I have been home for the past week, and although I've been working a bit it has overall been restful and pleasant. It's always nice to spend time with family and old friends.

It is also nice to go shopping with my mom, even shopping online. Over the past couple of days I have journeyed further on my quest for the happiest table ever. I have almost made it. What makes me so sure are the two items below:


from Kraken's store at etsy.com


40% at Bombay

Very happy indeed.

Posted by Heather Grace at 4:59 PM | Permalink | Comments

I have had a lot of trouble being successfully creative this week. Inspiration for this project I am working on kept coming and then going and then coming again, but then when I would try to develop a thought it would completely fall apart. However, today I have finally minimally developed one solid icon/image/logo for the event. I need to come up with a few more options before next week, but at least I know I have one:

Posted by Heather Grace at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments

"I order the sun to shine on everyone. I ask for its warmth to brighten everyone. We would appear, oh oh, so beautiful. Oh, oh." -Horse in the Sea

Summer nights in Nashville feel wonderful. Mid-seventies, cloudy with a light breeze that nicely contrasts the awful humidity that reigns during the day. If summer days felt like summer nights, I might actually decide that the season as a whole isn't so bad. Alas, this is not the case.

Tomorrow is the Sabbath, and i plan to spend it in a lazily blissful state. The only plan is to enjoy the company of my friends and family and to remember the beauty that God has made and that He said His creation is good. In the afternoon, I am hoping to go to the Farmer's Market with a new and wonderful friend. I'm so excited because the Market has the most vivid and vibrant colors and shapes. Gourds that look like ducks. Vegetables the deepest and most beautiful purple I've ever seen. Plus, behind the Market there's a park with water fountains that shoot out of the ground!! It promises to be amazing. I might even buy a gourd. One can never tell.

Apparently tomorrow is the perfect day because it's 07/07/07. I heard that 40,000+ couples will get married tomorrow, as opposed to the estimated norm of 12,000. Also, tomorrow Nashville will be flooded with Christians from around the nation for a huge event – The Call. Truthfully, I hadn't heard of the event until a few days ago when a good friend of mine said she was excited about it. I do not plan on attending as I have mixed feelings about the whole gig. I am worried about what kind of message a rally like this sends to people outside of the Church, and I wonder if there wouldn't be a more graceful way for Christians to share their voice with the nation. Looking at the website, it seems to be more of a politically based conference to promote the conservative agenda under the guise of holiness. And that really bothers me.

I considered posting some quotes from the website on here, but have decided against it as I would have too much to comment on and it might ruin this lovely post. :) If you want to read it yourself, go to the website. Some things are quite upsetting, others are alright I suppose, and then others are downright hilarious. I especially loved the part where someone had a dream about being in bed with Bill Clinton and took that to mean that the church must "bind the spirit of Jezebel" lest it binds the church. Have I piqued your curiosity yet? Now you have to read it.

///EDIT//////////////////////////////

So, the website I put a link to for The Call has been completely changed. But, the guy who had the idea for this event has the same article posted on his website: LouEngle.com. Also, several of my friends went and I was pleasantly surprised with what they felt about it – that it was a time for refocusing and repentance. I hope that the impact of the event on others who did not go is as positive as it was for my friends.

Also, this boy is nice:

Posted by Heather Grace at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Sometimes people surprise me with their lack of sincerity, their selfish tendencies, and the amount of pain they can cause me with one little action. I suppose the longer you live, the more you become aware of our great ability as humans to take advantage of one another, disregarding how our actions, our words and our deeds, really do affect other people. Today was a rather painful day for me, as my blissful ignorance was pealed back revealing a great betrayal of trust, the kind that opens old wounds, that changes what you thought you knew so well.

Thomas Merton inspires me and challenges me so much. He has this brilliant chapter on war (chapter 16) in his book New Seeds of Contemplation, but I think it speaks into so much more than just political wars. It speaks to the whole human condition of fear and conflict, and holds onto the peace that can be found in Christ. And, tonight I find myself drawn back to it:

"So instead of loving what you think is peace, love other men and love God above all. And instead of hating the people you think are warmakers, hate the appetites and the disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed–but hate these things in yourself, not in another."

And so as I go to sleep tonight, I pray that I might find peace, and that I would not become bitter toward another. Rather, I ask that God might illuminate the parts of myself that need to be healed, that need to be removed, that need to be calmed, that need to be touched by Jesus. And that I would "let the peace of Christ rule in [my] heart, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly... and whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (Colossians 3:15-17)

Posted by Heather Grace at 2:15 AM | Permalink | Comments