quiet

(relatively)

Ahh, yes. We're back to just the noise of the street, the city, the welding shop under our bedroom window. Nice and quiet. ;-)

Unfortunately, after I finished last night's blog I went to into the bathroom to discover the kitty had found and shredded a roll of toilet paper. She hasn't done that for months. I wonder if the noise was upsetting her more than I had realized. She seems to be a little extra naughty today.

Also unfortunately, the cacophony of the ceremony in our street started up again at 6 this morning. We did some morning things around the house: exercise, breakfast, showers, and then fled to a near-by coffee shop. I read the Celebration of Discipline book I have been reading on my days with God. I found it a little harder to concentrate with Mr. there. I kept wanting to share with him the things I was reading. But I know he likes to read in silence, so I tried to refrain. I really did try. Not always successful, but…

Anyway, we also ate lunch out, and then returned home to find them tearing town the tents. What a relief!

I went on to be SUPER productive in the afternoon, getting caught up on SO many e-mails and smaller projects that needed done. I sent out that newsletter and folded laundry. We met a friend for supper. Good Saturday.

I am finding it hard, sometimes, to write this daily blog. I don't have profound things to say every day; I feel like a fake if I try to force it. But I don't want to write just trivial things, either—although I know that some of the day-to-day things I experience can be interesting since I live in a foreign country. Besides, the original purpose of this blog was to keep me accountable at posting one photo of beauty a day, so maybe I shouldn't sweat it.

Except for, I guess there is one noteworthy thing that happened. When I put the newsletter together, I pull information from the updates of my co-workers from all over Asia. I try to include each region, and was looking for a specific e-mail. Sometimes they send them to Mr., so I asked him, where is that e-mail from B.—the one where she's riding the yak? He looked at me like I was crazy and said he hadn't gotten an update from her in a while. Still, he searched his inbox and came up with nothing. I was frustrated, sure I had seen that e-mail.

This morning when I got up Mr. gave me the weirdest look. He asked, "How did you know we were going to get an update from B.?" It had come in when he checked e-mail this morning. And sure enough, there was a photo of her riding a yak.

True story. Crazy, right?? I kind of freaked myself out.

On a more serious note, I love, love, love the affirmation I am getting from some of the reading I've been doing, both about beauty and about my pursuit of God. I'll copy a few excerpts, and finish with that.

"The divine priority is worship first, service second. Our lives are to be punctuated with praise, thanksgiving, and adoration. Service flows out of worship. Service as a substitute for worship is idolatry. Activity is the enemy of adoration."
—Celebration of Discipline, Richard J. Foster, chapter 11

"See beauty and we know it in the marrow, even if we have no words for it: Someone is behind it, in it. Beauty Himself completes it."

"Looking is the love. Looking is the evidence of the believing."
—One Thousand Gifts, Ann VosKamp, chapter 6