To paper or to blog? Blog.

I am pulling a *Potato Princess* move (Potato princess, you know who you are. And I want to thank you for all your wonderful blogs. However, I do not always understand them. Who IS Jessica?); I am writing a blog, when really, I need to be writing a paper. Two papers actually. A final philosophy paper on St. Augustine and a Psychology paper on Psychological Disorders and Therapy. Interesting, right? Well, it is. I just hate writing papers.So, I have decided to give my readers what they want again! This time, with pictures!

This is a rather

old one, as you can tell from the snow. Over Christmas I went to my good friends' house in Fredericton, but I came back to St. Stephen for New Years eve and day. There was quite a large dump of snow and it was simply divine outside. I love the way fresh fluffy snow muffles all sounds. This is a view of Main Street (the street the school is on) from my friends window.

This next picture is a little over two month later (I was camera-less for 2 whole months!!! Luckily my newly acquired boyfriend took me to Freddy to get it back. He's nice like that). Eight friends from school and I rented a cabin, in Maine, for Reading Break. It was a wonderful time - full of friendliness and food and fellowship and quiet. NOT. It was everything BUT quiet.

Here is a picture of my special friend and I. You should meet him,

he's great. We hang out a lot. We don't do work together a lot (we also DO work together a lot, but the don'ts tend to outweigh the dos) Which is why I REALLY need to get to work on my papes (no, I did not forget the 'r', thats just how I roll).

I have gotten in the habit of saying farewell to my readers, so I will continue. Good bye and good night, dear readers.

in a quiet world

My life feels like a whirlwind sometimes. I get caught up in the frenzy of friendships and studiousness of my studies (not nearly enough studying though...), and I forget to quiet my soul and let God's presence wash over me and around me. When I do remember and have a chance to settle, I soak it in. I have been going regularly to the early service at my church here. It is a Celtic Service, a liturgical service. It has meant so much to me in the past 3 or 4 weeks that i have been going, and I want you to share in my peace too.

Here is a bit from the little booklet; this specific piece always means so much to me, especially reading it at the beginning of a new and busy week. I am not sure where this one comes from, but here it is: (the leader starts, and the bold print is for everyone to say in unison)

As we see the week stretched out before us,

in all of its mystery and predictability,

we give it to You

and ask that You would walk with us

through the minutes and hours,

keeping us awake and available

to You and to each one that will cross our paths.

Christ, as a light

illumine and guide us.

Christ, as a shield

overshadow us,

Christ under us;

Christ over us;

Christ beside us

on our left and our right.

This day be within and without us,

lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.

Be in the heart of each to whom we speak;

in the mouth of each who speaks unto us.

This day be within and without us,

lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.

Christ as a light;

Christ as a shield;

Christ beside us

on our left and our right.

The week to come is full of hope

because Jesus was crucified and has risen.

God has turned the world right-side up;

new creation has begun.

Jesus, Son of God,

take us with you

wherever You go.

I hope this liturgy speaks to you this week and gives you hope, like it does for me. Be blessed dear reader.

A New Post Up Due To Popular Demand

Who would have thought people actually read my blog!

I knew this already actually. But to have TWO people in the same night ask me to write another entry!? Well, give the crowd what they want!

What will I write about?

My blog is called "Places, please." I named it that because it was going to blog about all the different places that I was going to be at various times. I started it because my friend, "the Bug", inspired me to, and I wanted to please her. I also was in a time of so much change, constantly on the move, with no place to call home. Being able to write about the things I was seeing was helping me.

So, where am I right now? I am sitting in the dining room, an unusual place for me to be blogging, at 12 52 am, people talking around me. It is after a late night snacking time.

Well, they all left, I guess it is bed time? I am left (almost) alone here. I will go to bed, and wake up tomorrow morning to a totally free-of-school day. Not totally free of school WORK of course, but no classes. I cook in the morning at 10, for lunch. I will enjoy it. Good company, cooking for my fellow school mates, also good company.

Blog - have I told you yet? I love this place.

my bad mood today

bad moods.

