why do dogs bark at night?!

I went to bed almost 2 hours ago…it is now 2am and I am still awake! It is always in this time of not sleeping at night that my mind races about all sorts of things!

Well tonight it has been thinking about how every little aspect of our life, past, present and future matters and has already be planned out for us and contributes to life! I’ve probably written about something similar to this before, about how sometimes I find myself waiting for my life to start and how I generally find myself not living my life now, but waiting or planning for the next stage! Don’t get me wrong, planning is sometimes necessary, thinking about the future is important, but it’s also funny to think that really we can plan and plan and plan till our heart’s content, but unless we talk to God and seek His will for our lives, we may as well write a book that never gets published…because in my mind that’s sort of a waste of time! Sorry if you disagree!

Like the message I received earlier today said which I mentioned in my 365 – ‘keep your eyes on Jesus!’ Something which I do need to be reminded to do! Too often, I don’t do this! How easy is it to just live, and forget about the full picture. (my housemate has been thinking along slightly similar lines!) Forget that every small detail of our life is part of bigger things which we don’t always see at the time! I live life everyday (obviously) and sometimes hardly give a second thought to Jesus, who, let’s face it, ultimately gave me life! When I am reminded to keep my eyes on Jesus, I find myself getting happier, I feel a comforting presence which sometimes I can’t even describe but it is amazing though! Almost overwhelming!

God loves us and fills us with His love! He is there when we go through hard times! We have the promise of eternity to cling to when things are going rough! Life on earth isn’t very long compared to eternal life, with Jesus, in Heaven! I cannot wait to see what it’s gonna be like! To be honest I can’t even really begin to imagine what Heaven will be like! Life with no pain, no sadness, no suffering, no hunger, no thirst, no guilt, no worries….oh my goodness

Exciting!!

Here’s a little taster of God’s promises for our lives! I love youtube videos! don’t be distracted by the backgrounds…read the words of our Heavenly Father! Meditate on them, listen to what God is saying to you through these words:

except I hate how one video leads to another because I’ve just watched about 30 and its now 2:29am!! BOKE!

Its always when I set my alarm for 8am or earlier that I can’t sleep!!

Oh and with regard to the title of this blog…a dog has been barking nearly the whole time I’ve been in bed, and as soon as I typed the title…it stopped!! WOW!

good night all!

greensleeves!

dancing through life

This song has just come on my ipod as I sit in the library working away…for a change and it made me think…up until now I guess I could say I have pretty much ‘danced through life’ when if comes to school and uni work! Yeah at the time I didn’t really realise how easy I had it until this week. I have been sitting in the library pretty much all day trying to get my head around an essay question and work out where even to start going about putting together a respectable and substantial answer to it!

But then I think to myself, I love music! and at the end of the day I should look upon this assignment and all the assignments  have to do this year as an opportunity to learn and indulge in the beauty of music! How it is thought up and put together. Let’s face it, it is amazing! The complexity of different genres is immense! Let’s take Jazz for a little example! Take a minute to think about what you actually know about jazz music! Personally the first thing that springs to my mind is improvisation…but that is an incredibly naive view of it! It consists of many sub-genres and various styles, which in itself is fascinating! Maybe I should be writing about this in my 365 for today…but maybe I have other things to be thankful for!

But I guess as much as I have complained and moaned and all the rest of it this week, I do still think of it as a privilege to be able to study music in such depth…even if this is the first year I’m actually taking it seriously!

It is also becoming increasingly more difficult to get rid of my cold because now, 2 of my housemates have it! So the house is completely and utterly contaminated with germies!!

Aw well…I just needed a wee chance to write some stuff here…now its back to Ted Gioia and ‘The History of Jazz’

peace out!x

ps…I hope you watched the little video and enjoyed a little bt of wicked!

Rejoice! :)

I spent this afternoon with a group of shall we say older ladies from my church sharing my experiences of Encounter with them! Words really don’t describe their response to what I had to say! It is extremely humbling to know that these ladies take time to pray for me and encourage me when they see me in church and being given the opportunity to share briefly with them what I did at the start of the summer and also share with them how God is working in my life, helping me grow in my faith, challenging me to take ‘risks’ and seek new opportunities and try new things is nothing less than an absolute privilege and pleasure! And I read today in Ecclesiastes 9:7 that God takes pleasure in our pleasure…so my enjoyment in talking about my life is also pleasing to God which is pleasing to me…oh the happy circles of life eh!?

It was also great to be able to encourage them to enjoy their little community each thursday and really take advantage of the safe fellowship they can have was so amazing. Again my excitement about community flows out!

I’m excited! I have a genuine excitement about life! Even though the next year could be potentially the most stressful so far, I’m excited! I’m excited to see how God will stretch me, how I will enjoy relying on him, seeking His purpose, giving him my daily worries, and also daily praise because he takes my weaknesses and turns them into his opportunities so that the Glory goes to Him! Words of a song by Graham Kendrick and what powerful words they are…that God uses us when we are strong AND when we are weak because we are his children and he wants us to seek our full potential no matter how we are feeling!

