Listen

There is "something new and interesting going on in the universe," said Alan Kogut of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Something about the short article, Mystery Roar, excited me. It is about a sound, "a roar from the distant cosmos", that cannot be explained.
I don't know much about astronomy. I can point out only a few constellations when we get outside of the city at night, and I even get those few mixed up from time to time. Sometimes though, I do find myself just staring - staring straight up at the sky in child-like wonder and amusement. I think about all those stars...all those galaxies, all those planets...all those suns and moons...until my brain throws it's hands up and says enough. These things are too big, too lofty for me.
That's when I put on BBC's Planet Earth series for like the 500th time - ooing and aaahing over the deserts, caves, rainforests, animals, and underwater worlds of good ol' earth. Still, more than I can handle.

Come on. The fact that the universe is continually expanding FASCINATES me. Isn't it CRAZY?
Itty bitty little me...itty bitty little us.
I watch and read the news constantly, I go to university and am bombarded with information from textbooks, websites, articles and films. I can talk your ear off about what is going on in my life and my opinions about various debates, issues, food, and design all around the world.
Even when I finally shut up to listen, it is usually to music that I choose from a selection of bands that I know of.
When I ponder the universe and discoveries such as these, I am humbled by my wee pea-sized bubble. The same bubble that can so easily feel overwhelming.

There is a much bigger picture to see, and a much bigger story being told.

*grinning* How exciting. How creative, and wonderful and mysterious and complex!

Although my knowledge of things out-there doesn't begin to skim the surface, I know the Creator of it all. Could it be that the same roar in the never-ending universe is the same voice resonating in my heart...spoken by a never-ending God?

Am I still little? Yes. Insignificant? No.

Neither are you...

numero uno

Voila. My first tattoo.
Brought to you by www.deeperthanwar.com :)




I'm not really going to go into it too much on this here blog, except to say that it means a lot to me and is over my heart for a reason.
Mercy, compassion, forbearance, kindness ... where do I start?
Themes like these have led me to countless encounters and experiences I would not trade for the world, not to mention a career choice in the helping profession.

In Micah, you will find something like this, "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
Similarly in Matthew, "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Naturally, lots of inspiration came from my faith and the scriptures.

I have in mind some more script for the other side to create a symmetrical piece, but that will have to wait as it wasn't the most pleasant feeling in the world. Ouch ouch ouch!


Until next time, glad tidings to you all :) Big jolly Christmas hugs from the Hardys XXX

Want to confuse someone?

from xkcd

Is it just me?

So, I was watching an old Mark Knopfler video while I wrote the script for a nativity play (don't ask) this morning, and I realised that the legendary guitarist from Dire Straits bears a striking resemblance to the popular comedian, Jerry Seinfeld.

True, no?

she

Never fails to melt our hearts...




Oh little girl, you are a wonder and a gift.


Has it been ten months already?

A fine example of England's most noble breed...

We celebrated my darling husband's twenty-seventh birthday yesterday with bangers and mash, beer, banoffee pie, and other delicious mouth-watering goodies.
Yum yum yummy. He is such a star, isn't he?

Ok, I learned:
- Banoffee pie is not difficult to make.
- That a traditional English buffet item is cubes of cheese and pineapple on skewers stuck in a baked potato with foil on it. It looks like a hedgehog. Hmmmm.
- That homemade apple cider is way better than the packet.
- That Mark WILL NOT let Christmas steal his birthday thunder.
- That Mark has really rubbed off on me over the last five years. I can name quite a few Brit pop bands and classic hits and we are making the same jokes WAY more often.

Onto the next exciting order of business - Montreal this weekend, as we have postponed our trip to visit the Murphy's in Raleigh...sniff, sniff. Then, home to exams.
Time is FLYING!

Don Miller prayed.

I read Blue Like Jazz years ago during a time when I was searching for literature about the Christian walk that was less religious I guess you could say...many of you may have read it and I wonder if it spoke to you.
Did that short little book inspire you like it inspired me?
So I passed it along to Mark and his dad who both enjoyed reading it and they, in turn, passed it along to others. (BTW:Our copy of Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell is up for grabs if anyone wants to borrow ours. I loved it.)
Anyway, the author, Don Miller has written other fantastic books and writes a blog that I enjoy reading as well.

When I watched him pray at the Democratic National Convention, it brought tears to my eyes.
I love what he said from his heart. I was just thinking how difficult it must have been to want to say so much more to that enormous audience- his fellow Americans- his brothers and sisters, but being limited to time and political correct-ness.
Also thinking about how many people would take this moment and then analyze and pick apart this personal dialogue with his Heavenly Father. Saying things like how he didn't use enough "Christianese" words, or how it left out this or that or the other thing or said something that was full out wrong. The discussion that prayer sparked was just fascinating and...kind of scary.