I am not in them all that often. At least I don't want to be! However, when I am, I want to shout curses, and when I try to do that, it comes out a cry. So I try and stifle that down, then I just get bitterly angry. Sigh. Take deep breaths, and go for a walk. Yes, walks.

I have been going on some nice walks lately, but not enough. The neighbourhoods are so quaint in this area. They have nice old houses and large trees lining the roads. I quite like it.

good mood...

I feel better already.

My Jim and Pam tribute.

I want to be Pam Beasley from "The Office".

She is cute, funny, and clever. EVERYTHING every girl ... wants ... to be?

I mean, that's why Jim likes her so much, right?

Just gotta find ma Jim. With all the same expressions.

And, I would like a shirt like this:

They were just... meant for each other.

Christmas In Bathurst

What a great time I have been having with my shiny friend and her family! So loving and friendly and so funny too. I don't have too much else to say, except that it has been wonderful, better than I could have expected.

One down side: My friends' new (-to-them) car was broken in to; both her purse and wallet as well as my purse and wallet were stolen. Such nice, expensive purses AND wallets! Gah! ALL of my ID cards were in my purse, even my passport and birth certificate. I have nothing to get my other stuff back with. How frustrating. Now it will take all the longer to get new cards. It's mostly just a nuisance.

The upsides of all of that: her great family around to help us by walking around and looking for the bags, they had cell phones so quick calls could be made to police and credit card companies (good thing! her card had already been used at two different places), no camera's were in either purse, her husband's backpack with lots of cash was still there, we were not hurt, only the car's window was broken.

Things are only things.

Loving myself

I was just about to go to bed. Then I started to read, and that nervouse excited feeling overwhelmed me. I knew I had to write something down. I don't want to go into too much background detail, however, I need to say some things before I dive right into my plans for my Christmas break.

I have struggled with self-image issues for most of my teen life, and as I grow older, and even just now, I am realizing this could even mean that I don't love myself. That's a pretty big deal, also quite common I think. It's hard to explain the inner workings of my mind. Quite often people tell me that they like me, love me, and even miss me. One might think this would penetrate my bad thoughts, and sometimes I think it does. I "know" God loves me, but how do Iknow this? I sure don't always feel it. These other thoughts then enter my head about being unlovable and I think how on earth could anyone love me? I am such a mess, a screw up! People often say, "those are lies from the pit of HELL Rosie!" I hate it when people say that, true or untrue.

It was just the other day, when talking to my shiny friend, that the thought occurred to me (funny how it took so very long) maybe the one who doesn't love me, is me?

This is all being brought up in me because of the aforementioned book that I am reading, A Tree Full of Angels. I wish I could buy everyone a copy and have you read it. It is one of those books I have trouble reading alone because I want to discuss every sentence with another person. Here are the pieces that got me thinking about all this:

"When you can lovingly be present to yourself, your presence to others takes on a deeper quality also.

There are many ways we are called to come home to ourselves. There is that part of ourselves that feels ugly, deformed, unacceptable. That part, above all, we must learn to cherish, embrace, and call by name.

... This indeed is coming home to yourself, to face yourself and embrace yourself. Invite yourself into your own abandoned house, abandoned only because you are not at home with yourself. Invite yourself in, then. Sit down at table with your estranged self, estranged only because you've forgotten the real unity that exists within you.

... So, invite yourself in! Treat that self like a beloved member of your household. It is a beloved member. It is you! You've come home" (pp. 6 - 7).

So this is part of my journey with my time off; here in Fredericton, I am going to invite myself in, and love me!

[Another part of the book I so enjoy is how she talks about our "littleness and our greatness, our frailty and our splendor, our poverty and our wealth" (p. 2).]

And maybe, just maybe, those "lies from the pit of hell" are partially thoughts and reminders of my littleness, and maybe then I can look to God and see how I am made GREAT, and see how through Jesus, I am being made GLORIOUS.

I am being "divinized", to use Macrina's words.

Here I go.