blessing #1 and #2 - wild in the city / alive in the city

I might as well share the little bits of amazingness that God daily touched my inmost me with on a basically daily basis... 

because i've been trying to apply thankfulness lately. so yay! 

:D 

I had two-and-a-half rather rough classes of 7th/8th graders yesterday, but God used those three classes as a backdrop to a wonderful-good blessing to finish out the work day. 

While the last class of kids was coming in, I was walking around tidying chairs and papers. The kids started gathering by the window in the corner of the room, and a few of them started yelling, "Bambi!! It's Bambi!!" I looked toward the window, but didnt' see anything. The kids kept shouting, so I put the papers down on the teacher's desk and walked toward the window. There, on the slightly suburban lawn of the slightly suburban school's slightly suburban playground, was a whitetail doe and an incredibly young whitetail fawn, all speckly in the just-washed grass. The fawn started suckling, the kids got freaked out until I told them it was just drinking, and the oohs ensued until both deer noticed the ruckus going on in the window and pranced off. The students gradually disbanded, I took attendance, and math papers started getting covered in lead and ink. 

Today I was driving home from spending a few hours with second graders. We'd started out by watching some of Madeleine on a VHS, then worked on assorted assignments. After sending everyone home (at the appropriate time, of course!), I got into the car and drove down Division (aka Plainfield). Blessing #2 happened on a side street - I witnessed a walker-bound man attempting to help another men up from the pavement where he'd fallen. It's things like this that really ought to make the news, not death and destruction. So there it is - whoever you are, thank you for humbling yourself and helping up a man in need, even though you, yourself, are so obviously in need. Even if this man is not a God-follower, God used him to show me that His love can be displayed ...somehow =) woo hoo! 

3.15.2007

Going through old writingness while trying to find a novel I'd started a few years ago, and thought I'd share this :) 

enjoy! 

March 15, 2007

I am a people-watcher and a keeper of secrets. I spent many wonderful moments with my mother during my childhood doing just that – people-watching. 

            The people you observe come in all shapes and sizes and colors; no one is left out, and every single person has a story all their own.  I’ve often wondered what might happen if I were to actually write down my observations as they play out in the reality of life. 

            Take now, for example. I am riding the bus to campus.  The buses that take people here or there – from campus to home, home to work, or random, sundry appointments – are often more colorful that a midsummer sunset over Lake Michigan.  White-skinned people are a minority here, and the most beautiful shades of brown, olive, and peach surround me – me, a blonde-haired, green-eyed twenty-something with skin that tans easily in the few summer months Michigan claims as its own. 
            I like watching how people talk on the bus.  There are two women about my age towards the front of the bus; both are talking with their hands and eyes, and laughter occasionally erupts from their mouths.  I’m not really eavesdropping, but they’re discussing how difficult it is for one of them to get a raise at the job where she works. 
            I love watching the Asian women on the bus when they’re deep in conversation.  The younger woman has her hair parted in the middle and pulled back with a plastic barrette, and the older woman has her hair in a fashionable haircut.  Their eyes are the most attentive, and these two women barely raise their voices above a library appropriate level.
            Then there is the occasional serious-type student, the person-in-the-crowd you don’t notice when they’re in-the-crowd, but as soon as they step away from the masses of humanity surrounding them, you can see them for who they are. This man-my-age across the aisle from me, for example; he’s reading a textbook full of built-in highlights, and nothing seems to be distracting him from studying – nothing, and everything.  From what I can see, he’s just as interested in the conversation of the two ladies in the front of the bus, which has shifted from job raises to blood pressure, and has moved on to talking about someone joining the Peace Corps.
            This is where I get off to wait five minutes for the next bus.