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- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
Some days I feel more like an old person than others. This past Friday was one of those days, spending time with girls from our youth group as we decorated for a surprise birthday party. They had the radio blaring, which was okay because... I don't need loud noises to feel energetic, but sometimes it's fun, and they loved it, so I kind of settled in a happy place in my mind and focused on the task I had at hand.
My complacency was shaken though, when TGIF by Katy Perry came on. Radio overwhelms me sometimes because so much new music is SO skanky. And it's awkward for me to listen in on artists bragging about how drunk they were when they slept with so many strangers and how they can't wait to do it again. "It's a blacked out blur, but I'm pretty sure it ruled." Thanks for that Katy, please, keep sharing your "artistry" with young people. If everyone keeps acting like that's what grown-ups do, then eventually it will become self-fulfilling prophecy, and anyone who gets burned can just feel like losers for having regrets.
I remember a girl I used to work with who frequently had bad reactions to alcohol and would black out if she drank too much. Did she drink less? No, because what is the fun in partying without drinking? One day she came to in a strange part of town with no underwear and her pants on backwards. Proof of a great party, I guess.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
The first two weeks of the month have been filled with fun though! We did a camping mini-retreat with the youth on the long weekend, and I loved my first real camping trip. We even had a huge storm Saturday night, but our tents mostly held up, and it was all a really cool experience. I was waiting to post anything about camping until I got pictures, but that still hasn't happened, soo... yeah.
The day after we got back from camping I turned 23 :) It was a quiet birthday spent lazing around at home, watching a movie with Matt and going out for dessert that night.
Since then we have sort of begun a big project to de-clutter and reorganize our apartment so that it can be even more enjoyable to live here and easier to share hospitality with others! After 5 years of storing my trumpet without ever playing it consistently, I finally decided to sell it, and it only took a week or so to post the ad online, find a buyer and trade my trumpet in for cash :) It wasn't the easiest decision to sell my trumpet, but I am glad I did. Other than that, Matt and I have started a bag of clothes to donate to Goodwill, and step-by-step, room-by-room we have begun to organize/clean/clear out the mess that has slowly accumulated over the last 8 months of being very busy. It feels great!
The emotional slump that I hit when we returned to Scarborough has lifted, and I have been doing my best to keep a good attitude about different circumstances as they come to keep my emotions on an even keel. Matt and I shared a sweet moment about a week ago when he had just come in from walking Nimoy. I told him that he has seemed a lot happier and more relaxed since our vacation and since his internship/second job wrapped up at the end of August. He said that on his walk he had just been thinking about how much happier I seemed to be lately and how great that was.
SO life is not perfect, but it is very good. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for me/us, and please continue to do so as Matt and I plan and share dreams for this next year of our life/marriage/ministry :)
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
I shampooed my hair the other night. And conditioned. (If you don't know why that's worth blogging about, read it here)
AND IT WAS FANTASTIC!
My hair was like silk. So I even though I am still happy to keep my hair clean without shampoo, I might shampoo/conditioner once a month or so and let my hair benefit from whatever all those chemicals do :) Everything in moderation!
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
I realized leading up to this vacation that I use the word home for both the house I grew up in where my parents still live, and for the apartment that Matt and I share now. It is strange to be in this situation, and I have noticed how hard it was to come "home" to Scarborough after such a wonderful time in Victoria.
It was interesting to notice that I did not feel home AT ALL when we landed, or on the drive home, although I do love how comfortable and familiar I am with Terminal 3 and the 401. When we got back to the apartment, I felt familiarity and comfort, but not really rest. My parents' home is a place of rest and safety and belonging (and I know it will be, even after my bedroom gets repainted/repurposed :P). Our apartment is... a shell I think. A home when we are living in it, playing games with friends, chasing the dog around, cooking meals, watching movies. I am fond of this place, bugs and all (so many dead bugs when we got back lol). But nothing happens here that couldn't happen somewhere else.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
I managed to get some sleep on the flight home from Victoria last night/this morning. When I woke up, I was excited to see some cities out the plane window - city lights are so pretty from up in the sky. Then, when I looked over the plane wing (instead of behind it), I saw just a strand of intense red light in the middle of the darkness as we neared the edge of daylight (the pictures don't do ANY justice to the colours in the sky). It was special to me to get to see it because I just happened to be awake and 40 000 feet in the air. It is extra special because it is my and Matt's anniversary today! So, here are thoughts from my journal on the plane:
Every day starts like this somewhere - a slash of red on the horizon that slowly widens to make a rainbow of colour, testing if this day might need to appear in black and white. The purple of this new day sinks into inky blackness stretched over the plane, and for now the wings mark a boundary line between now and then, last night and tomorrow.
