California

I don't mean for music to be a big part of my life. It just is.

I often find myself "praying" song lyrics. It's really not a bad thing, why reinvent the wheel? Music and lyrics often have this means of communicating things that are so much more deeper and raw than any conversation that can be had. What a better time to be raw than in prayer?

In fall semester I found myself praying a song a lot. It's a not-known song by a not-known band that laid it all out there for my heart to plea. I meditated on the bridge:

"why is 'comfortable' so uncomfortable right now? I was made for more"

It's a really good song, I encourage you to go check out the rest of it. 

"California, far from me

across the desert to the sea

a million miles away from something I don't know.

Lift my feet from here I stand,

down the street to foreign land;

anywhere you lead me, I will go."

'California' by Attaboy

China it is.

Sometimes it's {funny, miraculous, paralyzing, amazing, weird, stunning, shocking} to see how God answers prayers.

Twice

There's a saying that many live their life by. It goes something like this: "I'll try anything once."

That's all well and good, but it doesn't always work.

Believe it or not, there was a period of time when there was a female walking about the earth who did not like Pride and Prejudice."Who," you ask "would commit such a heinous crime?!" Well, truth be told that female was me. Jane Austen never did anything to me personally, I just didn't care for her, her work...or the movie. There was no particular reason, no broken-hearted past that made me a romance-hater, no fear of corsets, or even a fear of men with long hair. It simply wasn't my thing. Now, it might make you feel better inside to know that as it currently stands both Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen are gazing into each others eyes on my computer desktop, meaning that I am able to gaze upon the sight multiple times a day. What brought about the change of heart? I tried twice.

Being of positive nature, I like to think that friends positively influence us, and that's just what they did. Lazily sitting around, trying to decide on what movie would entertain us for the following hours, Pride and Prejudice was suggested and the "oohing and cooing" began...{vom}. I declined, suggesting other options but an explanation was desired. "Simply, I don't like it." The females dropped their jaws, but the response from a male friend of mine had me cornered: "I may have to stop liking you if you don't like Pride and Prejudice". Really? ok.

Turns out it's now my favorite. Why? Because I tried twice.

I had an English teacher my junior year of high school who I will never forget. Sure, I thought he was a bit "off" {turns out there was something about possession of marijuana...whatever}, but he was always super encouraging, every paper saying "Kayla, your voice, your style..."blah blah blah. He made us read more than any other English teacher I ever had, most of which I couldn't even tell you what it was, most of it in Olde English. My English teacher had a favorite book. It truely was his favorite book, I would hear him talk about it in the hallways to comrades, and even pry for secondary information from other members of the English department. The entire year he built up that we would finish with his favorite book. We the nerdy students were all excited; obviously the 'favorite book' of an English teacher had to be good--they read a lot! The book was The Metamorphasis, by Franz Kafka, and you bet your bippy that he made us read it in class.

...and it wasn't so good.