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!

Lost and Found

Last Christmas I was sitting watching tv when I received a message from my friend saying there was some cartoon on with a penguin in it! I LOVE penguins and so switched it on and oh my gosh was it the best half hour of tv I watched ALL christmas! Such a simple little programme with such a beautiful message of friendship and kindness (between man and penguin )

So basically it was based on a book ‘Lost and Found’ by Oliver Jeffers, who studied at the University of Ulster, Jordanstown (I think!), about a little penguin who just wants a friend!

‘The penguin looked sad and the boy thought it must be lost…the penguin wasn’t lost, he was just lonely!’

If you ever see it on tv watch it because it really is such a heart warming little story! The book is also gorge…I have it…I actually have 2 copies of it!

ha…I’m so cool!!

enjoy!

PS…I also have just discovered you can change the colour of your font! I love wordpress!!!

in the blink of an eye

It’s been a busy day of cleaning the house and getting ready for the return of the parents from holidays! Making sure the washing and ironing is up-to-date, the kitchen is tidy, the bathroom is clean and the dishes are done! In the process of washing the dishes, I was separating two glasses which had gotten stuck one inside the other, I managed to break one of them and cut my right thumb and my left index finger…but alas I live to tell the tale! Thumb has a tigger plaster on it and finger is survivng with no coverage!

Sometimes life seems hard, hard in the sense that I go about doing meaningless tasks ask myself why I really bother doing them?! I mean who really needs to separate 2 glasses when the danger of breaking them was perfectly predictable…yet here we are…a but thumb and index finger later! (Note to self…leave glasses that are stuck together…stuck together! )Ok so I have to say now that I am very thankful to never have had the experience of losing a loved one so I can’t really talk about life being hard in that sense, but I do have my share of struggles with other things when life just seems to be too much! High expectations from other people and sometimes I feel like running away and living my life completely for myself!

Selfish?!

But then we must realise that our struggles on earth won’t last forever! Compared to eternity, life on earth happens in the blink of an eye! And I am to live my life only for God!

I’ve just this minute finished reading God on Mute by Pete Grieg…a really inspiring and thought provoking read about unanswered prayer and throughout the book Pete talks about the struggles on earth but how God reminds him that our struggles and pain are all part of our growth in faith and how yes our bodies may grow old and are dying everyday but how exciting to think that every single day we live on earth God is renewing our spirit! Eugene Petterson puts it like this

“So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.” (2 Cor 4:16-18)

I don’t know about you, but this excites the ‘small potatoes’ out of me!! Don’t get me wrong, when life sucks all I want to do at times is curl up in a ball and wait for the crap to pass and ignore God…but let’s face it, God generally doesn’t let me give up!

But, that crap is here today and gone tomorrow! God’s grace is here today AND here tomorrow! and God helps me through the crap.

And he is preparing a place in Heaven for me!