favourite things from birthday weekend!

friends bringing me breakfast * croissants! * "whose line is it anyway?" * kisses * walking about Brighton with my camera and no hurry * jumping photos! * cheese straws from Aldi * crabbes! (ginger beer beer) * friends in the living room * conversations * red stripe * laughing at silly things * realising i've got to know some brilliant people in the last year or so * sunny mornings * collecting eggs from chickens in the garden * bunches of flowers * sister and hub coming to visit * cuckmere valley and its gorgeous meandering river (for all you geographers out there) * don carlos spanish restaurant in the south lanes * olives * stepping beyond * dancing * baileys chocolates * more family coming down and more squishing in the living room * presents and cake! * testimonies * wedding photos * scrambled egg * curling up with younger sister on the sofa * sea * my church family * baptisms...

Up

Set your mind on things above

Like…

LOVE. When your feet are barely touching the ground


Like…

Bubbles that catch the breeze,
Float off out of sight,
Shiny oily spheres of rainbows reflecting

And I
defy gravity
I
Run upwards
I
Run past clouds
They scatter as I push through
I’m not looking back
The ground is far behind

He has given me wings and I’ll fly with Him

Fly with me, come fly, come fly, away…

But, not away
TOWARDS
Towards the place where He is.

Fingers strain upwards
Up on toes
I reach I reach I reach
But not in my own strength
No
I am lifted up
Up up up up
Shaking off earthly ties that hold me down

With Him,
the Morning Star,
I rise.


(written at 'Stepping Beyond' 25 sept 2010)

"Magnify"

Went to the 24-7 Prayer International Gathering in Edinburgh last weekend. It was great to see old friends and make new ones, and share stories with people from all over the world. We were encouraged and also challenged on many levels. Might say more on it another time but just wanted to point you to a post by Brian Heasley which sums up what i felt too...

right HERE :-)

24

things that make me feel more 'grown up', now that i am 24...

• receiving two bunches of flowers and two pot plants in the space of two days, (and they are not dead yet!)
• presents from people very close to me were a bicycle basket and a book of 50 walks in sussex, which made me very happy
• i also received a 'grown up' handbag, or at any rate it is more grown up than the black rucksack I've had for 3 years that makes me look like a European teenager (although i will keep using it for most things i'm sure!!)
• i looked after the chickens for the weekend... feeding, collecting eggs, cleaning the sh*t tray, etc... and they are also, like the flowers, still alive. phew!

a few good things of late

Aslan's call

"Aslan threw up his shaggy head, opened his mouth, and uttered a long single note; not very loud, but full of power. Polly's heart jumped out of her body when she heard of it. She felt sure that it was a call, and that anyone who heard that call would want to obey it and (what's more) would be able to obey it, however many worlds and ages lay between".

'The Magician's Nephew' by C.S. Lewis (p.127)

food.

i'm not gonna lie. i REALLY like food.

thought i'd just share some recent highlights of culinary experiences, because... it's good to share. haha!

the other week: mashed potato plus mashed sweet potato WITH pork sausages cooked with onion (cooked till soft and sweet) in apple juice.

last night: Potato wedges (potatoes that we'd just DUG out the garden of the new place i'm living. VERY exciting!!), spinach (also grown in the garden) cooked with garlic, then with added slices of chorizo. mmm mmm!! served with olives, moroccan style hummous and home-brewed elderberry wine. i can't take the credit for all the home-grown foods - thanking new housemates for that!!

this morning: scrambled eggs with more spinach&garlic plus smoked salmon, all mixed up together.

TASTY!!

other food thoughts:
garlic is brilliant.
dry plain potatoes are not (in my opinion).
budget eating doesn't have to be boring!!!!!

quotes that make me smile

Her suitcases were stuffed with .... and Marks and Spencer underwear - the essence, quintessance, of Englishness as she understood it. Surely the queen donned this superior hosiery:

She was solid. It was solid
She was plain. It was plain.
She was strong. It was strong.
She was no-nonsense. It was no-nonsense.
They prevailed.

***

"No fruit dies so vile and offensive a death as the banana. In case of What? Jemu shouted silently to his mother"

***

both quotes from 'The Inheritance of Loss' by Kiran Desai