The beginning

It was the end of summer.

Everything was still green and growing and alive, but fall had begun to make inroads, had begun its attempted assault on the scenery. The leaves carried the slightest tinges of red, and the wind had a chilled note to it. But the sun felt ever just as warm as it had always been.

It had been a lazy afternoon. The field was golden in all directions. A line of trees was to the north; an equally lazy little river to the east; the house was south; and to the west– Oh, did the land stretch on forever.

She was lying on her back as near the centre of the field as she could manage. It was getting onto evening, and gentle breezes blew in from the west, brushing back the golden grasses and playing in her hair. The only clouds were clustered near the horizon, tinged purple and orange, and the land reflected back those same hues.

It was like so many evenings she had experienced over the course of her life, but something was different. Something in the air, perhaps. She sat up slowly and stretched. She was ready for a change. To the east ran the lazy little river, one she had never crossed. To the west ran the land, all the way to the horizon and beyond, somewhere she had never explored. Yes, something was different, but perhaps it was only in herself.

It was time for a change.

Defining

Let us imagine last night’s scene, shall we?

It is after dinner, shortly before the little brother’s bedtime. He has just finished a bowl of ice cream and is preparing to watch a (hilarious!) kids’ show, thus he is rather hyper. I am reading Pride and Prejudice, thus I am not.

We enter the scene in time to hear Matthew calling for my attention.

“Hey, Tara… Tara! … Tara? … Helloooo.”

I do not respond. Mostly because I am engrossed in my book. Partially because I am ignoring him.

“Tara!” he continues. I still do not respond. He jumps to his feet and stands right in front of me, waving his hands in my face. “Hello!!”

It is at this point that Mom notices what is going on.

“Matthew, what are you doing?”

“Tara isn’t talking to me!”

“Well, stop bugging her!” Mom responds (quite logically, I must add).

“But I’m trying to ask her something!”

“What’s that?”

“She won’t tell me what obnoxious means.”

Much risk

What is love without much risk?

So says the artist of song I am quite enjoying. For the curious few (or many, whichever way it is), I am sorry that I don’t know either the name of the artist or the song. I shall find it after I post this and perhaps place it in the comments. It is on a CD in our car, thus I listen to it quite often while driving without knowing what it is.

Anyhow, it got me thinking. She was singing of God and His love for us. It runs back to the old question of “why didn’t God just create us good and in love with Him and avoid all of this sin nonsense?” But I think the quote above really captures the essence of the answer to that question.

When you love someone — truly love them — and when you ask them to love you back, it is only love when they can say ‘no’. Imagine if this person didn’t have the option. It wouldn’t be very satisfying, would it, to know that they loved you only because they had to. When the person you love has the option to say ‘no’, it is a huge risk, for… what if they say ‘no’? Yet it is truly most satisfying this way, for imagine if they have the option to say ‘no’… but they say ‘yes’?

God risks so much everyday in loving us and asking us to love Him. But He does so because that is the kind of love He wants. He wants true love. He wants us to have the option to say ‘no’, but to tell Him ‘yes’ instead.

There is risk on our side, by telling Him ‘yes’, but I’ll get into that at another time (or perhaps in the comments?). For now, I just want to dwell on the beauty of that idea.

What is love without much risk?

God loves us so much and He has taken great risks to show us that He does. How beautiful and how deep is His love.

Conversations on Twitter

In an environment where you are only permitted 140 characters per post, every character counts. I can be long-winded and overstate things as much as I want on my blog. But in Twitter, I must cherish brevity, and use it to my advantage. Thus, long-forms, spaces and sentence structure are often sacrificed, favouring whatever method may best get across the spirit of the post.

The following two paragraphs make up a very brief “how to read Twitter” guide.

Remember, every character counts. When looking at the snapshots of Twitter below, the first phrase (ie, little_bro, taralorraine, mikepurvis, etc) identifies the author. When there’s an @ symbol in the post, followed by a user name, that generally indicates that the author is directing their comments to that particular user. IM rules apply, ie, short forms and emoticons and asterisks around words to indicate actions are all fair game. The timestamp after the comment isn’t super important, but can help you establish what is going on (like, for example, if you’re going back over my logs. You can tell when when things were written, and that generally helps to figure out what is related and what isn’t).

Twitter isn’t really designed to be an isolated thing. What makes Twitter so much fun is the connectivity that goes on. It’s fun reading and commenting on what other people have to say. And when you’re following people, you read what goes on in a more real-time environment. Twitter loses some of its effectiveness when context is missing. And so, in an effort to share some of what is lost, I give you

a) context; and

b) conversation.

Oh, also, did you know that little_bro is on Twitter? Yea..

Also, I was cooking this delicious recipe for an h’or d’oeuvres party we had. First time cooking with jalapeño peppers.

There really isn’t much of a point to Twitter, I guess, beyond taking whatever transient and random thoughts you might have and verbalizing them. But it’s fun. I think that’s primarily why I use it. It’s fun, and is a unique and enjoyable way to keep in touch with people.

A new direction?

It has been a long time since I’ve posted regularly. I’ve had at least one person complain to me of my blog silence. (To that person: Twitter, man, I’m telling ya!) But I think in part, my thoughts have become a little more scattered (you know, considering the incredibly short style I’ve adopted because of Twitter), but in a larger part, I think it’s time to shift this blog in a new direction, or at the very least, refresh it. So I’m curious: what do you readers want to see more of?

Do you want to see more results of the recipes I’m trying?

Should I post more photo-diary entries?

Would you be interested in following a serial story written by moi (and in helping me out when I get writer’s block)?

Would you like to hear more of my thoughts/perspectives on politics, literature, dance, love/marriage, God/Jesus/Christianity/spirituality, etc?

Do you want more links/random clippings from what I’m reading?

More stories about my day?

I’ve enjoyed writing for you for the past three years, and hearing your opinions and reading your blogs, and I hope the direction I will be taking this blog in the future is one that you will be interested in reading.