Hush now. I just had an idea...

Listening to: My Own Little World by Matthew West

Quote love: "She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it)." -Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Who here loves inspiration?! The kind where you hear a word, a phrase, a picture, a song, and a story tells itself.

Sometimes you get a glimpse into the deepest part of your mind: the part that's like a room. The room where you know inspiration is. You can run endlessly through the passages and stairwells and rooms of your mind, but never find it. Most of the time, it seems, you can only find this room of inspiration by accident, if you're lost, or completely unsuspecting.

On the occasion you do find it, you breathlessly run in and see a vast room that is divided by endless rows of books. Shelves which are crammed with literature line the walls, and unidentifiable music plays distantly. You're not allowed to see the titles nor recognize the music. Not yet. Perhaps later. There's an open book on the floor in front of you. On the page is a word, a phrase, a picture, a song, or something only you can see. When you see it, a evanescent understanding floods your mind. It's a wonderful, beautiful, intricate, maddening idea.

Find a way to make yourself remember what was on that page, because you might never see it again.

It seems you're only allowed in this magnificent room for a few seconds before you're pushed out, the door slamming in your face, and the open book on the other side of a locked door. I hope you remembered everything you could.

Inspiration for this post: a photograph of a winding staircase.

What about you? What last gave you inspiration?

In His love and light, 

Suzanne

and the laughter slowly changed, so that all I heard was music

Listening to: Swan Song by Franz Schubert

Quote love: "The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul." -Johann Sebastian Bach

The music is soft in the distance and rain is falling from the sky tonight. 

When does a normal sound turn into music?

I remember the time when images danced in my mind and I heard the fall of rain. I looked up from a book to see raindrops glistening in the sunlight, streaming like tears across the windowpane.

I remember sitting on the playground swings at eleven o'clock at night with my amazing friend. The lights shimmered, and the stars looked as if we could take a handful if we reached. A conversation began with, "Do you remember that time when..." and halted in the middle as we laughed.

I remember when I stood along the edge of the ocean, listening to crashing waves, looking at shells and the shifting clouds, and scanning the horizon where the sky embraces the sea. I remember when my mind seemed to collapse on itself when I tried to imagine the greatness of our God.

I remember the times just after the rain, when the hazy sunlight illuminates the glistening grass, when the leaves gently slip to the ground, and the whisper as the breeze stirs the trees.

There was the falling rain, crashing waves, rippling laughter, whispering wind, and all I heard was music.

I don't think music has to consist of a musical instrument to be music.

 So step back and watch the lights, listen to the laughter, and hear the music which can't be heard. Take pictures in your mind, write them down as a reminder, and thank the Lord you were blessed to see such times. Because, after all, He's the reason we were there to enjoy them. :)

In His love and light, 
Suzanne

what brings you joy?

Listening to: Well being by PartyLite (Oh. My. Goodness. It's so beautiful...)

Quote love: "If you don't find it in the index, look very carefully through the entire catalog." -Sears Roebuck catalog

What is joy to you?

When I look in the mailbox and find a hand-written letter with my name on it.

When I can sit and listen to the grass whisper.

When we remember that our God is great, magnificent, loving, and almighty.

When I get to pummel my family with random observations, comments, and notes. :)

Those times bring me joy.

What about you? What brings you joy?

In His love and light, 

Jessie Suzanne

folded and saved

Listening to: You Never Let Go by Matt Redman

Quote love: "This is not a letter but my arms around you for a brief moment." -Katherine Mansfield

Finished reading this post.

It made me think.

Have I mentioned how much I love letters?! Writing them and receiving them. I write letters to my friend just to tell her how awesome she is. It's remarkable how some of your feelings can be entangled with the swirl of the letters as you lead them across the paper. It's remarkable how something so encumbered with worth can be folded and saved.

I most definitely wouldn't say hand-written letters are better than face-to-face conversations, but I wouldn't call them inferior.
:)

In His love and light,
Suzanne

...and the library didn't have it.

Listening to: How Many Kings by Downhere 

Quote love: "Sentence first, verdict afterwards." -Lewis Carroll

I have some things to talk about. So, here goes.

Thing one: Has anyone here read The Great and Terrible Quest by Margaret Lovett? Because people have been bragging, and bragging, and bragging about it, and it's driving me nuts because...our library doesn't carry it. I should know. I tore apart the library catalog. With my bare hands. {Okay, not really. I just looked very, very hard}.

Thing two: I got a letter from my sweet pen-pal and nearly died of happiness. :) Also, I think England's stamps are so amazing! I'm so used to seeing the American stamps {with the Liberty Bell on them}.

What's been up with you? Any epic books that need reading? :)

In His love and light, 

Jessie Suzanne

the things that make you remember

Listening to: My Own Little World by Matthew West.

Quote love: "A moment lasts all of a second, but the memory lives on forever." -Unknown

Last night I was sitting on my bed while I folded clothes. I looked in my closet as I hung up a jacket, and I noticed a white book on the floor.

I flipped through my old script, and it brought into recollection a time I hadn't thought of in a while.

Nearly two years earlier, I was frantically flipping through its pages in a dark hall backstage as we practiced the play of The Chronicles of Narnia.  

It brought into recollection the days when we put on masks and costumes. 

The days when we were kings and queens and dwarves and elves; when we all rushed onstage as someone else. When we clung to wooden swords and hosted a sword fight in the dressing room. It made me think of how much fun we had when we decided to play hide & seek, exploring multifarious classrooms in the building.

It made me think of how we choked back our laughter on performance night when someone forgot the cup backstage, and we improvised and 'drank' from someone's cell phone. 

I remembered how we were sprawled on floor as we read through the play, and someone fell asleep.

How we all laughed when we were scribbling our lines on our hands and forearms the day we were supposed to have our lines memorized. How me and a friend raced through dark hallways, only to find the cast's younger siblings in a room with my mom watching Veggie Tales. I thought of how both of us walked in, asked a toddler to scoot over, and we sat down to watch Veggie Tales.

How we sat in that same darkened hallway and pondered what would happen to the paint job if we were to put bologna slices on a car.

The day of performance, and we're waiting in a back room eating popcorn, listening to Fenris Ulf play the guitar.

It's those times when a camera wouldn't have done much good. Because even though a camera can beautifully capture the emotions and images, when you step back and notice your friends, the music, and the times when you laugh so hard you can't breathe, you know there is no way a camera could capture that. 

.:Me, Kaitlin, Elizabeth, and Ashley:.

In His love and light,

Suzanne

before the sun gleamed

Last night the temperature dropped into the low 20s and it began to sleet, so there was ice everywhere this morning. I love pictures of ice! Muahahaha...

Which one is your favorite? :)

In His love and light,

Jessie Suzanne

and the stars fell as snow

What would happen if you were in a field on a summer night, and you looked up to see the stars begin to fall? Not crashing down violently, just gently fluttering down as snow; covering the ground, glistening in the moonlight. And all the stars the Creator knows by name are tumbling downward, resting on your eyelashes, glowing softly, coating the ground in a surreal blanket of glimmering lights. Their light dimly illuminates the field, and the air is dotted with tiny, fallen specs of beauty. The slight breeze musters them off the ground, lifting them into the air, slowly sending them into soft whirlwinds that reach toward the heavens. They sleepily float to an empty night sky, sifting among each other as they return to dwell in the place of their beginning.

And the stars returned to the sky's embrace, mustered by a whisper of wind.