season of grace

I had a constructive day today :) - back into my last (ever!?) 2 weeks of classes and the start of exam revision season - just in time for the sunshine (four days in a row!). Had a fascinating lecture today on hand injuries... accompanied by lovely pictures. One before/after case study was of a guy who had his hand completely cut off just above the wrist with a chain saw... and then a video of him taken yesterday with the hand reattached - after months of therapy he had regained amazing movement! Great stuff. (I'll spare you the photos...)

I'm determined to finish strong. I have a tendency (!) to procrastinate so really trying not to as much this time.... makes me think of a few spurgeon quotes...

"It is by little procrastinations that (wo)men ruin their souls. They have no intention to delay for years - a few months will bring the more convenient season - tomorrow if you will, they will attend to serious things; but the present hour is so occupied and altogether so unsuitable, that they beg to be excused. Like sands from an hour-glass, time passes, life is wasted by driblets, and seasons of grace lost by little slumbers...."
"The way to do a great deal is to keep on doing a little. The way to do nothing at all is to be continually resolving that you will do everything."

Don't want to lose this season of grace.

sunshine

So, the sunshine is a bit of a distraction at the minute... it IS lovely and went up to Knockagh monument after my exam today to clear my head and see the gorgeous view - but I have to say it always seems to arrive just in time for exam season! Think my verse for today/this week is....
"Whoever watches the wind will not plant, whoever looks at the clouds will not reap." Ecc 11:4
In other words, stop thinking about the sunshine and get back to the books! All I can say is that it better hold out till saturday when I finish!

Just thinking as I write a post about the weather that I have definitely been away from Africa for too long if I'm distracted by sunshine... ahhh...

The cyclone and earthquake this week put a different perspective on watching the wind. Watching the news tonight from Burma and China, I feel like sometimes my life can be so wrapped up in the trivial. But somehow I know God is still God in the earth-shattering storms at the other side of the world as well as in the mundane of revision and sunshine.

break

It has been one of those days where I have been perfecting the act of procrastination... it's a familiar, yet unpleasant feeling where I know the inevitability of my exams will actually happen next week whether I'm ready or not (not being the consensus today).... which is exactly why I should be off the internet and back at the books. Alas, I'm still here.

Just found a new song! It's called 'Break' It seems to reflect the mood I'm in...(and not in the sense of being on a study break). I think I need to explore Son Lux's other music a bit more... but after this week is over!! :) enjoy...


Ok, back to respiratory physiotherapy...

i need something

I feel a bit like I'm jumping on the bandwagon with this song/music... but I like this guy (and his dreadlocks!). Don't really know exactly what he's talking about, but feel as if people/society often identity with this idea of longing for 'something to believe in.../someone to put (their) trust in'. check out newton faulkner's 'i need something':


it's got me thinking about music and its influence on my life. I tend to listen to music/go in search of new music that fits with how I'm feeling or what I'm thinking about. But maybe as the guy below suggests, maybe songs like this are trying to get at the core of who we are but are only telling one side of the story without any hope...
or maybe it's just music... or maybe I'm just procrastinating doing my back pain essay thinking about it.

on a tangent...

i've just had one of those days when i've done the opposite of what i should have done!! the essense of procrastination. ahh!! besides a lovely lunch with two friends (one who just got engaged on monday!!) the rest of my day has been reading and thinking about really intriguing topics in relation to science and faith... instead of reading my lovely textbooks. grrr... it's kind of opened a can of worms in my head so to speak, in that i really want to know more about this topic. lots of big concepts that i need to figure out in relation to things like critical realism, anthropic principle, theistic evolution, intelligent design, scientific theology... etc. not sure whether i should just put the lid on the can for the time being until i get some real studying done or whether to pursue this issue (admittedly mostly via wikipedia and other bloggers..) now. my one consolation in a day of procrasintation is that it wasnt just with mindless tv and i suppose i could always say it's slighty related to my course in that it's loosely related to science!! dont think that argument will cut it with my lecturers tomorrow somehow! maybe need a good face-to-face with real people debate about some of the issues before i rant on here without really knowing what i'm on about.

why?

so, i've been thinking about why i started this blog...
1. i guess i could be really philosophical about it and quote socrates who said that 'an unreflected life is not worth living' and that i want to have a concrete place to think, to make myself reflect on life instead of just moseying thoughtlessly through life...
2. another reason is that i have time this week :) a week off before getting back to classes and the joys of student life...it's kind of that feeling before you're starting back afresh to classes (or anything new) when you make sure you're ready, you have new notebooks and new pens (ha, remembering 1st day of school at crest...) and maybe this is part of the process this time...
3. my sister just got on a plane yesterday to go 'home' and i'm wishing i was going with her...so this may merely be a distraction from wishing i was with her...
4. i'm anticipating the next few months to be quite busy, but still have a nack for procrastinating what i really should be doing at all costs...this may be prove to be part of my procrastination!
5. i think i actually can be quite opinionated about things, about how i see the world.. i love a good debate over a cup of tea, so maybe this will be another place to voice what i think, although realising i'm probably wrong about many things...
6. it's also a new year and i think at the start of the year, it's always a time to stop, think, readjust, try something new... it remains to be seen if it's just a fad/new yr resolution that will fade mid february :) or be something i actually keep up...watch this space!

i'm sure there are more reasons... but it's probably a mixture of all of the above.