Be Still

I had a "moment" yesterday.

We're down at Ohau and I took my bike to the road. (As you do)

It was spectacular. The sun was out, but dropping behind the mountains very quickly. Probably about 6 degrees out and I was biking into the wind. Brrr!

At one point I just pulled over and it was so utterly quiet. No cars, nothing. All I could hear was the occasional bird. Right in front of me? Massive snow-capped mountains. My breathing sounded almost intrusive in an atmosphere like that.

It was like I could hear God whispering. In the light of such awesome, magnificent beauty it's like the whole world fell into perspective. It's why I love getting out of town. You never get utter stillness and silence in town. We clutter life with noise. Traffic, tv, radio, advertising. Humanity is very good at talking and not listening.

Imagine all that would be revealed if we just listened.

(P.s - it's snowing again)

I think it's important to remember that God's not the noise of the storm - the thunder, the waves, the earthquake, the hail, the sleet...you get the point.

If I was to associate God with the weather system it would be snow. Snow is silent, it has this ability to blanket everything it touches. What's more it transforms. Not in a hugely intrusive way. But in a gentle, quiet way. And yet it has the ability to make the whole world grind to a halt if it's heavy enough.

That's what I think anyway. I think we all need a little more snow in our lives.

Indescribable.

I don't know how to explain what God has done in my life. Well, I do. But I don't - if that makes sense!

There are no words to explain what He has done in my life.

I wasn't a drug addict.

I wasn't an alcoholic.

I wasn't abused.

But I was broken.

And though I'm no where near being whole I am on the journey to getting there. And I wouldn't be able to get there if it wasn't for him. You have no idea the sense of relief in knowing (and I forget this often!) that I don't have to worry. That I don't have to be in control. That there is a plan and even though I don't know the next step that I am going somewhere. The things that frustrate me don't need to frustrate me because I can have perspective. There is a bigger picture.

I get to be accepted. I get to be loved and not just in the broken, distorted way of human love. Because we can only love to a certain extent and our very human-ness distorts what love is meant to be. I get unconditional, lay-down-my-life-for-you love.

If you don't get what I'm talking about that's fine because I don't think you can until you're at the place you can understand that. But that's what it is for me.

Fringe is back!

Nothing like a tidy to make you feel good about yourself!

I find that if you don't make eye contact your soul doesn't get sucked into the camera...

I love V for Hair. I see the head stylist there and she's awesome! I will have to start going back to see Amber once she starts cutting again though. I always feel like I'm cheating on my hairdresser if I go see someone else.

Does any one else feel that way or is it just me and my neurotic personality???

Did the early Mother's Day thing with Mum & Dad today. Test ran the new Drexels in Ricc Mall. YUMMY! I love Drexels. It is SO GOOD. Love the Mexican 3 egg omelette. I always get no guacamole and mushroom instead. *drool* And free refills of coffee...muwahaha.

Highly recommended. Tomorrow we are doing the Ground Floor Cafe for breakfast with Isaac's mum. I'd better get on my bike soon or I'll have to start rolling places!!!

Fly, fly my pretty!

My week has gone so quickly! Seriously. We're at thursday already, and let's be honest right now it's pretty much friday. Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, it hasn't really gone to plan. It was supposed to be my "down" week. (Up week is small group week)

The weekend has blown out on me due to Mother's Day - not that I mind as I appreciate a day that is all about appreciating my mum - but with two families it takes a lot of negotiating. Less with my family and more so with Isaac's. But that's ok.

House stuff is totally in full swing and taking up time! But that's good, sooner we get it all started the sooner they can start building!

Stupidly I also made dinner plans for Saturday. Not stupid as in I don't want to go, because I do. It's just that it means that Saturday is REALLY full on. As is Sunday. Hmmm...

I may need a weekend after the weekend.

Few "interesting" things have happened at work lately. Nothing I'm willing to elaborate in the public sphere but just a number of things have happened that have made me go "hmmm..." And some days I don't really want to be there, but I know very certainly that God wants me to be there so there's no real arguing with that, is there?!

Trying to find time to write but it seems a little far off now. Hoping things settle down soon!!!! Barely time to Tweet, let alone blog, let alone songwrite.

My thoughts on swine flu

Get over it, people.

Seriously, GET. OVER. IT.

People die from the normal flu all the time. Especially, in NZ (read: Christchurch) when combined with the freezing cold winters and poorly insulated houses.

Has anyone stopped to consider the difference in medical standards between Mexico and places like NZ and the US? All our so called "unbiased" media agencies have conveniently forgotten this. And also, talk about scaremongering. We went from 150 (ish) dead in Mexico to 7. How's that for attributing every single possible cause of death to swine flu??!

Meanwhile we can now buy Tamiflu on Trademe. So hopefully that will make it cheaper than the $60-80 it will cost to get it without a prescription. (P.S according to Wikipedia Tamiflu is not so sucessful with Bird Flu anyway, fingers crossed for Swine Flu though!)

People need to calm down and not panic so much. So there are infected people in the country. Most of them aren't actually that sick (from what I've heard) and they've been quarantined. How is it any worse than the general course of colds and flu that people get over winter anyway? And the media need to stop perpetuating this. *smacks wrist* Bad media.

Also, go the Brits for using Swine flu as a reason to not go to work. "I think I have the flu, I'll just quarantine myself now...I'll be back in a couple of weeks"