Anyway, if you haven't watched it already here it is. There is a bit where it is censored, so to read that part visit this blog because they have transcribed it.

All of this is not to say that I would pray the exact same thing, but that doesn't matter.

We were impacted by the words that this man prayed in August.
And for us (one Canadian and one Brit, mind you)...where we're at, we say "amen".

on a lighter note

This is Mark's favourite pop track, and I think the video is perfect in every way.
Wow...just...wow.

Next time you're getting ready for a night out on the town, we insist that you slam a copy on the turntable, or even better - put the video in the Betamax machine. Or just put on the Wedding Singer sountrack and get pumped to dance dance dance :)

Election.

Is it just me?
I've been noticing an alarming trend recently. Nobody can have missed the fact that today is election day in the States, and it's fairly clear that the rest of the world is as fascinated as the USA itself over the result. Here's the thing that's worrying me:
I have come across an enormous number of Christians who are voting McCain, and pushing that decision onto anyone that comes their way, based ENTIRELY on the fact that Obama is pro-choice. Some of them bring up the issue of gay marriage too.

These are important issues, for sure. I don't like the idea of abortion one bit. I think it's wrong. I would love to see a world where abortion doesn't exist. But I don't think for one minute that it is a good idea to cast your vote based on that issue and that issue alone. I also suspect that it won't matter who gets in when it comes to these issues, because there's more to changing a law than a personal belief.

I don't want to make this a long post, because I don't think it needs to be. I'm not trying to push a political perspective on anyone. Vote the way you want - that's the whole point of democracy, right? I don't like to see people mass emailing and telling people that they have to pray that Obama doesn't get in, because I think it goes against the idea of democracy, and it uses the name of God to guilt trip people. Not my idea of a good time. I just wanted to suggest that the kind of short-sightedness that's causing people to vote on one or two issues, can cause enormous problems. The result of this vote will affect America and the world for the next four years, minimum. Do you really think that the only issue affecting the world until 2012 will be whether or not it's legal to abort a baby?

Is it just me that sees this?

thankful

“You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him." Matthew 7 NLT






Happy Canadian Thanksgiving - however you celebrate, enjoy enjoy enjoy.

If you're not in Canada, have a feast just for the heck of it...and cultivate thankfulness- just because you can ;)

More BFF...

How did I not know these shows existed? I was showing one of my colleagues some videos of Ben Folds, and I found these clips from two of his DVDs.
The first was recorded in 2005 (how come I only just found out about it?!) in Perth with the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra.
The second was a Myspace show. They're both incredible.

The new album is a scorcher, too, by the way.

Ben Folds with the WASO - Zak and Sara


Ben Folds - Such Great Heights

BFF

No, not best friends forever. Ben Folds Five.

My husband LOVES Ben Folds. In his teens he met Ben because he played in a BFF tribute band. Seriously. It wasn't soon after we had started dating that I knew most of their songs, and Ben's solo stuff off by heart (including the B sides) even though I was never really into them before.
So tomorrow when Ben's new cd is released we will be marching into HMV and listening to it on repeat for a while. In the apartment, in the car, in our dreams, and so on...

Needless to say, if Mark was abandoned on a desert island (you know I'd find you somehow!) he would HAVE to have BFF in his limited cd collection there. Yeah, he WOULD build a cd player out of bamboo
-if the man can do cryptic crosswords than he can do anything!

Soooo I was thinking about what cds I would want to be left with if I had the luxury of choosing.
Here is what I think so far in no particular order :

Switchfoot beautiful letdown
Cruel intentions soundtrack
Garden state soundtrack
jimmy eat world - Clarity, Futures, Bleed American, Chase this light, Static Prevails
Death Cab for Cutie- plans
Oasis- What's the story Morning Glory. do i still have a crush on these guys? er
delirious king of fools
Muse black holes and revelations
the last Ben Folds Five album: The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
U2 war + The Joshua Tree
Bing Crosby Christmas favorites. do not mock me...
Phatfish - Heavenbound
The Salvator Darlings
Get cape, wear cape, fly
Massive Attack

and many many more...sigh.

My abductors would probably stop me there. Now onto movies...

Banksy

Mark bought me a book to celebrate my first Mothers' Day. I had been eyeing this book for some time in HMV, and he noticed.

