what does it mean to be home?

 is it a place? a feeling? a state of mind? a combination? is it internally or externally driven? can "home" change? or does it simply seem to do so as it is to be discovered? is "home" different to each & every person, or can there be a truly mutual experience?
...can two people experience the exact same feeling/understanding?

does the potential I imagine for myself truly exist within me or is it a vision I created in respone to seeing the lives of those I aspire to learn from (& be like)
there's this different way, a manner, per say, in which I envision & inspire to live out my day to day life. but this change I see may only begin with a change inside of me. a real change of "me".
Lord will you see to it that this change is made in me?

external and internal atmospheres

how does one create an atmosphere?
what sort of atmosphere do I create for myself? for others?

how does my external atmosphere differ from that of my internal?

what does my atmosphere promote?

what do I do/think when on my own?
how is my internal environment affected by the external?

"Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them?" Rose Kennedy -->

the time i have must be orchestrated in order that any free time i have is maintained as a space in which i am making progress in either my studies or the preservation and preparation of myself, that i may be ready to work whenever such an occasion rises

the position in which a leaf lands after dancing in the wind can determine whether or not it dances with the next move of the wind.

how true that principle is of us as well! how true that is of all life!

http://kevan.org/johari?view=hesseray

I think I've been trying to see what my life would be like without Him... I mean, without acknowledging Him, worshiping Him, or intentionally seeking Him...
truth be told, it hasnt been terrible, i am still friendly, still making friends, still have happy days, still have passions... but at the end of the day when my head hits the pillow, i am empty. ive always know this to be true.... but when thinking about presenting myself to others for the first time and having to know what i believe... there's a sense of insecurity, & even shame because what i want to say i believe is not reflected in how i conduct my days... how i spend my time.
where is my heart? how is my heart? what do i truly truly love? what do i truly truly worship? what do i truly truly fear?
i want to give my whole self from Him, but i fear... what is it that i fear?!
what is it that is keeping me from giving my whole self from Him?

Now. Now is my time. Not time under my ownership, but rather time for me to show who owns me. Time, space rather, in which i may live and breathe whatever it is that awakens my heart each morning. Passion.

WBSGE Blog Book

For small group, aka WBSGE!, we have these notebooks we call "blog books". They are a recent addition to the group. We each take a book home and write in it thoughts, prayers, meditations, Scripture... & then exchange the books. We can then read whatever the other person had written & either write off of their thoughts or begin our own new thought processes... all bringing our minds back to scripture and prayer for each other. Last week's "prompt" was open ended. Here is this week's "prompt". 

blog book thought! by Sarah Siegelin Crook
Hi senior-i-tas! :-)

I hope this note brings a smile to your heart as we have a few minutes to connect--I have missed you!  Our family has enjoyed a wonderful week of sunshine, blue skies, seventies, beach, pool and rest--THANK YOU, GOD!!  It is Psalm 23 rest for the lives of weary ones!

One of the treats for me has been to start into a re-read of The Chronicles of Narnia.  They are such great books, and I always walk away encouraged and renewed with new perspectives about God, our Lord and Savior, my own finite & sinful nature.  This week it was The Magician's Nephew--have you read it?  I am going to give you a few quotes to chew on from it...here's what I want you to do...make a new entry into the blog book you are holding this weekend, then bring it to school and make the trade on Monday or Tuesday--make sure everyone gets a new book!

Topic for this post?  Fiction words that have made you think deeply or differently about God--His character, how He sees us/knows us...read the quotes below and write on one of them...bring a different quote from the Chronicles or any other fictional piece...write out the quote (doesn't have to be the whole thing!) and then take a page or two to share how it has influenced you...tie it back to the Scriptures (never stop being a Berean!!).  As you encounter a new blog book next week, build on your sister's thought...

I am praying for all of you by name and by what you have chosen to share with me.  I love you!  I will look forward to hearing from you as you have time and to starting to meet consistently on 10/16.

LOVE YOU ALL!!

