So:

2010, you are just around the corner. I don't know you yet, and you are full of scary unknowns, but I hope we get along fine. I have just one resolve with which to greet you: to be happy. And not in the sort of "I-just-want-what-I-need-to-be-happy" but in the active, honest choosing of joy. Henri Nouwen said, "Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day."

I choose joy in 2010.

[I also choose to have a little blog hiatus. Life is busy in January including, among other things, three weddings in three different states of Australia! I'll see you all again in February. xx]

Daymakers

Today had some stinky elements in it which made me feel down. But then some things made me happy:



1) this video by Improv Everywhere. It filled me with Christmas cheer and also made me want to go to Manhattan immediately.

2) my cousin, Annie, sent me a little for-no-reason-at-all-except-love parcel and it hit my mailbox today, completely unexpected! It filled me with a warm glow :). And yes, I do have the world's best cousins.

3) information about my newest sponsor child came in the post, and I opened the envelope to see an adorably cheeky little brown boy staring out at me with gorgeous dark eyes.



4) this charismatic little dude singing Jason Mraz's I'm Yours, not knowing any of the words, and not caring in the slightest.

I hope your day is filled with happy.

Weekend XIX :: and a poem

We file in,
seat ourselves in ragged rows
and perch on the rims of our chairs,
expectant and perspiring.

The great building
rumbles with the hum
of six-hundred murmured contentments;
we all
bless the air conditioner.

Then lights,
fifty tiny seraphs,
blink into the overhead.

Music swells,
rolls forward,
and washes over us;
we all
bless the Christ-child.

This was the weekend when it truly started to feel like Christmas. I went shopping with my mother and sister, my little brother dragged against his will but uncomplaining through crowds that resembled a mental illness. We balanced bags stuffed with purchases on chairs while we ate a late lunch (chicken katsu over rice at my new favourite place). I failed to find shoes for my absurdly strange feet but it didn't make me cry, this time.

This was the weekend when I went to a movie with my sister and soon-brother-in-law. I felt my face frozen in tension at all the scariest spots and knew that James was groaning at the CGI effects, but I suddenly didn't care that, in being swept up by the intensity, I was not Very Grown Up -- and then, ironically, the not caring what other people think made me feel quite grown up indeed.

This was the weekend when I finally had a sleep-in, when I finished a delicious book, when I joined my family for a carols service at our church, when I was reminded of Jesus' message to the captain in Matthew 8: "What you believed could happen has happened."

What was this weekend, for you?

The air is humid and carols are playing on the radio

I know the mature thing is to start thinking Christmas is a little bit old hat. But I can't. I'm an enthusiastic, immature dork for Christmas. I like everything that people my age are supposed to groan about: the carols on the radio. Candlelight singalongs. Nativity plays. Shopping for gifts. Christmas cards in the mail (though apparently these are dreadfully out of fashion). End of year newsletters (also more corny than cool). I love it all, and I'm thankful for the one time of year when it's in style for everyone to sing praise songs to Jesus.

And now I'm in the mood to watch movies that make me all Christmas-happy -- like Elf (pure silliness) and Little Women (not strictly a Christmas movie, but full of holly and jolly and family and tears) and The Nativity. What Christmas movies are your favourite? I definitely want to know.

Thankful

About this time just now, my North American friends are all heading to bed with contented tummies and several platefuls of leftover turkey in the fridge. Over the past couple of days, I've enjoyed seeing their Thanksgiving lists of thankfulness pop up around various internet haunts. And, although there are no pilgrim fathers, no Indians, and no candy corn here in Australia, there's always something to be thankful. So, I'm copying my friends.

Right now, I am thankful for (in no particular order):

my wee, fat nephew with two top teeth and two bottom teeth and a vocabulary that is tiny and yet still somehow includes "yay" and "book"; my utterly girly and beautiful niece who, at two-and-a-half, is already a thousand times cooler than her aunty Dee and yet still wants to borrow her necklackes; my two sisters and two brothers, who are excellent in a host of various ways and also make dorkiness cool; my parents, who make sure this buzzing circle of eleven individuals is actually a family; air-conditioning (it's maintaining my mental health right now, I'm sure of it); Christmas music; banana-and-choc-chip muffins; confusion, because it helps us to realise we can not have the answers and yet still survive; T.S. Eliot; the postman; bright nailpolish; flowers in a jar; 2010 diaries with no words in them yet; assignments completed; friends far away with whom I can just pick up where I left off, every time; evenings out; sister nights; friends near (especially ones only five minutes' drive away); the internet, because it helps me stay connected, even while confusing the whole connectedness thing; New Zealand; kind boys who restore my faith in males; public libraries; pictures that take my breath away; phone calls with my mother; pa and ma and nan; the Cosby Show; text messages; my new brother-in-law; bookdepository.co.uk (I'm their best customer); people dear to me getting married; answered prayers; people who take the time; what God has already done.

♥

"Gon out. Bisy. Backson"

It probably appears as though my blog fell into a treacherous, snowy abyss. I promise you it didn't. Just, my cousin is here and we are doing Things and it leaves little time for writing. Also, my computer is being recalcitrant so my web-moments are stolen from other peoples' computers. I'll be back soon!

PS. I've noticed some of you have asked questions in recent comments. I'll answer them, I promise! Feel free to ask any others here, and I'll address them all in a big Q&A post.

What's hot and what's not #1

This week -- and, I hope, in weeks to come -- I'm joining the excellent and inspiring Loobylu in celebrating Wednesday with a list of what's hot and what's not. Beware: this list may get lengthy. For the past week or so I've been jotting down things I've wanted to blog, and this thinly-veiled excuse to talk about anything and everything may get worn down and wrung out before I'm done with it. So, to begin...

What's hot:

New babies -- one of my lovely friends gave birth to a precious new bundle of awesomeness last weekend and I got to have a peek when baby was just a couple of hours old. New babies are just sheer delight.

The University of Danielle -- I love that at my school I can take a uni class outside, sprawled on a beach towel with notebook, textbook, and pen in hand, getting a massive dose of vitamin D and bay breezes and achieving something at the same time (see also 'What's Not' item one).

Poetry -- poetry is one of my subjects this semester and, although prose is truly my first love, I'm finding this all very delicious. I keep uncovering these gems that I've never seen before or never paid appropriate attention to before. Like this, from e.e. cummings:

anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn’t he danced his did.

Women and men(both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

children guessed(but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone’s any was all to her

someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then)they
said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men(both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain

David Crowder has a new blog -- and knowing David Crowder, it will be full of just the sort of silly, frivolous, funny, and strangely thought-provoking stuff I love.

The Desiring God audiobook -- downloadable in November, for free!

What's not:

Ant bites -- I should be getting used to these things, seeing as I've had so many lately. I'll bed outside, merrily lapping up the Spring sunshine and working my way through a textbook like there's no tomorrow, and some obnoxious little blank ant will find his way somewhere he shouldn't, and try and take a big chunky bite. It wouldn't matter so much if the bites didn't go all swollen and sore for days afterwards. Boy.

Christmas carols, already -- I love Christmas, and I love Christmas carols. But please: not yet. Just a few weeks longer. Please?

My poetry -- this differs from item #3 on the 'What's Hot' list because of one simple variation: it (the former) is good, and this (the latter), on the other hand, is not. In fact, the whole reason I am writing a blog post right now is to take a break from forcing words where they do not wish to go.

Failing to buy that excellent vintage dress -- which was only ten dollars, and was a cheerful fire engine red. Why did I not buy it from that excellent thrift store in New Zealand. WHY?