some wisdom I picked up today working at the Children's concert

The world is so much better with graham crakers and juice boxes.
All little kids are really cute, but Asian kids are the cutest.
We definitely had better cartoons when we were little.
Kids movies were a lot scarier back in our day (think 'Labyrinth' and 'The Neverending Story').

I want to be little again and suck on my thumb and not do anything except eat, sleep, poop and play. Those were the good ole days...

"I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them."
~John Stuart Mill

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

~care of Laura C

So for Lent one of the things I choose to give up was all extraneous things on the internet/computer. Blogger is not one of the things that I forbade myself from, since it is also like my journal, but I did decide to cut back a little bit, explaining my lack of postings.

Laurie's sermon today was really spot on. She talked about what Lent should really be... a cleansing time for your spirit and and body. She related it a lot to getting away from your 'addictions,' whether they may be to something as serious alcohol or drugs, or smaller things such as tv or video games. An addiction, she said (and I'm really paraphrasing here), is something that you use to fill the void in your soul. This void is not one to be filled by worldly things however, the void is something to be filled by God... your trust in God and His love for you. Laurie then said something that reminded me of a song by Plumb that I used to love, a song that I think is completely applicable...

Does the world seem gray with empty longing
Wearing every shade of cynical
And do you ever feel that
There is something missing?

There's a God-shaped hole in all of us
And the restless soul is searching
There's a God-shaped hole in all of us
And it's a void only he can fill

I don't think I, or anyone else, can say it much better than that.

On a much different note, D and I had our first lesson with John (aka Tex) tonight... so much fun! He taught me a bunch of different chord variations and how to palm mute. I'll just say that I have lots of things to practice. I'm thoroughly in awe of his music skill though. Not only does John rock at guitar, he's also rocks on the piano. Not in the classical sense (well he could, I just don't know), but he's good at improving at what not. I think I'll try to pay more attention to what he's teaching Dennis at the next lesson, in addition to learning the guitar shtuff. Yay PSF all around!!!

Freewriting exercise (2 minutes)
Swing dancing was really fun on friday. I wish I would have gone sooner. Sure, some of the guys were super sketchy, but it's really only one dance so who cares? Some of the fellas were really good dancers though. It would have been cool to dance with one of the younger, more skilled guys, but oh well... maybe next time. Hopefully there will be a next time. I wish we could have stayed a bit longer, but Maya and Maye wanted to go home, which was fine with me. Driving around afterwards with Julie and Dani was so much fun. It felt like I was back at home with my town friends driving around the Hills or Alpine or something. Speaking of nice houses, Montclair (heights to be exact) has some really nice houses. Ahh, and get out of my head, if you would be so kind, thanks :)

Freewriting is an exercise where you write non-stop for a specific amount of time. Even if you don't know what to write, you keep repeating the last word as to keep the train of thought going. I learned about freewriting many summers back when I took an expository writing classes, and still find it fun to do once in a while. I forgot how short 2 minues is though... tara espiritu