All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Creatures Great and Small...

I haven't written in almost a week! O my life!

where have I BEEN?

Anyway, I took my 11 year old sister and 3 year old brother to the zoo yesterday, and I had to laugh.

This was my little brother's first time to the zoo so of course we had to do and see EVERYTHING so we fed the giraffe in the picture (her name is Angel) and walked around for four hours.

They had a grand time.

However, I didn't tell them that when I was their age (oh great, now I sound old) and/or the last time I was there, there was about twice the amount of animals that there are now. Some critters weren't even there anymore, including some of my favorites (tigers).

Though this zoo has been through some...rough times, I realized when I got home that I had a unique experience. But I will explain that in a moment.

So I live out in the country, and at night in the summer there are all sorts of animals that come out, we have Yard Beavers (or ground hogs/woodchuck), coyotes, some kind of fox (I think red), deer (loads and loads of them) rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, and who knows how many insects, newts, frogs, and other critters that I can't even think of the category they fall into. In other words, I have my own zoo in my backyard.

I went walking at twilight, sat in my secret place, and I just was still. I saw countless lighting bugs, a fox, several chipmunks, a large batch of rabbits (about 9) and a ground hog. And I thought about all of the animals I had seen in the zoo, and I thought of the lyric "all things bright and beautiful, All Creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all."

As I sat there thinking about the animals I had seen at the zoo, and in my yard, I pondered the fact that each of these animals was also knit together with fascination ;) . And I realized how blessed we are that we have God that lovingly shaped all of these amazing animals then each of us.

So I have nothing else to currently say on the subject, so I will be back soon with another post.

Katydid out

Poparazzi

Yes, I know that is not how you spell it. Anyway, Michael Jackson died today, and I was listening to the Switchfoot Cd Learning to Breathe (get it and listen if you do not have it). And this song got me thinking. So as a quickie, here just an interesting little ditty.

Poparazzi

This is a tune for the poparazzi

The who's who and the so and so's

This is a tune for the graven images

Of Marilyn Monroe

We saw your face on the magazine

We heard your song on the MP3

You're stuck in my head

Stuck in my head

Stuck in my head

You can close your ears and your eyes but

Pop will never leave you alone

Leave me alone with all your social mingle

You try so hard to stay on top

Leave me alone with your little jingle

With your picture perfect pop

We read the article in Seventeen

We saw the video on MTV

You're stuck in my head

Stuck in my head

Stuck in my head

You can close your ears and your eyes but

Pop will never leave you alone

This is a tune for the late Nirvana

The teen spirit of rock-and-roll

This is a tune for the velvet Elvis'

On the 90210

I thought my eyes were gonna get off clean

Til I read your lips on the TV screen

You were busy saying things you didn't mean

Now everyone's singing along

With your ridiculous song

You got it stuck

You got it stuck in my head...

Stuck in my head

Stuck in my head

You can close your ears and your eyes but

Pop will never leave you alone

Katydid out.

Milestones, and odd stones.

Yesterday was my 18th Birthday. So I have been thinking a lot about the past. So since it is my fourth year, I thought I'd talk about the rings.



On my fourteenth Birthday, I took a vow of purity, and I took it a slight step farther. I said that the only way I would date a guy was if he filled the list I have, and I was not going to kiss any guy until my wedding day. I always take great pleasure in explaining to guys that I am not going to let myself get "snagged" by any one who walks by. Another thing is, by some blessing from God, I have turned off the switch in my head that makes me like guys only for their looks (it can be done, praise the Lord!). Most of my friends find this slightly abnormal (I think they are just jealous). ;)

I started wearing a ring on my right ring finger. I have currently used 6 rings. #1 which is the top right, turned my finger green about 2 months after I got it. it pretty much looked like I had mold growing on my hand. #2 is the [fake] gold band, was used until my next birthday when my mother gave me #3 as a gift. I wore #3 (the one with the pearls) till I started gaining weight (oops) that was about 1 1/2 years. So for Christmas, I bought myself a new ring, and it lasted until I lost it a week before my 17th birthday last year (6 months). So here I was on my 5th ring, and I decided not to wear one for a while.

My Missions trip to N. Ireland a month later changed that. I had been giving 20 dollars from a family at my church, (about 10 pounds) and I walked into this little shop that was family owned and made cheap (but very well crafted) sterling silver rings. As a rule, I usually buy myself something whenever I go out of my general area of commerce. Ring #5 just caught my eye. It was Celtic knot, a simple but lovely pattern, and the last one my size. it has been on my hand until now. 

I talked to my mom a little while ago, and she suggested that I put all of my rings in my memory box (which has stories of it's own I will be telling soon). 

Well, my family is gathering together to play a game, so I will leave you for now.

Katydid over and out.

Story Time!

Okay, so I have been packing for college the past few uh, weeks, and I have this box of things from My missions trip to Northern Ireland last Summer. I will be returning to N. Ireland this summer. So, I decided to take a walk down memory lane and let you in on my roots.

I miss it so much. *Sigh* I left part of my heart there.

