Sick Day

If there was such a thing as a good day to be sick, today would have been it. The weather was awful- bitter cold and so windy I couldn't walk in a straight line. Always a bad combination.
After braving an entire class period, I decided to spend the rest of the day in my room recuperating for the big ladies retreat this weekend! (I'm helping to lead worship, and I always lose my voice after being sick...so I've been talking as little as possible. Easier said than done.)
So far its been a cozy day of relaxing and catching up on homework. A much needed break from my crazy schedule. I don't want to say I'm happy to be sick....but....I kind of am.

Just in case you too decide to take a sick day, here's what I recommend:

Drink as much tea as your body can handle!
Wear as many over-sized sweaters as you want!
Sleep as much as possible! (i got almost 11 hours last night. Ahhhhh :) so nice )
Buy the cough-drops that actually taste good.
Do not watch as much America's Next Top Model as you can. All the episodes start looking the same.
Call your mom. When I'm sick I usually like people to feel bad for me and who better to feel sympathy for her poor, poor daughter who lives miles away than my mommy :) (Thanks mom)
Listen to this:

Dream about this:

 I'm so excited for spring! 

Thats all for now! I hope you all are having a splendid, healthy week! 

~Olivia 

Love is Bigger

Happy Valentines Day!
I have to admit, I've never been really excited about February 14 and I often forget about it. But I think its good to have a day (albeit a very commercialized day) to completely focus on loving others. As I thought about love this morning, I was hit by how misunderstood it is. Listen to what Paul says about love:

"And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing....Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends."

 If our culture has one thing completely backwards, its love. Paul never defines love as a feeling. Its not happiness, or contentment or butterflies. No, love is an action. Its patient, kind, enduring- a choice.
"If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." Nothing. The hugeness and power of love has always astounded me. Think about it today.

And so as the rest of the world is giving chocolates, forcing their boyfriends to see The Vow, and using today as their once-a-year excuse to show affection, lets remember that love is bigger than that. And let us love today.

 

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! 

~ Olivia      

Symphonies of Normalcy

Today was a completely normal day. I begrudgingly attended three classes. (By the time Wednesday rolls around, I'm usually convinced it is Friday and ready to skip class...). I hit the gym. I avoided an awkward run in with a boy who asked me for my number last week. I drank two cups of black coffee with soy (my new favorite- its cheap and caffeine packed). I put off doing my Everest-sized pile of homework. Pretty uneventful. But, you see, the beauty of blogging is that I get to write about the mundane happenings of my day-to-day and pretend like they are even remotely interesting to anyone.

However, my Wednesday did have one redeeming quality: I went to the symphony. I'm taking a music appreciation class (lucky for me, I already "appreciate" music. Easy A.), and we get free tickets to any on campus concert during the semester. Its quite the deal. Honestly, I can't think of a better way to unwind than to sit for three hours letting waves of Tchaikovsky, Debussy and Reinecke wash over me. The performance was truly inspiring, I had goose-bumps for a good two hours.

I couldn't take any photos during the actual performance, unfortunately.

My favorite piece was Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F minor, if you were wondering. If not, check it out anyway. You can listen to it here. Its wonderful.

 The bike ride home was frigid, but definitely worth it!





















And there you have it. My attempt to spice up the ordinary, a symphony of normalcy, if you will.

I'm off to climb that mountain of papers in my room....

Until next time,
Olivia

"Welcome to the Real World", she said to me condescendingly.

Never have John Mayer's lyrics been so applicable.

 

Not really, but it just felt right. 

2 parking tickets, 3 emissions tests (2 failed, 1 passed), 1 faulty gas cap, 1 power of attorney, several unhelpful courthouse employees, and over $200 later and my car still isn't registered. Could they make it any more complicated? I'll answer that. No, they could not. I'm not so sure I want to pass this "prerequisite to the adult world", as my mom and I affectionately call this endless string of shenanigans. If this is what "being an adult" is about...I don't think I'll grow up.

I keep on waiting, waiting at the emissions place. (Did you catch that John Mayer reference? I'm on a roll tonight...)

I'd like to think the best of me is still hiding up my sleeves...(Really, Olivia?)....but, when the going gets rough, and the registration gets out of hand, and adult life isn't all that is cracked up to be just remember: 

I hope everyone's Monday was as John Mayer-esque as mine.