Behind us is night, and just now light is creeping even into that fading memory. We have slipped into today, and it is a new year.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: psalm 40
I was surfing around on the internet a few nights ago and came across resources to memorize Colossians over the course of a year (only two verses a week!). I kind of wanted to go for it... and I still might. But I realized that before I jump into a lofty goal like that, I should really wrap up my current memorization goal first: to learn Psalm 40 by heart.
So I buckled down, and after much muttering to myself in public places, double checking words (is it Lord or God? Hurt or harm?), I am pleased to say that I think it's all in there! I will continue reviewing it daily for a few more days at least, and I hope to review it once a week or so to keep it in my mind. Which brings me to the other thing I wanted to do - brush up on Hebrews 12. I used to know so much of that chapter! And, while we're talking about it, Ephesians 4 as well, but that has faded away even more than I should say. Let it be known I memorized Ephesians 4 before I learned and forgot all the Brazilian Portuguese to do with my semester abroad. SO. It's pretty gone.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
I had a good chat with God last night, and that was a gift because I had been very close to spending my evening watching Netflix. Then when I was heading to bed, I debated whether to read my Bible or go straight to sleep. My mind thought, I have already heard so much from God today, I don't really want to read my Bible because what if he says more!? I'm too tired to write it down, and I'll never remember it all, and then how will it change me. I shouldn't waste both our time.
And then God so gently said, With Matt you don't worry about remembering every great thing he has ever said to you, but those words nourish and shape your relationship all the same. You can't have too much of me, Alyssa.
God is right! I could never have too much of him, and even when I have SO much of him, that is right. I was designed to overflow with God's love. And I trust that what he wants to stick he will make stick.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
Oh this heart of mine, so crafty and tricky, dressing up so nice and making me think it is so pretty.
VBS is this week, and I know it will be hard on Matt. He has been working SO hard for SO long, and now he has this five day marathon of ministry dealing with kids and volunteers and families, managing all kinds of schedules and melt-downs and thrills. This is really the home stretch because we are looking forward to our vacation next week, and we just have to make it to Saturday.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
Esther flew home last night, after a 40-day trip here and in New Brunswick.
It was so fun to have her around and get to hang out, to make a point of doing fun things like spending a day downtown and going to the zoo. It was also such a great visit because it confirmed what I already knew, that I am a lucky girl to have such a rad sister.
The thing is, with four years between us, we haven't always... known each other very well? I think that we have always loved and mostly liked each other, but four years is a sizable gap when you are growing up together, and for most of the time that I still lived at home we were just in different stages of life. Then, when I was almost 18, and she was 14, and things were just about right for us to get along and spend time together not only as big-sister and little-sister but as friends, I peaced out to university.
Five years later, she is taller than me, she can crack me up, and we are able to share our hearts together, valuing the similarities and understanding we have for each other, and enjoying learning the differences we have in experience and disposition. When people first met Esther, so many commented on our similarities, and I think the imprint of our family is very strong on both of us, so that makes a lot of sense.
But people who think we're the SAME are crazy; we agree on that. And one of my favourite things I learned from this visit was that my sister is a friend who comes pre-programmed to understand so much of me, and I am that for her. One of our shared traits is the recognition that we are more than we seem - that there are bits and pieces of us closed off or hidden away, and we don't even always know what's in there or why. And each of us is in progress, trying to figure it out so we can be the best version of ourselves. Our different selves :)
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
It was really awesome for me to be able to sit in and hear about the highlights and challenges that the team faced, to hear what different people took from their experiences, and it was exciting as each person shared how the trip has changed them or helped them going forward now that they are back home. Many youth realized they can do more than they expected, and many were humbled to realize they may not have everything "together" as much as they thought.
For me though, the biggest impact of the debrief meeting was getting to chat with our hostess, who has been away from church for the last few months recovering from a broken arm and some subsequent poor health. I have known that she isn't well for all the months that I haven't seen her, but spending time together last night it really struck me how hard it is for her to be not only stuck at home but to be to physically limited every day and fight off the discouragement that comes with all of that. Today she is very much on my heart, and it is not because she complained to me or even because things are SO bad that I can't get it out of my mind. It's just that the situation has finally sunk in for me because I saw it instead of just hearing about it.
The Bible says when one part of the body suffers, the entire body suffers, and so it is with the body of Christ. But just like our physical bodies, the only way to share in the suffering or joy of other people is when we are connected to them. Bodies have bones and muscles and nerves that connect and animate different parts of our bodies, and that physical reality is necessary. Just being Christians doesn't move us with each other's pain; living in each other's worlds until they become intertwined in our hearts is needed to forge the kind of relationships that manifest the gospel.
This is what I'm having a glimpse of anyway, and it is still sinking in for me.