For quick explanation, I Look VERY Irish, (except my eyes). So the first thing that came to my mind was an Irish friend of mine coming up to me and asking me where I was from...and his jaw dropping when he heard my Northern Maryland Accent, instead of the Northern Irish one he was expecting. His exact words were "WOAH, we could fool EVERYBODY!"

So he spent the next 3 hours teaching me how to speak in a northern Irish Accent. (we were actually watching a movie which was what took so long).

So where to go from there? hmmm, Oh I know, our first day. So I am meeting my team in the airport right? and I am talking to friend on my team, and she says something about how if anything unfortunate happens on this trip it will happen to her. I laughed. I attract bizarre accidents like honey to a fly. Ten minutes later I am in the line for my ticket, and...the people say I don't have a ticket.

I honestly felt like crying. Turns out someone who had my same last name had backed out of the trip and instead of deleting her ticket, the airport company deleted mine.

Long story short, I got there, after my poor trip leader forked over $1100 for a new one. (I recently got an e-mail from him about hoping my ticket wasn't deleted again) He did get the money back by the way. Happy Ending.

What we did, we did a form of vacation Bible School in the morning, had the afternoon off and worked with teens in the evening. Very exhausting.

There were 6 teams. Mine was unarguably the craziest. We had some crazy moments, our average bedtime between the ten us was ~1 (it would have been 3 but our leader went to bed at 10 every night) and we woke each other up with coffee pots. We were the only team with a Canadian Leader, but our assistant leader was N. Irish, we had some crazy fighting, Father Abraham, mafia games, and several movies. But I loved our worship times.

About half of our team played something or could sing. So we would have these random "jam sessions" and we'd sing with the kids, and my heart would soar as the younger ones sang with their little voices.

One of the Things that effected me the most was our last worship time. It was after our final night working with the teens. We all went home and we had 3 other guys (including the one mentioned in the 3rd paragraph) do a worship session with us.

Within about 10 minutes one of the other 2 guys asked if he could take my assistant leaders guitar, and he began playing. Words cannot describe the next hour in a half. Even as I type this I am struggling for the words to even tell you how unbelievable it was. I remember that all of our team had broke down crying within 15 minutes. We prayed for each other, some of us sobbing more then others (not me*shock*), I have never felt God presence more then in that room that night. Surrounded by people I had not even know existed a mere month before. I miss and love them, it's been almost a year and I still think of them often.

Ooh, I feel like I haven't even told you anything. but I think I will start missing them more, so I will stop here. More stories to come.

Katydid out.

Fascination.

I have found the most amusing word in the English dictionary. Now I have to figure out how to write this blog with minimal puns (Me+puns = :( )

For those of you that know me, you know I love to talk. It takes a lot for me to shut up. I just love words. My favorites are intense and epic. I was thinking of adding fascination to the list, but, well, you'll see why a little down the page. :)

So how did I get this rather random word? I was fooling around on the piano almost a week ago and there is this floozy piece from one of my old piano books called Fascination. It's rather...uh... the best word is whimsical. So in other words, it goes up and down a scale and ends up going in a small circle and there is almost no point to playing the song.

Anyway, I looked up the meaning of fascinate, since fascination just says see fascinate (Don't you just LOVE dictionaries???!) This particular definition is from Dictionary.com:

1. to attract and hold attentively by a unique power, personal charm, unusual nature, or some other special quality; enthrall: a vivacity that fascinated the audience.
2. to arouse the interest or curiosity of; allure.
3. to transfix or deprive of the power of resistance, as through terror: The sight of the snake fascinated the rabbit.
4. Obsolete. to bewitch.
5. Obsolete. to cast under a spell by a look.

So really, I found that it connects to my weird attraction to things. Like books and music to name a few. Oh and good Villains. (another to be continued subject).

Anyways as I looked into this word more, I found to have some good ways to interpret it and some not-so-nice ways. For example. God is fascinating. Or He should be. I mean, think about it, if you're like me, (and most of you are) when you try to figure out how God works, it just makes your head hurt. (for those of you that don't believe, try to count to billion, then do that a million times. It makes your head spin.) Sometimes when you look back you can see how He's worked in you life and sometimes you have no idea why He did -insert situation here-. There are other ways, but I'll let you all discover for yourselves.

Now the not-so-nice. Sin. How many of you are fascinated by something because it looks fun. I looked at the definition of fascinate and my heart sank, because all I could see were some of my own temptations. How many times have we done something we know is wrong because it spikes our curiosity, or because it attracts us. I could have written the whole blog just on that. O my life! It's not very encouraging!

So here is the very good news in all of this mess: Psalms 139: 13-16 (NIV)

"For you created me in my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother womb. I praise you , for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, you works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

Translated: God is fascinated with us. (Another Mind-blowing subject!) He knit us together piece by piece, carefully and with love and patience, knowing full well that we would betray him, and disown him, and make mistakes. So what did he do? He gave us a hope and a future. (which is part of Jeremiah 29:11, by the way).

Just some things to think about.

Katydid out.

Music...

I spent part of my day outside and inside playing piano and guitar. Obviously you can tell which one I played in which place.

I really love this quote about music.

