For Brooks, the Third Floor, and FRODOOOO!!!!

So, Saturday was the Second Annual "Brooks Blaze: Battle of the Four Flames" in Cameron Park. Four-way capture the flag game between the different floors. Initial plans for this year's game included the use of water balloons, but the 50 degree, rainy weather quickly altered those plans... However, it was still a blast! The first floor dominated, surprisingly enough... as the smallest floor in the college, they typically get short shrift when it comes to the floor-versus-floor events. Our torch was the first to be stolen -- by my former friend, Amber (true friends don't steal other friend's torches, lol) -- so for the rest of the game, we got to attempt to be strategic/just have fun. At one point, we all decided to pick up sticks and charge the first floor (AKA Tyler) screaming "FOR FRODOOOOOOO!" It was pretty much the most epic moment of my life, lol. [See above picture.] After a while, the first floor continued their domination, and the second floor lost their torch. This resulted in Conner and Christian climbing up in a tree to serve as a distraction, hoping to give the fourth floor time to launch a counter-offensive. Mostly, however, it just resulted in a chorus of "Hey, stop throwing acorns at me!!!" from the first floor girls. In the end, even though we ended up losing, the event was really, really fun.

Sunday was an awesome day. I went to church with Zachary and Amanda, and first of all, I am just so happy to be back at an Anglican church! I think that, while Seventh and James was nice, I am just not baptist, and that I wasn't being fed in all of the spiritual/sacramental ways that I needed to be. Anyway, I had been sitting in between to Zachary and Janelle, but after communion, Amanda traded seats with Zachary and started to hug me, and we just sat there, singing and hugging for a song. Then when that song was over, she leaned into my ear and said that God had just put it on her heart to sit next to me and pray for me, so during the next song, we just sat there as she began to pray for me -- to pray for all of these things that I've been struggling with for a while, some of which I had been praying about myself at the altar rail, and none of which had I shared with her. So, she's praying, and I'm crying, and it was just so cool, because I've never had anything like that happen before. Normally when someone has felt called to pray for me, it's been very general or about something that we had just finished talking about, or whatever, but this was totally different. It was wonderful.

Then, after church, we stopped at Barnes and Noble, and she and Zachary bought me a copy of "Life of the Beloved" by Henri Nouwen. I began it last night -- which involves a whole side story of a friend that I had been spending huge amounts of time with/gotten really close to deciding to completely avoid me/stop talking to me -- and it is an incredible book! I was supposed to be working on this 30 min. presentation I had to give today over John Bunyan, but I was so upset/distracted by the thing with this other person, that I couldn't focus, so I just started reading. Like I said, it is so good! After reading the first section, I just had this peace about the whole situation and such joy for life in general, that I was immediately able to come back and finish working. Furthermore, I knew God was going to work everything out, and later that night, the person called me, and we got to talk, and things are better. Anyway, Here are a few small tastes from the first sections:

"My only desire is to make these words reverberate in every corner of your being -- 'You are the Beloved.'"

"The fact that I am always searching for God, always struggling to discover the fullness of Love, always yearning for the complete truth, tells me that I have already been given a taste of God, Love, and of Truth."

"Becoming the Beloved means letting the truth of our Belovedness become enfleshed in everything we think, say, or do."

"Everytime you feel hurt, offended, or rejected, you have to dare to say to yourself: 'These feelings, strong as they may be, are not telling me the truth about myself. The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God's eyes, called the Beloved from all eternity, and held safe in an everlasting embrace."

"Deep friendship is a calling forth of each other's chosenness and a mutual affection of being precious in God's eyes."

So, yeah, that's kind of what I'm doing right now. It's been hard, because in Great Texts, we've been spending a lot of time this semester on nuptial mysticism, and I've never particularly felt loved in that sense by God -- I know it, and I can see the effects of it, but I have struggled with spending time with all these Antiochers who constantly speak in language of "God romancing their hearts" because I haven't been able to feel that. This morning, I woke up super early, because I was installing an exhibit over at the Martin Art Museum at 8 AM, and as I walked outside, I remembered things the book had said about being thankful. So, I began to say thank you to God for the day he had created, when I stopped and began to ponder the weather. Why have we had a freakishly long, four-week bout of beautiful, grey, drizzly, British weather? Texas should not be like this at this time of year, which is one of the things that I like least about Texas, lol. Then I thought that maybe this was a gift for me. Kind of silly, not earth-shattering, but a gift of something I really enjoy from someone who deeply loves me and wants me to be happy, like a bouquet of my favorite flowers.

So, sorry this is ridiculously long, and not at all the sort of thing I usually blog about. I think a grand total of 3 people still read this though, so I'm not too worried about it, lol. (And yes, I used "lol" -- so sue me! ;-D ) Hope you all are doing well!