[From Chapter 6, as Uncle Andrew is getting gussied up to "serve" the Witch, Queen Jadis]
"Children have one kind of silliness, as you know, and grown-ups have another kind.  At this moment, Uncle Andrew was beginning to be silly in a very grown-up way.  Now that the Witch was no longer in the same room with him he was quickly forgetting how she had frightened him and thinking more and more of her wonderful beauty...He had also somehow managed to forget that it was the children who had golt hold of this 'superb creature': he felt as if he himself by his Magic had called her out of unknown worlds..."
[From Chapter 7, as Digory contemplated whether he could travel to another world to find a cure for his mother's illness]
"But suddently it flashed upon his mind that he now knew (even if Aunt Letty didn't) that there really were other worlds and that he himself had been in one of them.  At that rate there might be a real Land of Youth somewhere.  There might be almost anything.  There might be fruit in some other world that would really cure his mother!  And oh, oh--Well, you know how it feels if you begin hoping for something that you want desperately badly; you almost fight against the hope because it is too good to be true;  you've been disappointed so often before.  That was how Digory felt.  But it was no good trying to throttle this hope.  It might--really, really, it just might be true.  So many odd things had happened already...."
[From Chapter 10, as Aslan had just established the Talking Beasts in Narnia and one of them spoke out loudly when all else were silent]
"The Jackdaw became so embarrassed that it hid its head under its wing as if it were going to sleep.  And all the other animals began making various queer noises which are their ways of laughing and which, of course, no one has ever heard in our world.  They tried at first to repress it, but Aslan said:"Laugh and fear not, creatures.  Now that you are no longer dumb and witless, you need not always be grave.  For jokes as well as justice come in with speech."
[From Chapter 10, the perspective of Uncle Andrew as Aslan created the world of Narnia and the Talking Beasts}
"We must now go back a bit and explain what the whole scene had looked like from Uncle Andrew's point of view.  It had not made at all the same impression on him as on the Cabby and the children.  For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing:  it also depends on what sort of person you are."
"...Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.  Uncle Andrew did.  He soon did hear nothing but roaring in Aslan's song.  Soon he couldn't have heard anything else even if he want to.  And when at last the Lion spoke and said, 'Narnia awake,' he didn't hear any words: he heard only a snarl."
[From Chapter 11, as Digory bravely asked Aslan to heal his mother]
"But please, please--won't you--can't you give me spomething that will cure Mother?'  Up till then he had been looking at the Lion's great feet and the huge claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up at its face.  What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life.  For the tawny face was bent down near his own and (wonder of wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion's eyes.  They were such big, bright tears compared with Digory's own that for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother than he was himself."
[From Chapter 13, as Digory reflected on his thoughts and actions when in the garden, after his encounter with the Witch]
"They had started early that morning and what happened in the garden had not taken very long, so that Fledge and Polly both said they would easily get back to Narnia before nightfall.  Digory never spoke on the way back, and the otheres were shy of speaking to him.  He was very sad and he wasn't even sure all the time that he had done the right thing; but whenever he remembered the shining tears in Aslan's eyes he became sure."
[From Chapter 14, Aslan speaking of Uncle Andrew]
"He thinks great folly, child," said Aslan  "This world is bursting with life for these few days because the song with which I called it into life still hangs in the air and rumbles in the ground.  It will not be so for long.  But I cannot tell that to this old sinner, and I cannot comfort him either; he has made himself unable to hear my voice.  If I spoke to him he would hear only growlings and roarings.  Oh Adam's sons, how cleverly you defend yourselves against all that might do you good!..."
...SO MANY OTHER GREAT QUOTES IN THE BOOK, BUT ON THE CHANCE YOU HAVEN'T READ IT RECENTLY AND CHOOSE TO NOW, I DIDN'T WANT TO GIVE TOO MUCH...

HAPPY WRITING, DEAR ONES!

Encouragement

Haven't posted for a while, I know. Here's a little something that just made my heart smile in the midst of a heavy-laden time... oh dear miss Jenna, how you sing to my heart, hug me with your voice and shine His light with your songs, xo.