Music Is Just a Means of Creating a Magical State. ~ Robert Fripp

That man is a genius. No really, he is. Music has a life all of it's own. Yesterday I was wandering around my yard trying to figure out where this lovely sound was coming from, turns out my neighbor plays the oboe really well. Now, we have 5 acres so this was no ordinary wandering. It took some effort.

Music is all around us. And no, I am not going all August Rush on you, it really is. Think about it. Radio, T.V., Movies, and your ipods have music. Even sounds in nature make music. I don't know if you've ever walked in the woods and heard the wind whistle through trees, and the music in a thunderstorm (for those of you in my area like tonight) There is even music in "silence" If you want to prove me wrong, next time you go somewhere "silent" Listen. :) It's a beautiful thing. I'm listening to music right now. :)

I often wonder what is must have been like to first hear music. What an amazing thing. Can you imagine? hearing those beautiful notes rising off whatever they were playing. It gives me shivers. :)

I think one of the best songs on this topic is the song listed below...

Listen~ Michell Tumes.

Over the fields, and silently I go

Listen, listen, listen

Over the waves, and into the morrow

Listen, listen, listen

Thunderous sound

Oh, rocking in my footsteps

Echoes resound so I can hear

Listen, listen listen

To the beat of the drum in you

Listen, listen, listen

To the beat of the drum in you

Pounding, sounding

Voice in the silence of my soul

Listen, listen, listen

Listen, listen, listen

Over the way through radiant pleasure (Listen, listen, listen)

Onward I'm bound toward heavenly treasure (Listen, listen, listen)

Thunderous sound, oh rising in the distance

Echoes resound for all to hear

Isn't it lovely? I think of music as not only a way of communicating how we feel, it can also communicate love and praise to the Lord. And I think it's one of the ways he speaks to us today. I cannot elaborate on how often I have felt down to God through a certain song, or even just listening to an orchestra or a bell choir, or a soundtrack to a movie. I find that music bring out some of the deepest parts of us. We all have a lifesong.

Well I've said all that I can think to say, so for now, Katydid out.

My Guilty Pleasure...

I spent part of my weekend in my basement...reading

children's books.

Yes, I am awesome.

Seriously though, I have a utter

love for books. I've been

reading since I was little when I would climb in laundry basket and just look. Once I was

taught, I began to devour

books.

I could sit and read for hours,

inside or out. my favorite spot

is on any kind of porch swing. As we don't have one I settle

for under a tree. I then get lost in a world of forests, noble warriors,

intriguing villains,and wonderful heroes.

One of my favorite story would have to be one of a orphan, whose

marriage was arranged to a foreign, God-fearing man. She and another woman married two brothers and then began to assist their widowed

mother-in-law. Both girls grew to know and love her mother-in-law and to

call her "Mother". Their lives when peacefully for 10 years, with the two girls learning more about the faith of their husbands, and their mother.

Then in a tragic accident, both of the girls were widowed. Their mother was heartbroken. During their period of grieving, the mother decided to

return to her homeland. after some travel, the other girl decided that she

should return to her home. the orphaned girl begged to go with her

mother. After returning with her mother, the girl discovered that she was

not exactly welcomed by her mothers neighbors. They were two

women alone, and with no income. The young woman decided she

would look for work and found some working in a farmers field. Her

employer meets her and falls head over heels in love with the girl, but

kept his peace, and gave her privileges that most women in his field

didn't get, and protected and watched over her.

You probably know this story by now. The most romantic story ever

written. And it's in the Bible. (imagine that!) For those of you who don't, look it up, it's in a book called Ruth. Come to think of it, even if you do know the story look it up and read it like a love story. it's rather

fascinating. One of the most beautiful passages in the book is when

Ruth is talking to her mother in law Naomi.

1:16-17~ But Ruth said "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn away

from you. Where you go I will go, where you stay, I will stay. Your

people will be my people, and Your God, my God. Where you die, I will die and there I shall be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so

severely, if anything but death separates you and me."

Katydid out.

The First Song.

Oh boy, you do not know what you are getting into.

I'm the Katydid. This is my lifesong. Well not yet, but soon to be.

I have started this because some people have asked me to start one since occasionally I have some interesting thoughts and ideas... (We'll see how well this works.)

I should have started out by saying that God is the center of my life. I believe that my life should reflect God in all I do and say...

It is the most intense job ever. The lyric "I always feel like somebody's watching me" comes to mind. But more on that later.

You're still reading? Awesome! My ramblings have not yet lost you completely. ;)

More about me; I am (almost) a college student, I am into: photography, cooking, nature, music, theatre, writing, C. S. Lewis, Missions, working with Middleschoolies (my ((very)) affectionate name for them) dragons, walking in the rain, walking in general, (esp. barefoot) and I have a fascination for any insect that doesn't have more then 8 legs (Esp. katydids if you haven't figured that out). Hence the spider and the mosquito pictures. I also like other critters that most girls don't...appreciate. ;) (no offense ladies!).

Lots of other things come to mind, but I have been blessed with too many random talents. I discovered not very long ago that my talents were worth using and finding out a few more. Once again, another story.

My tiny little insect brain can no longer think of anything to post, so Katydid over and out.