Paris- Luxembourg Gardens

One of my favorite places in Paris was the Luxembourg Gardens. Wow. Beautiful fall foliage! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.


A storm rolling past.


Pretty flowers. I'm a compulsive flower picture-taker.


Pony rides! I did not ride in the pony carriage.


Autumnal colors.


More fall goodness contrasted against a statue.


Me and Ross. Probably one of my favorite pictures from the trip.


Luxembourg palace in the background. It's where the French senate meets now.


At the fountain in the center kids pushed around little toy sailboats with big sticks.


Such great landscaping here.


Too cool for school.

Paris- Versailles

One of the things I was most excited about seeing in France was Versailles, which served as the royal palace for the monarchs of France. The last royal family to live there was Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and their children. Then the French Revolution happened.

In case you go to France and want to see Versailles, be forewarned that it takes a very full day to see even most of it. I think to see all of it would take more than one day. Be prepared to walk a lot! I figured out (thanks to Google Earth) that we probably covered 6+ miles that day. Ross and I just collapsed once we got home that night, but it was absolutely worth it. Read a little bit about French history before you go so you can appreciate it more.

Here are pictures!


It's pretty bright. And pretty big. And pretty gaudy.


Apparently Louis XV was very religious. This looks just like my church. JK!


Marie Antoinette's bedroom. And apparently a few ghosties are still lurking there.


This is the Hall of Mirrors. The entire banquet hall is lined with mirrors. And this is the obligatory photo.


Random statue in the gardens of Versailles.


More of the gardens. They sprawl. And they're gorgeous.


We trekked out to Marie Antoinette's private estate. Clearly the Versailles castle was not enough for her. She had about 8 or so cottages on her estate. Isn't Paris in the fall gorgeous?


Another of her cottages. Great light. We were out there at dusk.


She had lovely gardens throughout her estate. This is a flower in the foreground with a pumpkin patch in the background.


Another lovely home.

Versailles- two big thumbs up! I highly recommend you take the day to go out there if you're in the area.

Paris- The Eiffel Tower

So guess what I did last week... I went to Paris! My friend Ross lives there so I went to visit. There have to be some perks to being young and single... right? Here are some pictures. Expect more in upcoming days.

THE EIFFEL TOWER

Call me a typical tourist, but I LOVED LOVED LOVED the Eiffel Tower at night. It was all I hoped it would be. Pictures can't capture it... but I tried! :)


Me and Ross


I loved it! So happy.


This is DangeRoss. :)


I loved it. It's blue because France is currently head of the European Union.


And on the hour, it twinkles. :) Magical!


I imagined it to be taller and narrower. But it was perfect.


We smelled cotton candy and followed it to these carousels down near the base of the tower, and got a ginormous cotton candy. You can see it shadowing over Ross' face here. :)

And sometimes you get a sign

I wrote this blog on signs a few months ago, and still believe what I wrote.

Then about a month ago I was praying about what felt like a change of seasons in my life, and I wasn't sure whether my perception was being led by the Spirit or skewed by my selfish motivations.

And the next day, as I cleaned out the dark corner of my closet for the first time in maybe 9 months, I found a bag. And inside the bag, this sign in the photo. I wasn't praying for a sign, but I guess the Lord thought that's what I needed.

God is good. :) Good to provide, good to teach, and good to humble. And most of all, so good and faithful to love. The name of this blog is feeling pretty appropriate right now.

Yeariversary!

Today marks a year that I've been at my job! It's hard to believe. Those who knew me last summer know how gut wrenching it was to not just find a job but think about a career post-Brazil and post- the realization that I didn't want to be a public school teacher.

I remember one friend in particular kept telling me that he had complete faith it was going to be not just okay, but great, and how hard that was to believe at the time. But now, that is so true and then some.

I am blessed to work for my alma mater, Oklahoma Christian University, in the marketing department as a web editor/writer. I love what I do, I love who I work with, and I love the mission of the university.

It is such a blessing to be excited to go to work everyday and look forward to interacting with your coworkers. They are not only incredibly talented, but such good people who I consider my friends, so let me take a minute to brag on them.

Risa (Dean of Marketing)... I honestly believe she is my biggest fan at the school. It gives me so much confidence to know that someone so knowledgeable and experienced in this field has so much faith in me. And she not only cares about my work, but she has been my biggest cheerleader personally and spiritually, as well. She is one of the women I most want to be like "when I grow up."

Judson (Director of Marketing) is a great example of servant leadership. He sets the bar high for not only quality of work but in attitude through his own daily interactions with us and the rest of campus. I like that he really seems to love to learn, and he likes to hear my opinion on things, even though he doesn't always agree. :)

Stephen (Webmaster and my direct supervisor) gave me a chance. I had no web experience (other than this blog) and he believed I could learn and gave me a great opportunity with this job. He's a fantastic teacher, very patient, and remarkably talented. I've known him for years, and the reasons I respected him before have only been proven by working under him.