~ Olivia

Weekend Happenings

This weekend was the definition of relaxing. I literally did nothing. I finished all my (pressing) homework on Friday and so Saturday and today were spent reading blogs, crafting, playing music and distractedly watching the "super game", as my friend Liz and I called it.
Here are a few photos to recap the most uneventful two days of my life:

 

There were random fireworks on campus last night. 

I'm not sure what the occasion was, but it made the night feel special. 

 

I felt like making something, so I scavenged through my roommate's

plethora of fashion magazines and made this little collage. It was inspired by this.

 

Like true hispters, Liz and I went thrifting in Old Town

while the rest of the country was watching the Super Bowl.

 

 

Then we felt un-American, and decided to watch the last half.
I rooted for the Patriots. For my little brother's sake.
Who did you root for? 

 

I needed a few solid days of pure relaxation to refuel from a stressful week, so this weekend was lovely. 

 

Here's to a new week! 

~ Olivia <3

Strokes of Life

Happy Tuesday!

I wrote this poem a few weeks ago after being blown away by the beauty of....well, everything. I pictured the Creator as the ultimate artist, actually painting the skies, or composing the sounds the birds make. One day I'll put it to music and sing it, but for now its just a little poem. Nonetheless I wanted to share it. I hope it encourages you like it did me as you reflect on the art that is life!

One stroke of a brush
And there was light-
A canvas of wet,
A canvas of dry.
Strokes of life.

One beat of a drum
And galaxies dance,
And tides twirl in,
And flowers chant
Singing with one voice.

One drop of color,
A page of white.
A skillful design
Brush strokes of life.
The paint soaked deep within my skin,
Now I sing of paintings painted within,

One million sounds bleed into one.
All of the colors speak with one tongue.
All of the hearts beat by one drum.
All of the hurt is healed by one love.

The paint soaked deep into my skin,
Now I sing of paintings painted within.




(ps. Please comment below with thoughts, suggestions, hate mail, random questions.....anything, really. I'd love to hear from anyone who is reading!)

Thoughts on a Sunday: She Loved Much

I heard a sermon this morning preached from Luke 7:36-50. (Disclaimer: read it before you read this post...or it won't make any sense! Just in case you aren't within arm's reach of a Bible, here is a link to the passage.) There is a lot that could be said about this chapter, but the woman in particular stood out to me. While I so often read that passage and admire her humility or absentmindedly admit that I should love as she does, I've never actually been convicted about it until this morning's sermon. Here are my thoughts:

This nameless woman, simply because she was just that: a woman, was unwelcome at the gathering Jesus was attending. The pharisees looked down their noses at her while the tax-collectors scoffed as she entered. All eyes were on this "woman of the streets", a prostitute, someone as socially low as you could be at the time. Many probably tried physically forcing her to leave the room, others were too shocked to speak. But she, indifferent to the others, immediately went to Jesus and stood at his feet. In her hands she held an alabaster flask of perfume, probably the payment for her "profession" and the most valuable thing she owned. Her heart overwhelmed by the weight of her imperfection, she- weeping- kneels at the feet of Jesus. This action itself would have been enough to have her thrown out of the house and punished, but she goes further. Bending over Jesus' feet (the most defiled and unclean part of the body to the Hebrews), she lets her tears fall on them. As the others watch in astounded silence, she lets down her hair (a woman's glory according to Paul in 1 Corinthians) and washes the feet of a total stranger with her hair and tears. Not only that, but she pours her perfume, her most prized possession, on this man's feet, kissing them over and over.
Completely appalled by her behavior the pharisees think to themselves that if Jesus were truly a prophet as he claimed to be, he would know what a worthless, despised sinner was kissing his feet. But Jesus, knowing the pharisees' thoughts, asked them, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven- for she loved much..." 

She loved much.

The pharisees with all their wealth and party-throwing and "good-deeds" were mere hypocrites in the eyes of Jesus. But the woman, a nameless, penniless prostitute, with only her tears to offer, was considered worthy of love. I'm reminded of Isaiah 1:18- "...for though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow".
This woman in Luke 7 was an unlikely hero- despised by everyone around her, impure, filthy, an emotional wreck- but she had one thing that set her apart. She loved much. And this love, this pure, white-as-snow love, made her worthy of being loved. May we all become more like this despised woman- offering our tears and possessions at the feet of Jesus- the only one who makes us able to "love much".