In fact…I think I’ll share the whole song with you! Cheesy as some think it is…the words are so amazing…so powerful, and I think should be our prayer and something we consciously think about as we live our life!

Rejoice! Rejoice! Christ is in you
The hope of glory in our hearts
He lives! He lives! His breath is in you
Arise a mighty army! We arise

Now is the time for us to march upon the land
Into our hands He will give the ground we claim
He rides in majesty to lead us into victory
The world shall see that Christ is Lord!

God is at work in us His purpose to perform
Building a kingdom of power not of words
Where things impossible by faith shall be made possible
Let’s give the glory to Him now

Though we are weak, His grace is everything we need
We’re made of clay but this treasure is within
He turns our weaknesses into His opportunities
So that the glory goes to Him

Graham Kendrick

I could highlight it all because it is so powerful but the bits I have emphasised I think stand out the most for me! And I’m excited! Excited almost for the unknown!

I don’t know what God has in store for my life…but I’m excited! For anyone that knows me, they will know that I am NOT spontaneous! I need plans, I need to know when things are happening in advance! But I think God is slowly changing that in me! Making me rest in the present and not worry about the future! Because God is in control…I am living for HIS purpose!

So, I’m heading away on a youth weekend, wont be about for a few days and remember…I’ll be starting my 365 on monday hopefully! Probably have a little link on this page…it’ll be on my blogroll!

bye for now!

x

final year blues…/stresses…

Ok, so final year hasn’t even started and I’m already stressed! I know I’m stressed because I get a little stress mark thing on the side of my right eye hen im stressed and what started to appear this evening…yes yes thats right! I think I might give it a little name as it never seems to be away these days…please leave your suggestions as comments below…!

So, I had a ‘the joys of final year’ induction today and yeah I know it’s gonna be a hard and stressful year but I hate being told that! 200 hours of work n each 20 credit module…BOKE!! i dont have 200 hours of flute playing or reading in me!! aaaah!!!

I guess this is me saying, if you don’t see much of me (except when I scrape to final my ’365′ positivity for the day) on the blogosphere…its because im up to my eyes in the art of conducting and the civil rights movement with regards to New Jazz!!and learning a thousand pieces on the flute…oh how my excitement is just oozing out of me right now!! (sense the tone….GUESS the tone!!!!)

exciting as it sounds…hmmm…we shall see!!

I also just went to see Sorority Row….WASTE OF 2 HOURS!!! like it started of like almost pornographic…then turned sick and murderous!! but a great twist at the end…but still…and there was a freakin fire in it so i’ll probs have nightmares tonight because we also set the fire alarm off in our house today when we were trying out the fire to see if the chimney was blocked and the room filled with smoke…however we are pretty sure the smoke was also going up the chimney…aahh well…but yeah my biggest fear in life is fire…so…sweet dreams!!

hmmm…

oh…and i still have the cold!!BOKE

sleepless-ness

So the whole ear ache thing…turns out I have an ear infection! Boke!! And with most infections brings tiredness and acheyness which I have been experiencing all day resulting in sleeping most of the day away and now I am unable to sleep! Going from not being able to stay awake to not being able to fall asleep is annoying…it would have been so much more convenient if it have have happened at the right time of day…unable to stay awake at night, unable to sleep during the day! Anyway, where would the fun in life be if it happened the way we wanted it to!?

So…I’ve been lying on my bed for well hours and have now developed this very strange, very annoying eye twitch…a twitch like I’ve never really experience, yeah I get the odd lazy eye when I’m very tired, but never a twitch that has lasted a good hour or so! It’s very weird! But during this eye twitching experience…I’ve been thinking about how amazing the body actually is…that’s a lie I haven’t really but now I am thinking about it! Like do we even consciously think about our next breath?! Or every heart beat? or a sniff? I mean wow! The body does it all for us…God does it all for us! And whats more, how often do we take it for granted!? Personally…everyday of my life! I very rarely think about how i breathe, how my heart beats, how my body digests my food, supplies me with the right energy levels…like the list is endless!

Which leads me to just the general little things in life that I take for granted and go unnoticed…being able to get up in the morning, have a shower, eat breakfast, hop into my car and go wherever I need to go…again the list goes on…but these are things that, if remembered, could make my day so much more positive and so much more pleasant..and oh how the world would be a better place if I was more thankful for the little, unnoticed things in life!

So in the blogworld there is a thing going round called 365…basically the idea behind it is to set up a blog for exactly one year and faithfully (or as faithfully as possible) take time everyday to write about the details of your day that have been positive! The thing that have made you smile and in doing it makes us more thankful for the little (and large) blessings that God sends our way! Of course some days will be harder than others, but thats part of the challenge!So starting 21st September 2009…I will set up such a blog! Hopefully linking it to foreveringreensleeves…because I’ll likely not write in this as often…occasionally but not everyday! I am going into final year after all!

So that is what I’ve been thinking about! I’m looking forward to starting it actually…who knows if i’ll be able to stick it out but it will be something to think about every day! Things I am thankful to God for!

So, watch this space my little blog followers

much love and good night!