Wes (the lead editor) is a great writer, and I have learned so much about media writing from him. He works well with all kinds of people and all kinds of hours to do a great job for our university. Plus he is one of the wittiest and funniest people around.

JC (graphic designer) is the creative genius behind so much that looks great at OC. Like Risa, he's really believed in me and trusted me with projects that I didn't think I could handle. He also watches my back, and I appreciate that.

Micah (web team) is one of the hardest working people at our school, probably. When she does something for someone, you know it is top quality. She is also great at working with different people who need help figuring out what is what around our office.

Rachel (graphic designer) is such a pal. She cracks me up and has helped me learn so many of the ins and outs of working in marketing, especially with the technical stuff I'm too embarrassed to ask anyone else.

Scott (graphic designer) calls things like he sees them, which is needed in our line of work. When I see his work, my jaw generally drops because it is so dang good. His skill raises the bar and makes us all want to be better.

I could go on and on to list all the people I work with across campus who I adore and respect. I really do lead a charmed life and am so grateful for this opportunity the Lord has trusted me with. Here's to many more years! :)

Blog Action Day- Poverty

Poverty is so hard to see when it’s only on your TV, or 20 miles across town.

Where we’re all living so good we moved out of Jesus’ neighborhood
Where He’s hungry and not feeling so good from going through our trash.

He says “More than just your cash and coin I want your time, I want your voice,
I want the things you just can’t give me.”

So what must we do? Here in the West we want to follow you.
We speak the language and keep all the rules, even a few we made up.

So come on and follow me. Sell your house, sell your SUV,
Sell your stocks, sell your security, and give it to the poor.

"What is this, hey what’s the deal? I don’t sleep around and I don’t steal."
But I want the things you just can’t give me.

What you do to the least of these, my brothers, you have done it to me
I want the things you just can’t give me.

-Derek Webb, Rich Young Ruler

May we all do one thing today to be better to our brothers and sister in poverty.

I support this message

I'm not going to say much at all about the election. It seems like this year maybe more than others people are getting carried away in mob-mentalities and de-humanization.

Sadly, prejudice and hatefulness is bi-partisan and equal opportunity, so as the campaigns wear on, I encourage you to stay in your right mind. Don't forward hateful emails, don't make blanket statements about either party or their supporters, don't burn effigies (I wish I could be entirely kidding about that statement), don't judge a person's quality of faith or morality or life by which candidate they support.

These are the moments when character is proven, so be holy and be nice. And remember, in the words of Derek Webb, we'll never have a Savior on Capitol Hill.

I'm Sojochick, and I support this message. :) God bless you and God bless the blog-universe!

Through the years

I know this website www.yearbookyourself.com has made the rounds, but I finally got around to playing with it tonight.


1952

1954

1962- The greenhouse effect probably started right about this year... thank you hairspray.

1966- Mousse has been very good to me.

1968

1978- Oh yes.

1986- Who couldn't rock a jerry curl?

1994- Uh oh, starting to hit a little close to home...

1996- Hmm, is this the Jenni Garth look? I think the platinum hair dark eyebrows were common.

2000- WAY too close to home! This is the year I graduated! :) Dear, dear bangs.

Make yourself comfortable

I haven't abandoned the blog, I promise. I have three blogs in the queue. One of which I can't figure out how to finish, another of which I can't decide if I really want to post to the intercyberweb, and another that is scheduled to come out next week.

In lieu of actual thought and content from me, enjoy a video of me with the cat. Gotta love photobooth! If you know how much of a cat person I am not, then you might find this amusing. Trust me, these moments with Penny Lane are rare. PS- For vanity's sake, I look awful because I had just come in from running.



Penny getting comfortable from Ann W on Vimeo.





more animals

Good guys and bad guys

*The term "guys" will be used in a gender neutral sense in this discussion in reference to its colloquial use.

It used to be simpler, I think. At least on TV. Good guys dressed in white and bad guys dressed in black. Bad guys hurt people, while good guys helped people. Good guys were idolized, bad guys were demonized. Bad guys were hated- good guys loved.

Lately new characters have emerged, revealing the deeper complexity of being a true hero. I think of Spiderman who is haunted by the fact that "with great power comes great responsibility" and is oftentimes villianized by those he tries to help. Then there's Batman, who struggles between being the hero the people need and the hero the people want, letting himself be cast as the bad guy so the people can believe in a hero they can understand.

And I think about David. David, the shepherd. David, the musician. David, the poet, who wrote of God's beauty, intense love, creation, and tenderness. David who dreamed of restoring the Temple of the Lord, writing:

One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to gaze on his beauty and to seek him in his temple. -Psalm 27:4

One thing. A life of meditation in the temple of the Lord.

