keepers

his may be a bit silly and is totally unimportant to anything, well, important (sh! feet, you didn’t hear that).. but i’ve been overdue for a new pair of running shoes for almost a year..
..today, i finally broke down today and got me a new pair of kicks!

i will usually wear them for a day or so at home before deciding whether or not to keep or return, and before taking them out and mudding them up.

so the purpose of this unimportant post? my last pair of sneakers were ugly (and that was before they were a year overdue for the dumpster), but boy were they comfortable! now i don’t buy sneakers for beauty, but the most comfy pair i found today, also happened to be a pretty sharp looking pair of leather and lace..

so here i sit, writing to you. i’m wearing pajamas, some nerdy coke bottle thick glasses.. and a pair of running shoes. looking down at my cool, white, navy and orange shoes, silly as it may sound, i hope they become keepers, because golly, i like them!

okay, maybe that wasn’t really a purpose, but tell me those aren’t some cool shoes!

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1 Cor 9:24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
25 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.
27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

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update: june 24, 2008

i had to return my cool shoes last week.. !

really, not so sad though.. as very KEWL as the shoes were, they just weren’t the ones for me.

funny how sometimes our feet can instinctively know better than our eyes do..

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update to the update: it’s october.. i * finally * got new shoes!!

when great whites fly

boomdeeahda!
i love.. YOU!

not grumpy, just sleepless in the south

“pretend the dove from above is a dragon and your feet are on fire”
josh ritter

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it’s funny that sometimes what keeps you up at night can also be the very thing that gets you up and going each day:

dear Lord,
with all my heart, please take this broken and imperfect and use it for something good.
with reckless abandon, i love You.
ruby

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Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

girl card.

the 21^st day

i’m from a small town in new england, usa, where the states are only a hop, skip and a jump away from each other. somehow life has placed me in the good ol’ south. i have been living Georgia for the past four years. recently, my work brought me to texas for a couple of months for job training.
at the last minute, i cancelled my plane ticket and decided to drive.
now for a new england girl, georgia to texas is a huge drive.

i began a new journal while in texas. the first page’s entry read:

“so here we are again…”

it remained the only entry until the last week of my stay in middle of nowhere, texas.

this past wednesday, i began my commute back to georgia.
it seems driving long distances with the windows open awakens repressed thoughts from hibernation.

where’s the beginning?

i thought long and hard about the people i met, in the last fifty-one days. i had flashbacks of people i’ve walked and talked with throughout life. i thought back over those twenty-eight years, and watched the miles fly silently by my window in comparison. the ache in my chest swelled with love for these people, the pain increasing with the longing for words to share them with another. for 1200 miles, pages of faces and novels of memories composed themselves in my head and across my heart.

this isn’t the first time i’ve experienced this feeling.. i long to write, to remember, to share the stories of these beautiful people, yet i find myself lost in translation, literally (in fact, that is how this blog started in the first place!). i see myself standing somewhere in the middle of a life, not knowing where the beginning is and if i were to try and write about it, where on earth would i start?

i want to try.

girl card

it’s appears the ‘where on earth’ part has been answered.. and the beginning part, not so much, but i digress..

reading back through journals, names and memories, i have began to do some editing and write out some new essays for this blog. i plan to start from last october’s entries and work my way to present. some of the posts may be essays, include actual journal entries or be letters to friends. i also plan to keep up with my regular writing as it comes up, but will date stamp in the signature line as to when the actual post was written.

lastly, i’d like to begin with a short journal entry from the end..

21 may 2008, a wednesday

i just drove away from the room i’ve layed my head for the last two months.
omission? i’m pulling my girl card here, but i always cry when i drive away.
i’m going to miss these faces.

“i’ll be seeing you..”

less clicking, more driving

“there’s no place like home…”  *clicks heels

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/sold

my heart just happens to be where The Word should be…
these words just happen to be where my heart should be:

a lot like being lost;
yet i know where i stand:
bull’s eye.
THE STARS JUST HAPPEN TO SHINE
WHERE THE GROUND USED TO BE.
Am i falling?
Or flying?

a lot like self control;
but too much clarity makes me dizzy:
insane.
MY EYES JUST HAPPEN TO BURN
WHILE TRUTH RUNS DOWN MY FACE.
am i creating a prison?
or being freed from one?

a lot like singing love;
yet i lack the patience to keep it simple:
hypocrite.
MY HEART JUST HAPPENS TO BEAT
WHERE THE WORD NEEDS TO BE.
am i so easily bought?
or sold?

ruby 070420

shine

art credit: joanna williams (check her out!)

we are family

i’ve been thinking awhile about the church.

not the physical ‘church’ you are i attend on sunday.. but the church the Bible speaks of, and the very thing that actually makes up the walls of that physical church- the body.

i was talking to my mother about this recently, and she made a comment about it being comparable to ‘one whole’..

i then became curious as to what miriam-webster had to say about the ‘whole’ concept (if you haven’t noticed, miriam-webster is my buddy)..

..i found the definition particularly interesting:

Main Entry: ¹whole

Pronunciation: \ˈhōl\

Function: adjective

Etymology: Middle English hool healthy, unhurt, entire, from Old English hāl; akin to Old High German heil healthy, unhurt, Old Norse heill, Old Church Slavic cělŭ

Date: before 12th century

1 a (1): free of wound or injury : unhurt (2): recovered from a wound or injury : restored (3): being healed <whole of an ancient evil, I sleep sound — A. E. Housman> b: free of defect or impairment : intact c: physically sound and healthy : free of disease or deformity d: mentally or emotionally sound2: having all its proper parts or components : complete, unmodified <whole milk> <a whole egg>3 a: constituting the total sum or undiminished entirety : entire <owns the whole island> b: each or all of the <took part in the whole series of athletic events>4 a: constituting an undivided unit : unbroken, uncut <a whole roast suckling pig> b: directed to one end : concentrated <promised to give it his whole attention>5 a: seemingly complete or total <the whole idea is to help, not hinder> b: very great in quantity, extent, or scope <feels a whole lot better now>6: constituting the entirety of a person’s nature or development <educate the whole student>7: having the same father and mother <whole brother>

now read the last line again:

having the same father..

Touché.

the big picture: yield

red, yellow, or green
u-turn, dead-end, or one-way
may we be still, yielding only to His voice,
and not the traffic of this world.

the big picture, God’s got it. ’nuff said.

ruby 080501