Snow Day

Outside my window, ice is collecting on the leaves of a mulberry bush, and the glassy surface, now as thick again as the leaves it encumbers, reflects the dreary grey of the heavenly face after a good cry. Tiny spikes of water hang suspended from the roofs and the branches of my world, as though poised to strike into our hearts the chill of winter. And the world is changed. As a child, I remember well the look of the sky, the magical vision of the world covered new, with white flakes falling so densely that they dampened the voice of the city, and made the smallest light shine for miles.

Mostly, I remember snow days involving snow, and in that, as I've said, the world is changed. For though the world be cold and the ice grown thick on my mulberry bush, the roads are clear, and the grass is brown and naked of its white winter smock. Thus, my snow day, though pleasant for respite's sake, leaves much to be desired. It has given me opportunity to pause for reflection, however, and for this may the Lord make me truly grateful. My ivory tower awaits, and I need only to reach out and grasp the rail to begin my ascent to its heights. But I shall not encumber you, my friends, with this journey. I will leave you to marvel at the paradox of the present. How can one survive the contradiction of a snow day, on which no snow has come??

It's been awhile...again

Hi friends,
Well, seeing as my last post was made in November, it's probably about time to update you all on my life and happenings (plus, all the other stuff I have to do today is really onerous, so it's a good time to procrastinate). Having survived the latest Ecclesiastical period you were all privy to, I've turned again to more optimistic thoughts.

The weekend after I wrote that last post, I had the immense pleasure of returning to Los Angeles for a weekend to catch up with my long lost Californian friends. Amongst the innumerable kindnesses, fondnesses and joys that this trip brought were the opportunities to celebrate my roommate's life, birthday and pancake progeny (if you don't know this story, I wouldn't worry about it), along with the immense privilege of seeing my choir perform again, and being asked to direct a song for them! It's amazing, that of all the things I've done in my life, music (and especially directing) is one of the things I'm the least good at, and yet it is beyond doubt the accomplishment I am the most proud of in my life thus far. Standing and waving my arms in front of girls who are better singers than I could ever be somehow fulfills me in a way nothing I 've ever had right to be proud of ever has. But, I've observed in my own life that if we were always good at the things we loved, we would develop a kind of abominable single-mindedness. It is a great blessing to see the intrinsic good of something you can't do.

Having concluded my visit to Biola, I returned to Waco with renewed joy, and finished my semester easily and quickly. For the record, this includes finishing a symbolic logic class that was the single most difficult thing I've done in a long time. I left Waco, and returned to my home, spent a week feeling very tired and reading alot, went curling with some old friends, nearly set fire to their house making beef flambe, and had Christmas with my family.

This all happened early however, because the actual Christmas week we were scheduled to go to Alberta to visit my extended family. This trip was a real delight, for my family was all there, and I don't spend the time I should with most of them. My cousin is now the mother of three, so I got to participate in tickle wars with her son and go on adventures to Africa with her daughter, and hold the baby in my arms when the other two were too much work. She was the same cousin who was entrusted to entertaining me for the majority of my childhood, so I felt this was right and proper, and fulfilled my duty with great pleasure. I had a chance to reconnect with the cousins who are my age as well, and discovered that the two closest in age to me are both going to be engaged soon, which was weird. Nuff said.

So, we had fun with family, and then we went back to Toronto and I immediately got really, really sick, and by the time I was preparing to go back to Waco two days later, I couldn't stand up for more than a couple of minutes without collapsing. This, naturally, made the preparation for going back to Waco a little difficult, and I got on the plane with every atom in my body straining to stay in Toronto, where someone would be there to take care of me. But, I made it onto the plane, and spent a few days alone and sick in my apartment before my roommate showed up. Since then, I've been slowly recovering from illness (this recovery has included many entertaining anecdotes involving me overdosing on cough syrup and missing classes, which I may relate at a later date), and getting settled into a new semester of classes. More on that also in later posts. This one is far too long already. But, now you all know how I've been.

As always, I love and miss you all,
Sincerely,
Jerome