But that wasn't his fate. It wasn't the kind of hero the Lord called him to be. Instead he became a warrior, killing thousands and tens of thousands, enacting the Lord's vengeance and bringing justice to His enemies. David acted within the will of the Lord and as He commanded, but it had its consequences.

King David rose to his feet and said: "Listen to me, my fellow Israelites, my people. I had it in my heart to build a house as a place of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD, for the footstool of our God, and I made plans to build it. But God said to me, 'You are not to build a house for my Name, because you are a warrior and have shed blood.'" 1 Chron 28:2-3

I try to imagine David as the Lord revealed this. The pain, the disappointment. I'll bet there were times when he looked at his life, his kingdom, his armies, and wondered how he had come so far from a flock of sheep and a harp. About how times were simpler then, and it was easy to know what was the right or wrong thing to do. Kill a lion trying to attack his sheep? Good. Obliterate an entire people group from the earth? Well, that one's harder to have a clear conscience about at night.

We face these decisions, too. Maybe we're not called to fulfill the vengeance of God, but we're called to live holy lives, and those decisions aren't always clear. Sometimes it means ending a co-dependent relationship, even though it makes you look cold and uncaring. Sometimes it's reducing your ministry involvement because you're stretched too thin, even though you appear to be "falling away". Sometimes it's rocking the boat when the status quo is calm, but stagnant.

Being a good guy isn't simple and isn't easy. It requires a deep and intimate conversational relationship with the Spirit. It takes the gift of wisdom from the Lord to show you what is right even when it's not what's obvious. It takes rivers of grace and mercy to minister to you when what is right is painful. And it takes trust to know that although you may not be the hero you imagined yourself to be, you are indeed a child after your Father's heart.

Wisdom according to James

Wisdom
-an honorable life by good works through humility

Wisdom from above
-pure
-peace loving
-gentle
-willing to yield to others
-full of mercy and good deeds
-shows no favoritism
-always sincere

Wisdom is not
-jealous
-selfishly ambitious

These are
-earthly
-unspiritual
-demonic

From James 3. So how does this jive (or not so much) with your concept of wisdom?

Sandpaper for the soul

I went to Honduras almost two months ago, and since then I've been praying and thinking about how to put into words how God moved me there.

One word that has knocked around my head since then is re-sensitizing.

Life happens, and it is so easy to be swept away into work, relationships, even ministry. Especially ministry. I had started to forget that to minister and recieve of the love and mercy of Christ is more than logistics and organization and duty. It's more than majoring in minors, appeasing your different constituents, and worrying about how things will work out.

Between the kindness and generosity of the Hondurans, the dedication of the Predisan staff, the hearts of my teammates, the prayers of many friends here and the work of the Holy Spirit, I feel as though the callousness was worn away and I am more sensitive to God and His work in me and the world around me. I feel as though I'm able to love better, keep my priorities in a more kingdom-oriented order, and be closer to His heart.

It doesn't necessarily take a mission trip to clear your mind and re-orient your perspective, but I am so thankful that God found me there and is still completing that work in me.

*Photo of an impromptu worship service of patients waiting to be seen at the Predisan clinic. By Angela Roadman. Buy her book "The Faces of Honduras" by clicking here.

The men in my life...

... for this week, at least. :)

The Antibiotic Effect

Maybe I'm the only one who does this...

If I get sick with some kind of infection (thank you, dear sinuses), usually the doctor prescribes a week or two's worth of antibiotics to kill the infection.

I start taking the antibiotic and within two or three days notice the symptoms going away and start to feel better. Hooray! Healing!

But I also begin to notice the unpleasant side effects of the antibiotics, which are actually quite mild and temporary compared to the original illness.

So what do I do? I figure since the symptoms of the original ailment are starting to fade and I'm irritated by the cure, it's okay for me to stop taking my medicine.

But this is exactly what the doctors warn you against! A half cure is sometimes more dangerous than the original illness, especially when it comes to ridding your body of the infection in its entirety and lowering your resistance in the future.

I can be a bad patient, and sometimes my patience is also pitiful.

How many times do I get motivated to tackle an issue in my life, then become weak once again when I start to become complacent in my progress?

In health, in relationships, in spiritual disciplines... it's so easy to see just enough progress to talk yourself into believing you can quit the treatment. True discipline calls us to work through it in its entirety, not just to our own minimal satisfaction. And oftentimes to cure has it's own irritating side-effects that make us wonder if it's worse than the original illness.

I pray that we won't be satisfied with partial cures and unfinished healings, but allow the process to run its full course and leave us stronger than when we began.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4

Some days...

This has been my perpetual pose, sitting in front of my computer for about the past week.



Know the feeling?