Glad i have friends who...

Glad i have friends who will swim in the sea
Glad i have friends who will dance in the street
Glad i have friends who have holes in their clothes and don't think anything of it
Glad i have friends with bicycles, not cars
Glad i have friends who are still wearing clothes they had when they were 14
Glad i have friends who don't really know what's happening next
Glad i have friends who have seen a lot of the world but aren't ready to settle yet
Glad i have friends who stay up drinking tea, musing about life
Glad i have friends who are willing to share toothbrushes (!)
Glad i have friends who always have a space on a floor/sofa/bed for a tired friend
Glad i have friends who want to make a difference in the world
Glad i have friends who always try to make the most of each day
Glad i have friends who are quick to laugh and not ashamed to cry
Glad i have friends who don't take themselves too seriously
Glad i have friends who love

sometimes

sometimes everything feels a little uncertain. sometimes it feels like the ground is slipping away from beneath my feet. sometimes everything is a little blurry. sometimes this lack of clarity excites me. sometimes it feels like a great adventure, an enticing mystery. but sometimes, frankly, it sucks.
sometimes i am filled with excitement at the thought that perhaps life isn't mapped out as rigidly as i once believed. sometimes i am so thankful at the idea that although the beginning and end may be known, the part in between may not be so clear. sometimes i love the thought of improvisation far more than a scripted piece. but sometimes i really wish someone would hand me the lines and i would be happy to simply recite.
sometimes i am sure that God is there, walking with me and i know deep down it is in Him that my hope is found. but sometimes He seems so very far away and i don't know how to reach Him, even though every part of me hungers to know Him more. sometimes words do not comfort and i just want to be held by arms that i can physically feel.
sometimes life delights me, and i see miracles of beauty everywhere i look. sometimes i look to the future filled with anticipation. but sometimes i am tired of it all. and sometimes even one day feels too long.
sometimes i feel invincible, i feel the world is my oyster and anything is possible. sometimes i just feel small. and alone. and a bit scared. sometimes i laugh and sometimes i cry and sometimes the lines in between all these sometimes get a bit blurred through the tears and i sometimes everything feels a little uncertain.

Faith, Hope and Love

Spirit of God, be wild and free in me.
Batter my proud and stubborn will,
blow me where you choose,
break me down if you must,
refashion me as you will.

Move me powerfully away from the games i play
in order to try and tame you.

Lead me into the wild places
the places of dream or scream,
the long dark tunnels
or the wide, sunny vistas -
to speak to lions
to move mountains
to bear tragedy
to mirror you.

HELP ME TO RUN STRAIGHT
TO GO ALL OUT,
AND TO GIVE MY BEST.

(from 'Celtic Prayers for Life Today' - Ray Simpson. p.102)

honest

one day, i'd like to just give an unedited version of how i feel. just tell it straight. without having already summarised, analysed, listed the pros and cons and then revised them. no brave faces, no polite 'fine thank yous', no fake smiles, no 'but on the other hand'. but are really given permisison to be real? is there time and is there the space? could i really shout/scream/sob/hide under the covers for a few days/curl up in a corner and rock slightly? no doubt i would offend. and this is what i fear. and fear is so strange because it's nearly always built on lies yet it ties us down and shuts us up. so we need faith. faith in a love that's stronger than anything we might fear. but the times we most need to believe in it are the times when it seems most far away. but we cling on to the scrap of hope in our hands and pray it holds us.

Norway - good tings

* Hanging out with a great bunch of people who were amazingly generous, fed us with many sausages, drove us many miles, and had a great sense of humour.

* A canoe trip to an island on a lake where we fished, canoed some more, had a bbq, drank hot chocolate, attempted to sing, met some shipwrecked norwegian boys, peed in the trees to the sounds of 'Hallelujah' wafting across the lake from a party on the other side, and slept outside under the still-a-little-bit-light-sky

* taking 6 english classes in a row at a primary school, playing endless games of 'poop deck'

* helping out an amazing couple on their farm, and being blessed by them far more than we deserved
* seeing someone baptised in a beautiful lake then swimming in it

* Simon telling everyone we met that he was a norwegian sausage (in norwegian!)

* Staying with a family who had no kitchen yet happily added two extra girls to their brood of three, keeping them up late with laughter, stories and singing!

* feeling totally out of my depth, doing things i've never done before with very little time to prepare, and then seeing how God totally carried us through.

* doing all of this with 7 other Scottish and English brilliant individuals who gave their all and did it with colour and fun and love!

Norway... first impressions

wooden houses painted different colours with porches
trampolines in the garden
green
roads with no markings
long evenings
waffles
changing weather
'tusen takk'
bbq-ed hot dog sausages with potato pancakes
potato salad
stylish clothes
beautiful lakes
empty streets
space
black coffee
eating meals at 4pm
bread bread bread bread bread
salami
cheese
friendly people
clean!
farms
fir trees