the youth thing. how cool. i was happy, and i think that made god happy. but i was also surprised, and i think maybe god wondered why.
i led on a camp up on the central coast in the holidays. interesting mix of people, which is ultimately always a good thing i think. there was a bit of an olympic theme throughout the week, so there was lots of running around and sports and challenges and wide games and all that. sooo not my thing. at least i didn't think so, but i actually had a lot of fun. lots of disgusting food-related things, the highlight of which was probably having minestrone soup poured all over my hair and down my back. yum yum. it was a good week for humility. you couldn't survive unless you were willing to make a complete wally of yourself in front of everyone, which i did, on numerous occasions. went to my first ever toga party, which i'm somehow guessing was a little tamer than the ones advertised at uni. the big-scale army game we played out in the bush was mad fun; on one hand you'd all be really silly and laughing, but on the other hand you'd be really serious about strategising and really concerned about guarding your base. went iceskating for the first time in years, good fun except for the nasty blister which is still on the mend. but the best part of the week was probably getting to know everybody. it was a quite a varied group of people, both campers and leaders, and i went only knowing one of them, but i'm really really glad i got to meet everyone there. the girls in my group were terrific; 14/15yr olds who were crazy and funny and interested in boys (some of which were on the camp as well, which made for some interesting conversation). they were really great girls. sort of the 'popular' crowd but not clique-y or snobby or up themselves. just cool. just beautiful. i just wish there had been more time to hang out with them...just talk to them without having to do anything else. still, was a good week all in all.
came home from camp and a few hours later was on the road to our nation's capitol. or is it capital? who knows. my sister and her new husband had come up to sydney while i was away and i went back down with them to hang out for a few days. and how splendid those few days were. we didn't do a lot, but just being down there was enough. it made me realise how much i'd been missing them. i must have looked through the wedding photos at least10 times; was kinda cool to be able relive all that and actually ask them about how they found the day, as we didn't really get to talk much when it was all happening. caught a train back up to sydney which was actually a really nice journey. read a lot, slept a lot, daydreamed a lot. i think i live in my daydreams a bit. maybe that's ok in some ways, but like lots of things, it's dangerous in excess so i should be careful...otherwise i'll just be wasting my days away in an unreal reality and forget to get on with life because i'm so busy daydreaming about it.
there's more to say. but i guess there always will be.
"she's the tear that hangs inside my soul forever" - jeff buckley. what a tragic but totally cool way of saying something.