In a Contest!

If you feel inclined to read a quick version of the story of my worst Valentine’s Day ever, click here. Yesterday, Brigid Kemmerer (whose blog I’ve really been enjoying) hosted a contest for the best story of a worst Valentine’s Day experience, so I jotted down the one about my date with my dirtbag, and it turns out that I’m a finalist. I’m story #2, but feel free to vote for story #1 because I secretly think it’s worse (and less cliche than my story).

 

What a Wonderful Day

Hello, dear friends. I’m on my way to bed right now, but I thought I’d drop in and quickly say hello.

Hello!

For the one or two of you who can’t tell, I’m in a good mood after having had a decent Valentine’s Day. I didn’t get much sleep last night… and I’m a bit under the weather, but it’s been an altogether lovely day. Work was decent. I spent a little bit of the afternoon talking with the roommates. Passed an hour at Starbucks organizing my life and writing out Valentine’s Day cards. Party at the Schneiders (during which I ate some really GOOD bad for me foods). Finally, I left the party a bit early and had the most quality-est time with God I’ve had in a long while.

You see, it takes me a bit of time to prepare to engage the emotional parts of me. My brain is pretty much constantly going, but my heart has a tendency to wall off in times of stress or even just unuse. Therefore, quiet times frequently require more time for me than other people seem to spend (who knows how long anyone really spends… I’m definitely speculating here from relatively few observations). A REALLY QUALITY quiet time for me consists of 5+ chapters of the bible read out loud. I’m an auditory learner, so if I don’t do it out loud, there’s a decent chance I’ll read without taking any of it in. Then, I like to sing loudly for a long time, until those gentle rooms of my heart are finally accessible. Usually, I need a lot of light in the room for the bible reading, then hardly any at all for the singing… then I can pray. Without all of this preparation, I can definitely write letters to God and/or talk out loud to God, but I can’t sit silently before Him and pour out my heart. And of course not every quiet time is like this, though I do try to get this kind of awesomeness in at least once a week.

This is a problem because I live with other people. If there’s noise going on in the house, I get distracted. If there isn’t any noise but I know someone’s home, I get self-conscious. It would be different if we could do some quiet times together (which is one of the things we’re talking about for our next year of living together – can you believe it’s been more than a year?) But until we start doing that, I pretty much need the house completely to myself for a QUALITY quiet time. Of course, I do things to ensure that I get good time with God consistently, but it generally involves me going on long hikes and talking out loud to God in the wilderness (which makes me feel a little creepy).

So anyways… the point of all that was to say that I just finished up a fabulous chunk of alone time in the house, and spent it reading my bible, singing, and praying silently to Abba.

And now I’m ready for bed.

*P.S. I’ve created an email address just for STILL GROWING, because some things just can’t be said in the comments So feel free to send blog-related stuff (like questions, personal comments that you don’t want everyone to read, requests for future posts, requests for critique partner stuff, etc..) to KatieStillGrowing@hotmail.com

This is NOT my personal email address. I’m keeping them separate for organizational and privacy purposes. I’ll probably check both pretty regularly, but if you’ve already got my email address, don’t switch over. You’re good.

 

Toodles.