He notices lots of little things like that :)

Banksy is brilliant. He uses all sorts of mediums, but my favorite are the stencils and spray paint. He claims that they are quick and they help get his point across to the public.
I've meditated on some of these statements and images recently.

I agree with a lot of his views on issues concerning inequality, war, terrorism, and poverty.

Check out the website or come over and have a look at his book on our coffee table.

I've been rethinking visual art lately. After spending time at OCAD, and now throwing myself completely into a social work course and community more so than ever before, I miss having that consistent inspiration stemming mainly from peers and lecturers pursuing fine art.

While I am still inspired...it is different.
While I still want to worship and glorify my Creator with what I create...it is different.

This year I feel I have so much more opportunity to use that gifting as a voice for positive change.
Sure, it is sometimes difficult to be a wife, and have a newborn and be a student and spend time with people, and have 'hobbies', but it seems that doors are opening and ideas are flowing.

So here I go. Don't worry, I'm not embarking on a series of illegal projects...hehe...
but I'm not afraid to ruffle a few feathers.
I guess somewhat like Mark does with tattooing, eh...

thanks for listening...er...reading :)

invigorated

Quality time = the love language we focused on this month.

August rocked. The three of us Hardys had an extravagant amount of precious quality time due to Mark listening to Daddy and taking some more paternity leave. A bit of a pay-cut was the only draw back, and now we can say it was SO totally worth it.
Centre Island, the Danforth, Wonderland, Kelso Beach, the market, Adelaide being loved on by both sets of grandparents, the lakeshore, the ball game, the cooking fests, and playing with the new addition to the family (not Addie, the digital SLR!) ... aaaaaaahhhhh...
lush lush lush.

I feel so invigorated. What an amazing way to kick off this next year of uni.

Putting family first...a reeeeeeeally good idea.

sitting pretty

The day after we took this video, she sat up on her own in her playpen for 15 minutes!!!
A lot of people told us that babies change overnight sometimes, and it's true. All of a sudden she has the ability to sit up for a long while.

Pretty soon she'll be driving the car...

Sleeping at last...

So, we went to the mall with Beth's sister last night, then got some movies and decided to sleep over at Beth's parents' place. We put Addie to bed, and settled down for the night on the couches. Then, at about 4:00am, we were woken up by this:

We were woken up by the first blast - before the video starts. We all got dressed and thought about getting out of the house. when the second big blast came (about 1:50 on the video) we were about to leave the house, but this one lit up the house like you wouldn't believe. It felt like the blast came from above the house, and it knocked the power out.

We got in the car, and headed home to our apartment - and just in time, because they closed the highway minutes later. We got back, went up to the apartment, and sorted ourselves out. Then we went to move the car, and in true Canadian style, went to Tim Horton's to recouperate. Good old Timmy's.

We finally got some sleep at about 7am.
It turns out that it was caused by a fire at a propane depot, just 3 blocks away from where we were sleeping. Check out this news report and this one for a bit more information about what happened. It looks like nobody was seriously hurt, but they don't know what caused it yet. What an odd night.

Right, I'm off to Beth's parents to pick up all the stuff we left there...

Mark doesn't see it

Is it just me or does Tim, from the Office, remind you of my dashing husband ...

We were watching the two part Christmas special and finale of The Office (British one of course) and it hit me. Hm.

The Font Conference

Fonts are a very personal thing. I've always been interested in them, but recently have found myself becoming almost militant about which ones should and shouldn't be used. They have so much personality, you see. The font you use gives character to the text, as much as the colours and media used give character to a piece of artwork. Check this video out:



The only things that I don't understand about this video are:
1)Why is Rage Italic German?
2)Why is Comic Sans the hero? I mean, I get the comic bit, but Comic Sans is clearly the worst font of all time. Ask anyone.

the best man

What do you do when some of your best friends get married and throw a fabulous party? Eat, drink, and dance dance dance, baby!







What do you do when your husband gets punched in the crotch? hmmmmmmmmmmmm......

an open house, and shouting clouds ...

"You're a mystery like poetry like a parable a rhyme or a riddle
You're a mystery wrapped in clouds shouting so loud
just waiting to be discovered
You're a mystery intriguing You're a mystery so inviting"
- Misty Edwards, Mystery

"Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly.
'The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I'm not keeping it to myself; I'm ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen.'"
Matthew 11:27 MSG

This made me cry.

I do need it, Love, broken down line by line ... all the time.

Jesus, crucified, buried, raised...the ultimate invitation.
Could the Father say any more clearly that He wants to be known?

He asks us to His house, and gives us a key to His door.